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Christopher Danielson
Christopher Danielson, PhD, is a leading curriculum writer, educator, math blogger, and author interpreting research for parents and teachers across the country from his home base at Normandale Community College in Minnesota.
Articles & Books From Christopher Danielson
Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-15-2022
As a parent, you’re most likely to encounter the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (Common Core Standards for short) in the homework that your child brings home. The Common Core Standards are a set of statements about what students should know and be able to do at each grade level from kindergarten through high school.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
In addition to the content standards that state what students need to learn at each grade level, the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice describe how students should approach their mathematical work and what kinds of tasks teachers and curriculum should present to students.
You can use the following list to keep track of the eight Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
A lot of misinformation is available about the Common Core Standards. These standards guide the math your child learns in school each year. In order to advocate for and to support your child, you need to be well informed. Here are some important facts that counter some of the common myths about the Common Core Standards.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
One important change in the Common Core Math Standards is that students are expected to work through multi-digit computations by thinking about number relationships before they’re expected to follow standard algorithms. For parents who never had to think about their computations in school, this can make homework time a bit daunting.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Place value is an important concept to know for Common Core math. The fact that it took thousands of years for humans to develop a place value number system is an important sign that place value is difficult for people to learn. The usual way of writing numbers is a place value number system.
In other words, a limited set of symbols (called digits) builds numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, and so on up to 9) and you can write all numbers using these symbols.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
States, districts, schools, and teachers have invested a lot of time, money, and effort implementing the Common Core Math Standards — to say nothing of parents. Before the Common Core, each state wrote its own standards for math. Now, nearly all states have agreed on the mathematics students will study in school.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
You will want to make sure that your child is familiar with comparing logarithms for Common Core math. In addition to comparing numbers with ratio and unit rate, you can actually compare numbers a third way — with logarithms.
A logarithm is basically an exponent. In the equation 10x = 100, writing log10(100) is how you solve for x; log is short for logarithm (in this case, x = 2).
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Homework is a hot topic in the transition to Common Core Standards. Homework assignments that ask students to think in new ways can be intimidating to parents. When something comes home that looks unfamiliar to you, don’t panic. Homework is just a way of giving students additional time to think about the things that they’re learning — what teachers call time on task.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
An important way to think about functions for Common Core math is as relationships between variables. If you think of a function as a relationship, you can keep an eye out for useful features. These features include whether (and where) a function is increasing or decreasing, whether a function is linear or not, and so on.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Being able to identify and generate equivalent fractions is a tremendously important skill in Common Core arithmetic and algebra alike. Fourth graders use pictures and reasoning to write equivalent fractions.
Equivalent fractions are any two fractions that represent the same quantity, as in
and
You may remember spending lots of time reducing fractions, and even getting test questions wrong because you didn't reduce your fractions, but there is absolutely no reason to insist on reduced fractions.