S o u t h er n N e v a d a
Regional Professional
D e v e l o p m en t P r o g r a m
CCSS MINI-SERIES
ES #1.6
A N e ws l e t t e r f r o m t h e E l e m e n t a r y M a t h e m a t i c s T e a m
Attend to Precision
Mathematical Practice # 6
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students. These practices rest on important “processes
and proficiencies” with longstanding importance in mathematics education. They are
sometimes referred to as the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice. In this and subsequent issues you will find excerpts from these practices as well as brief sketches from the
Conference Board of Mathematical Science of the Common Core State Standards for
Mathematical Practice as they apply to teaching in elementary school.
6. Attend to precision.
Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They
try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning.
They state the meaning of the symbols they choose, including using the equal
sign consistently and appropriately. They are careful about specifying units of
measure, and labeling axes to clarify the correspondence with quantities in a
problem. They calculate accurately and efficiently, express numerical answers
with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context. In the elementary grades, students give carefully formulated explanations to each other. By
the time they reach high school they have learned to examine claims and make
explicit use of definitions.
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Math Resources
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Standards for
Mathematical Practice
Make sense of problems
and persevere in solving
them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments
and critique the reasoning
of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of
structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Elementary school students attend to precision when they take care to
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make math drawings and carefully coordinate them with numerical
work, such as when they show how to decompose a rectangle into component parts that correspond to the partial products in a multiplication problem. They also attend to precision when they describe a line of reasoning with care, attending to the key points and choosing their
words to say exactly what they mean.
Try this!
Estimate the product 26 x 34. Show your work and explain your thinking.
Compare your estimate with someone else in your class. How do your estimates compare?
Adapted from the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Standards for Mathematical Practice, © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
* COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR Mathematics
http://www.corestandards.org/the‐standards/mathematics/introduction/standards‐for‐mathematical‐practice/
Conference Board of Mathematical Science