Welcome and thank you for bringing the Illustrative Mathematics (IM) curriculum into your classroom. This Course Guide is meant to serve as a reference for you throughout the year. In it, you can learn more about problem-based teaching and learning, how a typical lesson is meant to flow, assessment guidance, dependencies between units, and more. You’ll also find information specific to the course, such as the scope and sequence for the year and the glossary, to help with planning.

To help orient you to the general structure of the course, here are some helpful insights:

Each grade level contains eight or nine units. Units contain 8–28 lesson plans. Each unit, depending on the grade level, has pre-unit Practice Problems in the first section, a Checkpoint after each section, and an End-of-Unit Assessment. In addition to lessons and assessments, units have aligned center activities to support the unit content and ongoing procedural fluency.

The time estimates in these materials refer to instructional time. Each lesson plan is designed to fit within a class period that is at least 60 minutes long. Some units contain optional lessons, and some lessons contain optional activities that offer additional practice for students. Use these at your own discretion.