Families and caregivers—welcome to Amplify Desmos Math 6–A1!

Amplify Desmos Math is a core math curriculum built for kindergarten through Algebra 1. Each lesson offers opportunities to build on students’ understanding; connect their ideas; develop their skill fluency; and empower them to ask questions, explore, and make discoveries. Teachers can monitor students’ work in real time, making sure they get the support they need both inside and outside of class.

Student Digital Screens

Students engage with the content of the lesson using devices.

Lesson Practice pages

Students have two pages of print practice in the Student Edition for in-class practice or homework, in addition to the digital practice.

Here’s what you can expect:

• Interactive lessons that blend paper-based and digital learning (including a consumable Student Edition)
• Practice problems to support fluency and help students review previous topics
• Resources within each lesson to meet the needs of diverse learners
• Lesson-level checks for understanding, as well as assessments
• A caregiver resource for each unit that includes explanations of key math concepts and activities to try with your student

In addition to a consumable Student Edition, students can access their digital work at home. Here’s an article on how to navigate the student home page.

Student-centered instruction may look different from the way students learned math in the past and from the way you learned math. Instead of memorizing formulas and tricks, student-centered learning gives students opportunities to figure out how math works. Students learn to communicate both verbally and in writing, understand and challenge the opinions of others, and build confidence in solving new problems. Research shows that students and teachers prefer this method. Students perform better on standardized tests and have more growth in their grades; and teachers report that student-centered instruction helps their students learn more math.

Here’s what a typical Amplify Desmos Math lesson includes:

• Warm-Up: An open-ended question or interaction to draw students into the lesson.
• Activities: One to three activities that make up the heart of each lesson.
• You’re Invited to Explore More: Problems that invite students to explore a concept—often beyond the scope of the lesson—more deeply. These problems are intentionally available to all learners.
• Synthesis: An opportunity for students to put the key ideas from the lesson into their own words.
• Show What You Know and Reflection: A check for understanding focused on key concepts from the lesson.
• Practice: Additional problems your student’s teacher may assign digitally or in print, including on-lesson practice and review from previous lessons and units.
• Additional Resources: Mini-Lessons (grades 6–8 only), Personalized Practice (grades 6–8 only), and Extensions that teachers can use to support, strengthen, and stretch student thinking, both inside and outside of lessons.

For every unit of the program, we’ve created a Caregiver Resource that provides a summary of key concepts, plus examples for how to work through problems.

Within each of the grade-level links below, you’ll find a Caregiver Resource for each unit, in both English and Spanish.

You can support your student’s math learning outside of school in many ways:

Find the math in everyday life.

Relate math to daily activities at home, whether you’re baking, grocery shopping, or planning a trip. Your student can help you calculate the prices when you use a coupon, figure out how to cut a recipe in half, or determine the amount of gas you’ll need to make it to your destination.

Review practice problems together.

Invite your student to walk you through how they solved each problem or talk about any parts that were challenging for them. To encourage the use of math language, consider asking, “How do you know?”, “How can you show your thinking?”, or “How would you describe that?” If students get stuck, consider asking questions like “What information do you know here?” or “How could you represent this problem?”

Emphasize that getting stuck is okay.

Remind your student that getting stuck is part of the process and a necessary part of learning. Many students (and adults) fear making mistakes. But research shows that making mistakes helps your brain grow. When your student gets stuck on a problem, encourage them to try different strategies, even if they’re not sure whether they’re right.

Your student will have access to all learning, practice, and assessment materials through the Amplify platform. Students can access the digital curriculum in school and at home by following these simple instructions.

• Click the Amplify Desmos Math button.
• Select Log in with Amplify.
• Enter the username and password provided by your student’s teacher.
• Select the desired grade level.

Once logged in, caregivers can view student work by opening previous assignments.