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Welcome, Sixth Grade Math Teachers.

This description of the cluster organization includes a link to the NC2ML Collaborative for specific resources for the Grade 6 Instructional Framework.

The Collaborative Instructional Framework is meant to serve as a guide for teachers and districts as they organize the curriculum for the school year. Unlike traditional pacing guides, the instructional framework consists of clusters of standards that are meant to be adapted to various schools and contexts. The instructional framework used research on students’ learning progression in mathematics to create and order clusters of standards that are taught together. While there is a strongly suggested order for teaching the clusters, we recognize that schools differ in their contexts and may wish to switch the order around. In those cases, we have given guidance regarding alternative clusterings; however, we note when certain clusters need to be taught in a certain order.

The clusters are recommended using the progression below, but this is not the only possible progression teachers may use. Please look to the “Connections & Rationale” for notes about when one cluster must follow another, if another progression is desired. Also, continue to focus on how the Standards for Mathematical Practice can be incorporated with these content clusters.

A significant emphasis should be placed on building number sense related to the field of rational numbers, including decimals, fractions, ratios and integers and the interconnections among them. While it appears that much of 6th grade can be interpreted as learning several operations, we underscore that the procedures should follow students’ deep exploration of the quantities first.

Please pay attention to the “Supporting Standards” and “Connections & Rationale” portions of this recommendation. These tools should help to connect mathematical concepts across the units, and to highlight potential opportunities for revisiting previous units’ main ideas.

Recommended Order
* Reasoning with Area and Surface Area Cluster
* Reasoning with Factors and Multiples Cluster
* Ratio Reasoning Cluster
* Division of Fractions Conceptions Cluster
* Making Sense of Decimal Computations Cluster
* Integer and Rational Number Reasoning Cluster
* Making Sense of Coordinate Planes Cluster
* Reasoning with Algebraic Expressions Cluster
* Reasoning with Algebraic Equations Cluster
* Making Sense of Volume Cluster
* Statistical Reasoning Cluster

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ClusterRecommended TimeStandards
Building a Mathematical Community (Boaler's Week of Inspirational Math - Week 1)1 week
Reasoning with Area and Surface Area Cluster2 weeksG1, G4
Supporting standards
NS.1, NS.2, NS.3, EE.7
Reasoning with Factors and Multiples Cluster1 weekNS.4
Supporting standards
EE.1, EE.3, EE.4, RP.3, NS.1
Ratio Reasoning Cluster5 weeksRP.1, RP.2, RP.3, RP.4
Supporting standards
NS.4, EE.9
Division of Fractions Conceptions Cluster2 weeks,NS.1
Supporting standards
NS.4, RP.3 G.1
Making Sense of Decimal Computations Cluster3 weeksNS.2, NS.3
Supporting standards
G.1
Integer and Rational Number Reasoning Cluster3 weeksNS.5, NS.6, NS.7, NS.9
Supporting standards
EE.7, EE.8
Making Sense of Coordinate Planes Cluster2 weeksNS.6, NS.8, G.3
Supporting standards
NS.5, NS.6a, NS.9
Reasoning with Algebraic Expressions Cluster3 weeksEE.1, EE.2, EE.3, EE.4,EE.6
Supporting standards
NS.4
Reasoning with Algebraic Equations Cluster5 weeksEE.5, EE.7, EE.8, EE.9
Supporting standards
EE.2, NS.9, NS.1-3, NS.6, RP.3
Making Sense of Volume Cluster2 weeksG.2
Supporting standards
NS.1, NS.3, EE.1, G.1, G.4
Statistical Reasoning Cluster2 weeksSP.1, SP.2, SP.3, SP.4, SP.5
Supporting standards
NS.3