Amplify Math was designed around the idea that core math needs to serve 100% of students in accessing grade-level math every day. To that end, the program delivers:
Engaging, discourse-rich math lessons that are easier to teach
Flexible, social problem-solving experiences both online and off
Real-time insights, data, and reporting that drive performance
Guided by expert advisors, partners, and educators
Working closely with our advisors and partners, including Phil Daro and Jason Zimba, the curriculum team at Amplify focused Amplify Math on productive discourse and equitable experience for students, making it possible to deliver high-quality, student-centered instruction that accelerates learning for all.
Based on the best
The core lesson content within Amplify Math is based on the highly rated Illustrative Mathematics. Led by Bill McCallum, the Illustrative Mathematics developers struck the right balance between conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application.
Flexible, social problem-solving experiences powered by Desmos
Digital lessons, when designed the right way, can be powerful in their ability to surface student thinking and spark interesting and productive discussions. To do this, they need to be flexible in their ability to celebrate student brilliance and be social, ensuring students feel connected to one another and you, the teacher.
We’ve partnered with Desmos to bring this vision to life with our complete library of Amps — social, collaborative lessons powered by Desmos technology.
Program architecture
Each course in Grades 6–8 is made up of eight units. Algebra 1 includes six units.
Amplify Math units have been developed around central topics and broken up into sub-units that address compelling historical and modern narratives and stories making math both accessible and relevant. By solving problems in the sub-unit lessons, students develop strategies to build upon prior knowledge and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and skills. Teachers have multiple opportunities to assess student understanding, including Pre- and Post-Unit Assessments, Warm-ups, and Exit Tickets.
Each Amplify Math lesson in Grades 6–8 is designed to be completed in a 45-minute class period (50 minutes for high school lessons). Students dive into the math and interact with each other during the Warm-up. They then dig into 2–4 activities and share their observations and reasoning, while the teacher helps connect ideas with the overall mathematical picture of the lesson, unit, and course. Students wrap up the lesson by completing a formative Exit Ticket, and the teacher can assign practice problems to work on outside of class.
Narrative in Amplify Math
All students ask, “Why do I need to know this? When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” To help students make connections to their everyday lives, the Amplify Math units and sub-units are organized around compelling narratives and stories (both historical and modern). Students are introduced to historical and current narratives that show a connection to the content and the many places mathematics inhabits our world and how the work students do in class connects to our history and their own reality. Narratives and storytelling are important in the following ways:
Make math more approachable and engaging - Stories can make math easier to teach by helping create social moments, along with opportunities for class engagement, discovery, and cohesion. Stories can also give math concepts more traction with students if deeply tied to a strong motive, history, narrative, or application.
Make math relevant - Retellings of important historical moments and vignettes featuring modern applications of math help students understand how math has relevance outside of the math classroom.
Drive toward equity and highlighting diversity - Stories can create more opportunities to highlight diversity in the rich history of mathematics. They can make for more inclusive spaces where students see themselves in the context.
Our narratives and stories play out at the unit, sub-unit, and lesson levels within Amplify Math.
Featured Mathematicians
Helping our students develop a strong, healthy, and flexible math identity is crucial if we are to prepare the next generation of creative problem solvers.
To that end, we’ve designed Amplify Math to show students three things:
1. They are mathematicians.
2. The math of today’s world was largely shaped by a diverse range of mathematicians who deserve to be learned about.
3. Learning is never finished.
In support of the first two principles, we’ve embedded numerous featured mathematicians into the program. These diverse mathematicians and their work are introduced to students within the context of the lesson. Students are always shown the connection between the featured mathematician's work and the work they are doing in class. Learning about their lives and contributions, students see that there’s no one face of math achievement.
Katherine Johnson of NASA fame
Indian mathematician and astronomer Bhāskara II, also known as “Bhāskara, the teacher,” was a major contributor to early Indian mathematics.
Maryam Mirzakhani grew up in Iran and was the first female student to earn a gold medal at the International Math Olympiad. She moved to the U.S. to complete her graduate work, becoming a professor at Princeton University and later Stanford University. She was awarded the Fields Medal in 2014, one of the highest honors in mathematics.
Qin Jiushao, a 13th century Chinese mathematician, inventor, and politician, is credited with both the first written use of a symbol for 0 and introducing an understanding of decimal fractions in China.
All of these features and layers come together in a slim and easy-to-use print and digital program that can be used in any classroom setting.
Components Overview
Amplify Math includes full print and digital support for all aspects of the curriculum, including teaching, learning, assessment, and practice. It can be implemented fully in print or in digital, or with a mix of both.