Kick Off the Year with Student Interest-Driven Math Projects

Our blog today is inspired by Brittany Fuller, an amazing teacher from Arkansas and a Coteach pro! Brittany told us how she kicked off the school year with an innovative cross-curricular math and art unit developed with Coteach and in partnership with her school's art teacher.

It combines the learning targets from Grade 6, Unit 1 with art standards, creating a project that is designed to hook her students from day one. This got us thinking about how meaningful it is to start the year by tapping into students' interests to generate excitement for math—and how Coteach can help.

Why Start with Student Interests?

Research shows that engagement is an important factor for learning. When students can make connections between math and the world around them—whether that's the environment, sports, or music—they're more likely to invest in their learning. This is where Coteach can help. By leveraging your knowledge of student interests alongside the core IM v.360 curriculum, you can create tailored experiences that connect with your students and address what they need to learn.

Practical Strategies for Interest-Driven Math

Here are some tips for using Coteach to build student-centered projects:

Start with Discovery

Ask students what they did over the summer or do a quick survey to uncover what excites them. Once you've discovered their passions, prompt Coteach to weave them directly into your lessons:

Try this prompt: "My students love spending time at the beach. How could I incorporate this into the Unit 1 launch?"

When we tested this prompt, Coteach created a personalized unit launch that maintained the original learning goal of interpreting picture graphs and bar graphs with a beach and coastal theme. Instead of interpreting graphs about how students get home from school, the activity was now about games played at the beach. Same mathematical rigor, increased engagement.

Design Multi-Day Projects

For a larger project, be sure to ground your planning in the unit's learning targets. Start by asking Coteach: "What are this unit's learning goals?" or "What will students need to know and be able to do to be successful on the mid-unit assessment?"

Then build from there:

Try this prompt: "My students love art projects. Can you build out a multi-day art-integrated project that helps students develop the knowledge and skills they'll need for the mid-unit assessment?"

When we tried this for Grade 3 Unit 1 on introducing multiplication, Coteach produced a project, including formative assessments, where students create an art gallery exhibition showcasing their understanding of data representation and multiplication.

Get specific with implementation: Coteach often provides excellent project overviews, but don't hesitate to ask for the all the details that make implementation smoother. For example, try prompting: "This is great! Can you build out detailed lesson plans for each day of the project?" Coteach can provide specific timings, materials lists, and step-by-step instructions.

Maintaining Mathematical Rigor

The goal isn't just engagement—it's engagement with meaningful mathematics. As you work with Coteach to customize content, always return to the fundamental question: "Are students still developing the mathematical knowledge and skills outlined in the learning goals?"

Coteach's integration with IM v.360 ensures that even as you personalize content, you're preserving the carefully sequenced mathematical progressions that make the curriculum effective.

Ready to Get Started?

Starting the year by connecting your math class to your students’ interests shows them that math is relevant, that you’re interested in who they, and gives students a chance to learn more about each other. 

Ready to design your own interest-driven math projects? Head to Coteach now!