Research into Practice:

Curriculum Critique

Brooklyn K. Hunt

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Purdue University

EDCI 53300: Teaching and Learning in Number and Operations

Dr. Signe E. Kastberg

March 3, 2023
 Overview

The lessons reviewed in this critique come from curriculum found in Open Up Resources Grade 7

Unit 5, Rational Number Arithmetic. All the lessons progressively introduce addition and subtraction of

positive and negative numbers. Lesson 2, Changing Temperatures, introduces students to the idea of

adding positive and negative numbers through the changing of temperatures. For example, one of the

tasks in the lesson states, “One winter day, the temperature in Houston 8° Celsius. Find the temperatures

in these other cities. Explain or show your reasoning…In Minneapolis, it is 20° colder than it is in

Houston” (Open Up Resources). This task, and the other tasks in the lesson, are reinforcing students

understanding of value and order of negative and positive numbers which is necessary for students to be

able to successfully perform integer operation (Bofferding, 2014). Lesson 5, Representing Subtraction,

has students compare adding integers to subtracting integers through the idea that a missing addend

problem can be represented by subtraction by using number line diagrams and comparison tables. For

example, the lesson task states, “Here is an unfinished number line diagram that represents a sum of 8. a.

How long should the other arrow be? b. For an equation that goes with this diagram, Mai writes 3+? = 8.

Tyler writes 8 − 3 =?. Do you agree with either of them?” (See Figure A1, Open Up Resources). The

goal of this lesson is for students to observe that subtracting integers is the same as adding the opposite

𝑎 − 𝑏 = 𝑎 + (−𝑏). Lesson 6, Subtracting Rational Numbers, brings home the idea of adding the opposite

and teaches that a subtraction of integers in reverse order results in a number with the same magnitude but

with the opposite sign (𝑎 − 𝑏 = −(𝑏 − 𝑎)). For example, in the task the students are presented with a

table filled with expressions where the second column is the same subtraction of two rational numbers but

in reverse order (See Figure A3). The task asks the students to “1. Find the value of each subtraction

expression. 2. What do you notice about the expressions in Column A compared to Column B? What do

you notice about their values?” (Open Up Resources).

Throughout the curriculum, it is evident that it is oriented towards students developing conceptual

understanding through inquiry. Procedural fluency takes a back seat to students exploring and discovering
the target mathematical concepts. For example, in lesson 6, Subtracting Rational Numbers, students are

asked to perform the operations listed in two tables (See figures A2 and A3). In the teacher’s notes for

this task, it states “For students who might overly struggle to evaluate the expressions, consider providing

access to a calculator and showing them how to enter a negative value. The important insight here is the

outcome of evaluating the expressions. Practice evaluating the expressions is of lesser importance”

(Open Up Resources, Lesson 6, Student-Facing Task Statement). The goal of this task is for students to

notice that addition integers in reverse order yields the same sum while subtracting two integers in reverse

order results in a difference with the same magnitude and opposite sign. In other words, they are

informally discovering the rule: 𝑎 − 𝑏 = −(𝑏 − 𝑎). Although students are expected to focus on

procedural fluency in this task, such fluency is promoted elsewhere in the curriculum. At the end of each

lesson students are given practice problems where they can establish procedural fluency from that lesson

as well as practice procedures from previous lessons. Some may worry that such a focus on conceptual

understanding would prevent students from building the procedural fluency they need to complete

mathematical tasks and perform well on assessments. However, it has been found that students that are

taught using curriculums that focus on conceptual understanding “tend to ‘keep up’ with their publisher-

generated counterparts with respect to computational knowledge but surpass them in conceptual

knowledge and their ability to solve nonroutine problems” (Stein & Smith, 2010, p. 361). Students are

introduced to such nonroutine problems during the “Are you ready for more?” section in each lesson to

encourage them to deepen their understanding even further (see Figure A10 for an example).

Analysis of Curriculum

Strategies

In this curriculum the use of algorithms and procedures is not largely supported because they are

not established until the ends of lessons. The focus on inquiry requires students to discover algorithms

instead of using them to complete integer operations. In lesson 5, accompanying an unfinished number

line diagram (see figure A1) the task prompt states,

 Here is an unfinished number line diagram that represents a sum of 8. a. How long should the

other arrow be? b. For an equation that goes with this diagram, Mai writes 3+? = 8. Tyler writes

8 − 3 =? . Do you agree with either of them?

Instead of telling students the rule “add the opposite”, students discover the algorithm by changing a

missing addend problem to subtraction. Wessman-Enzinger and Mooney (2014) suggest that rules such as

“add the opposite” are often misapplied by students do to lack of conceptual understanding. The

curriculum fights against the misuse of such algorithms by not introducing them until a conceptual

understanding of integers is firmly established.

The curriculum, however, does allow and encourage students to use algorithms learned in

previous lessons to support their learning and clarify conceptions in the current lesson. For example, in

Lesson 6, after students are asked to complete a table of integer subtraction (see Figure A3) the

curriculum discusses anticipated misconceptions with the following,

Some students may try to interpret each subtraction expression as an addition equation with a

missing addend and struggle to calculate the correct answer. Remind them that we saw another

way to evaluate subtraction is by adding the additive inverse. Consider demonstrating how one of

the subtraction expressions can be rewritten (e.g. −11 − 2 = −11 + (−2)).

Students are not required to use the algorithm that was discovered in the previous lesson, but the

curriculum suggests that the teacher refers to this recently learned rule so that students can have a

better understanding of when it might be appropriately applied, thus developing both conceptual

understanding and procedural fluency. Encouraging students to use their previously learned

algorithm is also an example of how the curriculum supports the use of prior knowledge.

Johanning states, “if a curriculum is cumulative rather than repetitive, it should provide

opportunities to use the knowledge gained about a particular topic in subsequent instructional units”

(2010, p. 172). The use of prior knowledge is supported in this curriculum as students are introduced to
integer addition through representations they have seen from previous lessons. In grade six students

quantified temperatures as integers and represented them on a number line using dots (see figure A4 &

A5). Originally this representation was used to teach order of integers but in the current lesson 2,

Changing Temperature, it is being used to introduce integer addition (see figure A11). In lesson 6 activity

3, students are also encouraged to use their prior knowledge of using number line diagrams from lesson 2

to support their ability to perform integer subtraction (see Figure A3) and visually discover the algorithm

𝑎 − 𝑏 = −(𝑏 − 𝑎). Under the anticipated misconceptions of that activity the curriculum states, “Some

students may struggle with deciding whether to add or subtract the magnitudes of the numbers in the

problem. Prompt them to sketch a number line diagram and notice how the arrows compare” (Open Up

Resources). The number line diagrams are then used in the activity synthesis to aide student in make the

connections needed to discover the algorithm. Within unit 5, students are also introduced to representing

temperatures on a thermometer in lesson 1 and then use this knowledge in lesson 2 when they explore

how the thermometer changes as the temperature changes using a digital applet (see figures A7 & A8).

The use of mental math is supported in the curriculum, although it is not a strategy that is focused

on in the lessons. In many activities students are asked to complete various integer operations and are

allowed to do so using any method they choose. For example, in second activity of lesson 2 students are

asked to complete tables that require students to find the final temperature when given a starting

temperature and the temperature change (see figures A8 & A9). In the curriculum instructions it states

that students will be answering these questions “first by reasoning through the temperature change using

whatever method makes sense” they are then asked to draw a number line diagram and write an equation

to represent the situation. By allowing the students to use “whatever method makes sense” students can

use their mental math addition and subtraction skills to fill out the table. The pattern seen in most lessons

is that students may perform the integer operations however they choose (mentally or otherwise) and then

they are asked to verify their reasoning using another tool such as number line diagrams (lesson 2, activity

2) or a digital applet (lesson 2, activity 3, see figure A7).

Summary

This curriculum is effective in helping students develop their conceptual understanding and

establish a basis of procedural fluency in the addition and subtraction of integers. The curriculum starts by

connecting integers to concrete ideas in the real-world by having them view integer addition as a change

in temperature. Initially they focus on solely using integer addition which Wessman-Enzinger (2019)

found was the pattern her students used in their changing temperature tasks even though many other

curriculums would attribute such temperature changes to integer subtraction. The progress of the lesson in

the rational numbers’ unit follow the pattern recommended by Stephen (2009) in the Realistic

Mathematics Education (RME) framework. Stephen states,

The work should build students’ reasoning gradually from the concrete to the abstract. Teachers

should use manipulatives, pictures, tools, and other items to reinforce students’ reasoning with

imagery, not just hope that students will think in the abstract by magic. Instruction should be

intentionally designed so that students reorganize their thinking progressively toward more

abstract ideas. (p. 18)

Temperatures are used by the curriculum to help students build a concrete foundation of integer

addition using number line diagrams and a thermometer applet as a way for them to visualize

their thinking. From there the curriculum become increasingly abstract as students compare

integer operations to learn various integer rules and algorithms.

Value and order are important mathematical concepts that students must grapple with to

successfully understand integers and their operations (Bofferding, 2014). The curriculum

addresses these ideas in units from grade 6 as well as in lesson 2 from unit 5 grade 7 when integer

addition is introduced as temperatures on the number line. Students can represent value as dots on

the number line with temperature values. Order is addressed with the use of arrows; arrows

pointing to the left represent a negative change while arrows to the right represent positive change
(see figures A5 & A11). The curriculum ensures that students have this foundational conceptual

understanding of integers before moving onto the more abstract algorithms and often refer to

these representations of order and value to reinforce students understanding as they discover these

algorithms.

Suggestions for Teachers

After reviewing and analyzing this curriculum I would suggest that teachers or curriculum

developers take advantage of the inquiry-based tasks by utilizing Number Talks to synthesize student

learning. For example, in the task facing statement from lesson 5 it asks student to “write two more

equations using the same numbers that express the same relationship in a different way” (see Figure 12).

After the students work through the task the activity synthesis states,

Ask selected students to share their equations that express the same relationship a different way.

If any students created a number line diagram to explain their thinking, display this for all to see

to facilitate connections between addition equations and related subtraction equations. Every

addition equation has related subtraction equations and every subtraction equation has related

addition equations; these are the most important takeaways from this activity.

Although not all the inquiry tasks, including this one, are computation problems that are solved mentally

as recommended by Parrish, “the heart of number talks is classroom conversations focused on making

sense of mathematics” (2011, p. 203). Activity synthesis can be treated as such. This activity synthesis is

perfectly set up to do a number talk, but the number talk instructional strategy could be applied to the

synthesis of other activities in this curriculum unit as well.

I also suggest that teachers and curriculum developers incorporate storytelling into a few of the

activities in these lessons. Wessman-Enzinger and Money (2014) suggest that incorporating storytelling

can help teachers “access student thinking about integers” (p. 204) and introduces different ways that

students can think about integers. For example, in activity 1 from lesson 2 students are given four sets of
number line diagrams and asked which set of arrows don’t belong (see figure A13). In addition to this

question, students could be asked to write a brief story to describe what is happening in one of the number

line diagrams. This would reveal students’ conceptual models of integers before the lesson focuses on

teaching integer addition through the lens of temperatures.

 References

Bofferding, L. (2014). Order and value: Transitioning to integers. Teaching Children

Mathematics, 20(9), 546–554. https://doi.org/10.5951/teacchilmath.20.9.0546

Johanning, D. (2010). Designing curricula to expand and extend mathematical knowledge. In

B. Reys, R. Reys, & R. Rubenstein (Eds). Mathematics curriculum: Issues, trends, and

future directions (pp. 171 – 180). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Open Up Resources. (n.d.). Grade 7 Mathematics Unit 5. Curriculum Access - Open Up

Resources. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from

https://access.openupresources.org/curricula/our6-8math/en/grade-7/unit- 5/teacher.html

Parrish, S. D. (2011). Number talks build numerical reasoning. Teaching Children Mathematics,

18(3), 198– 206. https://doi.org/10.5951/teacchilmath.18.3.0198

Stein, M. K., & Smith, M. S. (2010). The influence of curriculum on students’ learning. In B.

Reys, R. Reys, & R. Rubenstein (Eds). Mathematics curriculum: Issues, trends, and

future directions (pp. 351 – 362). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Stephan, M. L. (2009). What are you worth? Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 15(1),

16–24. https://doi.org/10.5951/mtms.15.1.0016

Wessman-Enzinger, N. M. (2019). Integer numbers and temperature problems. Mathematics

Teaching in the Middle School, 24(5), 266–272.

https://doi.org/10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.24.5.0266
Wessman-Enzinger, N. M., & Mooney, E. S. (2014). Making sense of integers through

storytelling. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 20(4), 202–205.

https://doi.org/10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.20.4.0202
 Appendix A

Lesson Figures

Figure A1. From Lesson 5 Activity 2 Student-Facing Task Statement.

Figure A3. From Lesson 6 Activity 3 Student-Facing Task Statement.

Figure A3. From Lesson 6 Activity 3 Student-Facing Task Statement.

Figure A4. From Grade 6, Unit 7, Lesson 3.

Figure A5. From Grade 6, Unit 7, Lesson 3.

Figure A6. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 1

Figure A7. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 2 Activity 3 Student-Facing Task Statement
Figure A8. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 2, Activity 2

Figure A9. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 2, Activity 2

Figure A10. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 5, “Are you ready for more?” Activity

Figure A11. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 2

Figure A12. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 5 Activity 1

Figure A13. From Grade 7, Unit 5, Lesson 2 Activity 1.