CPM’s curriculum is built on Three Pillars: Collaborative Learning, Problem-Based Learning, and Mixed, Spaced Practice. Collaborative Learning is not merely a preference, it is among the most well-supported findings in mathematics education research.

What are the advantages of having your child work in study teams?

The CPM curriculum is guided by the philosophy that students need to be active participants as they develop their own mathematical understanding. The study team structure, students working in teams of two or four, creates a setting in which students are continuously in the presence of others with whom they can discuss, share ideas, and articulate their thinking.

In study teams, your child refines their ideas, questions, and approaches in the security of a few classmates, where it may be easier to challenge their thinking, especially asking questions, than in a large class setting. Your child consistently communicates with teammates who may see things differently, allowing them to discover new connections between ideas and encouraging them to justify their ideas to their peers.

Research shows that when you treat math ability as something that can grow, not as something a person is simply born with or without, every child gets more chances to contribute and succeed.

CPM’s team structures are built around this idea. In study teams, your child is empowered to see themself as a mathematical thinker. They recognize their own strengths and those of their peers as they investigate, build a personal understanding of mathematical concepts, and apply their learning to challenging problems.

Several methods of investigation and justification weave through this course. Classwork is intentionally written to be challenging, and thus assumes that students will have peer and teacher support. Lessons are not designed to have your child working alone. Lessons often require your child to solve problems in multiple ways so that they see the benefit of other strategies and ways of making sense of the problems.

Students are encouraged to formulate mathematical questions, structure investigations, and justify their findings. Your child’s discovery of different ways to approach a problem and justify a solution has a more lasting impact when it emerges as they examine each other’s work than it does when simply told about them.

In a traditional math classroom, the teacher demonstrates a procedure and students replicate it. In a CPM classroom, your child encounters problems first and constructs understanding through their own reasoning and team discussion. The teacher’s role shifts from delivering information to orchestrating the conditions in which that understanding develops.

This shift is deliberate and research-backed. It is not a reduction in teaching, it is a redirection.

Giving students feedback

Your child’s teacher may give them feedback about how well they are meeting expectations. This can be done in a class discussion at the end of the day in which they highlight behaviors that helped teams move forward. On other occasions, teachers take public notes about the conversations they hear in teams over the course of a class period.

These notes, organized by team and viewed using a document camera or projector, include quotes or behaviors that the teacher recognizes as meeting the study team expectations. The teacher focuses on the quality of team conversations, the content of the conversations, or particular role behaviors, depending on what they choose to emphasize during a particular activity.

As the year goes on you will find that your child is asking better questions, working through their confusion, and relying on their teammates as resources. Successful teamwork requires ongoing support and maintenance. Regular reminders about roles and expectations, and consistent feedback about the quality of conversations throughout the year, will improve team interaction and support effective learning.

Your child’s team does not always work in the same place. Across a single class period, they may work in several different settings.

• At their desks or at a team table for most of the collaborative problem solving and for recording work in their math notebooks.
• At the whiteboard or wall-mounted paper for certain problem-solving activities. Research shows that working while standing up at a widely visible and erasable surface increases students’ willingness to take risks, share their thinking, and stay engaged.
• On a shared digital device, one per pair, for accessing the online textbook, math tools, and technology-based lessons.

No matter where your child is working, they should always have their math notebook or Toolkit nearby to record their thinking, conclusions, and any new vocabulary from the day.

In CPM classrooms, each student in a team is given a specific role. These roles give every child a clear, meaningful way to participate, and they spread responsibility across the group so that no one person carries everything and no one gets left out.

The goal of team roles is not simply to keep your child on task. They are designed to make sure your child has a genuine way to contribute, including those who might otherwise hold back, check out, or get talked over. Roles are an equity tool as much as a management tool.

How teams are formed, and why it is done randomly

Teams may change every day. This is done through a practice called Visibly Random Teams, where students can see that the groupings are genuinely random, not chosen by the teacher based on ability, grades, or behavior.

To maximize learning opportunities, your child is expected to actively participate within their study teams. They need shared expectations for how to treat each other’s ideas, how to ask for help, and how to work through disagreements. Your child’s teacher revisits these throughout the year, especially when teams change or collaboration starts to break down.

CPM suggests the following guidelines for teams, which your child can remember using the acronym TEAMS.

CPM’s course materials are built to support teamwork, not just individual practice. Each lesson gives your child’s team a shared problem to work through together, along with the guidance and tools they need to make sense of it as a group.

• The textbook is a team resource, not a worksheet. Problems are designed to be worked through out loud, with each team member contributing ideas, not completed silently and separately.
• The Toolkit is where the why gets recorded. After a team works through a problem together, students record their own understanding, key vocabulary, and worked examples in their notebook or Toolkit. This is what your child can return to later when studying or reviewing.
• Digital tools support, not replace, the teamwork. Whether your child is using a physical or digital version of the text, the expectation is the same: the tools are there to support team discussion, not to let students work through material in isolation.

Every team has an adjustment period. If your child mentions that their team is not working well, here are a few things worth knowing.

• A slow start is normal. Teams new to each other, or new to working this way, often need several sessions before collaboration clicks. Teachers expect this and build in time for it.
• Teachers are actively watching and adjusting. If a team is struggling, the teacher steps in with a specific strategy to move the conversation forward.
• Teams change often. Your child has opportunities to grow, learn different team roles, and communicate more effectively with their peers.
• You can ask for more detail. If you want to understand how your child’s class handles team challenges, their teacher is the best source.

If you would like to dig deeper into how CPM approaches teamwork, or if you have questions you would like answered, these resources are available for families.