Modeling Real Life 6-8
The Big Ideas Math: Modeling Real Life program uses a Universal Design for Learning to create an engaging and innovative program that uses hands-on activities and scaffolded instruction. The instructional design guides students through concepts from surface-level to deep-level learning and allows them to transfer these skills to new concepts in a complete and comprehensive way. This allows for balanced lessons with built-in differentiation, as well as RTI support, that appeals to students and teachers alike.
The Big Ideas Math: Modeling Real Life series comes with two options of accelerating students, the Advanced Pathway and the Compacted Pathway. Students in either pathway cover all the middle school content in two years, allowing them to reach Algebra 1 in eighth grade and advanced mathematics in high school.

Support to Empower Teachers
We help teachers recognize the impact they have on their students through the consistent use of learning targets and success criteria. Big Ideas Learning provides teachers with everything they need to plan, teach, and assess to accelerate learning for all students

Plan
Teachers can review Laurie's Notes in the print Teaching Edition or digitally in the Dynamic Classroom, making it easy to plan lessons at their convenience.

Teach
Teachers use the Dynamic Classroom to present lessons with engaging explorations, digital examples, and interactive practice all at their fingertips. They can even use the Flip-To feature to send students directly to a specific place in their Dynamic Student Edition.

Assess
With a variety of powerful assessment tools, teachers gain insight into actionable data, making it easier to provide all students with the exact support they need to be successful.
Teacher Empowerment
We help teachers recognize the impact they have on their students through the consistent use of learning targets and success criteria. Big Ideas Math provides teachers with these clear and detailed goals to help indicate what students are learning and guide their decision making during instruction.

Student Progression
Big Ideas Math allows students to grow as independent learners and experience the joy of mathematics. The instructional design guides students through concepts from surface-level to deep-level learning and allows them to transfer these skills for success in higher-level math courses.

Diagnostic Assessments
The DAP (Diagnostic Adaptive Progression) Assessment and Reporting feature gives teachers the information they need to make informed decisions that will improve their students' success.

Components of Modeling Real Life 6-8
- Teaching Edition *
- Student Edition *
- Student Journals *
- Resources by Chapter *
- Assessment Book *
- Pre-and-Post-Course Tests *
- Prerequisite Skills Practice *
- Course Benchmark Tests *
- Chapter Tests *
- Quizzes *
- Alternative Assessments *
- STEAM Performance Tasks
- Skills Review Handbook *
- Rich Math Tasks *
- Dynamic Student Edition
- Dynamic Classroom
- Dynamic Teaching Tools
- Dynamic Assessment Tools
- Steam Videos
- Lesson Tutorial Videos
* Denotes component also available as a print resource.
"Differentiation is huge because in my class I have one kid who is here, and I have one who is at like a 3rd grade level. So having that differentiation option and the resources that are attached online or in the book is huge."
Differentiation
K-5 MRL
"I always look at her notes before we start any lesson, because, that's what they're there for. She's the expert on it, and sometimes she'll think of something I didn't, and so let me try it to see how it works."
Laurie's Notes
K-5 MRL
"Since we started using it we have noticed our math scores have really gone up. So it seems it's really working. Obviously you have to be able to teach it, so it's not just the program, but giving us the right tools to use has definitely helped opposed to what we were using before."
Student Success
K-5 MRL
"Not going to lie, Math has not always been my favorite, but since we started using Big Ideas Math I'm looking forward more every day to teaching math because I know I have a good resource that's going to get my kids excited."
Teacher Empowerment
K-5 MRL
"I absolutely love the Dig In portion because it's always like a fun activity that gets the kids interested in what we're going to do. As a teacher it's nice that that is there to get them involved and excited no matter what type of learner you have, so we really like to dig in."
Dig-In
K-5 MRL
"It's not scripted in a way that says 'this is what you have to say' or it's not going to work. It's really nice to have that flexibility because for one kid it might work this way but for another kid that way or language isn't going to work. I love how there are multiple different strategies but by the end the kid can pick which works best for them."
Instructional Design
K-5 MRL
"And with all of the different levels of practice that it lets them do starting with Laurie's Notes and that dig in, then follows that 'I do, you do, we do model,' their confidence has grown because they know we're going to start our whole group, if I can do that then they ask "can I do it myself?" So by the time we're done they literally want to go 'look what I can do, I can't wait to go home and show somebody what I can do!'"
Student Confidence
Dewey L. Carter Elementary School
"It gives each lesson or chapter a structure. So for first grade, structure is really important, they thrive on consistency. Laurie puts it in a certain order because she knows it works. So that consistency throughout the lesson has helped a lot with students staying engaged because they know what's coming next."
Rigor
K-5 MRL
"They love how they are kind of woven throughout the chapters. They go and look for them, they go "what are Newt and Desi going to tell us this time?" They absolutely love it, so we've seen a lot of improvements in their interest in math, because they really like the characters. They like that it doesn't use names in the problems, it says you or your friend, or your teacher, so it helps them see themselves more in the problem as opposed to when it uses a name that they're not familiar with. Because then it helps that they can read it more, because in first grade they can't read names really well but they can read 'you' and 'the teacher.' So our students have absolutely loved it."
Instructional Design
K-5 MRL
"Last year was such a good experience, I've been teaching, this is my 26th year. And I can honestly say it's more closely aligned than any textbook I've ever used in my 26 years of teaching, as far as standards are concerned."
Standards
K-5 MRL