Explain Your Answer

Of all the things required by the new Common Core State Standards, explaining your answer in math is one of the most perplexing. How do we teach this skill? After all, most of us did not have to explain our math answers when we were in grade school. What does this even look like? It can be difficult to know what we should be looking for in an explanation.

That is why I was so glad to find this set of annotated Common Core sample questions. The questions are separated out by grade level. Especially useful are the samples of explanations for math problems. The questions are graded on a 0, 1, 2 scale. This site presents several examples for each grade on the scale. It really helps to make expectations clear.