Experience Math California K-8

Experience Math California is explicitly designed to align with the California Mathematics Framework. Its pedagogy is built on principles that facilitate student exploration and learning through action, including being designed around Big Ideas to build meaningful connections, using student-centered, rich tasks, and integrating the Framework's Drivers of Investigation, Standards for Mathematical Practice, and Content Connections within each lesson. The program also aligns with Universal Design for Learning principles to support multidimensional learning. See more here.

Experience Math California supports all learners with built-in differentiation, Universal Design for Learning, and multimodal instruction. Teachers receive point-of-use guidance, parallel tasks, and scaffolds to meet a wide range of needs. Multilingual learners benefit from targeted language support, including Math Language Routines, sentence frames, academic language activities, and visual tools like manipulatives. Spanish-language support includes fully translated print Student Experience Books and digital courses. Families can access translated resources and topic-level support through the Family Engagement site, which is compatible with Google Translate™. Real-world tasks and open-ended questions allow every student to engage at their level and demonstrate understanding in multiple ways.

Experience Math California is built upon a student-centered pedagogy that champions deep conceptual understanding, problem-solving, and differentiation. It integrates the expertise of renowned educators like Dr. Marian Small and aligns with the impactful approaches of Graham Fletcher.

Dr. Marian Small is the lead author and a central figure in the pedagogical design of Experience Math California. Her influence is evident in several key areas: 

• Focus on Big Ideas and Essential Understandings: Experience Math California prioritizes teaching the big ideas in mathematics, ensuring students grasp the core concepts rather than just memorizing isolated facts or procedures. Dr. Small's work emphasizes that understanding these foundational ideas allows students to make meaningful connections across different mathematical domains.

• Thoughtful Questioning and Differentiation: A hallmark of Dr. Small's pedagogy is the power of teacher questioning to uncover student thinking and promote deeper understanding. Experience Math California provides embedded professional learning videos and guidance from Dr. Small herself, demonstrating how to ask open-ended questions that differentiate instruction and allow all students to participate at their own level. This includes the use of "open questions" and "parallel tasks" to cater to diverse learners.

• Student-Centered Approach: The curriculum is explicitly designed to be student-centered, fostering a classroom environment where students actively engage in discovery and exploration. Dr. Small advocates for students constructing their own mathematical understanding through hands-on experiences and problem-solving.

The core components include a print student edition, print teacher edition, teacher and student digital access to courseware on Savvas Realize®, and access to Brainingcamp digital manipulatives.
Ancillary materials:

• Manipulative Kits: Savvas offers carefully curated classroom manipulative kits for Experience Math California. These kits are grade-specific and intentionally aligned to the instructional content in the program. They enhance conceptual understanding by making abstract math ideas tangible and accessible for all learners.

• Norm-Referenced Assessment Suite: The Savvas Momentum Assessment Suite provides efficient and norm-referenced assessments integrated with Experience Math California on Savvas Realize®. Diagnose student needs, monitor progress toward year-end proficiency, and inform instruction.

• Adaptive Personalized Learning: For connected learning support, SuccessMaker® Math is a K-8 adaptive personalized learning program effective for differentiation, acceleration, and intervention. This flexible, proven solution adjusts to learning needs in real time to support a year of growth in 20-minute sessions, three times a week.

Please contact your Savvas Account Manager for demo access.