Episode 62 - The 80/20 Rule Applied to Teaching Math

Welcome fellow Recovering Traditionalists to Episode 62.  Today I am talking about The 80/20 Rule Applied to Teaching Math.  This week over on my vlog TheRecoveringTraditionalist.com, I talked about Teaching After The Coronavirus Shutdown.  Specifically, how to plan for what to teach next year knowing that your students may not have gotten a quarter of the instruction they would have gotten in the grade before yours. I shared about the document created by Achieve The Core that details out the Major Work of each grade level.  The Focus by Grade Level document (or what was originally called the Content Emphases) shows the standard clusters that basically carry more weight in each grade. At the bottom of each page of the Focus by Grade Level document, in very tiny print, it states: “At least 65% and up to approximately 85% of class time, with Grades K–2 nearer the upper end of that range, should be devoted to the major work of the grade.” That statement reminded me of the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle.  It’s the idea that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Get all the resources mentioned in this episode at buildmathminds.com/62