IMPpg2

Student Diversity

The IMP curriculum allows for opportunities for the very advanced students to dig deeper (Supplemental Problems in teacher’s addition), and for those students who may need reinforcement, the variety of exercises and assessments allow for repeated work with similar concepts in different contexts.
Again, the way the class environment is structured in this curriculum promotes learning for all students. It requires hands on work, discussion, and direct instruction.
Connection to NCTM Standards
I think that the IMP curriculum is very Standards based. It includes the traditional mathematics strands, but also includes statistics and probability. Also, IMP is designed to meet the needs of all high school mathematics students. As mentioned previously, the mathematical goals in the text are very attainable for all students, even those with different levels of ability. These two things are both encouraged by the Standards.
As for the curriculum itself, the Standards recommend that curricula only teach mathematical concepts that are useful. By putting all of the concepts into real life scenarios, IMP allows the students to see the benefit of the concepts they are learning. The curriculum is also intertwined within the daily lessons, the different units, and even the different years, which is also encouraged.
The assessment methods used in this curriculum not only are useful for the teacher, but it also promotes additional learning for the student. By requiring justification for everything, deeper thinking and understanding is inevitable.
The sole reason the standards were originally created was to promote student understanding. the NCTM Standards is an effort to move the focus of the mathematics curriculum away from procedural knowledge towards conceptual knowledge. All of the ideas mentioned in the standards are natural occurrences stemming from the main goal. In my opinion IMP did an excellent job in focusing on student understanding. Every single item in the curriculum is a gallant attempt to get students to see what mathematics really is.
As a teacher, I would definitely use this curriculum. I really like the way in which it probes at student understanding, yet it still ensures that students take away the essential elements of mathematics. A teacher could use this text as it is written, and have a classroom that comes very close to meeting the Standards. Yet, it also allows for creativity on behalf of the teacher. I also really like the way the curriculum is presented the concepts as one big problem to solve. It allows for real world understanding, which is crucial with mathematical students today. These types of curricula will hopefully eliminate some negative attitudes towards mathematics and allow more people to see that it is fun!