Illustrative Mathematics is rigorous.
The pacing is not forgiving.
IM moves fast, assumes prerequisite knowledge, and was designed for ideal conditions. Your classroom has 32 students at five different levels and a 42-minute period.
Almanack helps you adapt Illustrative Mathematics to fit your actual classroom — differentiating, pacing, and scaffolding — without abandoning the problem-based approach that makes IM worth teaching.
The most common IM implementation problems — solved
From pacing nightmares to non-specialist teachers, Almanack addresses the real friction in IM classrooms.
The pacing is impossible to keep up with
Get a pacing audit for your actual schedule. See exactly which lessons to consolidate, which to split, and which warm-ups to cut without losing the mathematical goals.
Students don't have the prerequisite knowledge
Generate targeted warm-up sequences and bridging activities that build the prior knowledge a unit assumes — in language your students understand.
The non-specialist teacher in your department is drowning
Contextual content coaching that explains the math ideas in each lesson, common student misconceptions, and what to listen for during class discussions.
Students 2+ years below grade level can't access the problems
Differentiated versions of IM problems and activities at below-grade, on-level, and above-grade levels — all preserving the problem-based structure.
Assessments don't tell you what students actually know
Build diagnostic checkpoints and summative assessments that surface conceptual gaps, not just procedural errors.
Absent students fall behind immediately
Auto-generate catch-up packets for absent students: the core mathematical ideas, key problems, and synthesis activities they missed.
What Almanack does for IM teachers
Related resources
Make Illustrative Mathematics work for your students.
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