The tool starts from the official words of a first-grade standard: understand what the equal sign means, and judge whether equations are true or false. Watch it find both performances hiding in one sentence.
Here is the reading in plain language. Most six-year-olds arrive believing the equal sign means 'the answer comes next' — and that quiet misreading breaks algebra years later.
Then it maps the staircase: prerequisite understanding, four observable milestones, and evidence at each step — planned backward from the demonstration.
The demonstration: judge nine equals six plus two, out loud. Prove it with cubes. Fix it. The spoken proof matters because the student has to show the meaning, not just an answer.
Now the boundaries: what this standard asks, and what it honestly does not — solving for unknowns belongs to the next standard.
Here is the important moment. The tool suggests a polished worksheet pack. I reject it. Twenty marked worksheets are not the target; one spoken proof is. I keep the evidence that exposes the thinking.
Then export. Destination before activity, capability before product, evidence before decoration. The app is fast because the teacher's judgment has somewhere clear to stand.