MATH

In general, 6th-graders will do a course in the fundamentals of mathematics, building on the arithmetic they learned in elementary school; 7th-graders will do pre-algebra; and 8th-graders will do algebra.

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Texts: Sixth-graders will use Fundamental Mathematics (Marvin L. Bittinger). For pre-algebra, students will use Prealgebra (Aufmann, Barker, and Lockwood), and for algebra, we’ll use Algebra (Harold Jacobs).

Homework: Homework will be assigned daily. The purpose of the homework is to give the student practice working through problems to develop mastery of the concepts and related algorithms. The goal is to assign enough problems to ensure understanding, but not so many that it becomes overwhelming. Because mathematics is a cumulative discipline (understanding the next concept depends on understanding the current one), the student will be asked to correct incorrect work: the grade for the work will be the average of the scores for the first attempt and the second.

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Organizing work: In general, for multi-step problems, students will write the solutions step-by-step in an organized way. They will need to be able to do this in more advanced math classes, so it will be helpful for them to develop – or continue to practice – good habits now.

Goal: My hope is that each student will master all concepts and skills at grade level, and gain a very well-founded confidence in his or her mathematical abilities.