7th+Pre-Algebra

~ Pre-Algebra ~ 2015-2016 __chorton@chinquapin.org__ (214) 908-9200   Residence M

Textbooks: ^Dolciani, et al. __Mathematics: Structure and Method: Course I.__ McDougall Littell, 1992. ISBN-10: 0-395-48098-1 +Lial, Hestwood. Prealgebra. Addison Wesley, 2005. ISBN-10: 0321266625

About me: My name is Chris Horton, and I am from all over. I was raised in Ennis, Texas but I then went to college for 2 years in Corsicana, Texas. Then I decided to finish my education in Northern California at Cal State Chico (Go Wildcats!). I’m also married to Kacie Horton AKA nice blonde lady who also works here!

Things I like: My son Lyndon, My animals ( I have a dog “Cooper’ and a cat “Calvin”) The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco Giants Music. (I’m listening to a lot of Appleby right now)

Why am I here? I decided to come and work at Chinquapin because I am a huge dork that loves to ask questions and learn. I was so interested in asking questions that I thought “why can’t I help other people become giants dorks, that love to ask and investigate things with me?” Therefore welcome to my class, I’m so happy to finally meet you!

We will have 4 major goals for Pre-Algebra this year.

-Apply and interpret knowledge in graphs, equations, expressions - Be able to solve, graph and write linear equations and inequalities - Be comfortable working with exponents, quadratic equations, and radicals - Be able to use algebraic vocabulary to explain solutions to problems like true scholars.

Major Expectations:

We will always practice elements of good conversation, explaining our work to team and family. We agree that struggling and questioning is part of working hard and learning. In our classroom we will respect our sacred place.

Monday through Thursday from 9 am through 8 pm Times you may call me: Monday through Thursday 7 am - 9 pm Friday through Sunday 10 am -5 pm Times you may email or text me: Anytime! But if it is after 9 pm you must include a funny joke or picture or I will not respond! ||
 * Times you may come to my house:

Our “Social Contract” Our classroom is an example of a “Social Contract”. This means that we agree to a couple of basic rules that the class follows in order to build a safe and open space for us to learn and grow in. When we accept to “govern” or “police” ourselves we empower ourselves to care for each other as a team. The following Expectations, Rules, Consequences, and Rewards are our Social Contract.

Rules Only choose to use language that builds our knowledge and community up, never down. One voice, using body language speak one at a time and respect the speaker. Treat this classroom as your space, keep it clean and in a way that reflects our mission. Respect our teammates personal belongings and by honoring our personal space.

Tardies: If you enter the class late collect your materials, Silently take your seat and get out your pencil, Raise your hand using the Question signal. Absences: If you miss class you must email or text me the day of or morning after, let me know the date that you missed and request the homework and a make up packet.

Grading
 * Exams / Projects || 50% || End of each Unit ||
 * Quizzes || 20% || 3 Per Unit ||
 * Homework || 20% || Daily ||
 * Participation / Group work || 10% || Daily ||

Schedule


 * Quarter 1 || Operations with Whole numbers, Using Variables, Decimal System. || 3 Exams ||
 * Quarter 2 || Integers and Graphs, Fractions and operations, Decimals || 4 Exams ||
 * Quarter 3 || Percentages, and simple linear equations || 2 Exams ||
 * Quarter 4 || Slope and slope intercept form, geometric figures areas, and volumes, Number theory || 3 Exams ||


 * __ Topics to Cover: __**

We will mostly be following the course of our textbook, **Mathematics: Structure and Method** and the associated resource book.


 * Unit 1 || Operations with Whole Numbers, Chapter 1 ||
 * Unit 2 || Using Variables, Chapter 2 ||
 * Unit 3 || The Decimal System, Chapter 3 ||
 * || **End of Quarter 1** ||
 * Unit 4 || Number Theory, Chapter 5 ||
 * Unit 5 || Fractions and Operations with Fractions, Chapter 6 and 7 ||
 * Unit 6 || Solving Equations, Chapter 8 ||
 * || **End of Semester 1** ||
 * Unit 7 || Percentages, Chapter 9 ||
 * Unit 8 || Integers and Graphs, Chapter 11 ||
 * || **End of Quarter 3** ||
 * Unit 9 || Statistics and Probability Chapter 12 ||
 * Unit 10 || Geometric Figures, Areas, and Volumes, Chapter 4 and 10 ||
 * Unit * || Intro to Algebra 1 ||
 * || **End of Year** ||

2011-2012

Homework Page

The purpose of this course is to prepare students for a full-year Algebra I course. Mastery of key skills is expected and essential. In addition, we will explore how concepts in the course relate to real world careers and problem solving. Students that do not achieve mastery and receive a C- or above (70) will be required to take summer school and or another course, and or will take the class again before moving to college prep Algebra I.
 * Goal**

//Everyday// you will need to bring: // Everyday // you will need to // not // bring: A calculator
 * Materials**
 * Your textbook, //Mathematics: Structure and Method// (McDougal and Littell)
 * Your homework __spiral__
 * Pencil(s)
 * An anything-but-red pen

Students are expected to follow the rules of conduct in the student handbook. In general, I expect you to show respect to yourself, to your colleagues, and to your teacher. I also ask that you raise your hand to ask a question and ask permission to be excused from the classroom.
 * Expectations**

You are expected to participate in class. Participation grades will be based on the warm-up problems, paying attention, asking good questions, and doing practice problems assigned in class.
 * Participation**

It is impossible to really learn math without // doing // it. Homework will be assigned every day for this class. While tests will be the key way I evaluate your progress, by far the most important ingredient in doing well in this class is // doing your homework //. You set yourself up for success on tests by doing it. You set yourself up for failure by ignoring it or cheating on it.
 * Homework**

You will be assigned both odd and even problems for homework. The odd answers are in the back of your book. // It is ////__ not __//// cheating to check your work against those answers! // __ Please __ use the odd answers to help you check your understanding of the material and that you are doing it correctly.

I will check your homework spiral for an honest effort at correctness and completeness. Approximately every two weeks you will turn in your spiral to be checked for neatness, completeness, and spot-checked for correctness. On each assignment you may earn up to 5 points:
 * 1 point: Proper format and neatness (e.g., at the top of each page you will have the date, Chapter and Section, Page number and assignment #s)
 * 2 points: Completed on time
 * 2 points: Correct, or corrected in a different color, COMPLETE (and //**__with necessary work shown - when you get to algebra, you will need to show every step, so we are starting to practice that here. Even if you can do it in your head: DON'T. Show every necessary step.__**//)

There will be a test about once every two weeks on each chapter. Also during the year there will be various other assignments, projects, and quizzes. Each will have a different point value; a quiz might be, for example, 10 points. The more points, the more it can affect your grade. Your grade is 30% homework, 30% participation and 40% on tests, and is weighted accordingly.
 * Tests, Etc.**

If you are absent, it is __ your responsibility __ to schedule a meeting with me the day you return to learn what you missed and when it will be due. Understand that you will have to put in extra effort for a while to catch-up with the class. If you know you will be gone, please let me know in advance.
 * Make-up and Corrections**

I do not do "test corrections." However, if you would like to retake a test, I will allow you to take one other one and will take the better grade of the two.

**Quarter 1**
Advisors, parents, etc. must know if a student needs additional tutoring in order to master this content. Homework
 * Operations with Whole Numbers**
 * Inverse Operations
 * Evaluating, Substituting
 * Properties of Addition and Multiplication
 * Order of Operations (PEMDAS)
 * Solving Word Problems
 * Using Variables**
 * Turning Words into Math Expressions
 * Solving Equations and Inequalities
 * Writing Equations and Solving
 * The Decimal System**
 * Exponents, Decimals, Place Value, and Expanded Notation
 * Rounding (review)
 * Arithmetic with Decimals (review)
 * Multiplying and Dividing by Powers of 10
 * Estimating Importance
 * Check Writing
 * Geometry**
 * Shapes, Figures, Definitions, and Formulas
 * Points, Lines, and Planes
 * Measuring
 * Angle Measurement
 * Triangles, Polygons, Congruent Figures, and Constructions
 * Quarter 2**
 * Number Theory**
 * WARNING-- This is a critical chapter - care must be given that no student move on without MASTERY OF THIS CONTENT!**
 * Factors and Multiples
 * Test for Divisibility
 * Square Numbers, Perfect Squares, and Square Roots
 * Prime and Composite Numbers
 * GCF and LCM
 * Fractions**
 * Properties of Fractions (review)
 * Equivalent Fractions
 * Fractions and Mixed Numbers
 * Fractions to Decimals
 * Decimals to Fractions
 * Fractions to Percents
 * Operations with Fractions**
 * Addition and Subtraction using LCD and LCM (mastery required)
 * Mixed Numbers
 * Multiplication and Division
 * Ratios
 * Proportions
 * MIDTERM**
 * Quarter 3**
 * Solving Equations**
 * Equations and Variables (mastery required)
 * Addition and Subtraction using Equations
 * Multiplication and Division
 * Combined Operations and Multi-step Equations
 * Word Sentences and Equations
 * Writing Word Equations
 * Solving Word Problems
 * Percents**
 * Percents and Fractions (review)
 * Percents and Decimals (review)
 * Computing with Percents
 * Percent of Increase and Decrease
 * Discount and Markup
 * Commission and Profit
 * PROJECTS ON PURCHASING EXPENSIVE ITEMS
 * Simple and Compound Interest
 * 4th quarter**
 * Integers and Graphs**
 * Negative Numbers
 * Adding Integers
 * Subtracting
 * Products and Quotients
 * Solving Equations
 * Graphs of Ordered Pairs
 * Absolute Value
 * Graphing Inequalities
 * Statistics and Probability**
 * Showing data - using bar graphs, histograms, line graphs and box and whisker plots
 * Probability and game theory
 * Geometry: Area and Volume - as time allows**
 * Areas of Rectangles and Parallelograms
 * Triangles and Trapezoids
 * Areas of Circles
 * Using Symmetry to Find Areas
 * Volume Mass and Surface Area
 * Prisms
 * Cylinders
 * Pythagorean Theorem
 * Review**
 * Solving Equations
 * Word Problems
 * Exponents
 * Like Terms
 * Integers


 * To the teacher in 2012-13:** What we found was that much of the material in the first half was review and they did quite well as a group. I think you could move faster than the book says, and we used the "average" pace. They blew out at the geometry section, so I would skip the first time it comes up, and put it together with the geometry in the second semester and only do them after you do everything else and as a separate section. They need a lot of visualization and guidance with it and you might try some Manga High (www.mangahigh.com) to help them out with it. They also had great difficulty with negatives, especially with equations. They also had great difficulty with fractions and decimals, especially in dividing and multiplying, though adding and subtracting got difficult when negative were involved. Bill is saying that this year's 6th graders are also having difficulty with the same issues, so good luck next year! They just need a lot of practice. My point is to not let them slow up where it's easy for them, but move them through and then take your time when the going gets tough. If I were going to do it again, I would use the quizzes as a diagnostic at the beginning of a chapter. If they get 80 or above as a group, I would have them break into teams - the folks who get it versus the ones who don't and have them work through problems until they can take the test and do well. If they don't, then teach it as normal and take the same quizzes again. When they can do well, give the test and move on. You'll same some time and have it for the tough stuff which can take 2-3 times as long as the book suggests. I would add in some games around multiplication table stuff and common decimals and fractions every month or so to keep it fun and also to give them the continuing practice they need. Again, Manga High is another route for a break for them that gives them some fun and practice. Call if you have questions! Jan

Math Pre-Alg Resources: see this page for stuff I used and for a very extensive review sheet for students.

**Sequence:** 6th Mathematics 7th Pre-Algebra 8th Algebra I 9th Algebra I 9th Algebra 2 (Adv) 10th Geometry (Reg) 10th Trig / Analytic Geometry (Adv) 11th Algebra 2 (Reg) 11th Pre-Calculus (Adv) 12th Precalculus 12th AP Statistics

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