Summer of Seventh Grade: Week 2

Ingalls Creek by Justin Garland

This week was much more about summer and less about 7th grade, as it should be since there's plenty of time ahead for studying! The challenge with having everything as evening-based work is that when there's something happening at night nothing academic gets done. It's not every week you turn 11 years old, join a new youth group, then plan for, pack, and go on a 12 mile overnight backpacking trip in the mountains with Scouts.

Life is much more important than proficiency stats.  That said,

Khan Academy 

Just some videos watched, no new proficiency areas so the tally remains 36.

Key to Algebra by Key Curriculum Press

Here's where great progress was made with variables and expressions, exponents, equivalent expressions and multiplying terms up through page 14. My guess is that he won't get to the test starting on page 36 because there's a lot going on this week too.  

McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)

Meh. Maybe next week.

Reading & Writing

Done with Chomp, 7 chapters in on Peter and the Starcatchers. Taking a break from writing since that takes sustained attention and time that wasn't available last week.

 

Summer of Seventh Grade: Week 1

Stuck in negative space

I have always felt uneasy about the minus one level in our building, but having the negative space elevator break down and be stuck in between floors is taking things to a whole different level.

It's an appropriate image to represent the past week since at the beginning of it I made some assignment assumptions based on negative numbers skills titles and their order in the Khan Academy Knowledge Map.  Some are really hard even when other skills that come after them are much easier! I've learned a valuable lesson that prescreening them using my own account to make sure they are achievable with current knowledge and a reasonable amount of challenge is a must. Using the online scratch paper feature isn't working so well either and for the week ahead I'm going to encourage the use of good old fashioned paper & pencil when cranking out some calculations is needed although he's rather resistant to the idea.

Khan Academy 
Thankfully he was a good sport despite my gaffes in setting some assignment goals that were way out of whack, recovered nicely to let 3 frustrating areas go, and made solid progress with proficiency/mastery in 9 new skill areas for a total of 36 now. I really appreciated the reinforced concepts between the Key workbooks and Khan with the negative number operations (saving the negative number word problems for later though) properties of numbers, number properties terminology, and order of operations.

Key to Algebra by Key Curriculum Press
Book 1 (operations on integers) is a wrap with a nearly perfect test at the end, including a review of the commutative, associative and distributive operations principles that was reinforced by the Khan number properties terminology. Book 2 (variables, terms and expressions) is up next and will move at a slower pace than Book 1 since there is a lot of new material in here with exponents, simplifying algebraic expressions, determining expressions for perimeters, then bringing order of operations back to the mix again for simplifying problems. Whew.   

McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)
Still poking at and haven't used this much, although probably will to help on the concepts that are being more of a challenge soon.

Reading & Writing
All set for the summer reading program at the library, The Art of Video Games & D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths done for the week. He's on the final edit of the NASCAR party essay - a little behind schedule because on Thursday he got to meet his favorite NASCAR driver!  

Summer of Seventh Grade: The Beginning

Math by Nic via Flickr

So, long story short, it's up to me to make sure our student meets 7th grade math expectations in order to start 8th grade math in the fall. He just wrapped up 5th grade while working on a 6th grade curriculum; fall is going to be 6th grade working on an 8th grade curriculum - hence the need for a Summer of Seventh Grade.

My goal is to write in here once a week so I can remember the progress made and lessons learned from the experience, and if sharing this path is in any way helpful for others then so much the better. 

The stated 7th grade math expectations:

• Add, subtract, multiply and divide both positive and negative fractions, decimals and percents.
• Solve real world problems using simple expressions, equations and inequalities that include variables.
• Extend work with ratios to solve problems involving proportional relationships and percents, like those found in similar figures, discounts and tips. 

His 5th grade teacher wisely advised checking the State standards for what's generally assumed too.

The strategy to meet them:

Khan Academy
Over the past week we've tested the waters as the school year was ending. The current plan is 20 minutes of Khan Academy related to math on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, then 20 minutes of anything he wants to learn about (he loves history) on Tuesday/Thursday. So far it's still in areas reviewing what he knows with 11 areas of math mastered in the past 7 days (27 total from previous work) through adding & subtracting negative numbers. I have an eye on a pre-algebra summer math review using Khan Academy as a potential guide. My guess is his mastery pace will slow down quite a bit as he learns new things, which is where the other parts of the strategy come in. Have I mentioned how much I love the Coach functionality and resources here too?

Key to Algebra by Key Curriculum Press
This workbook series is so awesome compared to the confusing fuzzy math crap the district keeps using (please stop). Lattice multiplication years ago almost resulted in a meltdown - mine. I have no idea how he is so strong in math already from district curriculum, but my hope is that our work over the summer will help establish an even better foundation in pre-algebra in addition to avoiding my 7th grade math experience (the teacher slamming the text on his desk while screaming ADD OPPOSITE! at us.) He's just wrapped up adding & subtracting negative numbers in Book 1, about to start multiplying them on page 24, and I think he'll get to the workbook test on page 36 at the end of the week ahead. The only drawback to the workbooks is that they're very repetitive for the warp speed this kid picks up concepts so at this point I modify assignments so he's doing about half the pages. 'Drill & Kill' is not a viable m.o. for the Summer of Seventh Grade.

McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)
This 960 page hardcover text kept popping up as a must-have and I can understand why now that it's here. This is more than 1 year's worth of math but will serve as a solid non-fuzzy reference book right on through Algebra in 7th grade if all goes well. I'm having him read the lessons (which are straightforward and go into more depth than both Key & Khan) but not cranking through the exercises since he's doing enough of that already.There's an online component to it too which I'm still assessing and am not sure he'll use. I bought this behemoth brand new for $20 via amazon textbooks and there are lots of other options too.

I'm not sure what the stated expectations are for reading & writing, so I'm having books automagically appear on the hold shelf at the library his summer camp visits weekly that are F&P W-Y. (what the heck does that mean?) While he can read at higher levels, his comprehension & speed are getting bogged down with more complex characters & plots. He has one Summer Reading class in August to help with that and of course all this Summer of Seventh Grade work will be dialed back during it. There is 1 writing assignment each week with (hopefully) fun topics. The week ahead is a personal narrative in the form of a 5 paragraph essay describing his idea of the best party possible, and from the brainstorming ideas he came up with it looks like it'll be quite the NASCAR event!

Will we make it through all this while I continue working as usual and without wanting to strangle each other? I hope so.