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Summer Midterm Review
A transition to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will happen during the 2014-2015 school year, so this week I finally took a look at them for seventh grade. Each school in the district is making the choice to align with CCSS for the upcoming school year, stay with the current 2008 state standards, or who knows what middle ground there may be - and I have no idea where the new school falls on this spectrum. Thankfully not a whole lot is different between the two standards for 7th grade, and I'm rather glad to see that some concepts that seemed strangely out of sync with the rest of the 7th grade curriculum are left until 8th grade.
I've revisited the expectations of the new school expects for a base skill set for 7th grade math:
- 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.
I realized that we have covered the ground for both current 2008 and CCSS well with the second bullet point involving variables - in fact I think we've gone a bit too far down that path! With 5 weeks left til school starts we're shifting gears and focusing on what else lies ahead with the other 7th grade math expectations.
DragonBox app
Took a break this week, may revisit some of the 1-2 star areas of Chapters 3 & 4.
Khan Academy
Fractions were being a challenge area, but I realized we entirely skipped Factors and Multiples with my assumption this was solid core knowledge already so this weekend was a crash course in that. I encouraged a new strategy of watching at least some the videos first, even if he thought he knew the information already, and then taking the proficiency exams. He reported that while he already knew most of the information there were some new strategies covered and it was a good review that helped him.
With 11 this week, his total is now up to 61 proficiency areas in math and he'll dig into Fractions again in the week ahead.
Key to Algebra + Key to Fractions by Curriculum Press
In book 3 of algebra, he's covered equivalent equations and we'll cover various methods of adding unlike term equations very slowly. I doubt he'll finish this book because I think they'll cover the rest of this curriculum in the year ahead.
For book 4 of fractions, I turned things back to review pages 8-13 because although all of these are with denominators that are fairly easy to work it I think some core concepts needed strengthening. I'll continue to have this curriculum parallel the Khan Academy fractions work this week.
McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)
Flipped through to review concepts through 2.3 with simplifying variable expressions.
Reading & Writing
Finished both The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and Peter and the Starcatchers for 1,982 pages (!) of reading so far this summer. He narrated an awesome essay about his week at camp that I scribed, and his reading class starts this Friday. That apparently has 45 minutes to an hour of homework for 4 days a week but we'll see how it goes in reality to balance with math work and I'm assuming reading will be part of his class homework.
DragonBox app
Took a break this week, may revisit some of the 1-2 star areas of Chapters 3 & 4.
Khan Academy
Fractions were being a challenge area, but I realized we entirely skipped Factors and Multiples with my assumption this was solid core knowledge already so this weekend was a crash course in that. I encouraged a new strategy of watching at least some the videos first, even if he thought he knew the information already, and then taking the proficiency exams. He reported that while he already knew most of the information there were some new strategies covered and it was a good review that helped him.
With 11 this week, his total is now up to 61 proficiency areas in math and he'll dig into Fractions again in the week ahead.
Key to Algebra + Key to Fractions by Curriculum Press
In book 3 of algebra, he's covered equivalent equations and we'll cover various methods of adding unlike term equations very slowly. I doubt he'll finish this book because I think they'll cover the rest of this curriculum in the year ahead.
For book 4 of fractions, I turned things back to review pages 8-13 because although all of these are with denominators that are fairly easy to work it I think some core concepts needed strengthening. I'll continue to have this curriculum parallel the Khan Academy fractions work this week.
McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)
Flipped through to review concepts through 2.3 with simplifying variable expressions.
Reading & Writing
Finished both The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and Peter and the Starcatchers for 1,982 pages (!) of reading so far this summer. He narrated an awesome essay about his week at camp that I scribed, and his reading class starts this Friday. That apparently has 45 minutes to an hour of homework for 4 days a week but we'll see how it goes in reality to balance with math work and I'm assuming reading will be part of his class homework.
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