Whitman Math Concepts by Grade Level

We use the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to guide our instruction.

Math 6  will focus on these critical areas:

Connecting ratios to whole number multiplication and division and using concepts of ratio and rate to solve problems;

Completing understanding of division of fractions, all decimal operations, and extending the notion of number to the system of rational numbers, which includes negative numbers and use of the coordinate plane.

Working with percents of numbers, finding percents, and understand the relationship between parts, wholes, and percents.

Writing, interpreting, and using expressions and equations.

Developing understanding of statistical thinking. Students in Grade 6 also build on their work in elementary school by reasoning about relationships among new shapes to determine area, surface area, and volume. 

Math 7 will focus on these critical areas:

Developing understanding of and applying proportional relationships.

Continuing understanding of operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations.

Solving problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions and working with two- and three-dimensional shapes.

Drawing inferences about populations based on samples.
Prerequisites: Completion of 6th grade mathematics.

Math 8 will focus on these critical areas:

Formulating and reasoning about expressions & equations. This includes solving linear equations and systems of linear equations and modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation.

Grasping the concept of a function & using functions to describe quantitative relationships.

Analyzing 2- and 3-dimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, congruence, and the Pythagorean Theorem.

Special Supplies: A calculator that can find square roots and cube roots (suggestion: TI-30X IIS)

Algebra 1 

The fundamental purpose of this course is to formalize and extend the mathematics that students learned in the middle grades. Because it is built on the middle grades standards, this is a more ambitious version of Algebra I than has generally been offered. The critical areas deepen and extend understanding of linear and exponential relationships by contrasting them with each other and by applying linear models to data that exhibit a linear trend, and students engage in methods for analyzing, solving, and using quadratic functions.

The Mathematical Practice Standards apply throughout each course and, together with the content standards, prescribe that students experience mathematics as a coherent, useful, and logical subject with an ability to make sense of problem situations.