Daily math work / homework

In this section, I will post the work that we did in class along with the homework. The most recent week will be on the top. Kids can look here if they are absent and stay caught up with the class. There is a link to the textbook in Schoology if they forget to bring their binder home. (I can't post it here for copyright reasons.)

Note: if a whole module is all that is listed on a day, you can assume that we did the lesson and "On Your Own" in class. The last two pages of module (More Practice and Test Prep) are the homework.

Week of September 7

Monday - no school

Tuesday - Lesson 3.1

Wednesday -

Thursday -

Friday -

Week of August 31

Monday - Start MAP test. Finish through page 58 if not done last week.

Tuesday - Finish MAP test. Finish pages 59 and 60

Wednesday - Lesson 2.3; Module 1 retest if needed; (Finish MAP test)

Thursday - Lesson 2.4 in class; Review Homework is page 75-76

Friday - Module 2 test; are you ready?; Have a great weekend!

Week of August 24

Monday - Lesson 1.5; finish through page 32

Tuesday - finish through page 42 (test review) but you can skip 34 and 40.

Wednesday - module 1 test; Are you ready? (no homework!!)

Thursday - test corrections, start lesson 2.1 and finish through pg. 32 for homework (We did 45-48 in class and 49-50 on the computer, along with the check understanding.)

Friday - Finish lesson 2.1 and start lesson 2.2 (finish through page 58.) We will have time to finish this lesson next week. The MAP test is still having struggles loading our roster so I am not sure when that will actually happen. Note: The retest for Module 1 for kids who scored below 79% will happen next week - I sent home the packet, first test and revisions so that students can study.

Week of August 17

Monday - no math

Tuesday - Set up binder; Lesson 1.1 pages 1-8; homework pgs 4 and 8

Wednesday - Lesson 1.2; finish through page 18 for homework

Thursday - Lesson 1.3; finish through page 26 for homework

Friday - Start lesson 1.4 (through pg 29); no homework!

We will likely have our first test next Wednesday.

Notes on Math Class Placement

The following information applies to the students who stay in BVSD and do not go to Summit, which has its own pathway. I will discuss this more at Back-to-School night.

The Advanced 1 math class is geared towards students who learn math concepts quickly without a lot of repetition. Students in this class typically have very solid number sense, have mastered their math facts, have excellent executive function skills, are strong readers and generally enjoy solving math problems. They typically do not resist doing math homework and are not too busy after school to make math homework a priority. Students are expected to score 80% or higher on the Advanced 1 module assessments.

The students who complete this class will be put into Advanced 2 in middle school, so they will start Algebra (a 9th grade class) as seventh graders. This is the fourth year that this curriculum has been taught in BVSD, so we have now worked out a lot of the kinks! The BVSD math pathway says that students can "off ramp" to take seventh grade math in sixth grade, but in reality, the Southern Hills counselors place all of my students into Advanced 2 to start sixth grade regardless of my recommendations. This puts extra pressure on our team to put kids into the right class at the start of fifth grade! Prior to using this curriculum, I only had less than a dozen students each year who compacted two years of math prior to high school and now I have around thirty! Some students ended up accelerating too quickly and losing their passion for math.

Placement in the Advanced 1 math class is based on a body of evidence that includes CMAS math scores, math performance last year, iXL tests and former teacher recommendations. All students will be given a paper math test on August 13 as well as an iXL assessment, allowing students who are new to Bear Creek the opportunity to accelerate. I am also planning to experiment with the MAP test that is used in middle school but don't have any baseline data yet. The initial placement of all students is provisional for the first three modules in my class. Students may be moved to Mrs. Waldrip's class throughout this window and I use their module test scores, class participation, homework completion, self advocacy along with the initial body of evidence to inform this decision.

The majority of Mrs. Waldrip's students will take Advanced 1 in 6th grade (or advanced pre-algebra at Summit) and will compact one year of math by high school. These students will all have the option of taking Calculus in high school, if that is important to your family! On the fifth grade CMAS, Mrs. Waldrip's students often outperform the lower third of my Advanced 1 students and they gain a more solid grounding with number sense and basic math skills (add, subtract, multiply, divide fractions and decimals with unfriendly numbers). In middle school, the Advanced 1 class does not move at as fast of a pace since their class period is shorter by 20 minutes and the course is spread out through the end of May.

Please note that the students in Mrs. Waldrip's class will have the opportunity to do math enrichment activities on a regular basis, whereas my class is more of a grind. This year, we also have the ability to provide a smaller cohort and extra adult support in Ms. Gutierrez's class. These students will have access to enrichment materials along with additional support during work time to truly master the important fifth grade concepts. Please reach out if you feel that a fifth grade class would be a better fit for your student.

Introduction and Welcome!

Students will switch for math for the first time on Monday, August 17. I plan to talk about math in more detail at Back-to-School night.

I do not test the speed of math fact recall, but I do know that students who are not automatic with their multiplication facts need to hold more information in their working memory and sometimes get bogged down in the middle of complex math problems. This is not to say that these students are not strong mathematical thinkers, they just need to work harder to find the correct solution. For this reason, I encourage my students to practice their math facts if they have not yet mastered them. Because calculators are not permitted on CMAS, we do not use calculators until later in the year. However, we will finish the entire book (18 modules) before CMAS and spend the last month of math doing project based learning activities.

I have been breaking the math book into smaller chunks so that kids have less weight to ferry between home and school. At the end of each module, I will staple your child's "packet" to the module's math test and send it home in Friday folders. We have a test (on paper) for every module but no unit tests. If a student scores below 80%, I have them complete a second test after they complete test corrections and ensure that they understand whatever they missed. We will also have access to iXL, so that students can review, practice and accelerate independently.

Our math class is 70 minutes long to support the students who need extra help and to allow most of the "Advanced 1" students to start their "homework" in school. Homework should never take more than 45 minutes - if it does, please stop and drop me a note! If the homework is regularly taking more than 45 minutes and students are needing a lot of support from parents, please have your child talk to Mrs. Ellis. Homework should be a time to practice skills we learned in class. Students are not permitted to say "I don't get it" in my math class - they need to practice asking specific questions that helps them articulate where their understanding is lacking. When students have questions, I prefer that they bring them to school the next day. This helps me to better track my class' learning and the areas that need review. Thanks!