This curriculum outline is provided to give an overview of the content studied in 7th Grade Honors Math. Students should NOT use this overview to work independently through the content, either during the course of before the course. Working at one's own pace does not replicate the deep understanding and mastery of concepts that come from class experiences and the collaboration and support from classmates and teachers.
Some students might demonstrate deep understanding and mastery of the core content before the class has completed the study of that concept. In these instances, rather than continuing on independently to the next topic, these students will work on stretch content, Alcumus assignments, and individual explorations.
Each of the four units is divided into a number of concepts. The "core content" for each concept identifies those ideas and skills that all students are expected to master. Reaching mastery of a topic involves accurately performing computations with a high level of attention to detail, correctly solving challenging application questions, and attaining a deep conceptual understanding of the underlying mathematical ideas. Students will be assessed on their mastery of the core content.
Some students will reach mastery on the core content before the class is ready to move on to the next topic. Additionally, some students will be interested and motivated in going more in-depth on a particular topic even if they reach mastery on pace with the class. In both of these instances, students are encouraged to work on stretch content, Alcumus assignments and individual explorations. In class assessments will not include questions on the stretch content, Alcumus assignments or individual explorations. However, students will receive course credit and teacher feedback on their work in these areas. Individual Explorations can be found in the course documents.
For a good portion of the stretch content, students will work on challenging problems on the Alcumus Online Learning System that is part of Art of Problem Solving. As students progress through the Alcumus focuses and earn more experience points, the questions become more and more challenging. At some point within a given focus, students may encounter a question that goes beyond their content knowledge on that topic. It is acceptable and expected for students to not reach mastery on all given focuses in Alcumus if the questions in that topic go beyond students' content knowledge. Again, those questions will not be on in-class assessments. Of course, if interested, students can see their teacher for help and/or watch the videos provided on the Alcumus site to help them learn the content.
Throughout each unit, the teacher will facilitate a series of experiences, lessons and activities that will bring the class, as a collective, towards some mathematical discoveries. Again, students gain the most deep knowledge and understanding from these lessons when they work on them alongside their peers with teacher facilitation. Working on them independently at a faster pace prevents the collaboration and thinking-time needed to develop deep understanding and mathematical appreciation.
The 4 units are listed below. Click on each unit to see more details.
Unit A - Expressions and Equations