Havergal's Uncalendar, 2019-20 Academic Year

MATHEMATICS

GRADE 7 Grade 7 Mathematics

2D shapes and 3D figures, you will recognize that geometry is used daily by almost everyone and that measurement is all around us. Emphasis will be placed on developing your numeracy and problem-solving skills. Several web-based mathematics programs are incorporated into the course including Geometer’s Sketchpad, Desmos, Wired Math and IXL. Numeracy skills will first be strengthened, and then a number of culminating performance tasks that reflect real- life mathematics applications will be performed. Assessment will also include unit tests, checks for understanding, and assignments. Your progress will be measured with not just how you “answered” a math problem, but the problem- solving approach with which and how you came up with the answer. Reach Ahead Mathematics in Grade 8 During their Grade 7 year at Havergal, students in Grade 7 Mathematics may apply for Reach Ahead Math 8 for their Grade 8 year. Students selected for this course will complete both the Grade 8 and Grade 9 curricula during their Grade 8 year and proceed to take Grade 10 mathematics during their Grade 9 year. Grade 7 math teachers describe the two courses and review the criteria to their students in the fall of Grade 7. Applicants are then assessed based on multiple data points collected throughout the year, including but not limited to: student initiative and aptitude, contest results, Thinking and assessment results, teacher feedback and observations, final exam and overall mark, as well as, placement test results. Students selected for Reach Ahead Math 8 are not “streamed” or separated into a “special” class in their subsequent years; Havergal’s Grade 10 to 12 Math classes consist of girls from both Reach Ahead Math 8 and Math 8. Regardless of which of these two courses a student takes during her Grade 8 year, all students have equal access to the full range of mathematics courses offered up to Grade 12 courses including Advanced Placement (AP). For more information on math pathways, please consult your teacher.

Students enter Grade 7 with a wide range of interests and abilities in Mathematics. With this in mind, you will be offered opportunities for challenge and remediation throughout each unit of study. The main objectives of this course are to strengthen your basic numerical skills with whole numbers, integers and fractions, while introducing you to new algebraic and geometric concepts. In addition to developing computational skills, emphasis will be placed, whenever possible, on applications and problem solving. In this course, you will study how probabilities can be determined through tables, organized lists and tree diagrams. You will learn how the language of algebra is used to generalize patterns and relationships and how algebra is used as a tool to solve various problems. In the geometry unit, you will explore and develop relationships among the angles within triangles and the intersection of lines. In the measurement unit, you will develop and then apply procedures and formulae for finding measures of length, area, surface area and volume. “Good mathematics is not how many answers you know… it’s how you behave when you don’t know”. In Grade 8 Math, you will discover why this is said and why this is so important. A growth mindset will be developed and help to build your confidence about yourself as a student, and as a mathematician. Over the course of the year, you will work through the five strands of math knowledge. Fractions, decimals, integers and percents will be studied and expressed in a variety of forms. We will look at patterning in various forms and discover why/how algebra uses numbers and symbols to communicate ideas. You will come to understand why probability is considered to be the mathematics of chance and that statistics is the science of collecting facts and making predictions based on the facts. With the investigation of the size, shape and positioning of GRADE 8 Grade 8 Mathematics

26  HAVERGAL COLLEGE | Uncalendar 2019–20