Algebra I

The challenge with this course, wherever I have taught it, is the diverse mathematical experiences the students bring with them into the classroom.  Some have already had a year or two of Algebra and need another year to reinforce their skills.  Others, such as those coming from European style curricula, have had robust learning experiences with Geometry.  Still others have taken Pre-Algebra courses and have yet to start their Algebra work.  This class is principally taught to Form III students and so the range of middle school experiences the students have had is just as broad as the academic content they've learned.  

So this course needed a curriculum that taught all the foundational topics in Algebra I, but did it in a way that wouldn't just seem like a repeat of what the students did last year.  So I introduced to THS a curriculum that I had worked with a few years ago called College Preparatory Mathematics.  Truly, it is an innovative curriculum that prioritizes student collaboration around problem based learning with a focus on learning the conceptual foundation for the algebra skills the students may already be familiar with.  It employs a mixed spaced review preview structure where students constantly have the opportunity to go back to early chapters to review concepts and skills, as well as the opportunity to glance ahead at upcoming topics in order to tap into background knowledge and let the students be the experts in the room.  The role of the teacher in this format is to facilitate the learning but appropriately scaffolding the provided problem sets, supporting collaboration, and looking for opportunities to make real world connections.  I have found that the curriculum is incredibly responsive to my desire to push the boundaries of my assessment practices allowing my to employ rubrics and criterion based grading more coherently into my projects and tests.  I look forward to working with the rest of the members in my department to make the CPM curriculum a key component of our THS students early upper school math experience.

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Please browse the videos section of the home page for a glimpse of the teaching in practice.