Please read this page together with your parents/guardians.

Sign and return the attached page.

 

Seating and Participation

In real life, mathematics is a tool that people use to make convincing arguments.

 

Invariably, math users spend time working alone, formulating their solution, and then present that solution to their peers. Defending strategy choices and explaining methods are as critical to any successful use of mathematics as proving formulae and making calculations. This class is designed to develop all these skills. Accordingly,

 

  • Seating will change every 1-2 weeks by random assignment.

 

  • Students are expected to be actively involved in their own and their classmates’ understanding of math. Specifically, by the end of the year all students are expected to be able to:

1.      Ask questions that make their group members explain a solution

2.      Explain a solution in detail to their group

3.      Participate actively in group problem solving exercises

4.      Actively contribute to a class discussion

 

Class Behavior

How we talk is as important as what we say

 

Creating and defending ideas means being willing to make mistakes in order to learn more. To create a safe environment for making mistakes, we have only two simple rules in this class:

  1. Be polite – listen carefully, speak respectfully, and take responsibility for yourself

 

  1. Make mistakes – be willing to try and fail as long as you can learn from the effort. No one hits every pitch.

 

Being Prepared for Class

I expect you to be as prepared for class as I am. That means being:

 

  • In your seat on time
  • Having all the materials described in the course policy handout.

 

Students who behave inappropriately or come unprepared for class will get 2 warnings and, if the behavior continues, will earn detention.

 

We will have two books which you will receive at the beginning of the year.

v     Mathematics: Concepts and Skills Course 2 (“C2”) – keep it at home (it weighs a ton). We’ll refer to it and do problems from it, but you will not be required to bring it to class.

v     Connected Math Books – These other, smaller books will need to come with you to class everyday. Put them in your binder.

 

Grading

Students will be assessed in a variety of different ways

 

My goal is to gauge your level of understanding and your ability to apply your math knowledge in a variety of different contexts. The percentages below reflect how each category will be weighted during the 1st quarter. As the year progresses, more weight will gradually be added to the quizzes and tests.

 

  • Notebooks (20%)
    • All warm-up problems, classwork, and homework will be done in the notebooks.
    • Notebooks will be collected periodically. Your notebook will become a record of your math learning and a very important resource on all quizzes and tests.
  • Homeworks (20%)
    • Average of 3 homeworks per week, all done in the notebook. If the homework is a separate worksheet, you will be expected to staple/tape it into your notebook.
    • Homework must be done in pencil and corrected in pen.
  • Writeups (10%)
    • 1-3 per unit
    • Graded on both the math work and the quality of the explanation.
  • Tests & Quizzes (50%)
    • Will make up between 50% and 65% of your grade. The percentage will rise as we progress through the year.

 

Many of our assignments will be graded on the following 4 point scale:

 

Points

Description

Grade

4

Fully accomplishes the task

  • Student work shows full grasp and use of the central mathematical idea(s).
  • Recorded work communicates thinking clearly using some combination of written, symbolic, or visual means.

A

3

Substantially accomplishes the purpose of the task

  • Student work shows essential grasp of the central mathematical idea(s).
  • Recorded work in large part communicates the thinking.

B

2

Partially accomplishes the purpose of the task

  • Student work shows partial but limited grasp of the central mathematical idea(s).
  • Recorded work may be incomplete, some what misdirected, or not clearly presented.

C

1

Makes little or no progress toward accomplishing the purpose of the task

  • Student work shows little or no progress toward accomplishing the task.
  • Shows little or no grasp of the central mathematical idea(s).
  • Recorded work is barely (if at all) comprehensible.

D

0

No attempt made

F

 

·        Note that a student receiving lower than a B- on any Notebook, Write-up, Quiz, or Test may redo the assignment and get up to a maximum of 80%.

 

·        As with all your core subjects, No Late Work will be accepted. You will have 4 late work passes that you may use at any time during the year. I would advise you to save them. This may be painful for some students during the first few months, but you will get used to it.

 

Parents,

Thank you for taking the time to read this syllabus with your student. Here are two more pieces of information that you should save for reference this year.

 

GETTING THE INFORMATION YOU NEED:

Please note that you can use my website to answer your student’s three most common questions:

o       What’s the homework tonight?

o       I lost the handout, where can I get another one?

o       What’s my grade?

 

You can find the website one of three ways:

1.     Through INCLASS: Under my class there will be a suitable link under both the “assignments” and the “grades” sections.

2.     From the Terman website:  go to the staff directory and click on the link under my name.

3.      Directly: my website address is http://pausd.org/~rjoss/ .

 

Note that most (but not all) of our handouts will be available on the homework page. You DO NOT need a password to get to the homework information. You should expect your student will have homework about 3 days / week.

 

Accessing grades:

You will need a password to access your student’s grades on-line. Initially, that password is your student’s ID number. If you would like to change that password, that can be done easily. Just let me know.

 

OFFICE HOURS & EXTRA HELP

Additionally, please note that students may come in for additional help at any of these times:

Monday Office Hours:   3:05 – 4:00  (Room E-4A)

Lunch Office Hours: 12:30 – 12:50  (Room E-4A)

Please let me know if you have any additional questions, concerns, suggestions, or compliments.

 

Thanks,

  

 

 

Randy Joss

7th Grade Math

Terman Middle School

 

Please sign below and return this page to acknowledge that you and your family have received and read the class guidelines.

 

 

Student Name: _________________              Parent/Guardian Name: ___________­­­_________

 

 

 

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