It is that time of the year again. Schools are reopening around the country. Teachers and students are enjoying their last few weeks of vacation before Labor Day weekend. Teachers are already actively setting up rooms, planning out their first few days, and generally getting themselves ready for what it likely to be another strange and stressful year. Here at eMATHinstruction, we are also getting ready and have just published our first round of add-ons for this year.
This year in our middle school courses we will be publishing a variety of different resources to help instruction and assessment. Each month we will be publishing Spanish language versions of our unit reviews and unit assessments. We will also be adding exit tickets for each unit as well as mid-unit quizzes. For this month, we have published Unit 1 quizzes and exit tickets as well as Unit 1 Spanish language resources for N-Gen Math 6, N-Gen Math 7, and N-Gen Math 8. Additionally, for N-Gen Math 6, we have also added the Unit 2 exit tickets.
In Common Core Algebra I this month, we have added a Form C of the mid-unit quiz for Unit 1 (The Building Blocks of Algebra). We also have posted a practice set of problems on translating English phrases to mathematical expressions. We know this is one of the more challenging skills for students and felt like some fluency practice on it was warranted.
For Common Core Geometry we have added a Form C of the mid-unit quiz for Unit 1 (Essential Geometric Tools and Concepts). We have also published a practice set of questions where students translate geometric information into algebraic equations. We felt like students could use more work with both geometric terminology and basic algebra. This fluency problem set will help with both.
In Common Core Algebra II, we have published both the Unit 1 (Algebraic Essentials Review) and Unit 2 (Functions as the Cornerstone of Algebra II) Form C mid-unit quizzes. This year we are concentrating on adding these additional forms of the mid-unit quizzes in each course as opposed to adding another form of the unit assessment.
Finally, in Algebra 2 with Trigonometry this month we have created a mid-unit quiz for Unit 1.
In other news, this fall we will begin to record videos for our new, N-Gen Math Algebra I course. The first draft of the text is now done and we are working on both the supporting materials and eventually the videos. We hope to be able to release a first version of the text in the early part of 2022. Keep in mind, New York State put off the implementation of the Next Generation Mathematics Learning Standards for yet another year, so Algebra I does not officially switch to the Next Generation standards until the 2023-2024 school year.
That’s it for now. All of us at eMATHinstruction want to wish students, teachers, and administrators a good and smooth start to the school year. We also wish to salute the continued courage of all of the teachers, administrators, and school board members out there that are navigating these very challenging times in order to keep our kids safe while giving them a high quality education.