Math Department

Welcome to Patrick Henry's Math Department for students!

In Grade 6, students will receive instruction in four critical areas of mathematics.  By the end of the year, they should be able to connect ratio and rate to whole number multiplication and division and use concepts of ratio and rate to solve problems.  They should also have complete understanding of division of fractions and be able to extend the notion of numbers to the system of rational numbers, including those that are negative.  They should be able to write, interpret, and use expressions and equations.  Finally, students should be able to develop an understanding of statistical thinking.

In Grade 7, students will receive instruction in four critical areas of mathematics.  By the end of the year, they should be able to develop a deeper understanding of proportional relationships and be able to apply them to various problems.  They should be able to develop an understanding of operations with rational numbers and work with expressions and linear equations.  They should be able to solve problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions, and work with two- and three-dimensional shapes to solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume.  Finally, students should be able to draw inferences about populations based on samples.

 In Grade 8, students will receive instruction in three critical areas.  By the end of the year, they should be able to (1) formulate and reason about expressions and equations, including the modeling of an association in bivariate data with a linear equation, and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations.  They should be able to grasp the concept of a function and use functions to describe quantitative relationships.  Finally, students should be able to analyze two- and three-dimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence, and understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem.

Throughout the year, students will be challenged to grasp these concepts while thinking like mathematicians.  On a daily basis, teachers will incorporate the mathematical practices that mathematicians use into their lessons.

Mathematical Practices

1. Make sense of problems and persevere through them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.