Parent Communication Parents are encouraged to talk with their child’s teacher at any time during the school year. Student progress is assessed every six weeks (six progress reports per school year) for middle school students. Following is a list of ways that you may communicate with and/or review your child’s progress: • • •

SnapGrades/School Fusion Teacher’s web site/e-mail/voice mail Regular parent-teacher conferences (Fall/Spring)

Ways You Can Help Your Child at Home
Set expectations early that your son/daughter will take three to four years of high school math and science classes, while still keeping in mind that not all children will have the interest, ability or desire to pursue careers in science or math.
Encourage your son or daughter to collect things, handle things, take things apart and see how they work. They need to take bikes, clocks, flowers, and other things apart.
Do not be concerned about children getting things right. You need to be concerned if they aren’t curious and wondering about things.
Do you give your sons and daughters different kinds of toys? Do you encourage them to pursue different kinds of hobbies? It is believed that one important reason boys do better in mathematics is because boys have grown up playing with more mathematical and scientific toys.
Do not “over help” your daughter; (a tendency of parents with daughters much more than with sons). Instead, assist her to become able to rely on her own judgment, develop independence and the ability to make her own decision.
Talk about career plans with your children. Point out that many occupations require good math and science backgrounds, and that their career options will be limited if they do not continue to take these subjects throughout school.

Connected Math was funded by the National Science Foundation. This program supports our curriculum by developing students’ knowledge and understanding of mathematics that is rich in connections— •

Connections among core ideas in mathematics

•

Connections between it and applications in other school subjects

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Connections between the planned teaching/ learning activities and the special aptitudes and interests of middle school students

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Connections among the mathematics strands of the elementary and high school programs

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Connections with the applications of mathematical ideas in the real world

Grand Blanc Community Schools

A Parent’s Guide to our Middle School

MATH PROGRAM The GBCS mathematics curriculum is derived from the new Common Core State Standards.

Observations of patterns and relationships are the basis for acquiring deep understanding in mathematics. Therefore, the curriculum is organized around interesting problem settings. Students solve problems, and in so doing, they observe patterns and relationships. This encourages higher level thinking and problem solving while building on a core that makes sense of mathematics and its uses.

Students in grades 6-8 will . . .


learn to value mathematics




become confident in their abilities to do mathematics




become mathematical problem solvers




learn to communicate mathematically




learn to reason mathematically

Our Mission Grand Blanc Middle Schools are communities of lifelong learners engaged in a partnership with their staff, students, and their parents. Together we strive to create a safe educational environment where quality work is expected of all students regardless of varying backgrounds and ability levels. Within a relevant and useful curriculum, we will include character education and critical thinking skills while promoting an appreciation of the arts and the environment.

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

Expectations for students in Grade 6 — Students will . . .

Expectations for students in Grade 7 — Students will . . .

Expectations for students in Grade 8 — Students will . . .

■ understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems

■ analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems

■ know that numbers can be either rational or irrational; use rational approximations for irrational numbers

■ understand and use the concept of a unit rate ■ solve decimal, percentage, and rational number problems ■ apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions ■ compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples ■ apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to include positive and negative rational numbers ■ plot ordered pairs and identify points on all four quadrants of the coordinate plane ■ use variables, write expressions and equations, combine like terms, and solve equations (i.e., 2x + 3 = 19; x = 8) ■ reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities ■ represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables

■ add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers ■ use properties of operations equivalent expressions

to generate

■ solve multi-step real-life problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form ■ draw, construct, and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them ■ solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, (including circles) and volume ■ use random sampling to draw inferences about a population and draw informal comparative inferences about two populations ■ investigate chance processes and develop, use, and evaluate probability models

■ work with radicals and integer exponents, including numbers in scientific notation ■ understand the connections between proportional relationships, linear equations, and lines ■ solve linear equations and pairs of simultaneous linear equations ■ define, evaluate, and compare functions; distinguish between linear and non-linear functions ■ understand congruence and similarity in two - dimensional figure, using rotations, dilations, reflections, and translations ■ understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem ■ solve real-world and mathematical problems involving volume of cones, cylinders, and sphere ■ investigate patterns of association in bivariate data; informally fit a line of best fit to scatter plots

■ find volume and surface area of cubes and rectangular prisms ■ develop understanding of statistical variability ■ summarize and describe distributions For a complete list of K-12 Common Core State Standards, see the Common Core State Standards Initiative webpage at http://www.corestandards.org/Math.