Dear Parents of Eighth Grade Students: 8th Grade Math The math courses of study/curriculum spiral, meaning, a concept is started one year and elaborated on the next year. Mastery of the concepts at the previous grade level is assumed, however I will be reviewing many 5th - 7th grade concepts. Knowing what your child will need to know this year in math puts you at an advantage as your help is important to student success. Students preparing for eighth grade will find the listings to be extremely helpful. When you understand the topics and concepts that are required, you will find tutorials and worksheets on-line to help you prepare or reinforce work done in the classroom. The following list provides you with the basic concepts that should be attained by the end of the school year. This April the LEAP test will be assessing your child’s ability to accomplish these skills and those from previous years of math education. Number Give factors, multiples, integer amounts and square roots for numbers Applications for the above related concepts in problem solving Measurement Use measurement terms appropriately, be able to measure a variety of items at home and at school. Be able to solve more complex problems with measurement estimations an problems using a variety of formulas Estimate and calculate areas for trapezoids, parallelograms, triangles, prisms circles using the correct formulas Estimate and calculate volumes for prisms, sketch prisms (rectangular) given the volumes Geometry Hypothesize, sketch, identify, sort, classify, construct, measure, and apply a variety of geometric shapes and figures and problems Sketch and construct a variety of shapes given the dimensions Create and solve a variety of geometric problems Analyze and identify shapes that have been rotated, reflected, translated and describe those that are congruent Determine if shapes/figures will tile a plane (tessellate). Analyze tiling patterns Algebra/Patterning Extend, analyze and justify the explanations for patterns and their rules and a more complex level Be able to write algebraic equations/expressions and write statements to understand simple formulas Evaluate a variety of simple linear algebraic expressions at a beginning level--- 1 variable and first-degree Be able to solve and simplify algebraic equations with the 4 operations Substitute natural numbers for variables when solving algebraic equations Probability Design surveys, collect and organize more complex data and identify and explain patterns and trends in data Construct a variety of graphs and label them appropriately and state the difference between selecting one graph over another Defend your choices of graphs Make more accurate predictions Understand the importance of statistics on decision making and provide real life scenarios Describe collected data in terms of mean, median and the mode and be able to analyze any bias Make inferences, predictions and evaluations based on interpretations of data collection results Be able to predict possible outcomes based on background information Apply the rules of probability to games of chance and sports This list was compiled as a guide to help parents understand the concepts that are to be attained by their child in the eighth grade. I hope this shines a little bit of light on what we’re trying to get done by the time testing comes in April. Thank you for your support, Ron Edmiston |