• South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Standards for Mathematics

    Overview for Grades 6 – 8

    This overview illustrates relationships among mathematical concepts. In grades 6 – 8, it is important for students to broaden their understanding of the interconnectedness of mathematical concepts that were introduced in grades K – 5 and will continue throughout grades 9 – 12 and beyond.

    The South Carolina College- and Career-Ready (SCCCR) Content Standards for Mathematics for grades 6 – 8 are divided into key concepts that organize the content into broad categories of related standards. The strands should serve as the basis for development of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

    The key concepts vary throughout the three grade levels and two major shifts occur. The key concept shifts from Data Analysis and Statistics (DS) in grade 6 to Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability (DSP) in grades 7 and 8, because probability is not introduced until grade 7 and continues with relative frequencies in grade 8. Students in grades 6 and 7 focus on the key concept of Ratios and Proportional Relationships (RP); however, this key concept is replaced by Functions (F) in grade 8.

    South Carolina College- and Career-Ready

    Mathematical Process Standards

    The South Carolina College- and Career-Ready (SCCCR) Mathematical Process Standards demonstrate the ways in which students develop conceptual understanding of mathematical content and apply mathematical skills. As a result, the SCCCR Mathematical Process Standards should be integrated within the SCCCR Content Standards for Mathematics for each grade level and course. Since the process standards drive the pedagogical component of teaching and serve as the means by which students should demonstrate understanding of the content standards, the process standards must be incorporated as an integral part of overall student expectations when assessing content understanding.

    Students who are college- and career-ready take a productive and confident approach to mathematics. They are able to recognize that mathematics is achievable, sensible, useful, doable, and worthwhile. They also perceive themselves as effective learners and practitioners of mathematics and understand that a consistent effort in learning mathematics is beneficial.

    The program for International Student Assessment defines mathematical literacy as “an individual’s capacity to formulate, employ, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts. It includes reasoning mathematically and using mathematical concepts, procedures, facts, and tools to describe, explain, and predict phenomena. It assists individuals to recognize the role that mathematics plays in the world and to make the well-founded judgments and decisions needed by constructive, engaged and reflective citizens” (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2012).

    Grade 8 Mathematics Overarching Concepts and Student Outcomes:

    The ACPS curriculum consists of intentionally aligned components—learning outcomes, assessments, learning experiences, content, and instructional strategies—organized into sequenced units to ensure students achieve mastery of grade-level or course-specific standards in pursuit of college and career readiness. This curriculum provides a student-centered, technologically engaging learning community to encourage the highest level of career and college preparation. Students will be proficient with operations and applications found in following ten units of instruction: the rational number system, exponents, expressions, equations, inequalities, linear functions, geometric applications, geometric transformations, geometric formulas, and scatter plots. The following overarching concepts are an essential component to all units of instruction in 8th Grade Mathematics:

    • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
    • Reason both contextually and abstractly.
    • Use critical thinking skills to justify mathematical reasoning and critique the reasoning of others.
    • Connect mathematical ideas and real-world situations through modeling.
    • Use a variety of mathematical tools effectively and strategically.
    • Communicate mathematically and approach mathematical situations with precision.
    • Identify and utilize structure and patterns.

    Course Overview & Student Skills:

    The 8th Grade Mathematics Course delivers a viable curriculum and prepares students for Algebra I. This course is designed to deepen and extend understanding of rational and irrational numbers, the laws of exponents and exponential relationships, equations, inequalities, expressions and students will engage in methods for analyzing, solving, and using linear functions and scatter plots. Geometric congruence and similarity properties, volume formulas, surface area formulas, and the Pythagorean Theorem will be included in the course curriculum, as well. The Standards for Mathematical Processes applied throughout the course and together with the content standards prescribe that students experience mathematics as a coherent, useful, and logical subject that makes use of their ability to make sense of problem situations.

    Course Outline:

    • Quarter 1 The Number System: Rational and Irrational Numbers, Laws of Exponents
    • Quarter 2 Expression, Equations, Inequalities, Functions and Linear Functions
    • Quarter 3 Systems of Equations, Geometry: Congruence, Similarity, Pythagorean Theorem, Transformations
    • Quarter 4 Geometry: Volume, Surface Area, Data: Scatter Plots, Two-Way Tables

    GRADING SCALE

    Class averages are determined using the following percentages:

    Summative 40%

    Formative 60%

    1st Semester Average                         2nd Semester Average                     Yearly Average

    1st quarter - 50%                                   3rd quarter - 50%                                1st semester - 50%

    2nd quarter - 50%                                  4th quarter - 50%                                2nd semester - 50%