About Algebra 1 – Traditional Pathway
With the adoption of Common Core State Standards, high school math will be changing and as such, a traditional Algebra 1 class will become integrated. However, while we are in the transition period, a traditional Algebra 1 class is still necessary for students on an advanced trajectory.
The new Common Core State Standards, especially the Standards for Mathematical Practice, require students to reason and think critically about mathematics, with an emphasis on how it applies to the world around them. It is important to note that the Common Core State Standards do not remove any content objectives, but rather add emphasis on conceptual understanding ans application of the mathematics studied. It is a redefinition of rigor. The following mathematical practices are emphasized throughout instruction:
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
- Model with mathematics.
- Use appropriate tools strategically.
- Attend to precision.
- Look for and make use of structure.
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Course Outline
- Analyzing single and bivariate data
- Focus on shape, center, spread, outliers, strength, direction, and form
Introduction to Functions Studied this Year
- Visually recognize Piecewise Linear, Quadratic, and Exponential Functions
- Analyzing Graphs – Extract Meaningful Data and Make Predictions from Graphs
- Represent Situations Graphically
Solving Equations & Inequalities
- Know that the solution(s) to an equation is(are) the value(s) that make the equation true.
- Know that the solution to a system of equations is the point of intersection on the graph.
- Solve equations and inequalities and represent their solutions graphically.
- Solve systems of equations using substitution and elimination methods
- Interpret a real-world situation and model it with an equation/inequality.
Bivariate Data and Linear Functions
- Know that some bivariate data can be represented as a function and some can be approximated by a line.
- Understand the slopes and intercepts of linear functions and interpret their meanings in context
- Interpret functions that arise in applications in terms of a context.
- Understand the concept of a function and use function notation.
- Review and Assessment
- Making sense of quadratic functions by examining their graphs
- Examining the structure of a quadratic function and relating it to its graph.
- Using the different forms of quadratic functions
- Working with polynomials
- Factoring quadratics.
- Completing the square.
- Deriving the quadratic equation from standard form.
- Using the quadratic equation.
- Application of quadratic equations.
Radical Expressions and Equations
- Operations with Radical Expressions
- Solving Radical Expressions
- Graphing Square Root Functions