Honors Precalculus Syllabus 2.

Boring Stuff Out of the Way First

Mr. Martin | emartin@horizonsd.org | 858.244.0333 Class Blog: mrmartinmath.wordpress.com Room 307 | Tutoring: Monday Thursday 300 345ish REQUIRED TEXTBOOK: Precalculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic 6th Edition, Demana, Pearson Education, 2004 REQUIRED SUPPLIES: Interactive Notebook supplies, Home enjoyment Composition Book, Bible, student handbook, covered textbook, sharp pencils, graphing calculator (see list of approved graphing calculators) COURSE DESCRIPTION: Precalculus is designed to help transition from the study of algebra to the study of calculus. Precalculus is comprised of four mathematical disciplines: trigonometry, linear algebra, mathematical analysis, and probability and statistics. The topics include an in-depth study of functions, the six trigonometric functions and their inverse functions, systems of equations, polar coordinates, vectors, matrices, sequences, probability, and an introduction to calculus. A graphing calculator will be used to enhance learning. CLASS POLICIES: Attendance: Please refer to the attendance policy in the Student Handbook. School wide Rules 1. No communication without permission. 2. Do not leave your seat without permission. Class Rules 1. Follow directions quickly. 4. Make smart choices 2. Raise your hand for permission to speak 5. Keep your dear teacher happy! 3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. RENWEB COMMUNICATION: In an effort to communicate to you and your parents about your progress or lack thereof, the following codes will be used in RenWeb. A Zero means that the assignment was due and that you did not complete it. There is NO making up this assignment. The grade is final. An Inc means that the assignment is missing/incomplete due to you being absent and that you have time to complete it. The Inc will only be used for missing work that CAN BE completed for a grade. Typically this will be given when you are absent and missed work was due or assigned during your absence. After the amount allotted by the School (one weekend) has passed, the Inc will change to a Zero and the same rule as written above applies the grade is final. Please note that the Inc grade, once entered into RenWeb will be calculated as a zero in your grade and as such WILL LOWER YOUR GRADE (sometimes drastically if you have missed a quiz or test). Remember that you have one weekend to complete your absent work and replace the Inc grade or the Inc will change to a zero and your lowered grade will remain. A zero grade is final! Please remember that extracurricular activities do not excuse you from work due on the day of your absence. For those assignments missed while you are at a game or match or concert or Bible class activity the grade given will be Zero. They are due even if you have left campus before class begins. In the event of extended absences, a little more grace/mercy may be given towards the due date for make-up work. ABSENCES: All assignments are recorded on the whiteboard, in the teachers plans and grade book, and on RenWeb. During as absence, work in class goes on. It is your responsibility to find out what the assignment(s) are and do them. No quizzes, project presentations, or tests can be made up for truancies and suspensions (see Handbook). As per the Handbook, you are allowed time to complete your make-up work for absences not involving extra-curricular activities. The school will allow you ONE WEEKEND before your work is due. Of course, you are encouraged to complete your work as promptly as possible and in some cases you may have to complete the work before the weekend in order to know the material for a quiz or a test that happens during the same week in which you were absent. As always, the school and your teachers simply want to assist you in doing your very best. You are encouraged to simply come and talk to your teacher about any questions or issues you may have concerning your missed work.

Honors Precalculus Syllabus 2.0 EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: By definition, extra-curricular activities (drama, sports, trips, clubs, etc.) are extra and not required for graduation. Your academics (completing home enjoyment, assignments, studying, etc.) should be a higher priority in your life because they are required for graduation. Absences due to extra-curricular activities do not excuse students from missed assignments! If you know that you will be absent, communicate with me immediately, and complete the assignment by the due date. Any work not turned in on time will be marked as a zero following the policy for late work as stated in this syllabus. There is no extra time to complete work missed due to extra-curricular activities. TUTORING: If you need assistance outside of class, Mr. Martin will be available after school Monday Thursday from 3:00 to 3:45ish in Room 307. Please inform Mr. Martin that you are planning to attend tutoring on those days. Make arrangements to come in for help as soon as you realize you need assistance, since each new concept builds upon the previous concept. IMPORTANT: Teacher will actively pursue all incidents of plagiarism. Please see Major Infractions in the Student Handbook.

Now Onto the New Stuff!

Home Enjoyment
Home enjoyment is given daily, with class time occasionally allotted to begin the assignment. The purpose of home enjoyment is to allow you to review the concepts and practice the skills taught in class. Each home enjoyment assignment is worth 2 points. To get full credit the assignment must be completed in pencil, in your home enjoyment composition book. HOWEVER, if you are unable to complete part of an assignment because you did not fully understand the lesson, you may do your best to complete it and come in for tutoring within 3 tutoring sessions1 to work on fixing your misconceptions and still receive full credit. If you do not come in for tutoring within 3 sessions, the assignment will be considered late. Late work can earn half credit until the end of the chapter. When you are absent, you have one weekend to make up your work and receive full credit2. It is your responsibility to get the notes, classwork, and home enjoyment that you missed on the day of your absence. If you are aware of missing class due to a game or field trip, you must turn in your assignments prior to leaving campus. If you going to miss a scheduled assessment, you must make arrangements to take it prior to leaving campus. If you are absent on the day of an assessment, you will have one day for each absence to make up the assessment. It is your responsibility to schedule a time to take the assessment outside of class time. You will not be allowed to make up work or assessments for absences due to truancy or suspension.

Interactive Notebooks
This semester we will be using a learning tool called Interactive Notebooks (IN). INs are a way for you to organize your learning, review important concepts, and study more effectively. Your IN and IN supplies must be brought to class every day. To make sure that you are using your IN and completing the tasks assigned, we will have scheduled notebook checks. Instructions, rules, and rubrics for the Interactive Notebooks will be handed out in class and posted online.

Standards-Based Grading
Standards-Based Grading is a new way of looking at the classroom and a new way to learn. Were going to be doing something totally different in our classroom. You arent going to get five or six tests which determine your semester grade. You arent going to see scores like 82% which, if you think about it, dont tell you a whole lot about what you know and what you dont know. For once in your schooling lives, youre going to have a lot more control over things! You are finally in the drivers seat.

1 2

If the home enjoyment is due on Monday you have until Wednesday to come in for tutoring. Ex: If you are absent on a Tuesday, you have until the following Monday to turn in your home enjoyment for full credit. After that time, it will be considered late and you may only receive half credit.

Honors Precalculus Syllabus 2.0

Prelude: The Problem with Grades

Ive been doing a lot of thinking about grades, and to me, there are a couple things that strike me as a teacher as a little bit absurd. 1. You take a test on, say, trigonometry. You get a 73% on it. I put that in my gradebook. What does that 73% tell me as a teacher or you as a student? Does it mean that you know 73% of the material? Probably not. Does it mean that you are really weak in one area and strong in a few others? Who knows! Does it mean that you made a bunch of algebraic errors, but understood the concepts? Yo no se! 2. Lets say I give you a test and things just werent going your way. You know, one of those off days, and you froze up. Or you fell asleep studying the night before. Or you thought you knew the stuff but it turned out you didnt. Or (and this has happened to me) you totally forgot there was a test. And you bombed. I return the test to you, and you sigh, maybe cry, or maybe shrug your shoulders. Then life goes on. Lets be honest here. Do you go back and relearn the things you didnt know? I thought not.

Our Solution to Grades

At the start of each unit, youll get a list of skills that were going to learn. The list will look something like this: 1 2 3 4 5 Use left, right, and midpoint Riemann sums to approximate definite integrals. Use trapezoid sums to approximate definite integrals. Use geometric area to evaluate definite integrals. Use the properties of definite integrals to solve problems. Find antiderivatives using the derivatives of basic functions.

Youll also get a grade sheet that looks like this for you to keep track of your grades:
# Skill (1) (2) (3) (4)

Once a week well have an assessment (announced in advance). These are going to be short assessments, lasting probably 20-30 minutes, testing you on a few skills. On each of these skills, youll get a score from 0 to 4, representing how well you know each skill (there is a rubric in this packet). So after the first assessment, your grade sheet might look like this:
# 1 2 3 Skill Use left, right, and midpoint Riemann sums to approximate definite integrals. Use trapezoid sums to approximate definite integrals. Use geometric area to evaluate definite integrals. (1) 1 Jan 15 4 Jan 15 3 Jan 15 (2) (3) (4)

(And thats exactly what my gradebook will look like too.)

Honors Precalculus Syllabus 2.0 But dang! You really messed up on skill #1. UHHHH!!! Luckily, the next week I hand out another short assessment and it tests Skills #1, #3, #4, and #5. Notice Im asking you to show me your ability to do Skills #1 and #3 again. Throughout the semester, I will continually be asking you to show me older skills to make sure youve retained what youve learned. I determine which skills need to be reassessed using the skills with the lowest class average. So youve taken the newer assessment, and you get scores for those. Your sheet will look like this:
# 1 2 3 4 5 Skill Use left, right, and midpoint Riemann sums to approximate definite integrals. Use trapezoid sums to approximate definite integrals. Use geometric area to evaluate definite integrals. Use the properties of definite integrals to solve problems. Find antiderivatives using the derivatives of basic functions. (1) 1 Jan 15 4 Jan 15 3 Jan 15 4 Jan 22 2 Jan 22 (2) 4 Jan 22 (3) (4)

2 Jan 22

Guess what? You did so much better on Skill #1! Unfortunately you went down a little on Skill #3. So, what the heck does this mean? I want your grade to reflect what you know, and what you dont know, at any point in time. So I dont care if you got a 1 on Skill #1 early on. You showed me the second time around that you really do understand the material better. So your current grade for Skill #1 is a 4. On the flip side, you went down on Skill #3. So your current grade for Skill #3 is a 2. YOU GET POINTS FOR WHAT YOU KNOW. THATS THE ONLY WAY TO GET POINTS. But heres where the magic comes in. Lets say you arent happy with your scores for Skill #3 and Skill #5 and want to improve them. No problem!!! As a teacher, Im all for you showing me youve learned something. I couldnt be more excited! You can re-assess on any skill to show me you understand it better. You just have to fill out the online form and you can re-assess! (You can reassess up to two skills at a time. Also, if you are struggling and have reassessed a particular skill twice and you want to reassess it a third time, Id like to meet with you to hear whats giving you trouble.) The point is: if you can show me you have mastered a skill, Ill give you credit for mastering the skill! You can reassess until a week before the semester ends. (Ill announce the exact date in class) The point of this: I want you to succeed. I am on your side! So lets say you email me and then reassess Skill #3 and Skill #5. Your sheet might look like this:
# 1 2 3 4 5 Skill Use left, right, and midpoint Riemann sums to approximate definite integrals. Use trapezoid sums to approximate definite integrals. Use geometric area to evaluate definite integrals. Use the properties of definite integrals to solve problems. Find antiderivatives using the derivatives of basic functions. (1) 1 Jan 15 4 Jan 15 3 Jan 15 4 Jan 22 2 Jan 22 (2) 4 Jan 22 (3) (4)

2 Jan 22

3.5 R Jan 25

3R Jan 25

Honors Precalculus Syllabus 2.0 Remember, only the last score matters, so youre doing pretty well! (The Rs are to designate reassessments.) If you want to know your current grades is, just divide up the points you have earned over the total points: (4+4+3.5+4+3)/(4+4+4+4+4)=0.925. You have a 92.5% Is this making sense?

To Recap
Were going to have a bunch of smaller assessments, which will test specific skills. Im going to try to assess you at least two different times on most skills (but no promises). Your latest grade stands. If you arent content with your score, you can always reassess individual skills to show that you really do get it.

The Meaning of Grades

In this new system, grades have a very specific meaning. For each entire semester, I will be putting new and old skills on the short assessments. And you will be allowed to reassess at any point. So at the end of the semester, your semester grade will reflect simply two things: your mastery and ability to retain the material from the course. I dont want to be the teacher who gives all As. But I sure do want to be the teacher who has students who earn all As.

Rubric3
4: You have totally mastered the skill. Meaning, you have demonstrated a full understanding of the concepts involved, have clearly showed all steps of your reasoning, have used notation correctly, wrote exemplary and clear prose, and have made no computational errors. 3: You have a firm grasp of the skill. Meaning, you have demonstrated a full or almost understanding of the concepts involved, but you possibly didnt show steps of your reasoning, didnt use notation totally consistently, could have written clearer prose, and/or made a slight computational error. 2: You are almost proficient in the topic, but make occasional conceptual errors, have some confused reasoning, made multiple computational errors, and/or did not completely answer the question. 1: You have demonstrated weak or no conceptual understanding. You possibly have confused reasoning, poor prose, and/or made one or more serious computational error. 0: You left the problem blank

Your Grade Breakdown

There will be a midterm (given sometime in mid-March) AND an end of the year exam. Your performance on the assessments should help you know what to study for these exams. Your semester grades will be: Interactive Notebooks 5% of semester grade Home Enjoyment 5% of semester grade Standards-Based Assessments 70% of semester grade Midterm Exam 10% of semester grade Final Exam 10% of semester grade

There are shades of gray between each rubric value, for example, if you currently have a 2 on a skill and come to reassess and show some more understanding but not enough to earn a 3, I will change your grade to 2.5.

Honors Precalculus Syllabus 2.0

The Process for Reassessment

1. Work on improving your understanding of the skills you didnt do as well as youd like on. Do old homework problems, work with another student, or meet with me.4 2. Fill out the online reassessment form5, found by clicking the Reassessment Form link at the top of mrmartinmath.wordpress.com, with the details about one or two skills you want to reassess. (You cant reassess more than two skills at a time.) 3. At your scheduled time, bring in your old assessment and the work you have done to show youve fixed your misunderstandings and I will give you a new assessment. 4. Thats all. Youre done! Your score on this reassessment is your current score for your skills.

Remember: Studying is making note of things that you know you should get, but dont, and then figuring out how to understand them. Fine Points
1. You cant reassess more than 2 skills at once. 2. If you want to reassess a particular skill more than twice, lets meet and talk about your understanding of the skill beforehand. 3. You can reassess any skill until about a week before the end of the semester. (Thats just to allow me enough time to grade and enter all the scores in the gradebook) 4. Watch out for days when we dont have school on Tuesdays or Fridays. Clearly you cant reassess those days.

What This Means for You

This new grading system has about a gazillion advantages to it. And hopefully its going to take the stress out of testing and put the focus on really learning the material. At the same time, with the independence that this class is going to give you, it will force you to be responsible. I suspect the biggest challenge will be keeping up with the home enjoyment and studying for assessments. Picture this. Youre at home, its 11pm, and you have an intense US history paper to write and your math home enjoyment. You think ah, well, home enjoyment its worth THAT MUCH in math. Ill figure it out laterreally, I promise myself I will! I must! You come to class, youre a little lost, you try to do the next nights home enjoyment and its somewhat impossible because you didnt quite get the material you hadnt practiced. Great. And you still promise yourself to do the home enjoyment from the night before. The next Precalculus assessment comes about and you get a few things, but you bomb a few things, and you think Hey, I can just reassess. But the work of Junior year keeps piling on, and you have already made some gaps in your understanding, and you can only reassess a couple skills at a time. Youre digging a hole for yourself and you keep putting things off, thinking Oh, I can deal with it later. I can assess it again. Later. It will all work out. IT WONT! Youre going to learn that doing your home enjoyment every night and studying for assessments are the two most important action you can take to succeed in this class. You may not believe me, but remember: with great freedom comes great responsibility.

You cant meet with me and reassess on the same day, I dont want you just parroting what we talked about. I want to make sure you really understand the material independent of me! 5 http://mrmartinmath.wordpress.com/reassessment-form/