7th Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath Grade 7 meet expectations for assessing grade-level content.

The materials are organized by the Domains and Clusters delineated by CCSS. Each Cluster has a Milestone Assessment, and all assessments include multiple choice and/or multiple select. The assessments are aligned to grade-level standards, and examples include:

• In Milestone Assessment 7.G.A, Question 7, “A plane intersects the three-dimensional figure. What is the shape of the two-dimensional cross section? a) Triangle; b) Rectangle: c) Trapezoid; d) Pentagon.” There is an accompanying image of a rectangular prism that is intersected by a plane on its left and bottom faces.

• In Milestone Assessment 7.NS.A, Question 19, “Which statements are true? Select all that apply. a) The product of a positive number and a negative number is always negative.; b) The sum of a positive number and a negative number is always negative; c) The quotient of two negative numbers is always positive; d) The sum of two positive numbers is always positive.”

• In Milestone Assessment 7.G.B, Question 8, “A cube has a volume of 512 cubic units. What is the surface area of the cube? 
a) 1,024 square units
; b) 48 square units
; c) 384 square units
; d) 256 square units.”

• In Milestone Assessment 7.SP.A, Question 2, “For which population would it be most necessary to use a sample for study? 
a) The soccer team at my school; b) Teachers at my school; 
c) Students in my math class; d) 7th graders in my state.”

The materials reviewed for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath Grade 7 meet expectations for giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards.

Materials present opportunities for all students to meet the full intent of grade-level standards through extensive work with grade-level problems. Each lesson addresses one grade-level standard with all standards addressed over the course of the year. Lessons are three to four days long. There are opportunities within each lesson to practice the content of the standards including: Math Simulator, one to four questions; Practice Printable typically has six to ten questions;  Additional Practice has four to ten questions; Clicker Quizzes include six questions; and the teacher can assign a specific domain in Test Trainer Pro. Examples where the full intent is attended to include:

• In 7.SP.B.3-4 Perio Charts, students calculate measures of center and measures of variability to compare two sets of data. For example, Practice Printable Questions 1-4, “A karate studio wants to compare the ages of students in two of its classes. The information is shown in the box plots. 1) Compare the measure of variation between the two classes. 2) Compare their interquartile ranges. 3) Compare the median ages of the two classes. 4) What inferences can you draw about the ages of the students in these classes? Explain.”

• In Hay Talk 7.EE.B.3, students solve multi-step real-life problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form. For example, Practice Printable Question 1, “After receiving the given raise at work, who will make the most money per hour? Malala $9.90 per hour, 6% raise; Aaliyah $9.75 per hour, 7% raise, Phan $10 per hour, 4% raise” 

• In 7.NS.A.1 Ghost Tamers!, students describe situations in which opposite quantities combine to make 0. For example, Practice Printable Question 1, “Place an ‘x’ inside the box next to each situation where the answer to the question would be 0.” Six scenarios are provided that include positive and negative numbers in real-life contexts that sometimes form a zero pair and other times do not.

The Test Trainer Pro and Simulation Trainer are also designed to provide additional, grade-level work.

• In Test Trainer Pro, primarily used as a daily warm-up, teachers can assign a specific domain, but not standards. Teachers have access to the question bank in order to see what the questions are, but cannot edit them.

• In Simulation Trainer, the content matches the lesson, but students can provide any number as an answer, then watch the steps worked out (no words) in a solution video. They’re presented with the same question again and can put in the correct answer, then watch the same solution again. If they get it correct the first time, they also watch the solution video. The next questions are not novel, but the same situation with new numbers. If students miss one, it resets them to the beginning, no matter where they were in the assignment. It is possible that some students would never complete a Simulation Trainer.

The materials reviewed for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath Grade 7 meet expectations that, when implemented as designed, the majority of the materials address the major clusters of each grade.

• The approximate number of days devoted to major work of the grade (including assessments and supporting work connected to the major work) is 112 out of 174, which is approximately 64%.

• The number of lessons devoted to major work of the grade (including assessments and supporting work connected to the major work) is 23 out of 35 lessons, which is approximately 66%.

• The number of weeks devoted to major work (including assessments and supporting work connected to the major work) is 23 out of 36, which is approximately 64%. 

A day-level analysis is most representative of the materials because this represents the class time that is devoted to major work of the grade including reviews, domain intensives, and assessments. As a result, approximately 64% of the materials focus on major work of the grade.

The materials reviewed for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath Grade 7 meet expectations for supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.

Examples of connections between supporting content and major work of the grade include:

• 7.G.A.1 Build a Bigger Box connects to 7.RP.A as students use proportional reasoning when they analyze scale drawings. In the Teacher Instruction, the script reads, “Just by looking, it’s not easy to tell what the scale factor is. What multiplier will shrink $$\triangle$$MNO to the size of $$\triangle$$QRS? In a case like this, we can set up a proportion using the length of corresponding sides. There are many ways to determine side lengths in a scale drawing and similar figures. We can use ratios between sides and scale factors to tell us about the relationships of the side lengths.” In the Practice Printable, Question 7, “Figures 2 and 3 are scale drawings of Figure 1. Use the given scales to determine the dimensions of Figure 2 and Figure 3.” The given scales are provided as ratios. 

• 7.SP.C.7b Break Time connects to 7.RP.A as students use proportional reasoning and percentages when they extrapolate from random samples and use probability. In the Practice Printable, Question 2, “Three cousins—Rayanna, Kip, and Marco—play the same game board every weekend. Fill in the missing information in the table.” The first column of the table bears the heading, “Probability of winning a game,” and the second column says, “Likely number of wins out of 60 games.”

• 7.G.B.5 Guarding the Great Gate connects to 7.EE.4 as students use equations to find unknown angles in a figure. In the Practice Printable, Question 3 shows a straight angle split into 4 unequal sections. The sections measure $$28^\degree$$, $$3x^\degree$$, $$32^\degree$$, and $$5x^\degree$$. Part a) “Write and solve an equation to determine the value of $$x$$.”; Part b) “Determine the measure of each angle.”

The materials reviewed for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath Grade 7 meet expectations for including problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade. Examples include:

• 7.NS.A.1d Bad Accounting states, “This activity connects 7.NS.A to 7.EE.B as students will use the same strategies to simplify expressions and solve equations involving negative rational numbers.” In the Practice Printable, Questions 4 and 5 state, the students evaluate $$x$$. Question 4 states, “Evaluate for $$x=\frac{7}{8}:-x+2-(-x)$$”; Question 5 states, “Evaluate for $$x = -2.4: -3c+6+2x$$”.

• 7.EE.B.4a Pen Perimeter connects the major work of 7.EE.B to 7.NS.A when students extend their understanding of fractions to rational numbers when solving equations. In the Practice Printable, Question 6 states, “Julio rented 1 movie and 3 video games. He paid $13.60 in total. The movie cost $4.75 to rent. The video games each cost the same amount. How much did Julio pay for each video game?” 

• 7.RP.A.3 Sport Stats connects the major work of 7.RP.A to 7.EE.B and 7.NS.A as students write and solve equations and proportions representing situations involving percentages. In the Practice Printable, Question 4 states, “During a science lab, Rocco determined the boiling point of ethyl alcohol is $$75 \degree C$$. The actual boiling point of ethyl alcohol is $$78 \degree C$$. What is Rocoo’s percent error?”

• 7.EE.B.4b The Fur Trader connects the major work of 7.EE.B to 7.NS.A as students solve multi-step, real-world problems by writing and solving equations and performing appropriate calculations using the properties of operations with rational numbers. In the Practice Printable, Question 2 states, “Jodi works at a watch shop. She makes $40 per day plus $15 for every watch she sells. If she wants to make $200 in a day, how many watches does she need to sell?”

The materials reviewed for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath Grade 7 meet expectations for clearly identifying content from future grades and relating it to grade-level work and explicitly relating grade-level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades.

An example of clearly identifying content from future grades and relating it to grade-level work is:

• 7.RP.A.2d Doggy Diet identifies “Prerequisite Standards 6.RP.A.2, 6.RP.A.3, 7.RP.A.1” and Cluster Connections including “Direct Connection: In Doggy Diet, students will help Lena interpret points on a graph showing the proportional relationship between a dog's ideal weight and how much he can eat per day. Cross-Cluster Connection: This activity connects 7.RP.A to 8.F.B as students will extend their knowledge of proportional relationships, as they calculate and interpret components of graphs of linear functions, including (x, y) points, slope and y-intercept.”

Examples of explicitly relating grade-level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades include:

• 7.NS.A.1c Avalanche Pits states, “Understanding and representing temperature changes reinforce their understanding of absolute value which they investigated in 6.NS.C.7.”

• 7.RP.A.1 Candlelight Dinner states, “This activity connects 7.RP.A to 6.RP.A as students are extending their knowledge of ratios and rates to include complex fractions.”

• 7.RP.A.3 Sports Stats states, “This activity connects 7.RP.A to 6.RP.A as students will apply their knowledge of ratio reasoning and proportional relationships to solve multi-step problems.”