I’ve been working on a comprehensive set of notes for Pre-Algebra for over a year now. While I wouldn’t call them perfect, I’ve finally got the notes into a state that I’m happy to share with the rest of the world.
I had an initial draft version of these notes last August, but they had many problem that I’ve had to work on. The biggest issue was that I hadn’t actually taught through a Pre-Algebra course before. Covid, changing so many things like it has, meant that I couldn’t use printed notes as I’d hoped at the start of the school year, but as the year progressed and our understanding of teaching in a pandemic developed, I was able to start incorporating printed notes at times. Following the end of the school year, I went through the entire course in detail, using my students’ experiences over the year to refine the notes and even expanded certain topics that need more time to develop. The result of that review is what I’m sharing here.
Pre-Algebra Notes Downloads (v. 0.1)
I plan to keep improving these notes, as well as produce other material to support them. I have a first draft of practice exercises for the first three units, though those still need much more work before I’m ready share. Eventually, I’d like to create a catalog of resources and activities, aligned to each section of the notes, that would give any Pre-Algebra teachers (including myself) a huge leg-up in developing their own curricula, but that dream is still a long way off.
A note of caution that I’ve written these notes with the Oklahoma Academic Standards in mind. (Standards alignment document coming soon, hopefully.) While I’d love for as many teachers as possible to use these notes, be aware that I haven’t referred to Common Core or whatever other standards you might be using at all, so there may be some topics you expect that are missing or incomplete. I’d love to fill in those gaps for other states and countries one day, but no promises.
