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Upper Elementary & Junior High - Mathematics
The LePort Math Curriculum
Math is a central subject in LePort Schools’ Upper Elementary and Junior High curriculum. Each day, students spend a minimum of one hour of in-class time on mathematics. Why is this subject so important?
One obvious reason is that students will need math to function as adults—to pay bills, make change, negotiate salaries, etc. Indeed, virtually every career today requires some mathematical skill, and specialized careers usually involve advanced mathematical knowledge.
In addition to these obvious benefits, mathematical training is important for another reason: it develops a student’s ability to think logically and precisely. A successful thinker must be able to structure and organize his ideas, and to bring order to his mind. Practice at math develops students’ mental capacity to do so.
At LePort Schools, students learn that math is not a game in which the goal is just to learn the rules. Math is a science. Students see, across classes, that every skill in math is a tool that helps real people solve real-life problems. In history, they see figures such as Aristarchus and Galileo use math to transform our understanding of the physical world. In science, they see that observable phenomena like velocity and momentum can be quantified into mathematical formulas.
LePort’s Dual Emphasis: Skill Mastery and Conceptual Understanding
Some schools emphasis rigor, fact-memorization, and “hard skills” in math. Other schools focus on developing conceptual understanding and creative mathematical thinking. At LePort, we know that neither of these approaches works without the other; so, we emphasize both.
At our school, math education is about more than just memorizing and applying the rules. Students must understand what the rules mean and why they work. A successful math education involves both understanding the material conceptually and learning how to apply it accurately in practice. The following three components of our program work together to provide such an education.
The Three Components of the LePort Curriculum
The facts practice component helps students build computational speed and retain basic facts such as fraction-percentage equivalents and measurement conversions. Students start each class with a timed facts practice quiz that encourages them to improve their scores day after day.
The next component, which forms the substantive part of the LePort Curriculum, is the daily lesson and review. Each class, students learn a new mathematical principle or method. The instructor uses diagrams, examples, and physical materials to help students grasp mathematical concepts. Following the class lesson, students work through exercises in order to practice the concepts they have been learning. For more advanced students, the problem set is supplemented with extensions and elaborations that deepen their grasp of the lesson.
In teaching these daily lessons, LePort Schools uses the Singapore Math Primary and Elementary Math series of workbooks and textbooks. Singapore Math employs a unique pedagogical approach of moving from pictorial to concrete to abstract levels of understanding. The program has gained recognition among homeschoolers, academics, and recently even some public schools, for its integrated and sequential presentation of topics.
A third component of the LePort curriculum is its regular supplement of word problems. In addition to their daily exercises, students are trained to bring their skills to bear in completing word problem packages. These word problems usually do not introduce new mathematical concepts. Rather, they are designed to make students apply known concepts in contextually sophisticated ways. They tend to involve multiple steps, and to require a critical thinking approach. Students are given guidance and training in how to employ this approach. The purpose of the word problems is to develop a student’s ability to analyze a mathematical situation and figure out which method to use to solve the problem.
Scope and Sequence-Information on Content and Textbooks
As mentioned, LePort Schools uses two series from Singapore Math as the core of its curriculum: Primary Math (4th through 6th grade) and New Elementary Math (7th and 8th grade).
To learn more about these textbooks, including previewing their contents, please visit the following pages of SingaporeMath.com:
Further Information on the LePort Approach
- Background information and reviews of the Singapore program.
- The imporance of conceptual understanding in math.
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