Math Tips for Students Grades 6 and Up: Introduction, Zero, and One

Last week, we introduced our Math Tips series to parents with kids in grades K-5 in hopes of helping foster an understanding, mastering, and love of math in the home. This week, we’re continuing this effort for parents with older kids.

The math facts and concepts that we’ll be highlighting in the coming weeks and months should be well known by every student in grade 6 and up. They form the fabric of knowledge — the foundation necessary for success in the middle school and high school math classrooms. Most teachers assume that their students know this information. When facts and concepts are at a student’s fingertips, new material encountered becomes an extension of things they already know. Without them, it seems like every new topic has to be learned from the beginning — and the prospect of that can be daunting.