year 8 maths

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Guide to the working programs
It is not expected that any student would do every question in an exercise. The print and online versions
contain working programs that are subtly embedded in every exercise. The suggested working programs
provide three pathways through each book to allow differentiation for Building, Progressing and
Mastering students.
Each exercise is structured in subsections that match the Working Mathematically strands, as well as
Enrichment (Challenge).
The questions suggested for each pathway are
listed in three columns at the top of each
subsection:
• The left column (lightest-shaded colour) is
the Building pathway
• The middle column (medium-shaded colour)
is the Progressing pathway
• The right column (darkest-shaded colour) is
the Mastering pathway.
UNDERSTANDING AND FLUENCY
PROBLEM-SOLVING AND REASONING
ENRICHMENT
Building Progressing Mastering
1–3, 4, 5 3, 4–6
4–6
7, 8, 11 8–12
8–13
— —
14
Gradients within exercises and question subgroups
The working programs make use of the gradients that have been seamlessly integrated into the exercises.
A gradient runs through the overall structure of each exercise, where there is an increasing level of
mathematical sophistication required in the Problem-solving and Reasoning group of questions than in the
Understanding and Fluency group, and within each group the first few questions are easier than the last.
The right mix of questions
Questions in the working programs are selected to give the most appropriate mix of types of questions
for each learning pathway. Students going through the Building pathway will likely need more practice at
Understanding and Fluency but should also attempt the easier Problem-Solving and Reasoning questions.
Choosing a pathway
There are a variety of ways of determining the appropriate pathway for students through the course.
Schools and individual teachers should follow the method that works for them if the chapter pre-tests can
be used as a diagnostic tool.
For classes grouped according to ability, teachers may wish to set one of the Building, Progressing or
Mastering pathways as the default setting for their entire class and then make individual alterations,
depending on student need. For mixed-ability classes, teachers may wish to set a number of pathways
within the one class, depending on previous performance and other factors.
The nomenclature used to list questions is as follows:
• 3, 4: complete all parts of questions 3 and 4
• 1–4: complete all parts of questions 1, 2, 3 and 4
• 10(½): complete half of the parts from question 10 (a, c, e … or b, d, f, …)
• 2–4(½): complete half of the parts of questions 2, 3 and 4
• 4(½), 5: complete half of the parts of question 4 and all parts of question 5
• ––: do not complete any of the questions in this section.
Cambridge Maths NSW
Stage 4 Year 8 Second edition
ISBN 978-1-108-46627-1 © Palmer et al. 2018
Cambridge University Press
Photocopying is restricted under law and this material must not be transferred to another party.