Half of your course grade will come from something called HOT topics. A HOT topic a learning goal for the course and it’s also an unusual sort of assessment that takes some explaining. It’s sort of like a quiz, but it’s not really a quiz. You’ll complete a HOT topic assessment every Thursday in class (except during weeks when a term test is scheduled) and hand it in like a quiz. It will be graded and returned to you at the following class session.

There are 11 HOT topic standards. Each assessment you complete aligns with exactly one of the HOT topic standards. Your goal throughout the semester is to “complete” 10 of the standards, usually one standard per week. Your HOT topic grade will be the number of standards you complete out of 10. (You’ll receive extra credit if you complete all 11 standards, but we’ll talk about that later.) Each week there is a “recommended standard” but you get to choose which standard you’re trying for. A student who hasn’t taken the course before should follow the recommended schedule; a student who has taken the course before might choose to complete the standards out of order.

What does it mean to “complete” a standard? It means that your work meets the standard. If your work does not meet the standard, you can try again the following week with a different question. Your grade for a single assessment will be one of the following:

  • H = hits the mark (meets the standard)
  • O = on the way (does not quite meet the standard but has some of the right ingredients)
  • T = try again (does not meet the standard)

Note that there is no partial credit: your work needs to earn an H grade to meet the standard. If your work earns a O or a T, you can try again the following week and keep trying until your work earns an H grade. (If you are interested in learning more about this type of grading system, look up “standards-based grading.”)

What does a HOT topic assessment look like? Each assessment will consist of 11 questions. Each question is aligned with exactly one of the 11 HOT topic standards, but you will need to figure out which question aligns with which standard. Each week, you will choose only one of the questions to complete, depending on which standard you are trying to meet. You will hand that work in. If it earns an H grade, you can move onto the next standard the following week.

There is some randomization involved in the 11 questions you’ll see each week. Each week, you will be given a different set of 11 questions to choose from. If you have adequately prepared for the standard you’re trying to complete, you will have already seen several examples and will be able to pick out which of the 11 questions aligns with that standard.

Throughout the semester, it will be up to you to keep track of which standards you have completed. By the end of the semester you’ll have a whole portfolio of HOT topic questions that you can use to study for the final exam.

Recommended HOT topic schedule

Week 1: Standard 1

Week 2: Standard 1

Week 3: Standard 2

Week 4: Standard 3

Week 5: Standard 4

Week 6: Standard 5

Week 7: No HOT topics (test 1)

Week 8: any standard

Week 9: Standard 6 (might be given on Tuesday instead of Thursday)

Week 10: Standard 7

Week 11: any standard

Week 12: Standard 8

Week 13: No HOT topics (test 2)

Week 14: Standard 9

Week 15: Standard 10 & 11

Week 16: No HOT topics (review)

Week 17: No HOT topics (final exam)

HOT topic standards list

  1. Evaluate an expression using order of operations (may include fractions but no exponents)
  2. Evaluate a numerical expression using order of operations and integer exponents
  3. Factor a quadratic expression
  4. Simplify a rational expression
  5. Simplify a radical expression
  6. Solve a quadratic equation
  7. Solve a rational or radical equation
  8. Sketch and label or interpret the graph of quadratic equation
  9. Solve a system of equations
  10. Use trigonometry in a real-world application
  11. Solve an exponential equation or evaluate a logarithm

Six-point Problem Solving Framework

Your HOT topics work will follow the six-point problem-solving framework:

  1. Context: What is the problem about?
  2. Observations: List as many observations as possible (at least three). Include key words and symbols.
  3. Questions: Write down (at least three) questions you can ask about the problem. Be sure to include any questions you have relating to the observations you have made. Be as specific as possible (for example, “How do I solve this problem?” is not a specific enough question).
  4. Strategies: Write down the plan or action strategy.
  5. Concepts: Write down concepts needed to understand and solve the problem.
  6. Conclusions: Use complete sentences to express the conclusion. (This is where your full solution goes; your solution is the “conclusion” of the six-point process.)

We will see examples of this six-point framework in class. You can see more examples in the workbook.

Six-point Schedule

In order for your work to meet the standard, the work for each of these six points must meet the standard, except for the first few weeks. For the first few weeks, as you get more comfortable with the six-point framework, you will complete all six points but be assessed on only a subset of them, according to this schedule:

Week 1: Context, observations

Week 2: Context, observations

Week 3: Context, observations, questions

Week 4: Context, observations, questions

Week 5: Context, observations, questions, strategies

Week 6: Context, observations, questions, strategies, concepts

Week 7 and after: All six points