A Math Scope and Sequence From Grade 6 to Grade 12
A Math Scope and Sequence From Grade 6 to Grade 12
This page is for the person building the math plan rather than teaching tomorrow's lesson. It maps a route from fractions in Grade 6 through functions, probability and calculus to vectors in Grade 12, showing which units feed which and where the arc usually breaks.
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Units and bundles for this topic
Start with the unit that matches your next teaching block; the bundle is there if you need the whole strand. Tap any cover for the full contents, preview and price.
The teaching problem
Where the Grade 6 to 12 Arc Breaks
Secondary math fails in predictable places, and almost all of them are handoffs rather than topics. Fraction arithmetic that was rushed in Grade 6 resurfaces as an inability to solve rational equations in Grade 10, by which point nobody attributes it to fractions. The function concept is the second break: students spend Grade 8 with lines, meet parabolas as a shape rather than as another function, and arrive at calculus without the idea that a derivative is itself a function. Probability is the third, because it typically appears for two weeks a year and is retaught from scratch each time instead of built. A scope and sequence is worth writing precisely to make those handoffs visible, so that a Grade 9 teacher knows what a Grade 11 teacher is about to assume.
A sequence that works
Seven Years in Five Bands
The bands below group the units by what they make possible next. Nothing here is a mandated order, but the dependencies are real: moving a band later usually means the band after it starts by repairing something.
- Grades 6 to 7: number senseFractions, decimals and percentages taught to fluency, with proportional reasoning treated as a topic in its own right rather than a chapter inside fractions.
- Grade 8: the first functionsLinear relationships in tables, graphs and equations, plus the Pythagorean relationship. This is where rate of change and the coordinate plane become working tools.
- Grades 9 to 10: nonlinear and chanceQuadratics and parabolas, trigonometric ratios and the unit circle, and the probability foundation with tree diagrams that later conditional work will assume.
- Grade 11: rates and areasDifferentiation rules, curve sketching and optimization, then integration and the antiderivative. Exponential models sit here, since they need logarithms and gradients.
- Grade 12: space and inferenceVectors, lines and planes with intersection problems, alongside conditional probability, the binomial distribution and hypothesis testing for the statistics strand.
Where it goes wrong
Diagnostics Worth Running Between Bands
Rather than a full placement test, run three short checks at each handoff. Before the Grade 8 band, test fraction addition with unlike denominators and one reverse percentage question; failures here predict trouble with slope as a fraction. Before Grade 11, test factoring, index laws and rearranging a formula for a named variable, since these are what calculus questions actually consume. Before the Grade 12 vector work, test whether students can substitute a value into a parametric expression and interpret the result as a point rather than a number. Each takes ten minutes and tells you more than a summative grade from the previous year, mainly because it tests the specific fluency the next band assumes rather than an average across everything taught.
What's in the download
Inside the files
Editable Word and PowerPoint plus print-ready PDFs, with answer keys throughout.
- Complete units for each band listed
- Lesson slides in editable PowerPoint
- Worksheets at four scaffolding levels
- Answer keys with worked solutions
- Assessments and mark schemes per unit
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to adopt the whole sequence?
No, and most departments do not. Each unit is a self-contained download with its own slides, worksheets and assessment, so you can buy the two or three that fill actual gaps in your existing scheme of work. The value of the map is knowing what a unit assumes and what it sets up, which matters even if you only take one. Nothing depends on owning the units either side of it.
How does this map onto Common Core or GCSE?
The band structure follows the mathematics rather than any single specification, which is why it can be used alongside Common Core, GCSE and A Level, the Australian curriculum or IB. Content that appears in one and not another is flagged in the unit descriptions. This is not an alignment document and carries no endorsement from any board, so map it against your own specification before planning the year around it.
What if my students arrive below the expected band?
That is common, and it is the reason the worksheets come at four levels of scaffolding rather than one. A Grade 10 class working two years behind can use the lower levels of the Grade 8 functions material without it looking like elementary work. The diagnostics described above are the practical starting point: they tell you which specific fluency is missing, which is usually narrower than a whole year of content.
A Map Before the First Lesson Plan
A seven-year route with the dependencies made explicit, so each band starts on ground the previous one actually prepared.
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