So, it's nice to realize that there are many opportunities in my own classroom investigating into "texts". For instance, my students are always asking me why we don't use the textbooks very often in my class? Hmmmm... why is that? Earlier this year, one of the teachers at our school created a set of word problems for the students to practice with. I was astonished that most of our students couldn't even begin to understand the problem relating to golf because they have either never seen it before or have NO IDEA how it is played or scored. I had to step back and spend some time explaining the game to them. Once they realized, it was just like mini-golf... some of them started to get it! Just like many instances in our provided textbooks, the golf word problem was lacking context for the students understanding.
To create context in my own classroom, I recently assigned a mini-project where students had to create their own word problems related to their interests and there is a sampling of pictures below. Our focus was to critically view linear functions (y = mx + b) in 4 different views: as a story, an equation, an input-output table, and a graph.
(I typed up a few samples of the created word problems below the pictures since they are hard to read.)
"There are 20,000 soldiers in Iraq. 5,000 were killed. An average of 8 soldiers are killed each day. Write a model representing the number of soldiers left in Iraq depending on the number of days."
"The owners of Club Mandingo are trying to bring "TCB" to a concert at the cost of $500 and the tickets are $5 each. How can you model the owner's profit depending on the number or tickets sold?"
-MF EDOOMCATOR
7 comments:
This was a great assignment; the student work looks incredible. I feel that incorporating a variety of both traditional and non-traditional texts in the classroom is a key ingredient in teaching our students as much as possible. I'm impressed by your creativity in introducing equations by having your students create their own math text.
I hope to read about more of your ideas on critical literacies in the future and how you are employing them in your classroom.
What a wonderful project MF ED. I'd love to hear how your students reacted, responded. What difference do you think this take on the math curriculum makes for sustaining kids interest in learning and for enriching their learning experience?
I can't wait to see what you do next. I agree with Jessica, I too hope to read and see and hear more of your ideas and how critical literacy continues to grow in your classroom!
vivian
Has anyone else listened to MF? If you haven't then go check it out on this blog's homepage. Click on Hear MF.
It's interesting to see an example of how to incorporate the students' context into math. I think that is essential in education and probably what suffers the most in the current "standards-based curriculum" I'm also wondering how to phase critical literacy into my areas of specialization, it's not alway so evident!
I'm not a math teacher, but I noticed that a lot of the ESL students we teach struggle with extremely basic math concepts such as (addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division). Allowing students the opportunity to create their own word problems related to their personal interests by using the linear equation y=mx+b is a brilliant way to create a challenging yet relevant assignment for your students. I particularly liked the Iraq casualties example you used because it's a very important and poignant topic.
I also think that allowing them to create their own examples helps them a part of their own learning process. This is a creative way to include critical literacy in your instruction.
This is a great podcast! I agree the student work look s wonderful. How you started to evaluate how your students started at the beginning of the year and what you have done using this new technology? I would be interested to hear how your students have progressed.
Bernadine
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