July 10, 2007
In class we raised the idea that good problems/tasks should be relevant to the lives of students. What has your experiences regarding the mathematics tasks that you experienced as a student? What about a as a teacher? Do you see relevance as a valid focus for the midddle grades mathematics teacher?
The mathematic tasks I did as a student were relevant to my life but the relevance was never pointed out to me by my instructor. For instance, we learned decimals and percents but when I went to the store and the clerk said my junk food cost $1.32, I made no connection that some of that amount was tax, a percentage of what my food actually cost.
As a teacher, I do try to make my lessons relevant because I find that my students will take more of an interest if they can see the relevance and I find I get more participation and feedback because they can make the connection. Relevance for middle school students is crucial especially if the problem solving is going to be student-centered. If they can not make connections of relevance, they will lose interest and once you lose the interest of middle school students, it is extremely difficult to get them back on task.
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2 comments:
I'll say...
Yes, those connections are so important.. and we can't take it for granted that the students see te connections.. some wouldn't see it if it bit them in the arse... smile..
Relevance - The skill as teacher comes in asking the right kind of questions and prompting the right kinds of prompts that get students to say "ohhhhh, now I get it!"
I too try to make tasks relevant. On Mondays, sometimes I'll ask students how they used math over the weekend. I take the things they tell me and base story problems for tests and quizzes of of them. I was just taught the traditional method and it worked for me, but I was motivated. Sometimes it takes a little more to motivate students these days.
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