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Standard 2.3 Relevant and Meaningful Lessons |
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Does the lesson contain appropriate content in a context which allows it to be relevant to our diverse student population and promote student motivation to learn by making the content current, meaningful and purposeful to the students? Does the teacher plan and implement instruction that accommodates students’ background knowledge and skills as the information relates to the content, students’ interests outside the school and their cultural heritage?
In all levels of Career Prep Math, I often incorporate diversity and cultural differences. For example, we have compared meal plans from different cultures during the nutrition unit (ex. Mexican -- rice, salsa, refried beans, corn and flour tortilla, etc. Chinese -- stir-fry vegetables, wonton soup, egg rolls, and fried noodles etc. French -- pate, sorbet, au gratin dishes, soufflé, and croissants etc. Indian -- tandoori chicken, chickpeas ghee, chutney, and curry sauce, etc.) in the food, nutrition, calorie consumption and usage unit. In another unit, we discuss various employment settings using math related concepts while exploring the gross salaries, net salaries, deductions, and calculating insurance units.
As an everyday math course, every concept I teach will have relevance for my students. “Revealing” the relevance is very important as my students relate well to real life situations and how these concepts will be used throughout the course of their lives.
I firmly believe that ALL students need to learn proper problem solving techniques. I consistently reinforce the process of defining the problem, deciding on a plan, carrying out the plan, and examining the outcomes. I relate this process to not only every day math, but non math related ones as well.
Although the examples provided include much math, it also provided an opportunity for the students to learn about when license plates expire, the process of getting a license tag, nutrition, and exercise.
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