Ms. Yorke's
Standard #5: Innovative Applications of Content
The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical/creative thinking and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
Summary: This standard explains my role in making connections between math and its place in the real world. Students should be challenged to view disciplines through multiple lenses and as a teacher, I must facilitate the opportunities that allow them to do so.
Artifact 1: Math Journals
Performance: 5 (e) Develops learners' communication skills in disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts by creating meaningful opportunities to employ a variety of forms of communication that address varied audiences and purposes.
Description: Students created an on-going Google document in which they responded to prompts regarding that day's lesson. These served as a journal for the students to document their learning. Students shared their journals with me and I was able to respond directly in the journals with feedback and praise. Students also used the journals to give me feedback on my lessons, ask questions, or express any concerns.
Artifact 2: Research Project
Performance: 5 (a) Develops and implements projects that guide learners in analyzing the complexities of an issue or question using perspectives from varied disciplines and cross-disciplinary skills (e.g., a water quality study that draws upon biology and chemistry to look at factual information and social studies to examine policy implications).
Description: As part of students' summative assessment for scatter plots, they were required to research real data sets that they predicted to have a correlation. Students had to create a scatter plot between the two sets of quantitative data, assess the correlation of the data, insert a line of best fit, and answer questions requiring them to interpolate and extrapolate values.
Rationale: Aside from the primary purpose of the math journals, they also served as an opportunity for students to practice writing in the discipline. They were able to use mathematical language and demonstrate effective communication. They used their writing to show their understanding of the topics and communicate any questions or concerns.
Rationale: This project widened the mathematical scope for many students as they applied what they had learned to a variety of topics of interest. I had several students who looked at complex topics and drew conclusions from their results. For example, one student looked at the relationship between carbon emissions and the earth's temperature, leading the group to a discussion about the impact of human behaviors. Another student compared vegetable consumption with obesity rates by state, leading to a discussion on health and how eating more vegetables may lower weight. This was an opportunity for students to see the relationship between mathematics and its application in the real world.