“Math, like language, is an essential tool to analyze and address social problems.’ (RPCM p. 147)
In this chapter, Bob Peterson talks about integrating math into ELA and Social studies. As a math teacher I can easily do the vice versa depending on the unit I am working with my students, plus I think it would be an interesting collaboration of subjects to do and gives an opportunity to my math and science students to apply their graph analysis skills to data from pop culture.
An idea given is adapted from the media watch group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) from New York does. Their mission is to find data from major dailies of the front cover representation. Dailies, like the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today showed that more men were represented on their covers than females. Other data showed White males would have a government or business job, men of color would be athletes, and women of color would be victims. Students could collect data from newspapers and create visual representations from that collected data. Student will be able to report out what they see in media and what bias they see are trends or not.
Math topic applied:
- Simple computation
- Averages
- Percents
- Graphing
- Data analysis
“Students could take action against any inequalities they might discover by writing to the receiver and using their writings to get younger children about the bias they detected.” (RPCM p. 147)
Students can use any medium to display different biases. If technology is limited, hard copies of newspapers or magazines can be used to collect data. If technology is readily available in the classroom students can easily find multiple sources to compare and import their research in the digital representation. Students can also mix media and create something of their own design plan just like we did in class with our “Ad-Hacikng”. This can be done in groups, individually, or as an own whole activity where the different media sources can be broken up by the class.
Integrating subjects is a good way to get students engaged. Some kids enjoy math and struggle with writing. Writing for this kind of purpose could help them to engage authentically.
ReplyDeleteEileen
Julie, I almost chose this topic too because I am also a math teacher! It's so nice when you can incorporate other subjects into a math class. I feel like it helps students to see the connections math has to the "real world" and makes the "why" so much clearer for students. So many students struggle with math and it doesn't help when the rest of the world is saying "I hate math," "I never understood math," "I have no idea how to do that and don't know why you have to learn that." I feel like it's an uphill battle, but one worth fighting. Interdisciplinary lessons is definitely one way to help this issue. I love the idea of looking for ads in headlines and incorporating math skills into this activity. The students may not even realize they are learning math while doing this, which is a perfect way to teach them how important math really is!
ReplyDeleteGlad this resonated with you! Good model of interdisciplinary work....
ReplyDeleteI love this idea of unpacking media and stereotypes in math class. At our school (as I'm sure at yours as well), we talk a lot about facilitating multidisciplinary lessons. This is a great one! I could even offer this as an option in my ELA classroom for the students who are more engaged with math and numbers than they are with writing. Great suggestion! Thanks for sharing.
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