PHASE TWO: The Big Idea
Context
My students will be my 6th grade and 7th grade diverse learners for math which I
have known for three years. Their disabilities range from mild learning disabilities
to severe. I see them every day for 60 minutes.
Big Idea
My big ideas for this project are:
A- To integrate science into math incorporating a real world problem we have
in our school that is the wastage of food.
B- To motivate my students to learn math by connecting world situations
about the topic “Nutrition”; to encourage them to work cooperatively on a
problem, to the point that they will use math to find a solution.
Content/Supporting Activities
Since the major Common Core Standards for math are, fractions/decimals, ratios,
graphs and equations, I want to explore these topics through the year.
Key ideas:
1- Global food shortage
Students will understand the impact of food shortage by discussing what they
experience and see in their own communities. They will interpret graphs with
statistics of children their age that suffer from serious malnutrition and the
number of people who starve to death daily.
2- Lack of nutritional diets versus access to nutritional diet
Students will understand that learning how to read food nutrition labels will
help them to make healthier choices. Students will keep a track of the foods
they consume daily for a week .Students will apply this knowledge to figure out
what percentage of each nutrient is recommended daily. Students will make
their own individual meal plan with the percentage of beneficial nutrients for
each one.
3- Buying local products
Students will understand how or where any of the food they eat was grown.
Why is this important? They will go to a grocery store and buy products
necessary to prepare a healthy lunch. They will be able to use their knowledge
about decimals to buy the best deals, buy enough food to cook for 8 students,
know the total expenses, and the change to expect so they money they have will
be enough.
4- Making healthy decisions : Snack guidelines
Apply knowledge of fractions by preparing in class simple and nutritious
snacks.
5- Food Wastage
Students will understand the significance of their actions when they have
leftover food scraps and throw them into the garbage after they see how the
food is wasted in our school. They will plan nutritional meals for their
family based on the number of servings they need.
6- Food processing distribution
Students will understand how companies manage the distribution of food to the
customers. They will learn about the distances between different points of
distribution and time consumed during trips
Performance of Understanding
I intend to use improvisation strategies such as: Yes/And, Quiz-Man on the Street,
Machine, and Give & Take, for ongoing assessments. I will also use Performance
Based Assessment with projects that are interesting to them where students can
demonstrate what they have learned in each unit.
Some of the PBA will include observations of their work to be able to facilitate
immediate feedback to my students; individual checklists that will cover
the elements that should be present in their performance for each task ;
group projects using performance rubrics where they have to create a presentation
for which the group has to conduct research; demonstrations and rating scale approach
that will reflect the degree that the standards are met by my students.
Pedagogical Approach
My approach will be more creative, and connected to the use of metaphors as a
way to help students internalize their learning. My idea is to gradually change from
instrumental to relational math and have my students learning through
collaboration in groups. I want my students to figure out which knowledge and
skills matter and adapt what they know to their new learning. I will include more
open discussions that will led my students to use their knowledge in new concepts.
I would like to integrate I-images, I-videos, and Quick Fires as part of their
projects, as well as World of Wonder to motivate them to fill their lives with be wonders.
The content, technology and pedagogy fit together in my project by allowing my students
increase on task-behavior, learn according to their learning style
based on their individual needs and functional level, receive immediate feedback,
motivate students to acquire skills, improve and develop their social skills
and encourage them to create and explore new ideas.
To facilitate active learning, I will integrate computer based research, interactive games,
power point presentations, instructional videos, and build and explore games.
My students will be my 6th grade and 7th grade diverse learners for math which I
have known for three years. Their disabilities range from mild learning disabilities
to severe. I see them every day for 60 minutes.
Big Idea
My big ideas for this project are:
A- To integrate science into math incorporating a real world problem we have
in our school that is the wastage of food.
B- To motivate my students to learn math by connecting world situations
about the topic “Nutrition”; to encourage them to work cooperatively on a
problem, to the point that they will use math to find a solution.
Content/Supporting Activities
Since the major Common Core Standards for math are, fractions/decimals, ratios,
graphs and equations, I want to explore these topics through the year.
Key ideas:
1- Global food shortage
Students will understand the impact of food shortage by discussing what they
experience and see in their own communities. They will interpret graphs with
statistics of children their age that suffer from serious malnutrition and the
number of people who starve to death daily.
2- Lack of nutritional diets versus access to nutritional diet
Students will understand that learning how to read food nutrition labels will
help them to make healthier choices. Students will keep a track of the foods
they consume daily for a week .Students will apply this knowledge to figure out
what percentage of each nutrient is recommended daily. Students will make
their own individual meal plan with the percentage of beneficial nutrients for
each one.
3- Buying local products
Students will understand how or where any of the food they eat was grown.
Why is this important? They will go to a grocery store and buy products
necessary to prepare a healthy lunch. They will be able to use their knowledge
about decimals to buy the best deals, buy enough food to cook for 8 students,
know the total expenses, and the change to expect so they money they have will
be enough.
4- Making healthy decisions : Snack guidelines
Apply knowledge of fractions by preparing in class simple and nutritious
snacks.
5- Food Wastage
Students will understand the significance of their actions when they have
leftover food scraps and throw them into the garbage after they see how the
food is wasted in our school. They will plan nutritional meals for their
family based on the number of servings they need.
6- Food processing distribution
Students will understand how companies manage the distribution of food to the
customers. They will learn about the distances between different points of
distribution and time consumed during trips
Performance of Understanding
I intend to use improvisation strategies such as: Yes/And, Quiz-Man on the Street,
Machine, and Give & Take, for ongoing assessments. I will also use Performance
Based Assessment with projects that are interesting to them where students can
demonstrate what they have learned in each unit.
Some of the PBA will include observations of their work to be able to facilitate
immediate feedback to my students; individual checklists that will cover
the elements that should be present in their performance for each task ;
group projects using performance rubrics where they have to create a presentation
for which the group has to conduct research; demonstrations and rating scale approach
that will reflect the degree that the standards are met by my students.
Pedagogical Approach
My approach will be more creative, and connected to the use of metaphors as a
way to help students internalize their learning. My idea is to gradually change from
instrumental to relational math and have my students learning through
collaboration in groups. I want my students to figure out which knowledge and
skills matter and adapt what they know to their new learning. I will include more
open discussions that will led my students to use their knowledge in new concepts.
I would like to integrate I-images, I-videos, and Quick Fires as part of their
projects, as well as World of Wonder to motivate them to fill their lives with be wonders.
The content, technology and pedagogy fit together in my project by allowing my students
increase on task-behavior, learn according to their learning style
based on their individual needs and functional level, receive immediate feedback,
motivate students to acquire skills, improve and develop their social skills
and encourage them to create and explore new ideas.
To facilitate active learning, I will integrate computer based research, interactive games,
power point presentations, instructional videos, and build and explore games.