Welcome Back!

 Hi everyone!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a relaxing holiday!

Over the break, I purchased a copy of High School Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Justice. I have added a link over the book title to Amazon, if you are interested in also purchasing a copy! As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, this book includes different lesson plans for different grade levels, and topics in math. 

This week, I thought I would give a summary one of the lessons, and give my thoughts on it and how I can see it being incorporated in my own classroom. The lesson I am choosing to look at involves healthy food choices and their accessibility. The lesson focuses on how full supply grocery stores are in rich, white communities. Since this book was written by American educators, it focuses on an American community. If I were to do this with my class, I would consider changing it to a community in Canada or more specifically, Ontario. 

Here are the work sheets provided in the book. 

This is the handout:

This is the worksheet:

What I like: I really like the topic, and it's a social justice issue that doesn't come to my mind right away. I think that this is a real issue for people in certain communities, and one some people may have the privilege of not even knowing this is a problem. I like how this lesson introduces students to the problem, and then has them reflect on if certain communities are too far from healthy food. I really like the reflection questions included as well, as I think they would help guide a good class discussion around this topic and issue. 

What I would change: I might change the context so that it's more relatable for students (choosing a community in Canada). That being said, having the community in the states, may help ensure I am not triggering any students and the communities they live in. I would also maybe add some calculation questions so that students see the math behind the exercise. 

How to make it my own/how I would use this in my classroom:

• Minds-On: Have students read the handout. Have them think about the following questions; what do you notice? What do you wonder? I would then have a discussion with them as a class, about why this is a problem, and how it impacts certain communities. 

• Activation: The students would complete the work sheet in groups, and work together on the problem. 

• Consolidation: As a class, we would do a gallery walk and class discussion. This would allow different groups to see how their peers came up with a model for the problem. As a class, we would then discuss findings and group could share what they tried, what they found and what they learned. 

Curriculum connection: I would connect this to the following grade 9 curriculum strands...

• A1. applythe mathematical processes to develop a conceptual understanding of, and procedural fluency with, the mathematics they are learning.
• A2. make connections between mathematics and various knowledge systems, their lived experiences, and various real-life applications of mathematics, including careers

• E1.5 

  solve problems involving the side-length relationship for right triangles in real-life situations, including problems that involve composite shapes

That's all for this week!

Until next time,

-Sydney