Week 7 - Using Tasks

In class this week we talked about how tasks can also demonstrate student learning. An example is the "nana's chocolate milk" video by Dan Meyer. This video uses ratios to solve everyday problems. It shows what he was supposed to do as opposed to what he did do and it asks the viewer to solve how to fix it before continuing on.

Videos like this are great tools for the classroom because the students tend not to realize that they are doing math, compared to a worksheet, and they tend to be more open to solving the problem because of this. Having real life context is essential to learning because it connects the students to what they are learning. This is especially important in a math class where students come in with the opinion that what they are learning will not relate to their regular lives, which leads to the question "why are they learning it?".

However when it comes to context in learning, you can try too hard to make the lesson relative.  Making up an unrealistic situation in order to add context to the lesson is not going to help anyone; it will only make the concept more difficult to relate to. Context has to feel natural in order for it to work they way you want it to.

When I teach a math class I would want to do some research on how other educators were able to add context into their lesson plans and, if the context is realistic, I will incorporate it into my own lesson plans. There are many situations that would add context to math concepts, they just need to be found.