A colleague and I were talking about math problems a few days ago. He told me that he really likes to give meaning to numbers because it helps the students put the numbers in context. I completely agree. We were working on percents at the time in my Introduction to Algebra class so I decided to give a little more meaning to my percentages. Here is what I did.Since my students have laptops, I had them go to Kohls.com and pick out an item that they liked. They got to choose a 15% off, 20% off, or 30% off coupon. (I thought they all would pick the 30% coupon too, but they didn't) Take the price of that item and reduce it by the coupon amount. Then they were asked to add on 8% tax. Lastly they had to post their work to a padlet.com site where all could see their work. You can see their work too: http://padlet.com/dsladkey/kohls Padlet is a great tool for student collaboration. www.padlet.com
Here is the progression of the assignment
1. Find an item at Khols.com Find the price. (even if it is already discounted)
2. Choose a 15% or 20% or 30% off coupon.
3. Reduce the price by the amount on the coupon.
4. Take the new price and add 8% tax to it.
5. Show your picture and all your work on a common padlet site for all to see. http://padlet.com/dsladkey/kohls
What were the big takeaways?
What were the big takeaways?
1. They learned the material without a bunch of problems without meaning.
2. Choice. It gave students a choice for what they wanted to work on.
3. Pride. When we shared these out, there was a lot of pride happening.
4. Recall. A student asked a question on the test and I just said "Do you remember what you did with the Kohl's activity" and they said, "Oh yeah"
5. Engagement. This activity took about one 50 minute period. They were diligently working the whole time.
6. Accountability. All students could see all the posts.
Dave
@dsladkey
2. Choice. It gave students a choice for what they wanted to work on.
3. Pride. When we shared these out, there was a lot of pride happening.
4. Recall. A student asked a question on the test and I just said "Do you remember what you did with the Kohl's activity" and they said, "Oh yeah"
5. Engagement. This activity took about one 50 minute period. They were diligently working the whole time.
6. Accountability. All students could see all the posts.
Dave
@dsladkey
Do Students need an account to post on padlet? Looks like a great tool.
ReplyDeletePadlet is really cool. Yes, they need an account. They only need to give an email and a password. Then they can make as many padlets as they like. Lately I've been having them post comments on each others padlet. Almost like social media. Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a really awesome idea. It gets the students involved in giving a meaning to numbers. Sounds like they were really engaged in this activity because they had a choice and they weren't just sitting there trying to work out problems. You really make math come alive! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel it is really important for students to be actively engaged. They really seem to learn the material better, when they are actively engaged. I really hope to come up with some great ideas like this when I start teaching.