Cool Stuff 3 Proposal

Goal: Throughout this year I have struggled with engaging my students in good mathematical discussions. With time limits on the curriculum, I have been forced to push forward, without getting as deep into the mathematics as I would like. I started this semester with the goal that my students will gain a more in depth understanding of the mathematics, as opposed to covering the most information. For cool stuff 3 I would like to focus on engaging my students in good mathematical conversations using tasks that focus on social just tasks. Being a teacher of social justice is as important as being a phenomenal mathematics teacher. I have been involved with social justice teaching since high school, incorporating it into engaging mathematical discussions is everything I live for. I hope I am able to enlighten and enhance the knowledge of my students with two aspects of my life, mathematics and social justice that are everything I believe in. Task Ideas: The first task I plan to implement is the World Wealth Data Task. The second task will be one adapted from another teacher that will engage the discussion on food deserts. The third task I plan to develop with engage the discussion of unequal school funding and how it affects the students. If time permits, I would like to implement a task that compares the incomes of the top 1% and the bottom 99%, as oxymoronic as it sounds, and the taxes they pay. Products that will be submitted: 1. Thoroughly written lesson plans for each lesson that I plan on implementing. Each lesson plan will include a copy of the task. 2. Although the goal is to maximize discussion, I will have follow up discussion questions for the students to answer. Because I cant videotape I think having these written questions will help in my evaluating what students gained from the conversation. I will submit these responses will my final products. 3. A reflection on how well I was able to develop/locate social justice tasks, how well I implemented the tasks and my reflection on my ability to engage the students in rich mathematical discussions.

Areas of Assessment: Tasks: Did the task address a social justice issue? Did the task incorporate high cognitive demand thinking in order to complete the task? Did the task incorporate questions that allowed students to engage in discussion? Implementation: Did the discussion of the task engage as much math discussion as social justice discussion? The task is not biased, and allows students to develop their own opinions and engage in discussion.

At least 20 minutes of discussion is allotted for each task. Reflection Clearly states how the planning of the lesson. Gives a description of how the lesson went. Gives a reflection of how the discussion affected the lesson. How well did having a rich mathematical discussion enhance how the students learned mathematics? Timeline: Lessons plans will be written by: March 16 Lessons will be implemented by and rough draft complete by: March 30 Reflection will be complete by: April 6