De
Orilla a Orilla & I*EARN-ORILLAS
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INTERNATIONAL
NETWORKING PROJECT
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Introductory
Activities
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Activities Linking Math to
Social Concerns
and Issues of Equality
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Introduction
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The Pacific Southwest Regional Technology in Education Consortium
(PSR*TEC), in conjunction with the networking projects, "De Orilla a
Orilla" and I*EARN-ORILLAS, invite you to participate in this
international exchange. All ages and languages are welcome!
Students will join with others around the world in examining their
own lives and communities and broader issues relating to
social justice and equality from a mathematical perspective. In many
countries, math traditionally has been studied on its own or linked in
the curriculum with science. This project explores the possibilities of
linking math to other areas of the curriculum including social studies
and language arts. To register, please use the attached form to send us
your name and other contact information.
The flexible activities which follow are organized in categories from
which teachers and students may choose. We encourage each class to participate
in one introductory activity and one activity linking math to a social
concern or issues of equality.
Participatants will receive more information about contributing to
a publication of their students' work.
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Introductory Activities
1. WHAT MATHEMATICS MEANS TO ME (Product: A collage.) In
this activity the students consider their attitudes and thoughts about
mathematics, the role that math plays in their lives, or how they might
use numeric data to describe themselves and their families. They then cut
out numbers, symbols, or other text or graphics from newspapers, magazines
or other publications.
After arranging and pasting these figures onto a piece of paper or
cardboard to create a collage, the students write about their work in a
paragraph entitled "What Mathematics Means to Me".
2. EVERYDAY MATH IN MY COMMUNITY (Product: Report describing
an interview. Or alternatively, student- written math story problems
based on the ways their families use math.) The students interview a relative
or other adult in their community about how they use mathematics in their
job, daily life, or studies.
Encourage students to ask questions about the specific ways in which
math is used, e.g. making calculations, handling money, creating budgets,
taking measurements, analyzing numeric data, etc. Students then write a
report or create math word problems for their peers based on the information
they gathered.
3. AN IDEA OF YOUR OWN TO INTRODUCE YOURSELVES. Some classes
will want to move right into the activities linking math to equity issues
and social concerns. Feel free to send a brief message telling how math
is taught at your school, and/or a successful or innovative math activity
your class has done.
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Activities Linking Math to Social
Concerns and Issues of Equality
4. STATISTICS AND SOCIETY (Product: Analysis of a graph or chart
showing statistical or numeric data.) In this activity the students
create or find a graph or chart depicting some kind of numeric data or
statistics on a theme of interest. This might include themes related to
social, political, scientific, or environmental issues. After creating
or finding the graph or chart the students explain the information that
it conveys and write about the implications they think the data projects.
(Note: it is important to have a written description and analysis of
the data so we can exchange the information on the network.)
Another approach to this activity, which can be used successfully with
students of any age, is for students or teachers to take informal opinion
polls in their classes. Students tally the responses and calculate ratios
or percentages. Then they describe in their own words, being as explicit
as possible, the findings and implications. Finally they can create bar
or pie graphs to represent and share their findings. Encourage students
to address questions of concern to the school and community, analyze the
responses by age, gender or other characteristics of the respondents, and
write about their findings in the school newspaper.
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5. PROMOTING EQUITY AT OUR SCHOOL SITE (Product: Report
on the actions students have taken in their ommunities or schools to promote
greater equity, including a brief summary of the data and analysis on which
those actions were based.) Have students analyze all the biographies
in the school library on the basis of gender, race, class or disability.
Students then categorize these and use percentages, fractions, and bar
graphs to help them describe the library's biography collection. After
students have gathered the information and analyzed the collection, they
can be encouraged to explore why the numbers are as they are. Assist your
class in understanding how publishing and power work.
Next, ask students how they think and feel about the people and groups
in the books and also how how their research influences the way they think
about themselves. For example, when girls have gone through books and found
only a certain number of women doing "important things", what does that
say to them about themselves and what does that say to boys about their
own importance? We can expand on that when we ask what does it mean when
very few of the people, men or women are Latino, Asian, or African American.
Finally, students take action to address issues of representation at
their school site. Encourage students to find out who has the power to
make decisions about which books are selected for publication and which
books are selected for purchase by the school. Students might write letters
to educational publishers. They can also work with the librarian, administration,
and the PTA, to encourage a more diverse collection of books and ensure
that a broader range of educators, students, and community members are
included in future decision-making.
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Variations include:
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a. Students use CD ROM encyclopedias in their classrooms or llibraries
to gather data on the length of the selections for many famous people,
based on their gender, and race.
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b. A group of students tours the school to collect and graph data on the
images that appear on the school and classroom walls. Whose pictures and
words are portrayed? Students analyze the data on the basis of gender,
race, class or disability, comparing percentages of voices and images represented
in each category with the population in their class, at their school site,
in their state, and in their country.
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c. Students analyze entire newspaper stories. They can outline in one color
all the stories about violence and crime, for example, and use another
color to outline stories about people working for justice and peace. Similarly,
one can highlight how many times people of color are featured in stories
of crime or drug-addiction, and how many times they are portrayed positively.
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d. Students look at front-page photos for one month in three major dailies
to record what percentage of front-page photo subjects are women or people
of color and when they do appear how they are represented, i.e. as athletes,
criminals, victims, or representatives of government or business.
In each case, encourage students to use math skills of simple computation,
averages, percents, and graphing to create displays
on bulletin boards. Be sure to ask students to consider how these images
affect the way they feel and how the decisions mare made about which images
or stories appear. Students can then take action against any inequities
they might discover by writing to the newspapers or publishers and using
their findings to teach younger children about the bias they detected.
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6. AN IDEA OF YOUR OWN CONNECTING MATH TO YOUR DAY TO DAY LIVES AND
TO THE BROADER SOCIETY
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Acknowledgments
This project was inspired by an article entitled "Teaching Math Across
The Curriculum" by Bob Peterson which was published in the Fall, 1995 edition
of Rethinking Schools. The ideas in Section 4 (Detecting Bias at Your School
Site) were developed by Bob Peterson, an editor of Rethinking Schools and
Rethinking Our Classrooms, and by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting),
a media watchdog group based in New York. We would like to recognize Enid
Figueroa for her coordination of this project in Puerto Rican schools.
We'd also like to thank the many other educators from Puerto Rico, Canada,
and the U.S. who've helped shape this project.
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How To Participate
Participants: All ages and languages
welcome.
Timeline:
October, 1998 - April, 1999
Registration: Please sign up by
sending the attached registration form via e-mail to: orillas-math@igc.apc.org
Send writing to: orillas-math@igc.apc.org or to the iearn.math
conference
Send graphics/artwork to: Kristin
Brown 1801 SS Bar Road, Hornbrook, CA 96044;
Tel/fax: 530/475-0410
E-mail: krbrown@igc.apc.org
We invite you to join us!
Enid Figueroa, Kristin Brown, Dennis Sayers
Co-Directors, De Orilla a Orilla
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Application Form for the Networking Project: "Math Power: Connecting
Math to Our Lives"
Name of teacher or student:___________________
Age level of students:________________________
School Name:_____________________________
Mailing Address:___________________________
E-mail Address:____________________________
Telephone: W:____________ H:_______________
Best time to call____________________________
When will you be ready to begin? ________________________________________ |
Which activities are you most interested in?
_____ What Mathematics Means to Me
_____ Everyday Math in My Community
_____ Statistics and Society
_____ Promoting Equity at Our School Site
_____ An Idea of Your Own
In which language(s) would you like to participate?_____
What level(s) of technology will you have access to?
Regular mail?___ E-mail?____Internet/WWW?_________ |
Please send us a brief description of your class to share with
the other participants in this project
