Series Engaging All Students in Common Core Math: When Am I Ever Going to Use This?

Math.Practice.MP1

Common core State Standards

  • Math:  Math
  • Practice:  Mathematical Practice Standards
  • MP1:  Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

    Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, \"Does this make sense?\" They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

When Am I Ever Going to Use This?

Lesson Objective: Explain why it is important to learn content
All Grades / All Subjects / Engagement
2 MIN
Math.Practice.MP1

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. How does Mr. Pack talk about making real-world connections?
  2. When can it be valuable to teach content that students may not ever directly use?
  3. How can explaining the importance of learning specific content engage students?

13 Comments

  • Private message to Brooklyn Behmer

I like how this teacher told his students they learn percerviernce from the lesson.  He didn’t make a special lesson for it, but the stident got out much more than jsut the simple math problem!


 

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  • Private message to Reen Doser

Perseverance in problem solving no matter which subject matter will help you with resolution and even stamina and frustration in other areas.  

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  • Private message to Robert Leabo
Words cannot describe how much I love this video both as a struggling math student (who often had the thoughts ''why?'') and now as a teacher who attempts to connect the learning to the "real world.'' :)
Recommended (1)
  • Private message to Katherine Chapp
I like how the teacher answered the question, "When will I ever use this in life?" It was short and truthful.
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  • Private message to Karen McElhenny
I love the response. It was short and sweet. You may never have to use this but you learned perseverance!
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Transcripts

  • When Am I Ever Going to Use This Transcript

    Chuck Pack [in classroom]: What do you need to be able to

    When Am I Ever Going to Use This Transcript

    Chuck Pack [in classroom]: What do you need to be able to do this? What's the skill?

    Chuck Pack: I have a student of mine in a precalculus class - we'd worked this problem and I had to erase the board to finish the problem. It was one of those. It was nice and long. It was a trig problem. He asked me a question that was fair and honest to ask any teacher. He asked, "when am I ever gonna use this?" And my response back was, "you may not. You may never ever have to use this trigonometry in your career, in your college, in anything you do in life." I said, "but you know what you will do? You will persevere in problem-solving. That's what we just spent 15-20 minutes working a problem that was very difficult and you didn't give up. That's something any employer wants. That's something any college professor wants in a student. Someone who will take on something this difficult and not give up. Who will persevere in problem-solving." That's mathematical practice number 1 and we as a department adopted those mathematical practices. We started to incorporate them into our classroom.

    Chuck Pack [in class]: Let's try this. Let's measure it out again.

    Chuck Pack: If our students can engage in these practices, we will have created mathematicians. We will have created --- that are citizens leaving high school. Ready for college. Ready to go into the work force. Ready for real life.

    END

School Details

Tahlequah High School
591 Pendleton Street
Tahlequah OK 74464
Population: 1238

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Teachers

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Chuck Pack