Research Assignment

Grade Level: 7 Subject Area: Math

I feel that the Massachusetts Department of Education standards for middle school math are fairly clear and provide examples for statements that need clarification. Math is a subject that can be very content based and that is all that the standards ask of teachers to teach. Since the standards were written broadly, teachers have the opportunity to input culturally relevant information. Listed below are examples of each of the math content areas and standards in which teachers could easily add information.

One common practice is to incorporate names, places or information related to the cultures or communities of students. If I were designing a problem solving worksheet, I might add in some Black History facts. For example, in 1908 Madam C.J. Walker founded Lelia College and there trained “hair culturalists”. As a business owner and entrepreneur, she sold hair products such as shampoos, oils and hot combs. Her goal was to maximize her profits while maintaining an affordable price for her clients. At age 51, she died in 1919 from hypertension and owned a house worth $250,000. She was considered to be the richest Black woman at that time. Below fill in the table to show how she could estimate her profits using the following formula: (selling price – cost of production) * # of combs sold = profit.

Selling Price	Cost of Production	# of combs sold	Profit
$3.00	$1.00	3	$6.00
$4.50	$1.00	3	$10.50
$6.00	$1.00	3	$15.00

Challenge Question: How many hot combs could Madam C.J. Walker have sold to build her $250,000 house if she sold them for $6.00 each? Keep in mind that this question is hypothetical because she sold many other products that over time contributed to her wealth.

This type of problem provides historical factual knowledge, asks children to use problem-solving skills and to use critical thinking skills in an entrepreneurial sense. Exposing students to history in math class helps students link concepts and discover a sense of purpose for knowledge as opposed to a bunch of unrelated content from different courses. A “Del-Freire-son-ish” approach would describe this as an empowerment tool for students whose backgrounds are not traditionally included in the textbooks. Students consider what is the best price to sell their products in order to afford a luxury lifestyle in the 1900s which gives them an introduction to personal finances. Solving real-life situations with math formulas are also a way of helping students to apply knowledge.

One suggestion that I would make to improve the standards is to provide cultural and real-world components to lessons. Teachers ought to be able to make the content relatable, informative and interesting to students and using these two standards can help them in the future. In most college courses and job settings core subjects are intertwined, such as math and English, and I believe that they should appear as such in K-12 curriculum.

Patterns, Relations, and Algebra Strand

Students engage in problem solving, communicating, reasoning, connecting, and representing as they:

7.P.1 Extend, represent, analyze, and generalize a variety of patterns with tables, graphs, words, and, when possible, symbolic expressions. Include arithmetic and geometric progressions, e.g., compounding.

7.P.3 Create and use symbolic expressions for linear relationships and relate them to verbal, tabular, and graphical representations.

7.P.4 Solve linear equations using tables, graphs, models, and algebraic methods.

Measurement Strand

7.M.2 Given the formulas, convert from one system of measurement to another. Use technology as appropriate.
This standard is intentionally the same as standard 8.M.2.

Extracted from Mass Dept of Ed 2004 Supplemental Resources