1. Math Projects to Build Connections Across Subjects
Grades 6-8
Lurline Sweet
@sweetmath.rocks

2. What? Project Based Learning with authentic audience.
Integrations: art, architecture, history, contemporary world statistics.
How often? Three times a year.
What?

3. PowerPoint partner presentation comparing two countries (contemporary stats from the CIA World Factbook):
Connection: Social Sciences
Audience: classmates
Graphing in Excel
Math:
Choosing between a bar graph and a pie chart
Analyzing statistics
Student choices:
which country to compare to the USA
some of the categories (population, geographic area, religions, ethnic populations, etc.)
Examples

4. Individual project creating architectural plans and models for a dream house (handout provided)
Connection: Architecture
Audience: classmates
Math:
Scale
Fraction operations
Area & perimeter
Measurement
Student choice: their own creative house design
Partner presentation on the history of a math concept and its applications
Connection: World History (6th grade)
Audience: classmates
Math: varies
Student choice: math concept from a list
Examples

5. Go ahead to the process of creating a project. (Small group work time
Audience vote Or
Keep looking at example projects?

6. Individual project creating a picture book or comic book of a mathematician’s life
Connection: language arts, art & history
Audience: classmates, younger children, family
Math:
Math concepts “discovered” by the student’s mathematician
Graphic design, measurements, grids
Student choice: one mathematician from a very long list, picture book or comic book format
Examples

7. Small group discussion time
We will walk through the process.
Or if you’d rather,
group brainstorm.

8. Process
Two: Audience
Younger students
Classmates
Parents
Visiting expert in the field
Letter to someone (gov’t?)
One: Connection Tip #1: Ask colleagues at lunch. Unrelated Tip #2: Trimester course for the win.
Tip #1 Even if you think you know what your colleagues teach, you can always gain further insight by asking them at lunch for a quick summary of the unit they teach in a certain month.
Tip #2 Choose a trimester course you teach more than once in a school year if possible.

9. Process Three: The Math
Which skills?
How to integrate?
Yoga.
Four: End Product Once you have an idea, think about an end product you could create for a real audience.
Process
Three: The Math
Think about which math skills you would like to incorporate and ruminate on what points of integration could address more than one math skills.
Four: Think about your students as people who care about connection and belonging, who care about sharing their interests and skills. How is the goal inherently meaningful to the student (unrelated to their grade)?
This stage may involve yoga, running, driving to work, and other forms of ruminative thinking without consciously thinking.

10. Process Five: Student Choices How will students feel agency?
What decisions will they make?
Process

11. Process Six: Scaffolding & Support What do students need?
Recommendation: Make the product yourself.
Six:
Scaffolding & Support
What do students need?
How many lessons?
Process
As you make the product:
Write down the questions you are asking yourself.
What are the phases of the project? Write these down for students on the master assignment.
How long does each phase take you (and then adjust for a student)? Write this into your lesson plans.
What do you do to structure your own work? Take those structures and make them into graphic organizers.
Six: What do students already know and what do they need to know? How many lessons do they need and on which math skills?

12. Process Seven: Feedback
Think about feedback during student’s work time, not after the project is over.
Process
Seven: Feedback.
How will you give students feedback on each phase of the project?
Formative feedback is key, creating a feedback loop for students to improve their product before sharing with their audience. You are the coach, helping them before show time.
Summative feedback for this project may focus on presentation skills, time management, other project skills that are applicable for all subjects.

13. Process During the first iteration:
Your students will find errors. You will find errors. Take a lot of notes.
Don’t give up after only one iteration. Really.
Earlier, Tip #2 was trimester course because it’s an iterative process…
Process
During the first iteration:
The first term that you lead a project, there will be significant changes to how you do the graphic organizer, how many lessons you teach on the skills up front, etc.
If you need to revise a document’s wording or graphic organizer’s spacing, revise it that same day (for next time).
For teaching changes, write some notes for your future self.
Make a Google Form poll for anonymous student feedback.
Don’t give up after only one iteration. Really.
It really helps if the second iteration is the next term, rather than waiting 12 months.

14. Process summary Process Summary One: Other subjects for integration
Five: Student choices
Two: Envision end product and decide on audience.
Six: Scaffolding & supporting students
Three: Math skills & rumination
Seven: Feedback during the student’s work, not summative feedback, is key.
Four: Think about end product again.
During the first iteration, write lots of notes for the second iteration.

15. “Not Just White Dude Mathematicians” by Annie Perkins at arbitrarilyclose.com (presented at NCTM Chicago 2017 )
Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve Student Performance by Grant Wiggins
Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Additional Resources

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