Standards:

My unit on Philadelphia addresses PA core standards in Mathematics, English, and Science with an emphasis on Mathematics. PA Common Core Standards Math Grade 8: CC.2.1.8.E.1, CC.2.2.8.B.1, CC.2.2.8.B.2, CC.2.2.8.C.2, CC.2.3.8.A.1, CC.2.3.8.A.2, CC.2.3.8.A.3 PA Common Core Standards English Grade 8: CC.1.2.8.B PA Common Core Standards Science Grade 8: CC.1.3.8.B, 3.2.8.B6

Curriculum Materials:
-PSSA Notebooks -Handouts -Calculators -Graph Paper -Loose Leaf -Rulers -Philadelphia Demographics Data -Promethean Board -Laptop

Knowledge of Students and Context: -Students come from diverse backgrounds and have many different interests. Some extracurricular activities that I know some of my students participate in are robotics, sports, and band. -All of my students live on the outskirts of Philadelphia. They are familiar with some aspects of the city, like taking SEPTA for public transportation, but some have never visited center city Philadelphia. -Students are going to be going to high schools that are spread throughout Philadelphia.

Theories of Teaching and Learning:

Teaching Methods:
-Have students participate in whole class brainstorming -Introduce the protocol for number talks in order to increase mental math abilities -Problem solving to contextualize the math to be taught. -Self-discovery through decimal charts. -Pattern making when given a set of data. -Presentation of solutions to share with classmates to share their mathematical reasoning -Multi-media usage of videos to engage students -Multi-modal learning -Technology inclusion -Inquiry based projects for students to explore their own interests -Group work

What

Lesson

How

Constructivism students will learn certain mathematical concepts through classroom experiences. Students will also be able to contextualize their learning by using what they know of their surroundings Educational Philosophy and Beliefs to learn or revisit mathematical content. As a teacher, especially a teacher of mathematics, it is easy to concentrate on the how instead of the Why why. In my teaching, I strive to move away from an over-reliance on procedures to an emphasis on reasoning and true understanding. My goal is to have my students learn mathematics by cultivating logical reasoning skills. For this reason I have my students working with a contextualized word problem in almost every lesson of my unit. I believe the theme of Philadelphia will help my students make use of their prior knowledge and the familiarity will help them organize the many skills they have to learn for the PSSAs.