Blog Post #5: Math and English Cross-Curricular Lesson

Welcome back after a couple months away!

I actually just finished my practicum block in a grade 11 college math class. It was an excellent experience and I learned so much over the 7 weeks. 

My associate teacher was very open to new ideas, so I asked if I could try implementing cross-curricular lessons with a focus on metacognition and critical thinking throughout their daily work. 

During the personal finance unit of the course, I decided to incorporate English into the lesson by asking students to write their own math problems. Once students were familiar with various financial services, and simple and compound interest, they were given the opportunity to write their own application problems that would help evaluate one of the following topics:

• Compare total value of investments with simple and compound interest.
• Determine the present value of an investment given the future value.
• Compare different investment options to find the best investment to grow your money.
• Determine cost of borrowing money on a credit card given various interest rates or time periods.

Students had to follow steps to create their problems, which made connections to the English curriculum. The steps included:

1. Using information from previous lessons and activities, brainstorm ideas and content to write your question (ENG3C, Writing: Generating Ideas and Gathering Information #3 p. 25)
2. Select and use appropriate organizational patterns to structure written work, question and answer. (ENG3C, Writing: Organizing Ideas and Information in Written Work #1 p. 26)
3. Revise drafts to strengthen content and improve organization by adding details, deleting irrelevant information, and reordering ideas. Once they have revised their own work, they will then revise a peer's question and solution. (ENG3C, Writing: Revising Drafts #1 p. 26)
4. Edit, produce, format, and publish written work, using appropriate technology to share writing with intended audiences. (ENG3C, Editing, Proofreading, and Publishing #1 p. 27)

Students also had to provide solutions to their questions, and explain why and how they came up with their problem, and why certain aspects must be included in answers to receive full marks. 

While doing some research, I found that student-generated questions promotes deeper thinking and lets students feel heard and important in their own learning. Edutopia wrote a great article about this here! I asked students to explain their questions and answers because this helps students develop metacognition and math reasoning to think about the WHY, rather than just the HOW or the WHAT. Here is a short clip to briefly touch on why explaining thinking can help students become more confident and aware of their understanding, and lifelong learners.

I hope this first cross-curricular lesson can help you incorporate literacy, writing and critical thinking in your classrooms!