I arrive in my classroom every morning at around 7:20 am, 40 minutes before my students trickle in. The minute hand leans to the right while I drag my feet a few flights of stairs, coffee in hand, lesson plan in mind. A few rays of light creep into my room, usually hitting the likenesses of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. behind my desk. I glance at Detroit Red, then el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, then Dr. King Jr. I take a deep breath, then get my mind set on this lesson plan. I fill out this Word document with an objective, a Do Now / warm-up activity, the materials we’ll need for class, a lesson with an essential question, a box for modifications, an activity, a closing activity, and a homework assignment. I print it. I spend a few minutes wondering whether I told the right story about the math I’ll be teaching.
Students come in. Good morning. I never have an idea of what’ll come next.
The math part of this work is simple enough. Let’s take a ratio and find equivalent ratios in other forms like fractions and decimals and in multiple representations like tables and graphs. Let’s use multiplication and division to keep these ratios consistent and find the patterns between the numerators and denominators, the x’s and y’s, the quotients and constants of proportionality. Let’s determine that a proportional graph cuts through the origin – (0,0) if you must – and makes a straight line. Let’s put those points in a table, divide them, and see if a constant of proportionality comes out. Let’s make a rule, call it an equation, and find points that aren’t represented on the graph yet.
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