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Tax and Tip

Tax and Tip: Welcome

Content area

Middle School Math, 7th-grade
Unit: Proportional Relationship and Percentage

California content standard(s)

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.RP.A.3

Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent error.

Unit goal(s)

  • Practice using prior knowledge in percentages and proportional relationships to solve real-life problems, including finding how much they need to pay for taxes or can save with discounts and the final price of the goods. 

  • Use multiple ways to present their learning, including using equations, diagrams, and tables to describe the relationship between the original price, tax, discount, and the final price.      

  • Present their findings, solution or strategies with their partners in front of the class and answer questions from the audience.

Tax and Tip: Schedule

What we did in this unit?

  1. Share their previous experiences with the new terms.  I asked students to share their personal experiences with these words with their partners so that they are welcome to bring their prior experiences and knowledge into the classroom. 

  2. Sort new terms in groups on Desmos. students get to know the concept of tax, tip, coupon, and discount by sorting them in different groups and doing it on Desmos.

  3. Draw diagrams or tables to represent how they understand the problem. By visualizing their thinking, I can better get to know students’ thinking and they can better help each other. Then students get to understand the mathematical meaning of these new concepts by drawing diagrams or tables. 

  4. Collaboratively work in groups. Students are working in groups to solve different questions related to taxes, tips, coupons, and discounts.Additionally, students need to collaboratively work together to figure out the problem, draw diagrams or pictures, write down equations 

  5. Present their findings in front of the class. While one group of students is sharing, the rest of the students are audience to reflect and ask questions. This gives students a chance to show their understanding and interact with their peers.

Why we did this?

  1. Learn by hands, heart and minds. Students are working either in groups or individually sort things out, draw diagram, tables, and present in front of the class. 

  2. Make math relevant. It’s important for students to connect their personal knowledge, experiences and future life to math learning, so that they will be interested in.

  3. Cultive virtues. Students need to work together, share different ideas, listen to each other and give each other feedback. 

  4. Teach math for bettering thinking.  The problems for students are challenging,  which they can not figure them out by simply applying formulas and concepts. They need to understand the relationship between each figure and solve them with multi-step strategies. This cultivates their mathematical thinking skills and the ability to solve complex problems.

Reflection

  1. Set norms before students sharing and remind students what they should do while others are sharing.

  2. Give feedback to students about their group collaboration. Point out things they did well and things they need to work on.

  3. Give students rules before asking them to work together so that everyone will contribute in different ways. 

Tax and Tip: Schedule
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