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“When will we use this stuff?”
Responding to this question can be frustrating for math teachers and students alike, but it presents an excellent opportunity for you. You have the green light to explain the value of developing life skills and how the content is in fact practical.
Connecting some content to real life can be difficult, but that isn’t the case for percentages. Percentages are used to calculate a company’s profits, interest rates on a loan and an athlete’s performance. As all the shopping and discounts during Black Friday highlight, percentages are central to locating the best deals.
Students can use the beginning of the holiday shopping season to better understand the value of percentages and practice applying them to prices. The following lesson is appropriate for grades 5-8. You can upscale the content for older students (see “Reinforcing the Lesson” for ideas).
Students will enhance their understanding of percentages and be better able to use percentages, proportions, decimals and fractions. The lesson will focus on three specific outcomes:
Start the lesson by getting students to think about sales. Have they ever bought something that was more than 50 percent off? What’s the best deal they have ever gotten on an item?
Explain how shoppers can save hundreds of dollars during Black Friday if they know where to look — and how to calculate discounts. For instance, a 4K television may regularly cost $1,000, but after a 25 percent discount, someone can save $250 on the price. Explain how sales can be expressed in different ways. An ad for the television may say something like “save $250,” “25 percent off,” or “take ¼ off the retail price.”
The price tag is not always what consumers pay. Sometimes there is a percentage or fraction given for the sale, which can help gauge how much of a deal is being offered. Students need to know how much they’re saving so they can decide where (or if) to purchase the product. They also need to be comfortable converting figures to and from percentages. If the ad contains the dollar amount, students may still need to know the percentage discount when comparing it to other sales.
Adding onto the lesson with other activities and games can help students understand percentages even more. It’s also great for upscaling the lesson or for students who need more of a challenge. Here are a few ideas:
There are several more ways to help students learn more about percentages. When you add relevance to teaching mathematics, you help do more than build math skills — your efforts enhance literacy, interest in math and engagement in authentic learning experiences that connect to problem-solving in the real world. Relating mathematics to the real-world inspires students to ask questions, seek answers and develop a passion for the subject.
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