Teaching seventh grade students the concepts of integers and operations can sometimes be a challenge. Many different approaches have been used to teach integers, but the abstract concept of integers leaves students with an incomplete understanding of the concept. This concept is typically taught using a number line and adding inverses. It has been improved to use plastic tiles and a mat to group positive and negatives. For example, the class in this journal explored temperatures in Pennsylvania. When a temperature increased from a negative degree, students would place that specific number of degrees in tiles in the negative work area and repeat this process with the positive degree. The students would then cancel the opposites. However, this still leaves students with an inadequate understanding of the reasons behind why the steps are used to solve a specific integer operation. The teacher in this article demonstrated a new way that she taught her students this abstract concept of integers...by determining how much people are worth. Using Oprah Winfrey as an example, who had a net worth of $1.5 billion dollars, the concept of net worth was discussed with students. The concept of debt was then brought up during class. The teacher introduced the concept and asked the students if they think that she has to pay money on her house and other things such as her studio. The children then came up with other possible things that Oprah probably owed money for, and the teacher wrote the responses on the board. Once students understand key terms and how integers work in this setting, students will be able to determine how much net worth a person has. Students can explore and solve the problem in whatever way they like, but most students add the assets, add the debts, "and subtract one total from the other total." This leaves students with the understanding that debt takes away from the overall net worth someone has. Once students understand this, they can work into more complex problems. A dating game was used in the article where three bachelors were introduced. Each bachelor had a positive number for something, a negative number for a loan, a positive number for income, etc, and the students would have to use these integers to solve which bachelor had the greatest or least net worth. This is where students are introduced to symbols and can actually put meaning behind the work and operations. The teacher then has the students create their own net worth statement for a specific person. This can be assessed to see if the students understood the concepts.
When I was in school, we learned integers through symbols first, and then worked on a number line to determine subtraction/addition for integers with real numbers. However, this always confused me. In my head, I always thought of negative numbers as money. I think that by using an example like this for students, it helps them realize negative numbers are a part of everyones lives...even the rich and famous. This also can help students realize the thought process behind developing a good savings plan as well as a good budget plan which can benefit them in real life. Developing the concept in a concrete form and moving to the abstract idea of symbols seems to be more beneficial in this case. I think that if i had used this as a lesson in school in seventh grade, I would have understood integers and integer operations much better.
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