Instructional Analysis Project

By Nick Johnson
Peru State College
EDUC 623- Assessment of Instruction
November 25, 2010
Community, District and School Factors
This action research study will take place in a small/rural community school
district in North Central Iowa. It lies along a four lane highway that connects St. Paul,
Minnesota and St. Louis, Missouri called the Avenue of the Saints. This school district of
three small towns ranges from thirty minutes north of the school to twenty-five minutes
south of the school. It also extends thirteen minutes to the east as well as ten minutes to
the west. Certain students have quite a bit of travel time.
This community is vastly populated with active farmland. The population of our
school district that consists of Rudd (400 people), Rockford (900 people), and Marble
Rock (400 people) consists of roughly 2000 people. Many families use these
communities as "bedroom" communities commuting back and forth to bigger towns 20 to
40 minutes away.
The high school consists of just over 170 students for the 9-12. Roughly 85% of
the students participate in an extra-curricular activity of some sort. About 25% of the
students are assumed to be from low-income families, and the free-reduced lunch rate is
approaching 56% of the population. The school has about a 99% white populations, the
1% consists of Blacks and Native Americans.
The stability of these towns rely on the fact of their being small farmers. If the
small farmers in this area go a stray then the school district as well as the town will be

diminished. There are very few job opportunities in these three towns; therefore as long
as gas prices do not increase the small town life of Iowa can be fruitful.
The community support of the school district is very good. Being the biggest
thing in the town (the school) there are a lot of activities and involvement here amongst
parents and their children. People get involved and there is a large support for each other.
Especially, in the sports area people will come out to watch and support the players. The
football team recently made it to the playoffs and the final game of the regular season
there were 1750 people in attendance from both schools; a feat that has never happened
here at the school.

Classroom Factors
In my classroom, Consumer Math class, I have words of encouragement up on the
wall. Words that say you can do anything that you want to; you just have to put the effort
in to do so. I, Mr. Johnson, run a tight classroom; we have routines for each classroom
that run the same throughout the day. We start the day with answering any questions over
the materials from the previous day. There are times a movie clip is shown about the
information we are going to talk about that day. We proceed into the lesson or objective
for the day and continue into homework. I like to stay consistent and make sure everyone
is on task; it leaves no room for behavior problems from the students that are in the
classes.
My room has the availability of a lot of technology, from a TV/DVD player in my
room, to a projection screen. My room, also, consists of a computer and a laser printer at
my finger tips to print out anything of importance, or just to be able to contact people

quickly. I have the ability to fax anything right off of my computer which makes tasks of
ordering stuff for my classroom done faster.
Students Characteristics
This group of students, 5 of them, in the Consumer Math class is the class that I
have the most trouble keeping on task. These students are students whom do not take
math seriously; they have to be in here to get enough math credits to graduate. All of the
students in this class do not have the ability to do simple math such as standard arithmetic
in their heads. Therefore, with their Individual Education Plan's, they are able to use
calculators at their discretion. Most of these students are not proficient in the area of
mathematics.
These children, also, lack the parental supervision or inclusion in their lives. It
seems as if most of these children come from broken families where their parents have to
work and do not take the time to find out what is going on in their children's lives or to
know much if any of what goes on in their school day.
The students in the class have a major attendance problem. Not just in Consumer
Math class, but in all of their classes. They take the attendance policy to the limit, and try
to cross the line whenever they have the chance.
Kayla Iverson is a good math student when she does her work. Motivation is a
problem for her. She likes to be hands on and is very out spoken, so in class we do a lot
of kinesthetic activities to keep her involves.
Alison and Jena Lara are sisters that come from a broken home that need a lot of
attention. They come from a low socio-economic family and do not have a lot that other
students have in the class. They get along with their peers well, however, their

attendance is low because they do not have the motivation or good role model to show
them what it takes to be successful at home.
Caleb Green is solely in this class because he needs it to graduate. In this class he
fights tooth and nail to complete all of his assignments. He does well with kinesthetic
activities when he is here as long as he does not have to write anything down.
Andy Van Fossen is my best student. He does what you tell him to do, show up
on time, and gives feedback whenever asked of him. He is in this class to get a math
credit to graduate. He is not the best student when it comes to number operations but if
you give him a calculator and repetition on how to do a problem he is able to understand
the concept.

Instructional Implications
There are a lot of factors that affect the student's ability to learn. Based on the
contextual factors above, I have identified instructional implications that will influence
how the unit is planned, the way the information is presented and how it is assessed.
Considering these specific factors and adjusting to meet those needs could impact a great
deal of success on the students.
The first instruction implication I will address is the students and their ability to
not make it to class on a constant basis. What I am going to do is make the classroom
time and their activities more important than their homework that they have to take home.
When they miss something in the class then it is up to them to come in at a different time
and make up those activities. The class will have to perform kinesthetic activities in the
classroom and have them done before the class time is over to gain the points necessary.

The second instructional implication I will address is the students not being
proficient in math dealing with their simple math operations. I feel that it is necessary for
all students to be able to do certain things without the use of the calculator. The students
should be able to know what 10% of some number is and how to be able to do that in
their head. I will use class time to be work on their operations skills such as timed tests
to help the students perform better on their end of year and state assessments.
The last instructional implication I will address is to have activities for my
students to do with their parents. I feel that so much of a student's learning come from
how much their parents show and interact with their students. If their parents care about
what their child is doing normally the students will care. If I give these students' these
activates then maybe the will see how much their parents care and gain an excitement for
mathematics.

Instructional Objectives
*

To state and apply the renter's rule and the banker's rule to plan monthly rent or
mortgage payments.

To compute the cost of rent for one year

To solve problems related to down payments, monthly payments, and total

amount paid for mortgages.

To read utility meters and compute monthly utility expenses.

To solve word problems related to utility expenses.

To compute expenses related to mortgage insurance and homeowners insurance.

Iowa Core Curriculum Standards that Align with the following Objectives
Grades 9-12
Content Standard 1: Students can understand and apply a variety of math concepts.
Content Standard 2: Students can understand and apply methods of estimation.
Content Standard 3: Students can solve a variety of math problems.
Content Standard 4: Students can interpret data presented in a variety of ways.
Justification
The instructional objectives state exactly what the students need to achieve through the end of
the unit. These objectives are designed not only for the purpose of knowing the information, but
to be able to use them later on in life's experiences.
Students will have to be able to uses charts as well as basic math calculations to use these
objectives (Content Standard 4). These objectives are going to be able to help achieve and get a
start on life and the outside world (Content Standard 1). Students will be able to recognize if the
water or utility companies got there bill wrong. Will be able to find out what mortgages are right
or wrong for them. Students will be able to know the specifics about renting or renting to
someone a home. All these things at some point in time they will have to do.
Students have to solve a variety of problems all the time. If a student is aware of how
much money they make, they can be able to understand just how much can go to their mortgage
or rent to be able to live a good life. They will be able to look at a utility meter and make an
educational assumption about what they can do to cut costs from their electricity bill Content
Standard 3).
All of these objectives are in according with 9-12 graders standards dealing with the Iowa
Core Curriculum that Iowa will be adopting by the year 2012. These skills are necessary to
demonstrate proficiency of each objective.

Prior Knowledge and Future Learning

Students that enter the Consumer Mathematics class normally come in with
Individual Education Plans in place. Those are normally the accommodations that I need
to follow to insure their self-confidence in my class. Students whom take this class are
normally student whom are not very good at algebra skills, but with the help of a
calculator are able to perform the basic math operations necessary to be successful in this
class.
The skills that these students get from this class is life experiences that we hope
they will be going through later in life. Students, we hope, at some point and time in
their life rent a house, or go and buy a house. The students also should know if a
company is trying to put something over their heads. For instance, if a utility company
charges them too much for the utilities they actually used. It is also important for these
students to be aware of all the other extra baggage when buying a home, for instance,
having to have homeowners insurance and make sure they have enough on it to cover
there house if something does happen to it.
Assessment Plan
Throughout the unit titled Managing a Household, we have different type's of
formative assessments to be administered. These assessments allow me to know which
of my students understand the concepts given for the particular day and which students
do not understand. Immediate feedback such as doing problems on the board helps me to
give the immediate feedback that maybe they are not doing something correctly. Other
assessments such as questions out of a book or worksheets allow me to see that they are
doing the work by themselves and doing it correctly. Observations with guest speakers
allow me to see they understand what we are talking about and will allow them to ask

intelligent questions concerning the topic at hand. Formative assessment, also, gives the
teacher the idea whom needs more help than others. If more help is the case the teacher
can work with those students more on an individual basis.
The summative assessment allows me to see that the students are proficient in the
topic. It will show me what questions we might still have to touch base on even though
the unit is over. The summative assessment will make students perform all of the
concepts we learned over the course of the unit. The summative test will let me know if
the student is ready to perform the concepts in real life situations.
Formative Assessments
Formative assessments will be used through out the whole unit. The instructional
objectives will be administered throughout the unit and formative assessments will be
used to determine student progress and to modify instruction. The daily routine of
classroom behavior consists of work on the board. At this time the teacher will give the
lesson and have the students go step by step with them on the process of the concept they
are trying to master. During other concepts the teacher may use activities as a formative
assessment and a way to observe the students of their knowledge of the concepts. Home
work such as problems done in the book or on the workbook is a way for the teacher to
record a grade in the grade book and to assess the student's ability to solve each problem.
The formative assessment I am going to talk about is the workbook activity sheet
over Chapter 4 Section 4 (below). This formative assessment follows in regards to
instructional objective #3 where the student has to able to solve problems related to down
payments, monthly payments, and total amount paid for mortgages. Here the student
must to be able to read charts associated with mortgages their rate and the term of their
loan and will be able to determine how much is still owned on their house at the end of 5

years. This formative assessment allows me to determine that they can read the chart and
be able to take the percentage in the chart and multiply it by the price of the mortgage
given.

Summative Assessment
At the end of the chapter I will perform the summative assessment over Chapter 4
(seen below). The assessment will consist of 15 questions, each question worth 2 pts

apiece. Students get 1 point for showing their work and how to do the problem and they
also get 1 point for getting the answer correct. Concerning that they are able to use
calculators, the students if they know how to perform the objective, should be able to
pass the test. Making students show their work allows the teacher to know that the
students understand the concept, but just can't perform the mathematics involved. This
will let the teacher know what they need to possible re-teach or connect with the students
later on. These concepts are to be proficient in mathematics by the end of the school year
and therefore will allow the students to understand the concepts of managing a household
for later in life.

Instructional
Objective
s (IO)

Formative
Assessment(s)

Summative
Assessment(s)

Accommodations

Marker Board
Walk through
problems on the
board making sure
that each student
understands the
process of using the
renter and banker's
rule. (Lesson 1 and
2)
IO 1:
To state and
apply the
renter's rule
and the
banker's rule
to plan
monthly rent
or mortgage
payments.

Observation
Students will be
given fictional
incomes. They will
have to pair up with
each student and
determine based on
both of their income
what houses they
could buy or rent
together. (Teacher
will observe and
maybe instruct based
on situation, to see if
students understand
the concept of renter
and banker's rule.)

Paper
Using the lessons out
of the book students
will have to perform
the math operations
forward and
backwards to show
they know the renter
and banker's rule.

Part 1- Students will

have to use the
renter's rule to
determine the most
someone can use for
rent each month.
Students will, also,
have to use the
banker's rule to
determine the
maximum allowable
mortgage.

ACCORDING TO
STUDENTS IEP'S:
Students will be able to
have calculators on the
test. Being a small class
I will be able to be read
any information that
they need to have read
to them. Certain
students will be able to
take as much time as
necessary.

IO 2:
To compute
the
cost of rent for
one year

Marker Board
Walk through
problems on the
board making sure
that each student
understands the
process of using the
renter and banker's
rule. (Lesson 3)
Paper
Using the lessons out
of the book students
will have to perform
the math operations
to figure the cost of
rent for a year.

Part 2- Students will

be given a person's
monthly rent and will
have to tell how
much they spend on
rent in a year.

ACCORDING TO
STUDENTS IEP'S:
Students will be able to
have calculators on the
test. Being a small class
I will be able to be read
any information that
they need to have read
to them. Certain
students will be able to
take as much time as
necessary.

IO 3:
To solve
problems
related to
down
payments,
monthly
payments, and
total amount
paid for
mortgages.

Marker Board
Walk through
problems on the
board making sure
that each student
understands the
process of using the
renter and banker's
rule. (Lesson 3, 4,
and 5)
Observation
Students need to act
like real estate
agents. Gather
information on
houses in the area
and get brochures
from banks and show
the best financing
they can find for a
home.

Part 3- Students will

have to compute
down payment on a
house. As well as
determine how much
someone is going to
have to read on a
mortgage.

ACCORDING TO
STUDENTS IEP'S:
Students will be able to
have calculators on the
test. Being a small class
I will be able to be read
any information that
they need to have read
to them. Certain
students will be able to
take as much time as
necessary.

Paper
Using the lessons out
of the book students
will have to perform
the math operations
on computing down
payments, and being
able to read terms on
mortgages and how
they differ.
Marker Board
Walk through
problems on the
board making sure
that each student
understands the
process of reading
utility meters.
(Lesson 6)
IO 4:

ACCORDING TO
STUDENTS IEP'S:
Part 4 - Students will
be given meters and
will have to
determine what they

Students will be able to

have calculators on the
test. Being a small class
I will be able to be read

To read utility
meters and
compute
monthly utility
expenses.

read and how much

Paper
utilities were used
Using the lessons out during that month.
of the book students
will have to perform
the math operations
to show their
knowledge on
reading utility
meters.

any information that

they need to have read
to them. Certain
students will be able to
take as much time as
necessary.

Observation
Students will be
given the assignment
to go home and find
the utility meters to
determine if they are
digital or dial meters.
Then with a parent
contact their utility
company and
determine how often
their meters are
checked. (Teacher
will make sure and
discuss findings the
following day.)

IO 5:
To solve word
problems
related
to utility
expenses.

Marker Board
Walk through
problems on the
board making sure
that each student
understands the
process of utility
consumption and
telephone, gas and
electric bills.
(Lesson 7 & 8)

ACCORDING TO
STUDENTS IEP'S:

Part 5- Students will

be given the price of
a unit and how many
units a house

Students will be able to

have calculators on the
test. Being a small class
I will be able to be read
any information that
they need to have read
to them. Certain
students will be able to
take as much time as

consumes and will

Paper
have to determine
Using the lessons out how much it will cost
of the book students them. Also will have
will have to perform to solve problems
the math operations related to fixed rate
of utility
expenses.
consumption and
knowing the
difference between
flat rate bills and non
flat rate bills.

necessary.

Observation
Students will have to
go home and find out
over a few days what
they can do to not
consume as much
utilities as they do
now. Will have to
write a summary on
what appliances and
such they can to
minimize their utility
bill.

IO 6: okay
To compute
expenses
related to
mortgage

Marker Board
Walk through
problems on the
board making sure
that each student
understands the
process of using the
renter and banker's
rule. (Lesson 9 and
10)

Part 6 - Students will

use a chart to
Paper
determine the cost of
Using the lessons out homeowners

ACCORDING TO
STUDENTS IEP'S:
Students will be able to
have calculators on the
test. Being a small class
I will be able to be read
any information that
they need to have read
to them. Certain

insurance and
homeowners
insurance.

of the book students

will have to show
they can read charts
dealing with
homeowners and
mortgage insurance
companies use to
determine monthly
expenses.

insurance for a
particular house.

students will be able to

take as much time as
necessary.

Observation
Teacher will observe
the class asking
questions of the
insurance agent to
see they understand
how mortgage and
homeowner's
insurance works.

Accommodations
The accommodations that have to be made throughout the unit, I as a teacher have
the ability to accommodate. The Consumer Math class only consists of 5 people so the
ability for them to get one-on-one instruction is possible. The students, who are in our
class, accommodations are based on their Individual Educational Plan's. Their Individual
Educational Plan's consist of reading a problem to them, using calculators on their work,
and getting more time to complete the assignment, if necessary. All of these
accommodation I can make by myself as the teacher without the special education
teacher

Instructional Block Plan.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Week 1

Activities:

Activities:

Activities:

Activities:

Whole Group Introduce renting a

home, renter's rule
and how to
determine rent for a
year. (IO 1 & 2)

Whole Group Introduce banker's

rule in determining
how much money
you could spend on a
mortgage. (IO 1)

Whole Group Introduce how to

compute the down
payment for a home
mortgage. (IO 3)

Whole Group Introduce the

difference between a
fixed-rate mortgage
and a variable-rate
mortgage. Be able to
read a chart to show
monthly principal and
interest payments.
(IO 3)

Individuals - have to
find houses on the
internet and figure out
the cost of the down
payment for that
house. (IO 3)
Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p
83

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p
85

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p 87

Activities:

Activities:

Activities:

Whole Group Introduce utility

consumption and
ways to conserve
utilities.
(IO 5)

Whole Group Introduce flat rate bills

and optional additional
charges with such
bills. (IO 5)

Whole Group Introduce the

concept of being
able to read utility
meters. (IO 4)
Week 2
Individual - will
have to check the
utility consumption
at their house over
the course of the
week. (IO 4)
Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p
95

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p
97

Activities:

Activities:

Whole Group - Go
over review and any

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p
89
Activities:
Whole Group Introduce mortgage
insurance and the
pros and cons of it.
(IO 6)
Individuals - will
observe students
asking questions from
the speaker about the
concept. (IO 6)

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p 99

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment p
103

Week 3

necessary areas that

need brushing up on
for the test. (IO 1 6)

Assessment(s):
Summative
Assessment Plan Chapter 4 Test
(IO 1 - 6)

Assessment(s):
Teacher observation
Math assignment

Differentiation
Due to the state standards identified by the state of Iowa and their Core
Curriculum, it is our duty as teachers to make sure these students understand math
concepts that are perform with 21 century issues. Students need to be proficient in these
areas to be able to function in the real world and adapt accordingly. In this unit of
managing a household, I feel as a teacher it is important to understand the concepts of
what it takes to get a loan and steps you need to take when owning a home to make sure
money is not going somewhere it does not have to. I, also feel that it is necessary to
bring someone in that deals with these concepts on a continual basis to let the students
know what questions are important to ask when sitting down with an agent in real life.
Getting this first hand knowledge about these concepts will let them understand that they
are not getting taken advantage of. With this in mind it will let a student know coming
out of school what is in their budget and not get into something that is out of their means.
The differentiation with the class is set up with the class size we have. This class is set
for high needs students and with only 5 students in the class, I am able to give more one
on one attention to these students. We are able to get deeper into thought about the
concepts and as small groups have the ability to do more things than if we had a bigger

class. Differentiation with this class is based on the needs of the students, if one child is
not understand a concept I can sit down with them and go over detailed steps involving
the concepts. This provides the attention this student needs to be a better math students
and a productive home owner in life.
Technology
The technology features that are used in these lessons are useful for these lessons
not only just in planning and implementing the unit. We use computers in this class for
the internet and ability to find home that may or may not fit in to our budget. We use
calculators to find such things as computing down payments for houses, the cost of rent
for a year among other things. Projection screens are important as well as a computer
program that utilizes the ability to organize information that we have learned in class and
put it all together in an outline form. Technology will also be used to gather scores of the
student understanding of the concepts to give the teacher an understanding of knowledge
of the concept.

Connection to the Curriculum

In Consumer Math class students are continually focusing not only on there math
operations but also on their ability to function in the outside world and things that they
will come across in real life settings. So not only do we feel that the math operations is
essential but also that the concept of where to use this in life is as well.
I found two State of Iowa standards that give big implications to this unit of
managing a household. The two standards are out of the math section of the Iowa Core
Curriculum under content standards 3 and 4 and they state:

Content Standard 3: Students can solve a variety of math problems

Content Standard 4: Students can interpret data presented in a variety of ways.

The skills in these activities using math operations to find a down payment, to
know the difference between a flat rate bill and additional options that are involved, to
finding the rent of a house for a year, all are problems in variety and real world problem
they will have to solve. The reading charts of terms of mortgages and reading utility
meters are ways that students had to interpret data to be used in all kids of areas dealing
there outside parameter. All of these things fall into the Iowa Core Curriculum's student
financial literacy for later in life. Working with this is, also going to help in future units
such as managing your car, using food to balance a budget and other things you can do to
spread out your money and make it go further.

Analysis of Assessment
After further completion of both the formative and summative assessments
throughout the math unit, the data was collected and furthermore analyzed. In the table
below it shows the success or failure that the students had with the formative and summative
assessments. Their successes not only show the importance of each implication it has on the
students. The implications that we found deems to acknowledge were, parental involvement,
making to class on a constant basis, and doing activities that deal with simple math
operations. The reflection of the success has a lot to do with the one-on-one instruction we
are able to make in a small school, but the parental involvement that students had will also
show a more up beat approach to student's demeanor on math.

Name
Kayla Iverson
Andy Van Fossen
Alison Lara
Jena Lara
Caleb Green

Formative Assessment
26 of 26 = 100%
26 of 26 = 100%
22 of 26 = 85%
22 of 26 = 85%
21 of 26 = 73%
(did not finish)

Summative Assessment
29 of 30 = 97%
30 of 30 = 100%
25 of 30 = 83%
28 of 30 = 93%
27 of 30 = 90%

Looking at the formative assessment over the worksheet from Chapter 4, Lesson 4
(seen above), I was pleased with the way the assignments turned out. Jena and Alison did a
couple of problems wrong based solely from not moving the decimal point over far enough
when they were multiplying by the interest rate. Caleb did a very good job on the problems
that he had done, but did not finish the assignment. I had him go back through and fix
them before class was over that day. The summative assessment made students show that
they understood all of the objectives and could perform them for mastery at a later day.
Based on the scores I was pleased with how the student's mastered such objectives. There
was however, 1 question that everyone but Andy missed, and that was that was #5 on the
Chapter 4 mastery test. Once again it was moving to decimal place that affected the ones
who missed it.
Instructional Implication Analysis
At the start of the project their were implications that I wanted as a teacher to
effect my students as the unit went on those implications were parental involvement,
being more proficient in the area of simple math operations and coming to class on a
constant basis. Using these implications to go along with my unit let me realize the
amount of effects you can have on students just making simple adjustments. Looking at
their implications not only boosted their scores on the test, but promoted learning among
all students.

The first implication I analyzed is students and their parental involvement. When
looking at my students I noticed there was a vast majority of them whom did not have the
motivation needed in math class. I determined that since parental involvement could lead
to students paid more attention in class and focus more on the class, I would make this
one of my implications. So, during various lesson throughout the chapter I set out an
activity that the student could do with their parents to foster further learning. In the table
below, shows how many students took involvement with these activities with their
parents. The students that took this opportunity showed more enthusiasm as they came
back with their homework and activity done for the day will to give feedback. Students
such as Caleb were unmotivated and would not take the time or effort to complete the
activities.
Name
Kayla Iverson
Andy Van Fossen
Alison Lara
Jena Lara
Caleb Green

Parental Involvement
3 of 3
3 of 3
3 of 3
2 of 3
0 of 3

The second implication that I wanted to look at was the proficiency of being able
to do simple math operations. We did various simple operations as bell ringers to adjust
our knowledge of the content. This was examined during the summative assessment as
well. I broke down the test into simple operation throughout the test and noted when a
problem was wrong due to make a silly simple operation mistake. The table shows the
percentage of simple operation problems that each student completed correctly. Overall I
was astonished by the good job the students did, except for moving the decimal places
when dealing with interest rates on a few problems.

Name
Kayla Iverson
Andy Van Fossen
Alison Lara
Jena Lara
Caleb Green

Simple Math Operations

22 of 23 = 96%
23 of 23 = 100%
20 of 23 = 87%
21 of 23 = 91%
20 of 23 = 87%

The last implication that I focused on during the unit was coming to class on a
constant basis. During this unit and before the unit, I let the students know how much
more important it was to come to school and gain all the information given to them on a
daily basis. I let them know that they would see an improvement in their grades if they
would show up and put forth the effort necessarily. The table below shows that all the
students, but one took the information and encouragement to show up constantly and they
were the ones who gain the most out of it. Attendance was taken over the 12 days of the
unit.

Name
Kayla Iverson
Andy Van Fossen
Alison Lara
Jena Lara
Caleb Green

Attendance
12 of 12 = 100%
12 of 12 = 100%
12 of 12 = 100%
12 of 12 = 100%
9 of 12 = 75%

Instructional Objectives
In this unit, students were introduced to six instructional objectives. Each of the
objectives related to one another for the simplicity of managing a household. Students
showed in their lessons tasks such as, using renter's rule to determine how much they should
spend on an apartment or house each month. Student's used the banker's rule to determine
from their income, what price of the house they could afford. Students, also, engaged in the

learning of tasks such as: reading a utility meter, computing rent for a year and being able to
compute mortgage and homeowner's insurance for a home, as well as compute mortgage
payments paid on a loan. All of these tasks a student will do some point in time later in life.
Students were successful in the objectives such as using the banker's and renter's
rule (IO 1); compute cost of rent for 1 year (IO 2) reading a utility meter (IO 4), computing
mortgage and homeowner's insurance for a home (IO 6). Where the a few of the students had
trouble with was dealing with the percent and moving the decimal point to solve word
problems (IO 5) and amounts paid on a mortgage (IO 3). However, this in turn led to the
unsuccessful problems on their tests. Things that could have been resolved by looking at the
ending product of what they got
.
Analysis of Instruction
I always enjoy teaching this unit to my students. The concepts that students gain
off of this unit not only improves their knowledge for later on in life, but also gains them the
confidence of going in and knowing what a banker is talking about when trying to get a loan.
The factors that help out the understanding of the unit have a lot to do with class
size. I am able to hold a lot of students accountable for their actions and getting work done.
Implications that I set in place such as getting students here on time to class, and parental
involvement help the students get excited about math and gave them the opportunity to an a
better relationship with their parents.

The other factor that helped my students was grading stuff right away in the class.
This made students show up on time in class and have their stuff done right away. I also
graded on participations at the beginning of the hour to make it their benefit to get there and
receive a good grade and to participate in class.
Modifications that I would make to this unit are to emphasize the need to know
moving the decimal when dealing with percents and their problems. I know we talked about
it in class, but I feel that an extra worksheet over just doing this might have reminded them a
little more for test time.
The other modification I would do to strengthen this unit is to push my higher
level students in class. I know which students are going to have an easy time with the class.
So, what I feel is that I need to come up with a project that challenges those kids above and
beyond what they are doing in the class.
The formative assessments that I do in class allow me to know that we can go on
with a lesson or if there is a lesson that we need to touch more on. The marker boards, as
well as the guided instruction that we do in class gives me instant feedback on the students
whom may need more one on one attention than others. The thumbs up or down approach to
feedback are the best way for me to identify who need help or who does not need help.
Overall, I believe the unit enabled all the students to meet the learning goals that I
set forth for them to understand. There were some inabilities to do a certain type of problem;
however, you are going to find that in any classroom. The concepts that we learned will
benefit me for future lessons in the future. Based on their summative assessment I am

confident the students achieve at a proficient level of learning and will be able to implement
these concepts in the future.