“…in the end, the rules are a poor substitute for sense-making.”1
Introduction
I am a strong believer in The Opportunity Myth. Research has shown that when students are denied access to grade-level work, racial inequities are made worse and students fall even further behind.2 All students deserve rigorous, grade-level instruction. And they deserve a teacher who unequivocally believes they are capable of being successful. What my students need most right now is to learn how to think critically and to become effective problem solvers. I believe in my students and I love and support them both in and out of the classroom.
High school students arrive in my classroom lacking number sense and the reasoning skills necessary for success in high school math and science. In a perfect world I would have the time needed to teach my students the conceptual understanding they are lacking. I would also have time to build fluency and practice, practice, practice all the types of problems students should be able to solve by the time they enter high school. Unfortunately, I live in the real world and there is not enough time to fully remediate my students. Without some type of remediation, my students struggle to engage in grade level course work. My priority is to provide the opportunity to every student to learn grade level content. This conundrum leads to the rationale for this unit: this unit will provide a starting point for some targeted acceleration of learning. My hope is that, after completing this unit, each of my students will have increased both their number sense and their ability to reason proportionally.
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