Teaching with and through Maps

Rationale

I teach at William C. Overfelt High School (WCO) in East Side Union High School District (ESHUSD) in San Jose, California. According to WCO’s 2024 School Accountability Report Card, in the 2023-24 school year, only 9% of students met or exceeded math standards; this is 26 percentage points lower than the California state average. (The report card details that “The “Percent Met or Exceeded” is calculated by taking the total number of students who met or exceeded the standard on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment plus the total number of students who met the standard (i.e., achieved Level 3-Alternate) on the CAAs divided by the total number of students who participated in both assessments”).¹

The CAASP website details that nearly three quarters of WCO students scored Below Standard in Concepts & Procedures, meaning that “The student[s] do… not yet demonstrate the ability to explain and apply mathematical concepts or the ability to interpret and carry out mathematical procedures with ease and accuracy.” Furthermore, over 40% of students did not meet proficiency in Problem Solving and Modeling & Data Analysis, meaning that “The student[s] do… not yet demonstrate the ability to solve a variety of mathematics problems by applying [their] knowledge of problem-solving skills and strategies[; t]he student[s] do… not yet demonstrate the ability to analyze real-world problems, or build and use mathematical models to interpret and solve problems.” 40% of students did not meet proficiency in Communicating Reasoning, meaning that “The student[s] do… not yet demonstrate the ability to put together valid arguments to support [their] own mathematical thinking or to critique the reasoning of others.”² My curriculum unit is intended to facilitate improvement of student performance in all three of these categories, as students will need to be able to use these skills successfully in order to triangulate effectively. 

Why trilateration and triangulation? Maps are inherently mathematical yet are rarely analyzed as such in math classrooms. This coming school year, our district will be transitioning back to the traditional high school mathematics coursework from the integrated mathematics curriculum. Starting in the fall, 9^th graders will begin with Geometry and will then take Algebra I as sophomores and, finally, Algebra II as juniors (instead of the more traditional AGA high school pathway). Teaching trilateration and triangulation at the culmination of Geometry will be an impactful way for students to reflect on many of their learned useful and practical skills.

In addition to this course and curricular change, we are eliminating the sheltered courses for English learners at ELD (English Language Development) levels one, two and three, and placing students of all ELD levels in mainstream classes, apart from English. While anxious about the potential communication difficulties that could come from the aforementioned shifts, this unit was designed in an effort to best meet the complex learning needs of students at all levels of English acquisition.