One of the many reasons that I fell
in love with teaching middle school math is that the material is super
relevant. Students are learning skills
that will stick with them for years to come.
One of my favorite topics to teach is percent of change, specifically
tax and discount.
This post is a continuation of the Mathemagic Mondays series (one day late). A series of posts that shares shortcuts and
hints that make math magical!
Here are some things to keep in mind
when teaching tax and discount to your students:
1) I begin with proportions since we
review tax and discount right after proportion solving. This helps students to see a meaningful connection
to a recent skill.
2) Compare and contrast strategies
involving proportions and decimals. Let
students use a calculator. Unless your
students really need practice with decimals operations, they will be demonstrating
their understanding if they can set up the problem, then use the calculator to
help with arithmetic.
3) Show the shortcuts and help them
understand what they mean and why they work.
We spend several minutes practicing examples like:
“If you save 30%, you spend ___%.”
“If you pay 5% tax, you pay the bill
plus the tax which will be ____%.”
4) Continue to practice this skill
throughout the year on Problem of the Days, exit tickets, and/or homework. This is an important one to drill in, and
practice makes permanent!
To help students build meaning, I
use this discovery worksheet, which you can pick up for free in my store.
Of course, there’s more than just
tax and discount when discussing percent of change. This scavenger hunt is a teacher and student
favorite!
Mathemagic Monday is a series of blog posts by Free to Discover that highlights some tips and tricks for making math meaningful and fun for kids, focusing on those shortcuts and connections that give us the “aha” moment.
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