First: I am a 7th grade Language Arts student teacher and we have been analyzing poetry and taking our time in the revision process. We have not had any type of CRT, but later on we will be discussing a few Raven stories. That won’t be happening for a few more weeks, but I have connected a storyline– beginning, middle, and end– to the metaphor of Mount Jumbo. It was a 4 minute metaphor, but that is one of the few times I could link English to culture or location. I look forward to the Raven stories.
Second: I have been talking with the 7th grade Math teacher and she has a class that is called “X-treme Math.” She has a unit coming up where a Tlingit carver will come in and teach the students the carving process. He will show and explain some of the designs (frog, wolf, bear, eagle, and raven) and their significance. The students will try their hand at creating a story on a skateboard. Honestly, the math is put on the back-burner, but it is an interesting lesson and I am helping brainstorm group sizes, materials, prices, means of finding skateboards, and other details. Hopefully I will be able to sit in on a portion of that class period.
Raven stories – always good! I think there are ways to highlight the math in the formline art on skateboards starting with just what you mentioned: calculating sizes, prices, etc. This unit could be approached as a consumer math exercise where students are writing a business plan.