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Figure 1: Example of a Mathematical Task Posted to Facebook

(https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10110623410766587&id=12615213)

Student council is having a bake sale. They are selling combo snack packs. One glass of milk, two brownies and three cookies for $10.50, or two brownies and one cookie for $6.50. If milk is a dol lar, how much is the club making from each brownie and each cookie? Afterwards, the teacher collects the responses and comments people make on the post. Next the teacher locates at least one response that highlights anticipated misconceptions. For example, such as with coefficients like the last comment in the post in Figure 1. If someone does not comment that is a misconception, you may consider adding your comment and blur your picture as seen in Figure 1. This tactic allows you to generate the desired re sponse you would like to discuss with your class. Once you have collected all responses, show your students the post with the adults ’ answers. To en sure that all students understand the context of the problem, have them reword or explain the situation described by the problem and then compare their thoughts to their friends ’ responses using pedagog ical discourse moves. For example, you can guide

the conversation in a way that students would no tice that they could use variables to represent the food items: milk = x, brownie = y, and cookie = z (see Figure 2).

When students ask about the relevance and appli cation of mathematics topics to real life, social me dia allows teachers to provide real world examples and demonstrate how mathematics concepts appear in real world situations. Social media allows teach ers to generate problems that reflect the lives and Figure 2: System of Equations Created from the Brownie and Cookie Problem

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 48, no. 1

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