Authentic Contexts
Purpose
The purpose of Teaching Math Concepts/Skills within Authentic Contexts is to explicitly
connect the target math concept/skill to a relevant and meaningful context, promoting
a deeper level of understanding for students.
What is it?
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Explicit instruction
Teacher describes/models math concept/skill
Embedded within contexts that are meaningful to your students.
Consider your student's age-related interests, cultural/community interests, and
common experiences your students share.
Examples of authentic contexts include: 1.) lunch counts (counting, addition,
subtraction, graphing); 2.) shopping at the mall for music CD's (comparing geometric
shapes: round CD's, square CD containers, etc; greater than/less than - # of rap CD's
compared to # of country CD's.); 3.) family dinner (multiplication/division situation
using combinations of dinner utensils - 3 eating utensils for 4 family members each
equals 12 eating utensils total).
What are the critical elements of this strategy?
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Contexts that are meaningful for the students you are teaching (age, interests,
experiences). Contexts may be school related, family related, or community related.
Explicit teacher modeling of math skill is incorporated.
Relevance of math concept/skill to the authentic context is clearly demonstrated.
Student practice of math skill follows teacher instruction. Teacher monitors,
provides specific corrective feedback, remodels as needed, and provides positive
How do I implement the strategy?
1. Teacher chooses appropriate context within which to teach target math
concept/skill. Refer to the assessment strategy, Dynamic Assessment, for information
about how to collect information about students' interests and to use this information
to create authentic contexts for assessment and teaching (Mathematics Student Interest
Inventory).
2. Teacher activates student prior knowledge of authentic context, identifies the math
concept/skill students will learn, and explicitly relates the target math concept/skill to
the meaningful context.
3. Teacher explicitly models math concept/skill within authentic context.
4. Teacher involves students by prompting student thinking about how the math
concept/skill is relevant to the authentic context.
5. Teacher checks for student understanding.
6. Students receive opportunities to apply math concept or perform math skill within
authentic context. Teacher monitors, provides specific corrective feedback, remodels
math concept/skill as needed, and provides positive reinforcement.
7. Teacher provides review and closure, explicitly re-stating how the target math skill
relates to the authentic context and remodeling the skill.
8. Students receive multiple opportunities to apply math concept or practice math skill
after initial instructional activity.
9. Incorporating the teacher instruction strategies, Building Meaningful Student
Connections, Explicit Teacher Modeling, & Scaffolding Instruction when teaching within
authentic contexts can be very effective.
How Does This Instructional Strategy Positively Impact Students Who Have Learning
Problems?
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Facilitates student understanding by explicitly connecting math concepts and
meaningful experiences, thereby assisting metacognitive deficits and passive
learning characteristics.
Explicit instruction/modeling provides cueing that helps prevent students from
missing important problem-solving steps/elements due to attention problems,
memory problems, etc.
Authentic contexts can motivate students by creating for them relevance and
novelty
Examples of Research Support for the Instructional Features of this Strategy: Baroody
(1987); Bottge (1999); Bottge, Heinrichs, Mehta, & Hung (2002), Bottge, Heinrichs, Chan,
Mehta, & Watson (2003); Bottge, Heinrichs, Chan, & Serlin (2001); Bottge, Heinrichs,
Mhta, Rueda, Hung, & Danneker (2004); Kennedy and Tips (1998); Mercer, Jordan, et al.
(1996); Morroco (2001); NCTM (2000); Van De Walle (1994); Van De Walle (2005).