4.6 Content Relevance

4.6 Content Relevance: During the lesson, it was made explicit to students why the content is important to learn.

This indicator assesses the degree to which the teacher explicitly places the content into the big picture of the associated discipline, making it clear why these concepts are significant and important to learn. This indicator may be evidenced by the teacher discussing the significance of the content with the students during the class period or giving the students activities that explicitly bring out the big picture and/or significance of the material and facilitate students’ understanding of why this content is fundamental. One example of such a strategy would be focusing student work for a given week through several guiding questions about why the class is learning the content. If the teacher simply gives the students some problems that happen to be contextualized, this is not the same thing as engaging students in a discussion about why they are learning the content, and thus is not important evidence for this indicator. Also, simply telling students that they need to learn the content for future classes, future topics in this class, or for a test is not what we are trying to capture with this indicator.

Although it may seem inappropriate to penalize a teacher for not incorporating this indicator into every single lesson, it is important that we identify the degree to which these behaviors are present. If there is absolutely no mention or discussion of why the content being covered during the lesson is important to learn, this indicator should be rated as a 1. The indicator should be rated a 1 in this situation even if you feel such discussion would not be appropriate or possible for this particular lesson.

Specific Examples of Supporting Evidence

1. This item should be rated a 1 if there were no instances of it being made explicit to students why the content is important to learn.
   
    
2. This item should be rated a 2 if the teacher made only a brief reference to the importance of the content, and there was no elaboration or discussion. This item should also be rated a 2 if the teacher did not explicitly discuss content significance, but the significance was clearly implicit or obvious in the work students were doing.
   
    
3. This item should be rated a 3 if the teacher made some moves to tie in the significance of the content during the class period, perhaps mentioning it more than one time.
   
    
4. This item should be rated a 4 if the teacher engaged students in a discussion of why the content was important to learn.
   
    
5. This item should be rated a 5 if the importance of the content was a central theme that was discussed and expanded upon throughout the class period.

Specific Examples of Supporting Evidence

Science

1. This lesson was focused on describing how genetic mutations occur; however, the teacher made no attempt to explain why it was important to learn about mutations or where they might have impact on students’ health.
   
    
2. The teacher built on the previous day’s lesson on the chemical structure of DNA by discussing how ionizing radiation can change this chemistry by creating free radicals that can react with the biomolecule. However, the teacher did not discuss where such ionizing radiation could be found in nature or what the chances are for it to produce significant damage.
   
    
3. The teacher had a guiding question on the board for the week: “How much radiation does your body absorb in one year?” The lesson focused on the types of nuclear decay that produce radiation. The teacher referred back the question on the board at two points—once when a student asked about the relative differences in strength of penetration of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation and once when the teacher had the students go to an EPA website where they could calculate their personal radiation dosage on an annual basis. Although the activity was engaging and clearly relevant, the teacher did not make explicit how radiation dosage impacted students’ health and well being or how it connected to their previous study of the chemistry of genetic mutations.
   
    
4. The teacher used the guiding question “How much radiation does your body absorb in one year?” to engage students in a multi-day investigation of the chemistry of DNA and how ionizing radiation can create genetic mutations that lead to cancer. This lesson had students calculating their personal radiation dosage using an EPA website as described above. Once the students completed the calculation, the teacher had the students repeat it assuming that they smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. Then the students and the teacher carried out an animated discussion of the multiple impacts on health that are created by absorbing this large amount of ionizing radiation.
   
    
5. To motivate students to learn the chemistry of the DNA molecule and the impact that mutations to it have on health, the teacher had students break up into groups and investigate how ionizing radiation from different radioisotopes can be absorbed in the body and what happens when they are. They were challenged to answer a driving question: “What impact will a nuclear waste facility have on our town’s health and economy?” The teacher told the students that they would have to prepare to present the results of their research to the City Council who was considering whether they should allow a nuclear waste facility just outside the city limits. On the day this class was observed, student groups were actively researching online; for example, one group was reading how high levels of iodine-131 from the fall-out of the Chernobyl reactor explosion increased the levels of thyroid cancer in children exposed.

Mathematics

1. This lesson was on learning to multiply and divide decimals; however, the teacher did not connect the lesson to why it was important to learn how to conduct operations on decimals.
   
    
2. This was a lesson on graphing on the coordinate plane. The teacher briefly mentioned that creating graphs of equations is something mathematicians do to make predictions but did not elaborate on this during the class period.
   
    
3. The teacher had a guiding question on the board for the week, which was “How can we model change over time using real world data?” The teacher mentioned the question on the board at two points—once when the students were talking about the activity they did timing themselves running different distances and once when the students were working a problem on the movement of a boat.
   
    
4. This geometry teacher launched a lesson on finding surface area by showing a conformer map of the world, in which area was distorted to preserve the shapes of the countries. The teacher briefly discussed this map with students, discussing with them what the issues are when we try to make a “net” of a three-dimensional shape like a sphere, and how this has implications for creating maps of the world.
   
    
5. The teacher told the students that the project they were starting was an opportunity for them to actually do mathematics. Their assignment was to plan a concert in their community using concepts they learned from algebra and geometry to create the layout for the venue, create a merchandizing plan, etc. The teacher discussed with students how algebra and geometry concepts are used every day by businesses, and students spent the class period exploring authentic reasons why it is important to learn algebra and geometry.