American Centuries

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American Centuries > Lessons > History Lessons By Teachers > Story Problems Now and Then

Story Problems Now and Then

Details

Author
Susan Mead
Topic/Subject Area
Education, Literacy; Manners, Morals, Ethics
Historical Era
National Expansion and Reform, 1816–1860
Grade Level
Elementary (K–5)
Creation Date
2012
Last Revision Date
2024

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About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Students will understand that story problems in math books may have something to tell us about the cultural norms and moral values of the time period. Using an arithmetic textbook from 1841, students will compare and contrast story problems from their own math books and those in the 19th century school book. They will discern the important aspects of daily life in the early 19th century as well as what moral lessons were being conveyed. This is a continuation of exploring how life was different 200-150 years ago.

Materials & Resources

Collection Items

Teaching Plan

  1. Review what has been discussed previously about how life was different 200-150 years ago.
  2. Show the students the images of the 1841 textbook pages using a computer projector or smartboard. Provide a copy of the transcript to students. Read the story problems together and discuss what they notice. Discuss the vocabulary that may be unknown to the students. Guiding questions: What do these math problems tell us about the kind of work people did in the 19th century? Did people think it was ok to smoke tobacco? What did they think about drinking rum and whiskey?
  3. Hand out copies of a page of story problems from the math book being used in the classroom. Read story problems together and discuss what they notice. Do these story problems tell us anything about what life is like today?
  4. In partner groups have students record how the story problems are the same and how they are different.
  5. Gather students together with their recording sheets and have each partner group present their findings. Record information.
  6. Ask students what the story problems may tell us about the daily life of the two time periods. Then discuss what lessons the 19th century story problems may have been trying to teach children along with arithmetic. Are the current story problems trying to teach a lesson about life along with math?
  7. End the lesson by telling students that items such as the school book can tell us a lot about what life was like during that time period. Perhaps someday people will look at our math books to see what our story problems tell them about life in the early 21st century.