The Change Agent provides a wealth of timely and relevant material for adult education students and teachers. Its social justice focus is inextricably linked to mathematical reasoning and most issues provide explicit activities or prompts drawing out math that is relevant to our students’ lives. It is FREE for Massachusetts teachers in state funded programs. Go to https://changeagent.nelrc.org/nelrc-member-states/ to get access. Check out https://changeagent.nelrc.org/in-the-classroom/ for resources on using The Change Agent in your classroom.

Recent issues have focused on the effects of the pandemic in different areas of our lives. Examples include Doing Our Jobs and Caring for Our Children and Re-Training Ourselves, Re-Making Our Work. You’ll also find issues on topics ranging from Hair to Play to Prisons and Justice. And that’s just a small sample. There’s even a whole issue about math, how we use it in our lives, and our relationships with it: Our Math Stories. Don’t forget to look for the issue extras available online, including audio versions of many articles, teaching tips, and online extensions of articles. 

One of the best things about The Change Agent is how it empowers and amplifies student voices. Most of the articles are written by students. Students have a chance to work with the editors to refine their writing and are paid when their submissions are published. Writing about math and how it connects to the real issues in the lives of students is powerful for building conceptual understanding, agency, and ownership. 

In a math class, The Change Agent could be tied into lessons on data, proportional reasoning, and number sense. Consider using it as a resource in your math classes and encouraging your students to contribute to it. Students can experience the power of being published and help other students make stronger connections between math and life. Here are the current call for submissions and directions on how to submit.

Some ideas for sample math units/lessons:

• Is It in Proportion? This lesson on recognizing disproportionality in the races and genders of front line workers in New York City during the pandemic is connected to the article, Essential Workers—Pay Them, Protect Them, Empower Them in issue #53. There is also a short video orienting teachers to these resources and how to use them. Look for other such videos connected to other articles and math activities. 
• How Much is a Million? And a Billion? and supporting resources—This collection explores the sizes of millions and billions to help students make sense of large numbers that show up in the news. The resources include the article linked above, an online resource that visually demonstrates the size of a million, and a short video about how to use the resources.  
• The State of Unions in Four Graphs This is a noticing and wondering activity with data about the history of unions presented in multiple formats. Students can explore deeply and synthesize the information presented in the different graphs. 
• Math in Text: Hortensia's Story An important skill in both numeracy and statistical literacy is the ability to make sense of the numbers, fractions, and percentages that appear in narrative texts and articles. This lesson, connected to the article, Better Future: At Home, There Are No Jobs, The Cities Are Unsafe, and the Rivers Are Dry from issue #56 of The Change Agent, helps learners develop this skill through an investigation of data related to climate change and drought in northern Mexico. Using colorful maps and statistics, students have a chance to work with large numbers, fractions, and percents as they develop questions about the data, write true statements about the data, and compare visual representations of data with written descriptions.
• Lesson Packets from the Change Agent Look for even more math lessons (and other lessons) here!

Supporting Resources: EMPower series Keeping Things in Proportion and Many Points Make a Point