Educator in Training

A college student's journey in learning how to educate others.

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Final Project Ideas

Decoding Text

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105137/chapters/Reading-in-the-Mathematics-Classroom.aspx

Word Walls, Vocabulary Cards, Connect two, abc brainstorming, three column chart, ultimate challenge, ...

http://www.dayofreading.org/DOR11HO/Covino2011DORPresentation.pdf

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13. Final Blog

            Initially when I was told that I would have to blog weekly about class discussions and readings from our textbook, I thought I was up the creek without a paddle. Not to mention I was not familiar with the term “content literacy” which I know feel like I could explain pretty well and show its importance inside the classroom (subject matter being irrelevant).

            One thing blogging has shown me is that putting your thoughts down on paper (or the computer) helps the learning process. There were times when I had a thought but it was not a complete thought until I struggled through it typing it out. Some times writing helps with meta-cognition. Which I feel was an underlying theme in our class.

            The ability to read, write, speak in a content area is something that students should be able to do. That is content literacy. This applies to every subject area, even in math. If nothing else, this class has shown me that students need to be able to read and speak even within a math class. Not to mention it is the math teachers job to teach that. Many would think that literacy falls on to the English/literature teacher but who better to teach how to read and speak in math than the math teacher. 

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12. Pros of Small Groups and Students understanding of Assessment 4/9

Rising class sizes seem to be an issue logistically for teachers. How can you as a teacher deal with individual needs with large class sizes. It sure makes it tough. Lets, take this one step farther, how do you promote content literacy in large class sizes. Many teachers will get into the rhythm and routine of lecturing more often just because that works logistically. However, when trying to improve your students level of content literacy lecturing doesn’t give your students much time to improve on their ability to read, write, and speak on the given content. Tovani in chapter 7 says that small groups can help combat large class sizes. I agree. By having small groups you allowing the students to discuss content, working together to gain further insight, works on social skills, ability to speak, etc. There are so many pros to having small groups within a class. Another positive is when having discussions when students have time to formulate their thoughts within a small group, it becomes easier and more clear when they give their point to the entire class. They have already had one chance to talk through it and they will have already had it critiqued once.

 The next chapter deals with how teachers assess students. This can be tough for any teacher, how to accurately assess the students. What does the assessment actually assess? Is it the students understanding? How well I taught the material? The progress the student has made? Does it assess what I think is important, does it assess what the student has learned? You can start to see where I’m going in that assessments are difficult and that an end of the chapter test may not give you an accurate depiction of the student’s knowledge. The biggest point that Tovani makes in chapter 8 is “Teach students how to use the assessment tool. Don’t let format interfere with demonstration of knowledge” (pg. 115). This statement couldn’t be more true. So many students get bogged down by the type of test that is administered. But rather them know that no matter the type of test they should be able to show their knowledge. 

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11. Classmates Thoughts 4/2

            For this weeks blog we are pulling things we like from our classmates. Peachyteachy123 talks about reading in the math class. She says, “Assigning purpose to mathematical concepts makes understanding it easier. Students are critical readers when solving word problems in math because they must pick out the important information in the problem, assess how to use that information to answer the question at hand. Racing through math problems is not the best way to solve them. Slow down and evaluate the problem. What question am I supposed to be answering? What information do I need to answer this question? What information am I given? How can I use this information to answer the question? All of these questions are a product of a conversational reader. Even thought the language of math is different, reading with a purpose is still essential.”

            This is great because it shows that critical thing applies in math in regards to reading. You are reading more into the details and asking questions on the problem as well as text.

http://peachyteachy123.tumblr.com

            For the next blog teachingfortomorrow123 explain the benefits of using discussion in a math me. Says, “The author of the article argued that, “language use is at the root of learning.”  When students engage in a math discussion with their peers and teacher about math, they have to communicate their ideas. I know for me personally, whenever I can verbally explain something to someone else, I understand the idea. After all, one aspect of content literacy is speaking.”

            I completely agree with this. I believe discussion holds great value in a math class. Having students talk about math, asking each other questions, responding to others comments, and teaching other students are all great ways math learning takes place.

http://teachingfortomorrow123.tumblr.com

            For the next quote EducationDawg explains ways to approach words problems. “I always think about literacy in math as a word problem and how we can teach kids context in reading through word problems. This article really opened my eyes to the different struggles that students that can’t read well or don’t know what to read can have.

This article suggests using the 5 C’s for helping us teach our students how to read math books. The five C’s are:

1.) Concepts: What mathematics words are in this lesson?
2.) Content: What subject-matter words are in the lesson?
3.) Clarify: Which words should I mention or clarify?
4.) Cut: Which words should I rephrase or eliminate?
5.) Construct: Which words should I teach?” 

            Word problems give some students nightmares. Teachers must be extremely systematic when teaching word problems because students will immediately decide their opinion on them after the first day which more often than not is negative. But the five-C approach would give students a game plan or approach into what to do so they are not bogged down by the text in a word problem.

http://educationdawg.tumblr.com

A unique insight to listening from gnneissteacher13. “As someone who is in the unique position of being a student and a teacher simultaneously I have come to realize the major differences between hearing a teacher and listening to them. The act of listening requires more than the literal act of hearing a sound or another person talk. Instead it’s a process of taking something a person says and processes the information to turn it into knowledge.”

            I feel that many students fall into just hearing a teacher rather than listening. If a student is only hearing a teacher then the students are not gaining anything from the lesson. However, students need to synthesize what they are listening to and apply this. By doing that they are learning. Some students might take the easy way out and just say they are a visual learner but all students need to listen rather than just hear.

http://gneissteacher13.tumblr.com

The last bit comes from teachtothink. “Many teachers fall into the trap of doing all the work for the students and just lecturing to them what they understand from the textbook. This I think does a disservice to the students and is not helping them understand the information in any meaningful way.”

I could not agree more. There is so much more to every subject than just the textbook. The students are missing out if they are limited soley to their textbook. What would a social studies class be without current events. How about a science class that never discussed new findings. Using alternative text is also a great way to keep math interesting. Making real life situations for the students to solve could help some students grasp concepts without using the textbook and then give them a firm understanding. 

http://teachtothink.tumblr.com

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10. 3/26 Journals in Math

            This reading in Tovani primarily deals with strategies for reading comprehension. Which is a huge aspect of content literacy. However, highlighting text, using sticky notes, taking notes in the margins, jotting down questions in the margins, etc. are all great ways to make sense of text, outside of a math class. Math being my primary subject, I am always thinking about different ways of presenting material and different strategies that students can use to help retain material.

            Low and behold Tovani gives an example of a quad-entry diary journal. This is based off of the double-entry diary. This was used for a test review and the student was to fill in the chart about 4 properties and had to include a diagram, what you know and what you didn’t know. The teacher would then go through the entries and use them to help prepare for a review for the upcoming test. I thought this was a great example of a strategy to help student retain or learn information.

            The biggest issue seems to be that the teacher must continually model how they want their students to take notes, write in text, dissect text, etc. Tovani says, “Kids need a lot of time to practice, but they also need tangible models that show them what we expect” (p. 69). Students do not know what the teacher expects all the time. A model is a quick and very effective way for students to achieve your desired result.

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9. 3/19 Literacy in Math

Many will say there is not much reading in Math. Many times those that feel that they struggle in math excel in English or vice versa. However, there is much to gain from literacy in math.  In the National Math + Science Innovative blog a former English teacher talks about the importance of literacy in math and science.

 Students in a math or science class have to read lab reports, read articles, read questions, write down findings, etc. This is where the literacy aspect plays into effect. Stie-Buckles goes on to say that “More importantly, though, is the fact our students also have to learn how to ask cogent questions, collaborate and debate with peers, solve problems, and synthesize ideas.” In every subject students will have to be able to verbally or write their opinions, findings, thoughts, answers, questions, etc. Although, many times achieving literacy is placed solely on the English department. All subjects should teach literacy in their given subject. Who else is a better expert in the certain subject than the teacher? However, usually that subject came naturally to them so it can be difficult to teach literacy in that subject which might have came naturally.

http://nms.org/Blog/TabId/58/PostId/213/ela-stem-developing-literacy-with-math-and-science.aspx

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8. Reading for a Purpose

 There should always be a purpose to reading. That seems like a simple concept and many might say, “well, yea…”. But, how many times have you read text with no purpose (especially in school)? This is something that every teacher needs to have in mind when students are reading text. This also is used when reading any form of text outside of school. If you read the directions on how to put together a tv stand then your purpose is to put together a tv stand. But in school many times students lack the purpose of why their reading.

 When readers are not given a purpose of reading many times they retain nothing from the text, especially students. If they don’t see the purpose of reading a text then will struggle or not even attempt the reading. One thing that readers will encounter is their reciting voice. Tovani explains this as the voice that reads the words but thinks about other things. My mind wanders most of time when I begin to struggle with text, everyone’s does. The lack of purpose causes this.

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7. Text Sets

Text Sets can be used to compile alternative texts for the students use. A big importance of text sets is that they contain materials that vary in length, difficulty, and text structure. This is crucial because you want to have material that can fit the needs of all students. Those below level, at level, and above. Some examples of text sets are…

In an algebra class system of equations will be a topic that you will encounter. Some students have a difficult time with this. An example question is

y= -3x – 2, 6x + 2y = -4. Here is an example text set that will help you with your students.

 Khan Academy:

From their website it says for students: “Students can make use of our extensive library of content, including interactive challenges, assessments, and videos from any computer with access to the web.”

https://www.khanacademy.org

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/systems-of-eq-and-ineq/fast-systems-of-equations/e/systems_of_equations

 This is a great resource for teachers to use to help students who either need additional help or to push students who need to be challenged. It is a free resource for any to use and walks you through step by step how to use the site. There is no level too low. This starts from the bottom and will allow the student to accomplish certain mathematical principles that they may have thought would have been impossible.

 YouTube is full of instructional videos on a wide variety of levels and the brilliant thing about YouTube is that if one video does not make sense then just go to another. Here are two examples. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nok99JOhcjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB-oXaCoJoc

 Purple Math is a website that students can visit and its purpose is to try and help struggling students gain an understanding. This does well about explain not only how to do the problem but how the problem would come up.

http://www.purplemath.com/modules/systlin1.htm

 SOS Math is a website that was made to provide students additional help. One neat thing about this website is that all examples are student requested.

http://www.sosmath.com/soe/SE/SE.html

Wikipedia. I know this will make some people cringe but there are loads of useful information on the website. One benefit of Wikipedia is that whatever word the student does not know in the explanation they can usually click a link that will then explain to them that word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_of_linear_equations

This is just a short list of a text set and many will include different textbooks. And some students may not have Internet access to being able to provide a student with print outs from these websites could be extremely useful.

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6. Importance of (Realistic) Expectations

There is no surprise that some students have trouble reading textbooks or different forms of text in the classroom.  Tovani in her textbook Do I Really Have To Teach Reading? makes statement that can help teachers in dealing with students who are struggling with reading. She says, “some teachers might be confusing rigor with unrealistic expectations” (p.40).  Even in a 10th grade class you as the teacher can not expect every single student to be able to read at the 10th grade level. Many will be below and some will be above.  What one student might consider challenging another student may give up before even making an attempt.

Here are two questions that I feel have come up in the reading and that many teachers deal with at some point.

Is it fair to have the same expectations for all of your students?

Is it fair to give alternative assignments to only certain students?

Some teachers believe that if they offer a certain student an alternative assignment then they must make that an option for all students. But in the case of determining rigor and unrealistic expectations is that fair? If you have a student who reads two grade levels above and another student who reads two grade levels below, can you hold them to the same expectations? The student who reads two grade levels below hopefully will be able to read the text assigned but will the be able to make the connections you deem important? Maybe so, but maybe not. Would you expect the student who reads two grade levels above to make deeper connections and maybe even be able to make connections to their life or other texts they have encountered? (I would)

 I am currently studying to become a teacher. I had a semester where spent two days a week getting experience in the classroom. I had another future teacher paired with me and in one instance the two of us lead a project that lasted the two we were there one week. One of our classes had 30 students, 11 of which were low functioning special needs students. (Some learning disabilities, some behavior) The two of us had to decide how we would go about making this project with those students in mind. We wanted the project to be on a level where the 11 low functioning students would learn and get something out of it and at the same time challenge the more advanced students. We were able to alter the assignment to fit expectations to certain students. We did not make an alternative assignment per say but what was expected and assigned was slightly different. And I feel in order to get the most out of all your students this is necessary. Had we given the same assignment to all the students as we gave the advanced students then most would have given up before even making an effort. 

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5. Moving toward Content Literacy

     I Speak Math, a blog about integrating technologies and mathematics, gives an example of how students can create their own video tutorial project or think aloud video. This teacher uses the think aloud videos as a review before a test. I think this is a good strategy in that it will have another person explain the material but having it presented in a different way could help students that may have a difficult time in a lecture setting. However, this teacher’s students hated the videos. She then had the genius idea to challenge her students to do it better. So she assigned this as a class project. This will allow these students to become masters of a specific topic in a unit then by playing the videos in front of the class the students are learning from the other students. An example of the think aloud or video tutorial can be found in the blog.

     This is a prime example of content literacy and helping those students achieve it. At the core of the idea of the video tutorial, take out the technology aspect and you have to be able to communicate math. You have to guide the viewer step by step through the procedure and then in return the viewer has to listen then be able to apply what they have learned. Speaking and listening are two of the four major components in my working definition of content literacy, which is being able to make sense of engage in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

     Changing topics slightly, the podcast we were assigned to listen to this week made a great point. Summarizing what the speaker said that it takes a joint effort between all teachers to try and reach content literacy with your students. Each teacher is an expert in their own subject, so they need to help students gain literacy in their content and not just put it solely on the English teacher. This topic has come up in class discussions in that who better to teach math literacy than the math teacher. The English teacher is likely to not have the same skill set in math literacy as well as the Math teacher is likely to not have the skill set on literature content. At least I do not anyway. 

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4. Reading To Learn

In last weeks blog I noted that I thought metacognition plays an important role to literacy. My working definition of literacy is being able to make sense of and engage in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

I recently watched a YouTube video that was pushing a guided textbook on literacy in math and science. The author of the book in explaining why teachers could benefit from buying the text was going over reading strategies that are explained in the textbook. One of these strategies was familiarizing students with their own learning strategies. This is where metacognition comes in. By the teacher making aware the reading strategies that the student doesn’t realize they use, the teacher is now making the student aware of their learning process, or thinking. The teacher can now ask the student to think about why they use certain strategies and how these strategies can be applied to different content areas. Metacognition is a vital part of content literacy in that it is crucial in learning how you learn to read.  Another real neat idea the author mentioned was that in the early grades you learn to read but in high school you read to learn. So, without content literacy students might struggle to learn. (Link to video at the bottom)

Cris Tovani in chapter 3 of her textbook “Do I Really Have To Teach Reading?” makes a great analogy on the importance modeling strategies for students. She says, “It is important to give students models for ways of reading whenever we can. We see this a lit in athletics – coaches are great at this. They never tell a kid, ‘Just go hit a homer.’ They show then where to stand in the box and how to hold the bat and when to choke up.” Teachers should be aware that some maybe even most struggle with reading in that content area. The reason for their struggles could be as simple as they have never had a teacher teach them how to read in that specific content area.

A starter activity for a science class that will incorporate reading science reading strategies is giving the students a scientific article that is something you think the students might enjoy reading. This article should not be longer than a single page. Have the student complete a double journal entry for the article. One side with terms and the other with definitions or explanations that help them make sense of the article. This will allow the student to use metacognitive practices that are helpful in the students learning of content literacy.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cD_QbEMLh8

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There are benefits of using metacognitve strategies inside the classroom

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3. Making Thinking Visible

A week ago my working definition of literacy was being able to make sense of and engage in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. For the time being I am going to stick with this definition.  Metacognition (thinking about how you are thinking, knowing about knowing) has come up a couple of times now in class discussion and in podcasts that we have listened to. Although, I am keeping my working definition the same as of now, I feel that metacognition plays an important role to literacy.

 The podcast that metacognition was brought up in is titled “Content Literacy Friday 101”. The question, how do students gain insight into their own reading and thinking processes, was posed. This is where metacognition came into the discussion and is a very interesting concept. Reading is an on going activity. Even as adults, especially as students, you will encounter difficult texts. Your ability to read or reading level is dependent upon how you attempt to read a text. This is where metacognition of your reading comes up. You have to think through not only what is happening in text but also what reading strategies you are pulling from and how you are attempting to go through text. There are lots of moving wheels involved and unless you can think through ways for you to think, reading the difficult text could be a problem. As a reader you are having to make thinking visible.  This is where I think that metacognition has some part in literacy, at this point not sure how major or minor that may be.

In our last class we focused on the double journal entry reading strategy. This is mainly used, as far as I have seen in non-math and science classes. However, as those are my two main focus subjects, I wanted to find ways to use these in those classes. This strategy can be used but it is all dependent upon how the two column or sides are labeled. Typically if you were to use a double journal entry you would put a quote from a reading on the left then on the right would be questions about it, or how it made you feel. There is not much room for how quotes from your math and science textbook or articles make you feel. Instead you could use the left side or vocab words, formulas, functions, equations and then the right side correspond with the definitions, explanations of the formulas, functions, and equations. In math many can solve the equation 3x+6=5x+2. But not many can explain the steps in detail as to why x=2. The double journal entry can help with that. Writing and speaking are in my working definition of literacy and being to speak and write in math and science could greatly benefit the student’s comprehension in the subject.

Link to the podcast

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/content-literacy-strategies/id446166098?i=95152716&mt=2

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Purposes of Reading Strategies

I am currently in a content literacy course. I could not have told you anything about content literacy 3 weeks ago but I am starting to create my own working definition of literacy. My definition today Jan 22, 2014 at 3:11 pm is being able to make sense of and engage in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This definition of literacy goes for all subjects. I am using the word definition very loosely here. This a working definition and very well could change by this time tomorrow.

We are to reflect, respond, challenge, agree, disagree, blah, blah, blah to our assignments. In class our professor posed the question “What does a (reading) strategy do?” A strategy (my working definition) is a specific way to keep the reader engaged. If the reader is engaged then there hopefully is some level of reading comprehension. In the middle of listening to a podcast (an assignment) I realized that blogging about what we have read or heard is simply a strategy. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. I know you are probably thinking, “well duh!” but this hit me because I thought the podcast was kind of boring. The podcast is titled The Critical Link Between Literacy 2.0 & Excellence in Science. The only reason I did not turn it off after the first minute was because I knew that I would have to respond to it. The main point is that there are many ways to being science reading into the classroom. This is another “well duh!” comment on the surface. However, science reading is quite difficult. There are many articles and supplementary reading aids that deal with intriguing aspects of science that are written specifically for students. I do not enjoy reading textbooks yet I want to teach. Should I expect my students who do not even care for the subject to read the textbook? And if they do read it what are they truly getting out of it.

The textbook for this course is “Do I Really Have To Teach Reading?” by Cris Tovani. Tavani in chapter 2 brings up that students should make connections in their readings. These connections are used to make since of the content, to go further into the reading. This is done by asking “So, what” to these connections that have been made. What does a specific connection mean to the overall concept, does it change the meaning. It makes the student look past the connection and look at the importance of the connection. In chapter 1 Tavoni has an exchange with a student about how boring the chapter of text on viruses was. Science textbooks are not written to keep the audience on their toes or the edge of their seat like an action movie. The purpose of the science textbook is for the student to have a compiled list of information in order to learn certain information. That is why the information from the podcast stood out to me. Simple having the science textbook is not helping the students gain in their science literacy. Outside articles are a must, science is the most fascinating subject and the possibilities are endless on the learning that can take place in a science classroom. The more the students are exposed to scientific articles the closer they are to reaching science literacy.

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Content Literacy Intro

To those who find themselves reading this blog, I am a college student studying to be an educator. There are many reasons as to why I desire to become a teacher. The biggest reason is I want to have the opportunity to inspire and maybe teach a thing or two, to the next generation. It is amazing to see what young adolescents are capable of when they have someone who believes in them. I am studying to teach math and science. These two subjects are generally regarded as love or hate subjects. Not many students have lukewarm feelings of these two subjects. I hope that I will be able to push those who have a love for these subjects further and take the negative connotation out of the subjects for the others.

I am currently taking a class related to content literacy. As I am looking to teach math and science, I am curious to see how this will help my instruction in my content areas.

My definition prior to this class of content area literacy would be being able to read and write in the given content. However, my working definition is already changing one article on content literacy in. In a blog post titled “How Important is teaching Literacy In All Content Areas” the author, Rebecca Alber, argues there is more to content area literacy than reading and writing. She explains that speaking is a major aspect. Speaking. Students should be able to communicate their thoughts in math and science. There are many things to be gained from having the students talk about math or science with each other.

Writing can be used in math and science class to help the students think through ideas. In the same way my instructor is having us write down via blogging our thoughts to articles and readings, students can explore new math or science ideas or concepts through their writing. Alber said is best, “You can’t avoid thinking when you write.” If you are able to really get your students to think then you are doing something right.