Monday, March 4, 2013

Chapter 5 & 9 Reading


3/3/13

Readability Text

Chapter 5 Reading: Planning Instruction for Content Literacy (p.124-51)

While setting forth the organizing principle, the text describes military planning, and how one must think through objectives and activities, which I presume most teachers understand. However, the next couple parts that are stated to plan are not as obvious, but are extremely important. These are unintended consequences, as well as strategic alternatives in case something goes wrong. When I did my lesson last semester in Field Experience II, I did not do enough planning in these particular areas. I was working through a problem with the students, and I prompted the students to work on parts of the problem together and then come back together. There were some groups that were stumped, and I wish I had planned out questions to ask the students to spark their thought process in the correct direction, without giving it away. I was getting tongue-tied trying to not simply do the problem for them, but to be the catalyst to their own discovery. Thus, it is so important to formulate numerous ways to instruct the material, and further explanations or questions for particular students that may not understand the method of instruction that you thought would be best. It is important to anticipate where students may become confused, or of various ways to explain the material. All students learn in such a variety of ways, and we must remember that and plan accordingly. 

Prior to this course, I would’ve never thought about instructing students how to read a mathematics textbook, which is bad to think I would assume that all students would just know how to effectively utilize the text. Thus, I thought that the Strategy Awareness and Explanation section was particularly informative for me. In my instruction, I hope to provide the information and practice for my students to be successful working independently on their homework exercises. However, I believe that guiding oneself through the textbook exercises can be a wonderful reinforcement of concepts. As well as providing organized structure through examples, with important terms highlighted, and so forth. However, unless time is set forth to demonstrate and guide students through using the text, as well as practicing it, students will not believe that it is something they should do, or will not know how to capitalize on the resources they have to learn. It is also important to assess which students are having difficulties using the text and give them further support to be successful.

The text also touches on providing the reasons or applications of why, how, and when certain strategies are used. It is extremely important for students to constantly know why the material or the activity is important. Keeping the lesson in context, or giving it application, can often be forgotten in mathematics. Students don’t know where Pythagorean’s Theorem or logarithms will be useful in the real world. However, carpenters and chemists use these mathematical tools and this needs to be told to students, as well as why certain reading strategies are useful and important.

In the portion of reading regarding the before, during, and after activities, I found it intriguing that they used a mathematics example. The text describes how students often lost sight of the connection between literacy and mathematics. Therefore, the teacher applied this B-D-A reading method in her ratio/proportion lesson. She had the students apply the idea of proportion to creating a house. They began with writing on their admit slips how they would describe proportion to ones little brother. Then they had to read the text section and create their own dream home with their group using their conceptions of scale drawings. This could be extremely interesting as long as the students know how to effectively tackle the text at hand, otherwise, the students could possibly decide to skip that part. Lastly, one cannot forget the refection of what was important in that reading. This allows concepts to bridge together, and have a nice closure.


Chapter 9 Reading: Writing Across the Curriculum

I am definitely convinced by the consensus that writing improves thinking and facilitates learning. Since high school, I have always used writing as a method of studying. I would rewrite my notes, or read the text and take further notes. Unfortunately, it would often help me with memorization of content, instead of creating deep understanding of concepts. However, I can remember one distinct example of a teacher that used a significant amount of writing to learn, and I learned so much about history that year. This history teacher at my high school gave only essay tests. He gave the most intriguing lectures, without any Power Points or guided notes, and then we really had to absorb, and write down the content in our own words. We were forced to think and write throughout his classes. Then for the tests, we were given three prompts ahead of time to research, and study from what we had learned in class, and then we drew one on the day of the test. I used a massive amount of writing to learn in that course and I have never explored history in such an in depth manner in my life. We truly explored concepts and came to elaborate understandings.

“It is also one of the most effective ways for students to understand something they have read” (Vacca, 284). This again reinforces how writing can be a wonderful tool of enhancing and clarifying the meaning, resulting in higher amount of retention. Writing to learn can also help with creating connections with prior knowledge that allows there to be a deeper understanding of reading or material. On page 307, there is an example of how math journals were integrated in the classroom, and how they aided in deeper understandings of material. Students would do warm-up problems, or review concepts from the day before in their journals. Then at the end of the class they would write what they learned that day, summarize a theorem, or say where they’re having troubles. As it was used consistently, the students became more positive toward the journals, and really began to like them. The students even began to individualize their journals by decorating them, or using abbreviations. It is often overlooked, but I really want to challenge myself to utilize writing to learn activities on a regular basis in my classroom.
           
            There is always the challenge with students that are struggling readers and writers that may not enjoy the idea of journaling, especially in math class. Thus, it is beneficial to read the RTI box, which gave a few suggestions on how to provide support for struggling readers and learners. One suggestion was to modify the requirements of a particular writing assignment, or divide the writing prompts so they can focus on a single idea or concept. This breakdown into manageable steps is beneficial for students as they can still be held to high standards, but tackle the assignment in a more advantageous way for them. I would consider this if we were taking on a larger writing assignment; however, in my mathematics classes I believe that I would use more informal writing. This way, students could more easily make it there own and write at the level that is appropriate for them as they are explaining their reasoning. I worry about being able to differentiate effectively, and as I am taking this class, it is making me more aware that there are people to consult about reading levels in order to learn how to make the material approachable and manageable for all students. This gives me confidence and reassurance.

Favorite WTLs thus far: Exit Slips/ Math Journals (writing out problem solving, writing understanding of a theorem, writing what one learned that day, writing frustrations/confusions), writing break to reflect on concept, brainstorming of what one thinks something is about) /KWL/Drawing and Illustrating

No comments:

Post a Comment