Write to Learn Mini Lesson

Reflection on Write to Learn Mini Lesson:

My writing to learn activity was a writing break. I wanted to have students hear the name of the theorem and first think about what they are looking to discover. Then I wanted to an activity to discover the Triangle Angle Sum Theorem, and then reflect on the discovery by putting it in ones’ own words. In my preparation, I decided I was going to use an activity of manipulating a triangle to do a physical proof of the theorem. I used this activity with my kids last summer and they loved it. I took time to practice, and essentially script, my mini lesson. I wanted to make sure I demonstrated each portion of the mini lesson, but still kept it to five minutes. I also took pictures of each step of the activity, in order to create the step-by-step directions. Last summer, I simply demonstrated the ripping, but then orally told them to place the vertices together. I felt prepared prior to my lesson.

There are definitely things I would change, but there were also some positives of my mini lesson. I think that a lot of people enjoyed the hands on activity, and then time to reflect on it afterwards (although that was kind of cut short!). If I could do it again, I’m not sure I would’ve had the writing break before the activity. I would’ve maybe just had them go into discovering how many degrees are in a triangle, and then let them know the theorem that they just proved to themselves. I wanted students to get into the mindset of what they were looking for, but I’m not sure if it was as effective as I wanted it to be. I also could’ve modeled how to write ones’ own definition or discovery. I wouldn’t want to write out an entire definition of the Triangle Angle Sum Theorem because I wouldn’t want mine to be copied down. I still want the students to reflect on their discovery and formulate their own, and not simply copy mine.      

Article & Chapter 10 Reading

“Focus on the Essentials of Reading Instruction”

By Alan M. Frager and Elizabeth A. Frye

            I found that the article was a nice condensed version of a lot of main topics that we have discussed throughout the semester thus far.

I enjoyed the emphasis on finding meaning in the text, oppose to learning the text. In my own experience, I would entirely agree that while I read, I make my own connections, oppose to when someone simply tells me what the book says. Thus, I believe that the practice of silent reading at ones’ own pace, and bring able to go back, and re read when necessary, is ideal.

Oppose to the contrary of Round Robin Reading. This article was spot on with its’ account of RRR. I was always trying to calculate what I would be reading, and I would get nervous anticipating my turn to read. It is definitely not an ideal way to find meaning from text.

Activating prior knowledge is also crucial prior to diving into text. Having a purpose and knowing what one is looking for will give much more meaning to the reading assignment. I may not have realized the importance of establishing purpose, going through vocabulary, or providing a motivating activity, prior to reading. However, I really do believe this could make a significant difference.

Then article states that good teachers release the responsibility onto their students gradually. Last summer, at my teaching internship for Breakthrough Saint Paul, this was heavily stressed. There was quick review of day before, instruction with “say, see, do” cycles every five minutes, structured practice, guided practice, and then independent practice at home. This structure was wonderful at keeping the students involved and allowing me to constantly assess comprehension.

Lastly, and what I find most challenging, the article states that the best teachers are able to anticipate questions and various reader responses of their students. As I am just beginning to teach, I find this difficult. I can anticipate certain common mistakes, but I am always surprised on what I didn’t forecast happening!

Chapter 10 Reading: Studying Text

This chapter begins by placing emphasis on how the structure supports comprehension and what is retained. The interrelationship between the headers, graphs, charts, pictures, and so on, add to the student’s reading experience. Prior to this reading, I would’ve simply thought to encourage students to utilize all parts of the structure in ones’ reading, and to not overlook the importance of reading the headers and analyzing the figures. However, I was intrigued by the example of the History Teacher’s explicit strategy to approaching the reading. When I was pondering how I could scaffold and demonstrate reading for my students, I was unsure how to break it down to be most beneficial. I was unsure what “teaching students to read text” would really look like. This example set forth was extremely helpful! The High School Civics and Economics Teacher, David, has his students go through and read and write down all the headers in the chapter they’re about to read. This becomes the outline of their notes, and then allows the students to absorb what the topics of this reading will be. Then, the students are to read all the bolded words in the section, and find the unfamiliar words in the glossary. This is extremely beneficial for students to dive into a reading with the meanings of the terms in their minds. This will allow students to grasp fuller understandings and they’re reading the text and not necessarily trying to learn new vocabulary while learning the lesson that the textbook is setting forth. David also emphasizes the importance of using the visual clues to also aid in comprehension. His process for reading also involves reviewing notes with a partner in order to check for understanding and discuss toward deeper understanding. All of these are wonderful ideas, and also gave a nice picture of what this type of analysis can look like in ones’ classroom.

I have always been into writing beautiful notes and highlighting them. I actually enjoy writing notes and making them visually attractive. Thus, I often forget that figuring out structure and organization for note taking is not an instinctual task for everyone. This chapter provided an abundance of information of how one can organize information, or structure ones notes. They present the idea of graphic organizers as a study strategy that can help dissect important parts of texts and identify their relation. There is the classic outline structure, which I learned in middle school, involving roman numerals, capital letters, numbers, and then lower case numbers. This is rather standard, but the text also provides examples such as a Venn diagram, comparison-and-contrast matrix (target concepts on top – attributes down the left), problem-and-solution outline, network tree (network of relationships – superordinate to subordinate concepts), and series-of-events chain (linear procedure), (329-330). There are also several interesting note taking strategies mentioned, such as reading logs, annotations, t-notes, and Cornell notes (record, questions, recite, reflect, review) (339-345). Introducing these methods may take some time when done appropriately with proper demonstration and practice, however, if students understand these methods, and have the choice during readings of what type to use, that can be well worth the time. It also may be beneficial for a teacher to comprise a sheet that describes all of these methods or has examples. This may even be something the students could help comprise. None-the- less, I was overwhelmed by the number of strategies, but at the same time, excited about all the various methods that could be utilized to find a deeper understanding of the text.

Chapter 6 Reading

3/7/13

Chapter 6 Reading: Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest

            Chapter six begins with an explanation regarding how all learning is rooted in what we already know to the point where it is stated that it is impossible to learn without prior knowledge. This reminded me of how many mathematics teachers state that struggling students need to learn the “basics”. I don’t believe that this type of philosophy is effective. Teachers need to find connections that students can make with prior knowledge, and allow students to challenge themselves with problem solving, instead of trying to establish a foundation of “basics”. Students have wide ranges of prior knowledge that can be expanded upon. Drilling basics without relevance will not present the most successful retention possible.

           

            Along with the importance of prior knowledge, the text also touches on how students need to have readiness to learn. Thus, they must be interested and willing to put forth the effort necessary to be successful. The authors set forth that they believe most students want to use reading to learn, but don’t believe that they have the ability to have success. I am grateful that there are educators that believe that, and not that there are numerous lazy students. Vacca explains that students will want to read if they have the faith that they can do it. However, I have grown up with friends that have chosen not to do readings for school because they simply don’t want to, or don’t think they need to. These have been my friends who are in AP Language and Literature with me, and have definitely demonstrated competent reading skills. So then it becomes a matter of developing the interest and importance of taking the effort to do the readings. Then also scaffolding instruction of how to effectively approach the readings and why, so they do not feel that it is a burden.

            I am extremely passionate about the idea of self-efficacy. Students need to believe in themselves in order to become competent life long readers. Thus, as educators, it is important to find ways to instill that confidence into our students. I am the captain of the cross country and track & field teams at the University of Saint Thomas, and this idea of believing in oneself is extremely relevant to success in running. Distance running is such a mental battle, and the ones that are most mentally strong, are the athletes that perform the best. It is important to be physically strong, but in order to work toward that physical peak; one must believe that they can get there. In order to run 50-60 miles a week, and push through the discomfort of rigorous workouts, it all comes down to the foundation of knowing that you can do it. Thus, I also believe as a teacher, success will come as I know my students can learn from reading, and they can have the confidence to do so successfully.

            Thus, if students believe they can read successfully, as well as are interested in the material, there is a much better chance of students retaining knowledge from reading. Teachers must find relevancy to students’ lives. Again, if students can create those connections, there is a chance that the material will stick with them, especially if there are able to respond to the reading. If the students create discussion about the material, talking about it will further the satisfaction from the reading and create deeper understanding. The text describes how essential it is for students to receive satisfaction from learning. Thus, to figure out what will give this satisfaction to students, they must learn to choose text that is appropriate for them and then set forth questions and purpose for their own reading. As an educator, I must set forth how to become motivated to resolve the conflict. An idea to begin this process is to have students begin with the questions, “What do you need to know?” and “How much do you know already?” which is building on the prior knowledge to give confidence and meaning to the text. These questions are essential to ask oneself after a word problem in mathematics. Many students become flustered by the embedded information. Thus, it is important to take a step back and evaluate what is important and how it should be approached.

            The example history lesson involving the analogy of the assembly line and ice cream sundae was clever and well thought through. He had sorted out many details and had connections created down to when ice cream spills that they could talk about chemical spills in factories. It is essential to stress the important meanings behind fun lesson plans such as that, and have a detailed plan set forth for when to break and reflect on the meaning behind the activity. When I was reading this example, I could imagine it not serving its’ entire purpose if one was not careful. This would need to be done when effective classroom management has been implemented, and the class can handle an activity like such. Otherwise, students could get too over stimulated and lose sight of the analogy. Last summer, when I taught for Breakthrough Saint Paul, the programs stressed using as much creativity possible, and create lessons that are outside the box and had students up and moving. It was interesting to see what lessons would be creative and effective, and others, where the students didn’t grasp the content behind the activity. Thus, this is something to be cautious of.

            Lastly, I found it interesting to see the anticipation guide that was created for preconceived notions about trigonometry. There were numerous statements written out and then one had to say whether they thought the statements were “likely” or “unlikely”, which is essentially a true/false pretest. I am hesitant to have false statements written out and allow students to convince themselves a false statement is true. I would definitely have them correct the quiz immediately after so they knew which statements were true or false. However, as a pretest, I cannot grade it, and then I’m afraid students wouldn’t take it as seriously and then have these false ideas that they may think are now true. I would want to have some sort of system where the students would need to also do a posttest and explain their reasoning. Some students may simply fly through the quiz and quick chose true or false. I would want an anticipation guide that involved explaining ones’ thinking so I could more explicitly understand where their answer is derived.

           

           

           

           

           

           

             

Chapter 5 & 9 Reading

3/3/13

Readability Text

http://books.google.com/books?id=XhQRgZRDDq0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Geometry+Textbook&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HoQzUcOeGaj1ygGnqIHYAQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Geometry%20Textbook&f=false

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