Sunday, September 29, 2013
Teaching the Text
I absolutely loved the readings this week on textbook’s and other resources. I completely agree with the author in that our textbooks are too big and crammed with too much information that we teacher’s are supposed to cover. Kids aren’t learning and understanding anything…they are merely surviving. Teachers are suffering as well, because they are no longer teaching for understanding but teaching to meet state standards and test scores. I can relate to one of the articles where it was mentioned that although their daughter received exemplary grades, when they got to college they realized they did not understand a thing. The same occurred to me. Now I was not valedictorian of my class, however graduated with honors and when I got to college, after the first two semesters, I realized I truly did not understand anything…I merely learned enough information to survive high school and score well on exams and the SAT. Textbooks are not designed to be an easy or enjoyable read but as the author’s state a reference book, filled with facts, definitions, charts, and diagrams. If we are to really teach our kids, they need to understand the material and have enough understanding to challenge ideas and think critically about those ideas; otherwise we are just teaching them to survive. There are some good alternative resources available that enable teacher’s to get their students to dive deeper into the material. Teacher’s have the power to deviate from the textbook and with careful planning and research, can locate materials that will enhance student understanding and knowledge and make it something memorable.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Reading Strategies
This week’s readings were very important in that we all teach reading and that we are not just teaching reading, but content specific reading. Furthermore we are teaching students how to read to learn. It is important, in my opinion, during the first day of class, to introduce students to the textbook. Students can then familiarize themselves with the text and what different symbols mean. Something else we all need to be aware of is that we are masters of the content and we have seen this material time and time again and need to stop and pause that our students may be looking at this material as if it were Greek. In some of my post teaching reflections I have noted that I need to lower my expectations of students abilities. Most have never seen this stuff before. In overcoming this, some techniques I saw a useful in teaching text involved brainstorming, anticipation guides, exit tickets, and vocabulary word sorts. These types of activities help to activate students thinking and get them thinking critically about the topic. I actually used the brainstorming technique when we introduced the topic on lines. I asked students to tell me everything they knew about lines. This technique allowed students to prepare their brains for the upcoming material and allowed me to see what knowledge they already had. Techniques I am eager to try out include the vocabulary word sorts. If I make this as a pre-lesson assignment, then students will be at an advantage when we start the next lesson because they will be familiar with new terms.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Web Review
Algebra2bits.com
I found this website to be a great resource for teachers to use in their classrooms. It provides lessons, worksheets and interactive games.
•The target age group is 14-16, freshmen-junior
•This is a resource site for teachers with interactive games, lessons, and worksheets. The website is appropriate for the classroom. Due to subscription limitations, I could not thoroughly research the website aside from the examples they provided.
Content connections that I noted included economics, science, and reading.
•Given the limitations of access, for what I could work with and access, the site seems appropriatly interactive.
•The site appears to be free of ads. Since you have to pay for a subscription to the site, I see no reason to have ads (most free sites utilize ads for income).
• The website has a multitude of resources for varying levels of mathematics that include supplemental materials, lessons, and interactive games.
•There are different subscription areas that you sign up for. For example, if you are teaching algebra and geometry, there are two different subscripion areas that you must sign up for. Subscriptions cost $39.95 per a year. They do offer group discounts and discounts to returning subscribers.
•Yes the site requires you to sign up and pay to use.
•The site explicitly states for teachers or parents to use with their students. I'm pretty sure adult supervision would not be required however an adult would be required to gain access the materials.
I found this website to be a great resource for teachers to use in their classrooms. It provides lessons, worksheets and interactive games.
•The target age group is 14-16, freshmen-junior
•This is a resource site for teachers with interactive games, lessons, and worksheets. The website is appropriate for the classroom. Due to subscription limitations, I could not thoroughly research the website aside from the examples they provided.
Content connections that I noted included economics, science, and reading.
•Given the limitations of access, for what I could work with and access, the site seems appropriatly interactive.
•The site appears to be free of ads. Since you have to pay for a subscription to the site, I see no reason to have ads (most free sites utilize ads for income).
• The website has a multitude of resources for varying levels of mathematics that include supplemental materials, lessons, and interactive games.
•There are different subscription areas that you sign up for. For example, if you are teaching algebra and geometry, there are two different subscripion areas that you must sign up for. Subscriptions cost $39.95 per a year. They do offer group discounts and discounts to returning subscribers.
•Yes the site requires you to sign up and pay to use.
•The site explicitly states for teachers or parents to use with their students. I'm pretty sure adult supervision would not be required however an adult would be required to gain access the materials.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Teaching reading for content
In the 3rd chapter of, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading, the idea of learning to read in different content areas is presented. I can see how teacher's of more application based content areas such as science and math could become frustrated with the idea of teaching reading. The reality of it though is that we are teaching students how to read Math or Science, which is quite different from reading English or US History. At first, when considering teaching students to read in Math, I initially thought, "why should I teach students to read...won't they learn that in English?" However it's not English reading I am teaching them but Mathematical reading. How an English expert reads a word problem and how a Math expert reads a word problem are completely different? In teaching students how to read Math, they will learn how to make sense of the content, vocabulary, theorems, graphs, and how to read and break down a word problem. These are just a few examples of how I can teach students to read Math. In chapter 4 they discuss how one can use multiple texts to help with struggling readers. For the most part, students in high school who struggle with reading generally have a difficult time due to not understanding vocabulary or having a lack of background knowledge or the material is simply uninteresting. Providing students with varying texts that match their reading abilities enables them to grasp the content required of them and hopefully increase their reading abilities in the long run. Tovani makes a valid point that students shut down and essentially stop reading when they struggle to understand something or the reading is very dry and boring. I can relate to this for when I read something required of me and it is boring, I become easily distracted and have to re-read the text two and sometimes three times over. I also tend to shut down if the text is filled with technical words...I find medical journals and law journals particularly difficult to read and try to skim through them, skipping over the technical terms hoping to make sense of the content. I agree with her strongly that if we don't make additional text available to students we are only hindering their learning and passing the problem along to someone else.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Reflection #1
REED Reflection
I have a strong belief that children are a product of their environment. In reading, The Early Catastrophe, my beliefs became solidified with the research conducted by Hart and Risley. We have a rising problem in our country and as stated by Risley and Hart, the sheer magnitude of intervention needed to make changes to current trends needs to start now before we reach a point of no return. In considering intervention, I liked what Fitzgerald and Graves discussed in Reading Supports for All; scaffolded reading experiences. Although the idea is great for content areas that require a large amount of textual reading, being such that I am a pre-service math teacher I find it hard to consider using scaffolded reading experiences. The chapter on Building a Community of Learners, in Subject Matters,( p. 173) I find having students read a mathematical process and write down their ideas on how the process works (pre-reading) could be a good stepping stone in scaffolded reading experiences. From that point questions could be developed and students could critique and justify their reasoning with one another. Then students could read into the material further to gain a better understanding (during reading). After the have read the actual text they could discuss their findings (post reading).
The most important aspect to any learning experience is the classroom community. In the text, Building a Community of Learners, Daniels and Zemelman discuss the absolute importance of developing a positive community of learning. If we are to expect any form of intervention to work, I believe it all starts in the classroom. Students need to know that they are in a safe, non-judgmental environment, where their opinions are valued, where it is okay to make mistakes and inquiry is encouraged. Positive learning experiences occur in a safe learning environment within an encouraging classroom community
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