Excellent response to #1. Literacy skills are important for all content areas and they lead to learning. I'm also going to steal the idea of giving a writing assignment in a math class using math vocabulary to gauge if the students comprehend the terminology. It will also act as their own resource that I may allow them to use on some quizzes or tests, as an incentive (positive reinforcement!)
How does this use different parts of the brain that you may not use simply by solving a math problem?
Your response to the first question was right on. All content areas need reading and writing and they are both very important. In math you need to learn a different language and figure out the math language or you will struggle. The base of a good math student is someone who can understand the language and symbols. The calculations are the easy part, it is knowing why they are doing the calculations that is really important.
What are some things that math teachers can do to make the math language clearer to our students?
Dave - they say that people that are great at mathematical style tasks use one side of their brain more than the other, and those that do language style tasks better use the other half of the brain more. My getting students to use both, they actually form bridges between the two hemispheres...this provides for more neural pathways that the brain can use for functioning and thought.
Jeremy - this is a question that I've been working on since I started teaching math. Honestly, I think that it comes down to finding out what the base knowledge is of students and then building upon that. You can do this with matching pre-tests, or any number of vocabulary activities for this. If you start with what your students are sure they know, and assume that they have no other knowledge, you won't leave any gaps to chance.
Hi Aaron...no docking for going over the two minutes! I guess I should get docked for asking so many questions. :)
It's fun to see your group's insights into this topic. Sometimes it can be difficult for non-LA teachers to see how learning about the reading process can help them teach. What's obvious from your comments and posts is that you are all "getting it."
In reference to Jeremy's question--that is a question that is at the heart of this class for you secondary people? How do we make the language of our content areas more accessible for our students. When you looked over the vocab activities last week, did you get any ideas about teaching vocab? Also, I'm hoping that over the last three weeks of this course you get some good "tools" and insights for your toolbox, aka literacy folders!
I went over the time allowed too, but if you substract the "uhs" and the introduction and some other things, mine is probably closer to two minutes. :)
I like that you mention that learning is language based. Do you think there are moments in your classroom that you are teaching non-math language? You seem to have an excellent vocabulary and you probably teach to your audience, but I can't imagine that you only use words that all your students know. Within you instruction, you are probably expanding their literacy in ways you don't even intend to!
I like the idea that students are keeping information so that they "have access" to it later. Memorization is not always practical, even if it is ideal. Being able to use an equation with tricks and hints is seemingly better than being able to state the equation without the ability to utilize it's functionality.
Here is where I was caught: you said you liked the gibberish activity (Goodman--although, on a side note, I thought the first activity in that reading was incredibly delightful!!). What I was thinking was this--and you might of mentioned it and I was not listening very well--but that gibberish activity made me think of math, incidentally. There were a certain number of things that you could identify from the "passage" even without knowing half of the actual words. Now, in math you have to start looking at unknown variables (involving x and y, etc). Even when you do not know what everything "means" in an equation, for instance, there are other things about it that you can answer. For instance, you can express x in terms of y or y in terms of x or come up with "possible answers." I am sure that you have more elaborate examples in your own head, but I since I think you already made the connection, I will leave it at that.
That you encourage students to "journal" key concepts or functions works doubly; they get the practice of writing it and they are more likely to remember it just for doing writing it out. Excellent.....
I honestly liked the (I think it was called this at least) the "modified"...um...I forget, but it's the one with the cross-type looking diagram of vocabulary terms. (I know this is in my lit resource folder, but I'm just trying to get the thought out of my head before it leaves.) I know that I've already looked at implementing this activity into my cabinetmaking class. With some simple modification, students can describe different methods of joinery with the same basic layout.
Elli,
I use a lot of words because of an architecture professor I had in college. His lectures were always vivid and pleasant to listen to. I decided that I wanted to sound the same way...not pompous, but just well educated. I really hope that it translates to my classroom.
Sarah,
I didn't even make that correlation to descriptions of equations! That was awesome and a fantastic insight. (I'm stealing that one...thanks!)
Excellent response to #1. Literacy skills are important for all content areas and they lead to learning. I'm also going to steal the idea of giving a writing assignment in a math class using math vocabulary to gauge if the students comprehend the terminology. It will also act as their own resource that I may allow them to use on some quizzes or tests, as an incentive (positive reinforcement!)
ReplyDeleteHow does this use different parts of the brain that you may not use simply by solving a math problem?
Your response to the first question was right on. All content areas need reading and writing and they are both very important. In math you need to learn a different language and figure out the math language or you will struggle. The base of a good math student is someone who can understand the language and symbols. The calculations are the easy part, it is knowing why they are doing the calculations that is really important.
ReplyDeleteWhat are some things that math teachers can do to make the math language clearer to our students?
Dave - they say that people that are great at mathematical style tasks use one side of their brain more than the other, and those that do language style tasks better use the other half of the brain more. My getting students to use both, they actually form bridges between the two hemispheres...this provides for more neural pathways that the brain can use for functioning and thought.
ReplyDeleteJeremy - this is a question that I've been working on since I started teaching math. Honestly, I think that it comes down to finding out what the base knowledge is of students and then building upon that. You can do this with matching pre-tests, or any number of vocabulary activities for this. If you start with what your students are sure they know, and assume that they have no other knowledge, you won't leave any gaps to chance.
Hi Aaron...no docking for going over the two minutes! I guess I should get docked for asking so many questions. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to see your group's insights into this topic. Sometimes it can be difficult for non-LA teachers to see how learning about the reading process can help them teach. What's obvious from your comments and posts is that you are all "getting it."
In reference to Jeremy's question--that is a question that is at the heart of this class for you secondary people? How do we make the language of our content areas more accessible for our students. When you looked over the vocab activities last week, did you get any ideas about teaching vocab? Also, I'm hoping that over the last three weeks of this course you get some good "tools" and insights for your toolbox, aka literacy folders!
I went over the time allowed too, but if you substract the "uhs" and the introduction and some other things, mine is probably closer to two minutes. :)
ReplyDeleteI like that you mention that learning is language based. Do you think there are moments in your classroom that you are teaching non-math language? You seem to have an excellent vocabulary and you probably teach to your audience, but I can't imagine that you only use words that all your students know. Within you instruction, you are probably expanding their literacy in ways you don't even intend to!
I like the idea that students are keeping information so that they "have access" to it later. Memorization is not always practical, even if it is ideal. Being able to use an equation with tricks and hints is seemingly better than being able to state the equation without the ability to utilize it's functionality.
Here is where I was caught: you said you liked the gibberish activity (Goodman--although, on a side note, I thought the first activity in that reading was incredibly delightful!!). What I was thinking was this--and you might of mentioned it and I was not listening very well--but that gibberish activity made me think of math, incidentally. There were a certain number of things that you could identify from the "passage" even without knowing half of the actual words. Now, in math you have to start looking at unknown variables (involving x and y, etc). Even when you do not know what everything "means" in an equation, for instance, there are other things about it that you can answer. For instance, you can express x in terms of y or y in terms of x or come up with "possible answers." I am sure that you have more elaborate examples in your own head, but I since I think you already made the connection, I will leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteThat you encourage students to "journal" key concepts or functions works doubly; they get the practice of writing it and they are more likely to remember it just for doing writing it out. Excellent.....
Jill,
ReplyDeleteI honestly liked the (I think it was called this at least) the "modified"...um...I forget, but it's the one with the cross-type looking diagram of vocabulary terms. (I know this is in my lit resource folder, but I'm just trying to get the thought out of my head before it leaves.) I know that I've already looked at implementing this activity into my cabinetmaking class. With some simple modification, students can describe different methods of joinery with the same basic layout.
Elli,
I use a lot of words because of an architecture professor I had in college. His lectures were always vivid and pleasant to listen to. I decided that I wanted to sound the same way...not pompous, but just well educated. I really hope that it translates to my classroom.
Sarah,
I didn't even make that correlation to descriptions of equations! That was awesome and a fantastic insight. (I'm stealing that one...thanks!)