Resource Blog 3

www.mathteaching.org/

This resource is a general website to help both new and experienced math teachers in the classroom.  It doesn’t just serve as a resource for worksheets, or even as a resource for just teachers.  They have tons of links that can take a math teacher through a whole lesson with lots of interactive add-ons, and they also have great links to assign as homework or help for struggling students.  The interactive materials provided for students in the classroom and at home are all really helpful with the students gaining mathematic literacy while learning the concepts through the different programs.

(99)

Chapter 6: Should we even read textbooks? And if so, how?

This chapter had some really great tips on how to help students read through a textbook, and possible strategies to have them do less or no reading in the textbook.  I was disappointed that so many of the strategies wouldn’t work well in the math classroom.  For example, they talked about book clubs and Jigsaw reading, which I really don’t see as effective strategies with a math textbook.  There is potential with the vocabulary word sorting strategy and I really did connect to the material asking us to get the students out of the textbook.  I recently posted a TED Talk where he took a problem from a textbook and created a real video of it happening! That is so much more effective than just assigning seven pages a night so they can get through it all.  I think students can learn a lot better in a classroom where a teacher is dedicated to teaching outside of the textbook, in words the students can understand. Yes, they should learn the math vocabulary, but that does not mean that it isn’t useful for them to hear something in normal words first and begin to understand how math vocabulary connects to it after.  I could see myself putting vocabulary words and textbook definitions up on the board, and having students help me break down the definition until everyone can understand it.  This strategy could help them throughout the unit as well as later in life when they come across words and definitions that they don’t understand.
(254)

Literacy in the Math Classroom

10 Ways Literacy Can Promote A Deeper Understanding Of Math

This link has very helpful tips for using literacy in the math classroom. I loved how interactive many of these were, and how they encouraged the students to think through their thought process and share.  One suggestion that is often forgotten was to have students write down why they got a problem wrong and the correct way to do it.  There were multiple suggestions that addressed students not just sloppily writing down what they need to in order to get there, but instead writing or voicing a step by step process in a way that others could understand.  When students are put in a teacher role, they are able to learn things to a higher level so that they are able to explain them to their peers.

(137)

Help for Struggling Readers

         I found this chapter to be very helpful for a future content area teacher.  Instead of just talking about how readers struggle and we need to help them, they gave real advice that fits within a content area classroom, with tons of examples showing how effective the application of these methods were.  One part that really stood out to me was on page 288, a comment that Hal, one of the students, made about Amy Stoops's work in their program.  He said, "I asked Ms. Stoops, 'What's the point in reading, anyway?' So she sat me down and she printed out an article that told all the different ways that reading could help me. She really took the time for me." [Amy explained later that he had been on the verge of dropping out, but was now a very successful student.]

      It's many teachers' dreams to have such a profound impact on a student as Hal has experienced in the program.  How can we make that impact? Simply reread this chapter! I absolutely love their simplified list of the key elements need to increase content literacy in the classroom.  Teachers are often concerned that if they try to focus on reading or anything besides content that they are losing out on valuable learning time.  That is not the case!  Reading and learning and a positive classroom environment all go hand in hand, and teachers can help students with reading every single day in the classroom without ever "wasting" time.

    This is not to say that we should be handing out romance novels in math class, but there are valuable ways to learn math content with a direct relationship of increased reading abilities.  Believe it or not, most students are very open to learning if they are in a positive, safe environment.  Make that your classroom.

(305)