Time Flies When You're... Learning About Content Literacy?

Well, it's officially the end of the semester and our class is coming to an end. We have continually explored what content literacy is and what it looks like to be literate in our different classes. I have been focusing on what it looks like specifically in a math classroom.

Thankfully, I had an extra opportunity to explore this topic when I attended NCTM in New Orleans this past weekend! NCTM is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and I received a grant to be able to attend the national conference! I was able to hear from some of the most incredible math teachers in the world and learn from them. And of course I made sure to go to a session on content literacy. Two women who teach high school in Michigan presented about their experience with content literacy. 

Unfortunately, these women have had a difficult time trying to convince their state and school that doing a "close reading" does not have to include a large paragraph of text. Instead it can include a set of shapes in which students must highlight or circle different parts of the shapes to show angles and parallel sides. Or it could be a difficult word problem with multiple steps included. There is a way to read something closely, mark it up, and analyze it in a math class. You just have to be prepared to think of it in an entirely new way.

In order to improve daily literacy skills, the women used graphic organizers for notes including vocabulary tables and other visual aids. They even came up with a 3-D rubric in order to more acurately grade their students' understanding of a topic. The students had to write a definition of a word provided and then provide a visual to help explain the definition. The rubric combined a grading of the definition, the visual, and whether the visual and definition matched.

They also provided us with a great list of resources which I hope will also be useful for you!

Books:
       Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos
       Common Core Mathematics in a PLC at Work by NCTM

Articles:
       Journal Writing Prompts for Math Students
       More Math Journal Prompts
       And...More Math Journal Prompts

This conference was such a perfect way to end this class. With an extra burst of exploration in content literacy. I hope to not only continue my growth in this area, but also to implement it into my own classroom very soon!

And as always...

"Content Literacy - the ability of someone to interact with and use strategies to interpret the content of some subject (in its own language) including being able to speak, listen to, read, and write in that language"

{Sassy}

Group Work and Communication: How Do We Do It??

As I write this, I'm sitting in a hotel room at the NCTM conference. I cannot tell y'all how incredibly excited I am to finally be here! It has been a long time coming starting in about October when I applied for a grant offered to undergrads at the university that I attend. Then, a few months later, I found out that I was one of three undergrads who were chosen to receive the grant! Now, here I am! We've only had one session so far, and it was great! But I'll write more about the conference next week. For now...

This week Tovani shared her thoughts on group work and assessment of them. I was interested to hear what she would say about this topic because the only experience I have is as a student in groups myself. We used group work very little in the classroom in which I did student teaching. I know that I strongly disliked group work (and still do) because it generally means a larger project and that I would be doing most of the work. Sadly, students cannot easily dole out tasks evenly in a group and do equal amounts of work. Because I am a planner and get things done, I was often made the leader of the group and had to do parts of the project that others conveniently forgot. And there was no choice on the matter whether to do their part or not, because I would get a bad grade if I didn't! Everyone got the same grade. It was awful.

But, Tovani works with her groups of students in different ways. She walks around and assesses individuals within the group to make sure that everyone is doing a fair share of work. She helps students to delegate different parts of the project. She also set clear standards along with the students of what was expected during discussions and group work. Everyone should have done any reading necessary, come prepared with notes and their book, and be ready to discuss and engage in a conversation. Tovani even brought in a friend to help her model to her students what good and bad behavior looked like in a group discussion without telling them what to think. She let them watch her and then she collected the observations of good and bad behaviors.

Through the chapters in Tovani's book, it is so clear to see the relationships that she builds with her students through communication. She takes care to write detailed feedback for each student which provides her with a students who trusts her more and is more willing to work for her. I loved the idea she had on a conversation calendar. It is a small sheet of paper with 2 rows of 5 boxes each. Across the top of the paper, the top 5 boxes are labeled with the days of the school week, Monday through Friday. Then, in the top box, students are allowed to write either something about themselves or ask her a question. It could be something that they were afraid to ask earlier or something about her. Then, the students record the grade (out of 20 points) that they think they should receive for participation and class that day. Tovani then responds to their comment in the box below and writes the grade that they actually received for participation that day. At the end of the week, Tovani totals up the points for that week and records it in her grade book. I love this idea! And though I am a math person, I think that I'd like to use this to increase communication in my classroom.

What do y'all think? Groups? Communication? How does all of this work?

"Content Literacy - the ability of someone to interact with and use strategies to interpret the content of some subject (in its own language) including being able to speak, listen to, read, and write in that language"

{Sassy}

A Blog Triage

I am pretty excited about today's blog. I get to peek into the minds of my classmates through a medium rather than talking. I've been searching through their blogs and finding oh so much inspiration. And that's what classmates are partially for, right? To encourage us to go above and beyond! Sadly, that's not always what happens. In fact, most of the time students compete against each other or use each other as excuses to not do their best work. 

Well, I'm changing that. I want to use the inspiration from my fellow classmates to make me into a better teacher. And who knows, maybe along the way, I can help them too!

"Everybody has the right to his or her own thoughts. Most will probably different than mine but needless to say we all have thoughts. All thoughts are valid in our own head but it’s communicating them that get tricky. When other people share there opinions that are different than mine most times I shut down. If someone said they really hated The Walking Dead than I probably wouldn’t talk about it with them anymore. I would stop communicating my thoughts. That is what I want to put an end to in my classroom: non-communication of thoughts."

Teaching on Canvas

I loved how she put this! In school, children are supposed to be learning how to express themselves through writing as well as discussions. When there is a culture in a classroom in which students do not feel safe voicing their opinions, it stifles conversations that could enhance understanding. So I'm with you Teaching on Canvas. I want a classroom where communication is encouraged too!

"As our students become more technologically savvy, their reliance upon those things becomes greater. So, our experience with such devices needs to evolve as well. We need to get used to what our students will be bringing into our classrooms, as well as what they use in their everyday lives. This will help us connect with them better, and will allow us to use technology as a tool to increase our students content literacy within our classroom."

Apple Pi

One of my favorite topics in education is technology. Part of that is because of my own dependence on technology, and another part is because I am fascinated by the use of technology in the classroom and the many ways people approach that. I am actually attending a large math teachers conference next week and am going to make sure that I hit up a lot of sessions on this very subject! Technology is such a huge part of our culture, so why not bring it into the culture of our classroom?

"I realized that it is our job as teachers to make the importance of reading known to our students."

The Teach Fairy

So. Incredibly. True. This is one of the biggest lessons that I feel that I've learned during this semester studying content literacy. Students need to see a point to reading and know why they are doing it! I hate hearing people say that they hate reading, so I want to work against that attitude in my classroom.

"We should test each student when they come into our class for content literacy knowledge through reading and writing.  Based off of this we will know how to individually help them."

Pin It to Teach It

I love that this person is clearly concerned with the individual students and not just the class as a whole. Each student that we encounter is growing and learning in different ways. That makes my job as a teacher exciting but also difficult. And challenging. But I don't back away from challenges and I don't plan on backing away from this one. I want to help my students to learn and grow in the way that they do it best! If that means more work for me, so be it.

"My mother also told me each week she would pick a hard word from the dictionary to incorporate into her lessons all week. She wouldn’t tell the students she would just make sure she would use it more then 3 times a day every day. She said sometimes they would ask other times they would figure it out and before long they were repeating these words back to her in conversation without needing support… (it was at this point that I realized my mother also did this with her own children… felt like such a Guinea pig)."

Those Who Can't, Teach

This post made me laugh out loud! A mother daughter team who are both teachers. Each of them learning from each other. And I loved what the mom used to do both in and out of her classroom! Introducing a new and challenging word with out announcing it. Then, just use it throughout the day. I am very tempted to use this in my future classroom.

Well, there's a little bit of insight into my classmates' minds! Now go check out their blogs for yourselves!

"Content Literacy - the ability of someone to interact with and use strategies to interpret the content of some subject (in its own language) including being able to speak, listen to, read, and write in that language"

{Sassy}