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}

Sticky Notes, Highlighters, and Pens. Oh my!

If you're like me, you sometimes will read an entire page (or chapter) and then realize that you have absolutely no idea what you just read. So then you have to go back and read the whole thing over again which wastes even more time. Generally, when students are reading for school, they are trying to get it done as quickly as possible so that they can move on to TV or video games. For me, I'm usually trying to finish so that I can go to sleep. (College life.) So, this extra time spent going back to reread a section of a book seems like a complete waste. Often, students will not even take the time to reread the section because of that waste of time. So how do we combat this? Use their time to get the most out of their reading so that they can move on to more fun things?

Cris Tovani, author of Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?, suggests a few different tools that teachers can use to help students hold onto their thinking so that they can use it later in class or on assignments. Some of the tools she lists include using highlighters and sticky notes. (Side note: I am probably in the minority, but there's nothing that I love more than new school supplies in all different colors. So the thought of new sticky notes and highlighters that color coordinate with topics? Sign me up.) Along with those tools, Tovani also mentions different worksheets that she gives her students called "Comprehension Constructors" and includes a blank template in the back of the book for other teachers' use.

As I was reading this chapter, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what Tovani was saying about holding students' thinking while reading, but still having some questions. For example, I know that I've said in the past how I love math and plan on teaching it soon. How can I take the tools that Tovani is providing me with and apply them to a math class? She gave one example in this chapter, but I'd like to sit down with her and pick her brain on this idea.

I also really loved that Tovani gave some very practical tools for teachers to use. As I learn more and more about teaching, grading comes more to the forefront of my mind when planning assessments. Tovani spent a lengthy amount of time talking about helping her students learn to use sticky notes in books when reading to ask questions, make comments, and communicate with the text which is all great! But then how do teachers know that students have done that assignment? It's incredibly difficult to take home all of the books to grade, but Tovani gave an example of how to help out with that problem. She has her students write the page number of the book that the students put the sticky note on the note, and then the students put all of their sticky notes onto a sheet of paper. Voila! Suddenly a teacher goes from carrying home 150 books, to a folder full of papers to grade. Not to mention the lack of page turning to search for the notes.

I appreciate how Tovani writes. She is engaging and shares her struggles and pitfalls. It is encouraging to see how she works with students and little by little helps them to become more proficient readers.

"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}

Content Literacy for a Non-Education Major

Content Literacy is a concept that needs to be explored by each person. It will look different when you explore its work in your life and mine. Not to say that we won't have similar experiences, but a lot of our ideas and thoughts about it will be different. And that's a great thing!

For example: I have four older sisters, all of whom are married and have children. Two of them have decided to homeschool their kids in conjunction with a co-op group. In this group, the parents each have to teach a few classes during the school year. Over spring break, I spent some time with one of my sisters that is going through this process and she shared about some of what she's been doing. She is an extremely talented artist, so it's not surprising that the group asked her to teach some of the art classes. What is surprising though, is that they also are having her teach a couple of math classes. As I've said before on here, math is SO my thing. I love it and it makes sense to me. Not so much for my sister.

Of course I was interested in this class that she was to teach so I asked questions. My nieces piped in telling me that they were learning about circumferences. It seems like a simple enough subject, but for my sister who is 35 and probably hasn't had a math class since her freshman year of college, it might be difficult. She had to take the "basic" principals that she learned so long ago, and remember how she learned them. She had to put herself into her students' shoes and re-learn this subject. And this is what we all should be doing as teachers. A topic that may seem so basic to us will not be basic at all to our students. It's not just teaching a formula and how to plug numbers in. It's teaching kids the why and how behind that formula. My sister had to learn how to read as a math teacher and then as a math student again. If that isn't content literacy in action, I don't know what is!

And I think that this doesn't happen as often as it should. Parents should be helping their students with their homework, but often parents have forgotten the material and simply send their kids to tutors. What if we came up with a way for parents to remember how to read for those specific contents? Then they could help their students and maybe the students could help their parents as well? What would that look like?

Update: Apparently the class went well, (we talked on the phone last night) and my nieces seemed to understand the concept pretty well! I hope in the future to help my sister to create lesson plans for these math classes, possibly getting some artwork in return :)

What do y'all think?

"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}

What's the Point?

Each time I read a section from the book* that our class is using as a "textbook", I learn more about what it looks like to be a good reader. Many things that good readers do, they don't even notice. For example: Good readers ask themselves questions while they are reading to make sure that they understand the content. If they don't, they go back and reread the section. I don't know about you, but I did not even realize I did that. If someone had asked me last year what I did to be a "good reader", I probably would not be able to tell them. Now, I have begun recognizing some of the strategies I use that make me a good reader.

Something that Tovani discussed was the fact that good readers are able to recognize a purpose for every text that they read. Sometimes the purpose is pleasure or to let our minds escape to another world. Most of the time reading in a classroom does not have either of those purposes though. Usually the purpose sounds more like "to learn about this topic" or "to gain understanding of a subject". Those sound incredibly, mind-numbingly boring. I don't even want to read things that have that as a purpose and I'm a growing teacher! So let's change the purpose of the readings that we give to our students. We need to help our students find value in reading the texts that we give them. They need to see a reason to read the texts.

Tovani also introduced these things called a "conversation voice" and a "reciting voice". Our reciting voice is the voice in our head that reads the words, but that is all. The words go in one ear and out the other. It's what causes us to have to go back and read the whole chapter over again. Our "conversation voice" is the voice that helps us to have a conversation with the text. It asks questions and looks for understanding. Helping students to be able to recognize the different between these voices will help them to comprehend what they are reading and stay focused. I've done this my whole life and never had the correct words to describe it, but now I do! Thanks Tovani!

In addition to this, I have had something else that has been heavy on my heart this week. Recently, a bill entitled "SB 167" has been passed in the Senate. It is basically a bill that will keep Georgia from using any nation-wide curriculum such as Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. It will also prevent students from being able to take any testing not created in Georgia including AP tests as well as the SAT and ACT. This bill is very scary to me both as a student and future teacher. I encourage you, if you're reading this, to contact your local representative about this bill as it is going to the House for a vote soon. I contacted the two representatives in my city and actually got an email response from one of them. Who knows what we can do when we all join together and share our concerns?

"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}

*Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? by Cris Tovani

Reading Ratios

So I've been talking about Content Literacy for the past month or so and trying to wrap my head around what it means specifically in the setting of a math class. Then, in the book* that we are using as a textbook in my content literacy class, I was introduced to the idea of "text sets". Tovani defines a text set as "a container organized by units of study". She got the idea from elementary school libraries and classrooms around the country where books are organized by topics and authors and genres. Now how do we take that idea and transfer it to a middle or high school classroom? And more specifically, a math classroom?

I've been exploring this idea over the past week and coming up with new ideas. After all, what does text even look like in a math class? Part of the point of these text sets are to help students at all different levels to gain the same understanding of the same content in a different way. It can be with readings of different levels of difficulty or, in my case, problems that range from easy (to some students) to extremely difficult. Here is an example that I have compiled of a text set to help students understand ratios.

The Math Dude - The Golden Ratio:
I mentioned The Math Dude in a recent blog post and here he is again! This is a video and blog post on this thing called The Golden Ratio and how many photographers use it to take more interesting pictures. This text and video could be used to help students find some interest and usefulness in ratios. Text sets don't have to contain only boring reading materials. This is an example of that.

Dan Meyer - My Ultimate Nerd Math Crush - Genius lesson plans:
I cannot tell y'all how much I love this man and think he is wonderful. I had the amazing opportunity to hear him speak last semester and the way that he went about teaching a group of math teachers with a simple but very real world problem blew my mind. If I had had him as a math teacher, who knows where I'd be know? Probably conquering the world... I digress. This link provides a few of his videos, worksheets, and full lesson plans on how to work with students on ratios. This is another way that kids can get practice doing word problems and making sense of ratios.

Sometimes Funny Things Help Students Understand Better:
This video is horribly cheesy, but I found myself chuckling, so maybe awkward middle school students will too? It tells the story of a girl going on multiple dates and each guy speaks a different number of words. One guy talks too much compared to her. Another doesn't speak much at all. Finally she finds a guy who talks the exact same amount as she does and boom! It's love. (Don't we all wish it was that easy.) It also talks about equivalent ratios and equivalent fractions which, I believe, can help students in their understanding of this topic.

Extra Practice:
This is a link to worksheets and extra problems that students can use to practice their understanding of ratios. There are different levels of difficulty that can be used to help students. Maybe after watching some of these videos or learning different ways to go about solving the same problem, they can practice what they've learned.

Notes - Different Ways To Think About the Same Problem:
Teachers have to understand how to do a problem in 12 different ways so that they can teach 12 different students to understand how to do it in their own way. In the text set, I've included some notes that I've taken of different ways to look at the same problem. Sometimes there is not enough time to teach 12 different ways during class, so this is an opportunity to help students take learning into their own hands and still succeed.

This concept is still a little bit foreign to me so join me as I grow in my understanding of text sets. If you have ideas, please let me know! After all, the whole point of this blog is to learn and grow from other teachers ahead of me. And I hope that this helps you too. If it does, let me know about that too. A little encouragement never hurts :)

"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}

*Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? by Cris Tovani