Student Writing in Math

"I recently attended several reading PGOs and have come to realize the importance of using reading and writing in a math classroom. Mainly, I am finding that by incorporating more techniques, such as graphic organizers, that more of my students are able to understand the material we cover in class. Besides that, I am better able to determine the varying levels at which students understand the material. For instance, I chose to determine whether students truly understood the differences and similarities of various shapes, namely prisms and pyramids. I provided students with the writing prompt “Write a paragraph about the similarities and the differences between prisms and pyramids” and gave them time to work on it in class. I then collected the paragraphs and read them over to determine who in class truly understood the material and who still needed some more assistance. I found that there were a variety of responses, and that I truly did not do as great a job teaching about those two basic solids as I had originally thought. I have included two examples of the student work I collected. It is obvious student A has an excellent understanding of the material and is able to make comparisons to real-life examples. However, student B is not at the same level of understanding. Although he understands the basic differences of the two shapes, he is not able to make the same connections that student A has made."

Word Problems ... oh my!

My students have a great difficulty with word problems. After thinking about what it is that truly frightens them about these problems, I think they are overwhelmed with the material provided. In order to help them feel less afraid of these big bad problems, I created a lesson plan using a specific "formula" for helping them determine what information is needed, what information is not needed, and what they should do in order to solve the problem. This process is very similar to KWL, and will hopefully be able to help students feel more capable of tackling of these problems, rather than shrinking away from them.

KNWS Strategy for Word Problems

Reading in a math class? Are you kidding me?

Reading is often one of those things I tend to overlook when I am teaching. I don’t do this intentionally, but just assume that my students are capable of reading the material that I give them. Unfortunately, like many of the assumptions I make, I am very wrong!

After attending several PGOs about the importance of literacy in the classroom, I’ve come to realize that my students are not going to achieve the number literacy, or capability of solving math problems accurately, I want them to have without first ensuring that they are able to read and understand the material that I give them. I think that many of my students simply go through the motions of learning, following along as I explain problems and occasionally writing things down. However, when it comes time for them to solve a problem on their own they do not know how to pick apart a problem to determine the important information from the unimportant. They do not even seem to understand what the question is asking them to do, let alone how to go about solving the problem.

I know that by using more of the learning practices that involve reading my students would be able to better learn the material. It would give them opportunities to extend their thinking on the subject matter, as well as giving them more opportunities to “catch on” to what we are discussing. However, when it comes down to it, the main issue that seems to strike any teacher when incorporating another task in the classroom is that of time. By looking at the benefits of teaching with more literacy methods in place rather than focusing on the time I am sacrificing in the classroom, I know I can make more of an effort to use these tactics in the future. I am sure my students will be better off because of it!

Writing in Junior High Math (Geometry)

On a recent test, I decided to try something new in my classroom and use an essay question. The reason for this experimentation is that I had recently attended a PGO titled “Making Meaning Reading PGO Part I” and the presenter had brought a book with writing prompts in it. Multiple writing prompts fit with the material that we were doing at that time but the one that I choose had the students describe area and perimeter. I did not know what to expect out of this and was afraid that all of my students would simply state how to find the area. I read and graded the students answers to the question. To my great surprise, one of the first papers I corrected had the exact explanation that the area is the amount space inside a figure and that the perimeter is the distance around a figure. Only a few students had similar answers but I believe that this shows that they have a better understanding of area and perimeter than their classmates who only look at it as an equation used when asked. I plan to continue to use writing prompts on tests as well as an opener for class since there were many different questions available in the book that relate throughout the geometry curriculum. I believe that this would be a good opportunely to use think, share, pair int he math classroom.

Common Core Literacy Standards?

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, sponsored by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers, has published a draft of K-12 standards for literacy and math.  The core standards have been linked with Race to the Top funds.
The literacy standards include an articulated set of K-12 skills designed to "help ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy by no later than the end of high school."

The document outlines a rationale and skill set for reading in the content areas which aligns with our approach to integrating reading in the content areas: "The student who is college and career ready... build[s] strong content knowledge. 

• Students establish a base of knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance.
• They become proficient in new areas through research and study.
• They read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise.
• They refine and share their knowledge through writing and speaking."

The draft also includes Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies & Science:

"Just as students must learn to communicate effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understandings required for eventual college and career readiness in history, social studies, and science as well as ELA [English Language Arts]."

The draft also includes appendices which outline supporting research, provide student writing samples for each grade level, and identify text exemplars (titles, excerpts, and media links). 

What do you think?  Check out the standards - they are open for public feedback through April 2.

For an overview of the standards and political controversy, read the Associated Press (AP) report hosted by Google or Washington Post review.  Read more at Education Week.

New Book - Great Resource

Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are all literacy skills we need to teach and reinforce across the curricula.  If you visit our online professional library and search for 'reading' you'll find a growing wealth of resources that provide tips and ideas for embedding literacy practices into your lesson plans.  The latest book, Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12: A Toolkit of Classroom Activities by Jeff Zwiers, was puiblished by the International Reading Association and chock-full of reproducible activities organized around key comprehension skills that are integrated into our elementary and middle school curriculum:

• organizing text: identifying main ideas and summarizing
• connecting to background knowledge
• making inferences and predictions
• generating and answering questions
• understanding and remembering word meanings (vocabulary)
• monitoring one's own comprehension

You can preview much of the book online through Google Books.

New Blog!

The purpose of this blog is to provide a format for teachers to share what they're trying in the classroom, including successes and challlenges, so that we can better learn from each others' experiences to build comprehension in our subject areas.