Final Synthesis Blog: "an ode to content area literacy"

     Before this course, I overlooked the importance of reading in a math course.  When I read the course description on the bulletin I thought to myself, it is not my job to teach kids to read, that is what English teachers are for.  And while it is not going to be my job, as a math teacher, to teach my students HOW to read, it is going to be my job to facilitate good reading skills and strategies as they pertain to my math class.  When a student of mine cannot read the word problems on a test, their inability to read WILL totally be my problem.  I remember on the first day of class when we read the statistics about illiteracy in the United States; chances are, I will have a good number of students who will struggle with reading in my class, and in their other classes too.  Struggling readers will also struggle with math content that they will not be able to read and comprehend-- directly impacting their performance in math.  

Think Aloud/ Thinking Out Loud pun

Shocking, but makes total sense!

     Perhaps one of the most important things I have taken away from the semester comes from the "Think Aloud" reading strategy.  Just like how in my math class I will demonstrate how to solve one variable equations step-by-step in great detail and explaining why I am doing each step, I will need to demonstrate how to read math problems in the same detail in order to help my students succeed in Math.  It is not common sense; you read math differently than you read a novel, and differently than you read a primary document in Social Studies.  Demonstrating what good reading (in a math context) looks like is just as important as teaching the math content.  Saying things like "when I read this problem, I notice that XYZ..." or "So I am going to underline that part, because I think I will need to use that later in the problem..." is helping my students see how I, as the teacher, read math problems and what is going through my head when I am solving them. 
     As someone who has never been a big reader, I sympathize with the students who do not want to read more than they have to in order to pass the reading quiz.  However, throughout the course I have come across some really interesting texts that would be relevant to my middle school math class.  I have collected texts (for my text set and past synthesis blogs) that are relevant to the middle school math curriculum, but that are not Math textbooks.  For many of the assignments that required us to collected a text relevant to our content area, I have come across texts that are aimed at developing financial literacy skills in young adults/teenagers... this has really sparked my interest!  It is way easier than I had originally thought to include a variety of texts into a math class.  Providing a Business Insider article and asking math related questions based on the numbers from the article, for example, would be a cool way of straying from the math textbook every now and then.  These outside readings will not replace textbooks, but they are a rich supplement to textbooks that are fairly easy to come across.
     While there have been some topics in the textbook and covered in class that I do not necessarily see myself including in my classroom (like the book circles, for example), I think I am leaving LLED 3530 with a better understanding of the importance of literacy in all content area classes (and outside of school as well).  I understand the responsibility I will have, as a math teacher, to facilitate good reading skills and practices in my class. 
     

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Help For Struggling Readers

     As history, math and science teachers, it is easy to overlook the importance of reading in content area classrooms.  However, as we have learned throughout this course, our students' reading capabilities will DIRECTLY impact their ability to succeed in other non-ELA classes.  My favorite item on the "Strategies to help struggling readers" list was the bullet about helping students self-monitor their learning.  I had a teacher in highschool who would use the term "meta-cognate" many times a class period.  After learning some new topic or some earth shattering discovery, he would prompt us to think about our thinking-- meta-cognition.  Although it is hard for younger students to do, it is an important skill for students to be able to think about their own thinking, and think about their own understanding of a topic.  I, as the teacher, cannot get inside the brain of my student and tell if they really understand what I am talking about.  There have been many occasions where I studied for a test and thought I knew the material like the back of my hand, but then did not do well on the test; I thought I knew better than I actually did.

     If teachers teach their students to check their own understanding throughout their learning, they are prompting them to ask clarifying questions and ask for help as they learn the material, rather than realizing they do not know anything after failing a test.  Having students "stop and think" also slows down those speedy readers who zip through the reading just so they can say they did it, but in reality they did not process any of what they read (I have a bad habit of doing this).  Teachers who ask students "what do you think about this" as they read material help them self-monitor their reading by encouraging them to process what they just read, and use other strategies to make meaning out of words on the page.        

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Inquiry Units

WRONG! Math is everywhere!

     A super easy way for me to incorporate this would be in the "statistics and probability" unit of any grade math (Statistics is a topic included in the state standards for all middle grades math).  Before any assignment was given out, I would demonstrate proper techniques of how to collect data (whether it was through research or surveying people) and make my expectations of the project very clear from the beginning.  With a less concrete project, it is important for the teacher to set expectations and let students know what she will be looking for when grading.  I would allow for students to pick a topic that would be easy for them to survey about or gather data on; this is a way of letting students exercise their right to "choose."  This would allow the kids that are interested in baseball to do research on baseball statistics of the Chicago Cubs spanning the last 70 years, or if some students wanted to collect the data themselves, they could survey members of the community or class in order to have that data to work with.  

     I love the idea of "inquiry based learning" simply because it allows students to explore a topic in a way that is a bit more exciting compared to a traditional paper-and-pencil exam or an in-class worksheet that teaches a topic.  Especially as a future math teacher, there are a ton of data sets, articles and graphs that can help in inquiry based learning projects; similar to the one mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. 
    Using the information they either collected themselves or gathered from research, the class would put together either a poster board or a presentation in which they explain the data, how they calculated mean, median and mode, and any graphics they created using the data (graphs, charts...etc.)

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Lit Circle Podcast

Synthesis Blog #2

     In this article, Linda Gambrell outlines 7 specific things teachers and educators can do in order to enhance students' motivation to read for pleasure.  Like in the past few chapters in Subjects Matter, Gambrell emphasizes the importance of letting students choose what they want to read when you can.  Logically, students will be more inclined to read things that they are interested in!  She also explains that "students are more motivated to read when they have ample opportunities to engage in sustained reading" (174).  This is the idea of SSR mentioned earlier in the book. 
     And finally, and my personal favorite, Gambrell states that "students are more motivated to read when they have opportunities to socially interact with others about the text they are reading" (175).  This can be done seamlessly with the book clubs addressed in Subjects Matter.  Not only are students able to pick books that interest them, but by talking with other students they are able to have low stakes conversations about what they have read.  In my own experience, I usually prefered to talk with other students rather than have whole class discussions-- which at times can be overwhelming or even chaotic.
     If we can enhance our students intrinsic motivation to read, I assume we (as educators) would see an improvement in student performance across content areas.  A student reading on their own about their interest in outer space can improve their performance in the science class, for example.  As a future math teacher, I can see the advantages of allowing students to have designated reading for pleasure time in my class.




For a good laugh:


Gambrell, L. B. (2011, November). Seven Rules of Engagement: What's Most Important to Know About Motvation to Read. The Reading Teacher, 65(3), 172-178.

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"Love From Your Friend, Hannah" book pitch

Content Area Book Clubs

     I find the idea of a "Content Area Book Club" to be a really cool idea to use like once during a school year.  It is an awesome idea for students to be able to CHOOSE a book in the content area (which automatically makes them want to read it more, because usually they will choose a book that interests them), and then have them discuss it with other classmates.  I am a huge fan of students discussing their work, or in this case their reading, with other classmates rather than as a whole class discussion; as someone who used to get nervous talking in front of the whole class, it is less scary to talk to a small group. 
     Again, like I have noticed in other chapters, I think Math is getting the cold shoulder in the "Content Area Book Club."  I think Social Studies and Science teachers could easily incorporate a book club into their curriculum, but as a future math teacher, I am struggling to think of ONE book, let alone enough to give students multiple choices.  In my opinion, Social Studies especially lends itself to this sort of thing because many history teachers and historians love primary documents.  Adding a novel like The Diary of Anne Frank (which is a primary document) or historical fiction into the curriculum would be a really cool way of mixing in non-textbook reading.      
     I am not opposed to the idea of a Math Book Club; I am just not aware of enough relevant, grade-level, and USEFUL math books to use.  I would not want to add in a book club for the sake of having a book club if I didn't feel like it benefited my students' math skills. 

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