Week 2 Review

Early in our discussion of the reading we found that the two chapters our group selected focused on different ideas of language literacy. My book, “"The New Science Literacy”, looked to define the two types of language that students use within the school, exploratory and presentational. The chapter also included several lists that were meant to help guide teachers in using these two types of speech in the classroom. Leslie, Melissa, and Catharine’s book, “Mathematical Literacy and Adolescents and Digital Literacies” did not focus so heavily on defining these differences. Instead their chapter provided several useful strategies that could be implemented in the classroom. One such strategy was called “the silent teacher,” where the teacher removes herself from the conversation and lets the students discuss the issue on their own We all agreed that both chapters seemed to focus more heavily on exploratory speech and that the book club is a prime example of exploratory speech in action.

Our group was able to make several connections to material that we have covered in. One of the main connections we made was to our discussions of metacognition. One of the key characteristics of exploratory speech is that students use it to question each other’s ideas as well as use their conversations to evaluate their own understandings. This is a good example of metacognition because students are thinking about their own thought processes. If we can get our students to do this on a regular basis then they will able to have more meaningful learning experiences. We were also able to make connections to the reading apprenticeship model. We found that this reading connected to the social (safe learning environment), cognitive (thinking about explaining the information to others), and knowledge building (being exposed to different ideas from other students) facets of the model. If used together, it could be possible to improve reading skills by having students connect their discussions to their readings

Leslie's Books Reading Response 2.

I liked Chapter 10 a lot. I agree with the author 100% percent that practicing cooperative learning through listening and speaking in mathematics promotes learning in a math classroom. I believe cooperative learning is key in student literacy learning of mathematics because through students working with another peer or in small groups are allowed to get a different perspective on a problem or part of a lesson from a another student than just the teacher. Students can come up with different approaches to solving a problem and having students exposed to these possibilities enhances their learning and understanding of mathematics.

Cooperative learning allows students to express their thinking orally; they practice their listening skills, and also learn how to question other students about their ideas to help them clarify information. I have seen the “make my day” cooperative learning activity done at my CPD slightly different. My mentor calls it “Raise to the top”, she uses the word banks of mathematical terms they have learned throughout the year. Students all start at the back of the classroom, and teacher puts up the word, the student who raised his/her hand first and answers the correctly moves up one desk until they reach the from desk just one question away from reaching the board and winning the game. I enjoy seeing the students play this especially when they come into school looking very tired, this game gets them moving. The second thing I like about this game is that since the desks are lines up a student from the back can actually hop over the students if the desks are taken given them the chance to get back into the game and building their confidence to wanting to try. Lastly, what I also like about this game is that students do not only recite back just the definition they also give you a sentence or an example of how the term is used.

I have never heard of the silent teacher cooperative strategy. This strategy I founded to be very powerful in helping students understand literacy in mathematics. Often time as teachers, we do not allow time for students to question or explain problems. We always explain to students how to perform a task and solve problems in math. We need to take a step back and allow students time to take the role of the teacher by allowing them to explain problems to the class. From just listening to the students reading out-loud mathematical expression and explaining how to solve problems, we can learn if they understand mathematical symbols and if they are using them correctly. Allowing them to take the role of the teacher from time to time allows students the opportunity to verbalize mathematical symbols and terms/vocabulary. As a result, it enhances their chances for students to learn mathematics more effectively.

Lastly, teacher would learn from students and also be aware where students are struggling just by listening to their conversations and explanations. Teachers can pick up on students’ miss-interpretation of math terms and symbols and even errors in their step process when solving a problem. This allows the teacher to go back a second time improve their lesson to re-present the material on the misconceptions students may have. I agree with the author when he said that people that choose this field is because they like explaining and they are good at it. However, it is time for teachers to take a step back every so often to allow students thinking and verbalizing of mathematics to develop. It is time to help them become critical thinkers about mathematics and independent learners of the information they are being exposed to at school. Furthermore, cooperative learning is an excellent skill for students to build up their communication and team working skills, something they will be faced in the future when they go out in the real world.

Response Two- Alex

I really liked reading this chapter because it introduced an idea to me that I had never really considered before. The majority of the chapter deals with the differences between the two types of language that students use in a classroom. The first is referred to as exploratory and the second is presentational. Each is used in a specific capacity and can be used to promote learning in different ways.

Exploratory speech is described as the language student’s use amongst themselves as they work together on projects and other assignments. As the name suggests, this type of language helps students explore the material and develop more concrete understandings.  When working in groups, students try to express and defend their ideas. When monitored by the teacher, group discussions help students create connections within the subject. The book makes it a point to say that having small group discussions or whole class discussions have the potential to help student learning. The book also provides a checklist or standards to follow during these discussions.

Presentation speech is the language that students used when a student is trying to relay information to the class after a research based project. This method of speech is much clearer and thought out.  These types of presentations also allow students to practice public speaking and makes sure they know the required material before they give the presentation. When used in the classroom the book suggests pairing this method with exploratory speech. Pairing the two together lets students develop their language skills more completely.

I was very interested in this chapter. I was not sure what to expect from it. I believe the ideas it presents are extremely relevant to not only a science classroom but also a history or modern language class. These two classes along with a science class allow for more open discussion. I have seen these methods work first hand in classrooms that I observed in and participated in. I always felt that time was used more productively when students discussed their work amongst themselves. However, I never really gave it a second thought until I read this chapter. Now it makes perfect sense.

Catherine's Response - Week 2

Dear group members,

          After reading Chapter 10, I gained some confidence as an aspiring math teacher. The reason why I say this is because this chapter offered a few collaborative learning practices that can be done to effectively integrate literacy and math. Because this chapter focused mainly on speaking and listening math, the techniques in this chapter encouraged this type of literacy learning. It is important that students are able to speak the language of math in order for them to expand their knowledge because they can share ideas, thoughts, wonderings, and etc. The techniques that I liked were Jigsaw, symbol-language glossary, but my favorite was the most was the Give and Take practice.
           For Alex---the Give and Take requires two students. One student is the giver and the other is the taker. The giver is the student who verbally describes a concept, a process, or an algebraic equation. The taker in return is the one who carefully listens and absorbs the description to produce a representation of what was given. I remember doing this activity with another student during a communication workshop at Pace. We stood back to back and my partner gave me descriptions of the picture she had and I had to try to replicate the picture she had at hand. It was challenging, but it definitely required us to effectively communicate with each other. Not only does this activity require listening skills, but also verbal. I loved this activity because it demonstrates that literacy is not just about reading. Instead, it is about being able to verbally express your thinking while listening attentively. This activity truly captures the ability for students to use content language to reach a goal by working together. This could be used in all content areas. Perhaps in Earth Science, students can try this method when learning how to classify rocks (sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks?).
            Allowing students to take charge and having the opportunity to safely communicate with a partner can help the teacher assess students as well.  I remember the first time I learned the Greek letter theta in Trigonometry. I was completely clueless and it took sometime for me to understand that it represented an unknown angle. I also remember having trouble-pronouncing theta. It affected my learning because I was unable to verbalize a symbol that continued to appear throughout the school year. Eventually, I learned and when I did, it was like a light bulb went off and everything finally made sense. I wonder how often do teachers make an effort to sincerely assess their student’s content language?
            This reading reminded me about chart in the Beers article on The Measures of Our Success. The chart on page 12 shows the 4-aspects of 21st-Century Learning. One of them includes, effective communication. It shows that in order for there to be academic achievement, students must be able to engage in interactive communication, teaming, collaboration, and interpersonal skills. Chapter 10 addresses and provides the reader with these tools to achieve effective communication. Additionally, the techniques in Chapter 10 also touched upon inventive thinking, where student’s curiosity and higher order thinking were provoked.
             Ultimately, speaking and listening can improve the learning within a mathematics lesson and for students to become well-rounded mathematicians. The practices that were presented all allow the teacher to clarify any misconception and identify student difficulties.
                                                                                                             Cathy

Melissa's Response - Week 2

This chapter focuses on different learning practices that encourage students to speak and listen in class in order for them to form a deeper understanding of the material they are learning. First, the Chapter describes cooperative learning strategies such as Think-Pair-Share, Roundtable, Co-op, and Jigsaw. In our math methods class we have spoken about how Think-Pair-Share and Jigsaw give students more opportunities to express what they are thinking. In think-pair-share the teacher poses a question, allows students to think independently about it, then each student partners with another one to discuss their ideas about the problem, and finally students share their answers with the class. I think this strategy relates to the social dimension of the Reading Apprenticeship model because it will help students feel more comfortable in the classroom and pose questions when they are having difficulties. My mentor teacher has used this strategy in her classroom before and I think it helped students become more engaged in what they were learning because they were able to discuss it with someone instead of doing independent work.
Last semester in TCH 323 we used the jigsaw method with our first reading assignment. I confess that I didn't exactly understand what the point of jigsaw was but after learning about it in my math methods class I really like the strategy. In this strategy students are put into "home teams", each student of the home team is assigned a different topic on which they become an expert, students then go to their expert groups to discuss their topics, finally the experts go back to the home teams and teach their peers what they have learned about the topic. I like Jigsaw because helps students make meaning of the material they are learning, helps students practice speaking mathematically, and keeps them accountable for teaching others. Though I have never seen this strategy enacted in my CPD, I would love to try it one day.
The second half of the chapter explains different opportunities to engage students in language use. Some examples of these opportunities are silent teacher, symbol-language glossary, give and take, and make my day. I think every teacher should try the silent teacher strategy because it is vital to step out of a conversation and let the students discuss their perspectives on the topic they are learning. In math especially teachers always give students a certain procedure to answer a specific question. By becoming a silent teacher we will allow students to build on their own approach to a question instead of the way we want them to answer it.
Another strategy that I think would be beneficial in a math class is Give and Take. In this strategy students work in pairs, first the giver verbally describes a concept to the taker, the taker listens carefully to the description and then creates an appropriate representation of the idea on paper. Once the taker creates the representation the pair discusses the differences between what is said and drawn, then they switch. I like this strategy because it allows students to practice communicating mathematically and creating their representations of what they heard. I think this will be helpful in a math class because math is a visual subject so allowing students to practice creating their representations will help them better understand the material they are learning.

 

Week 2

This week we will be reading Chapter 10: Building meaning through speaking and listening. We will be creating or our own posts when we write our dialogue journals. Remember to click "New Post" on the top right hand side of this page to add your post to the blog. If you need any help when creating your post just let me know.

The roles for this week:
Discussion Director - Melissa
Note taker - Alex
Connector - Leslie
Summarizer/Clarifier - Cathy
Tech manager - Melissa

The deadline to post your dialogue journal is Wednesday at midnight!
Remember to check the blog on Thursday and read through the posts so that we can connect the two readings easily in our discussion on Friday.  

BOOK CLUB SUMMARY- READING #1

We all agreed that language is fundamental in all the different content areas. It is the main tool to help student make meaning of words. One strategy the math people explored was the usage of word origins, prefixes and roots.  Having students looks up prefixes and their roots is a tool to help them better grasp the meaning of words. Math is like a new language for the students, and as teachers we need to make our classroom language usage intense for them to understand mathematics terms. For science, language also plays and important role. Language skills are needed to communicate with the science community. It is important to model using language in the classroom for students to do the same. Some of the connections that were made were: one page 109 square root concepts to the reading apprentice of the four dimensions- socially they are connecting with other students, they reflect on their work, cognitive- they are thinking about the problem and knowledge building- they understood the underlining concept of the task.  Another one was found in the reading about reserving space for wall of words this tides to Stephen wall of words. Lastly, another great connection was in Chapter 3 that summarizes that students have difficulty understanding math vocabulary this tides to the Risk Article reading about struggling students not being able to decode words. All in all, Language plays a very important role in helping students make meaning of what they are learning in class regardless of the subject area they are studying.