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.