Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Teaching Math
The first few chapter of the book, Teaching Mathematics Vocabulary in Context has many interesting strategies that could be apply to any major or topic. It starts talking about how to build a great vocabulary foundation and how knowing vocabulary is the key element of mathematics. Then she talks about different strategies that could be used in a classroom that will motivate students to learn.One strategy that she uses is setting up a Family Math Night for the students and their parents. Family Night is a scavenger hunt for the parents and students. Each family explores the different station and participates in group games and analyzes words, the one to find the most words get a price. I love the idea of getting parents participation in the student’s education in a fun and effective way. As a teacher family involvement is very important. Another great approach in teaching vocabulary or any subject is by asking students why you think it’s important. Have them go into your head as a teacher and answer the question why. Students at this point start giving you different answer that they convince themselves that mathematics play in important role in their math work. “Questioning can bring about powerful classroom discourse while students are exchanging or preparing to exchange ideas.” (41)Lastly, other strategies that she uses are teaching students how to note take, create word wall, write journal and mathematical games like I have, who has. .
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Dear fellow math book clubers,
Since my job this week was about making connections I have geared my focus to essentially that, whether it be with former readings, class discussion, real life applications, etc. However, I would first like to point out a few great points made by Miki Murray. For one, it is always hard to make connections of literacy with mathematics. In many traditional math classrooms, the use of emphasizing the importance of “math language” is limited. I know that when I was in high school math and language were of two different concepts. Miki Murray makes a wonderful point of encouraging math teachers to use words, literacy, and language as an essential part of the classroom. To add to my comment last week, Murray stated “using and learning mathematics vocabulary becomes part of the way we do business” (page 22). Teaching vocabulary in a math classroom is a strategic way of teaching math, not a way to add more to the tight curriculum. Many math teachers stress the fact of drilling certain concepts into their students mind for memorization geared to a specific goal, mostly the regents. But is this what we want as a result, just for our students to pass the regents? It is a great goal to have, but our teaching would be more effective if our students left the classroom everyday having learned and truly understand math. A way we can do this is by making math language a part of their everyday language. Murray points out that we frequently use words to communicate because we use them every day. Sadly, students are just being exposed to math vocabulary and language in the classroom. If we are just encouraging our students to memorize instead of understanding, the application of math becomes harder to recognize and use.
One of the connections that I made with Murray was her use of the word wall. I loved seeing something that we use every day for class being applied in a math classroom. Along with the personal kept word wall, Murray encouraged her students to focus on the roots of words to make it easier to connect mathematical terms with every day terms. For example, she wrote the word commutative property on the board and asked the students what it means to commute. Another connection that I made with one of Murray’s strategies was our talks about inquiry. In the science reading last week, Klaus-Quinlan and Jeff Cazier mentioned inquiry in their classroom. They mentioned allowing their students become the “scientist of the room”. They had their students make up their own procedures, perform their own experiments, and construct their own conclusions. In Murray’s classroom she allowed her students become the “mathematicians of the classroom”. She acted as just the facilitator by presenting a problem or pattern, hence the “pirating pizza” and had her students create their own formulas for reoccurring patterns. Her students “voice” had as much power as her own in the classroom.
YAY it worked!
During my time here at Pace as a tutor, I have come to realize the importance of having a good grasp on vocabulary pertaining to math. So many students struggle in this subject because they are unaware of what the words mean. If students are having difficulty interpreting what the definitions of words are, how are they going to be able to answer questions? Miki Murray writes, “It is my conviction that an important way to ensure the development of mathematically powerful students is to build a strong foundation in mathematics vocabulary,” (4) and I could not agree more.
One way Miki Murray gets her students to increase their vocabulary is by getting the parents involved; “decades of research have shown that the single most important factor in a child’s academic achievement is parental involvement,” (13). In my school experience, I have never had a teacher that sent a letter home before school started addressing what their plans were for the year. But I believe that doing this can make a difference in the child’s learning experience. In Murray’s classroom, she goes over the syllabus and her expectations of the class in great detail just like our first day of class. She also mentions that “there are consequences for noncompliance,” (19) and as a teacher being consistent and following through is important because it shows students that you are a person of your word. On the third day of class, she has her students fill out a survey about themselves similar to the one we filled out the first day of class. This gives her some insight to her students and how she is going to teach. Murray believes “the vocabulary focus of my classroom is not an add-on to the curriculum, or more to teach; it is a way to teach mathematics,” (22).
I was elated when I read that Murray takes the time to make sure her students understand the definitions to new words in a unit before she continues teaching. I have experienced and heard so many teachers that are more concerned about the “coverage” of material and not the comprehension of material which hurts the students in the long run. Teachers cannot assume that their students grasp a term the first time they hear it; “once I understand where students are, we begin to work toward a higher level of understanding,” (25). This is continued with the students creation of their own personal word walls like the ones we create in class. Except, the students are to add five new words a week and it is their responsibility to expand their vocabulary. She also incorporates the think, pair, share learning strategy and incorporates reading of real life applications to expand vocabulary and interest in the subject.
Last class, we participated in the activity I have, Who has and this can also be applied to math vocabulary. Murray refers to some math vocabulary as demons; “certain mathematics vocabulary terms that are extraordinarily difficult or most students.” Being aware of certain topics most students do not understand I believe is a good thing because then more time can be spent on that topic.
So far I am enjoying this book. It is incredibly difficult finding readings that can benefit perspective math teachers, but the ideas and concepts so far in this book I am finding beneficial and hopefully I can use them in the classroom.
I apologize in advance if I posted in the wrong spot. My technology knowledge is very limited.
Math is a tough language to learn. Children are not exposed to mathematical language nearly as much as their native language as developing children and therefore struggle with it as it gets more in depth. Is there a way to get children more exposed to math as they are developing and learning language? As this book describes, vocabulary is a very important element of understanding mathematics. Many teachers think that teaching vocabulary takes time away from their curriculum based lessons. However, if vocabulary was included in the everyday lessons and discussions, very little extra time is needed. Miki Murray describes vocabulary as a way to teach math. However, the question is, what does it really mean to know a word? Students must be able to know more than the definition, but rather be able to apply it to a variety of contexts and continuously building on the meaning of words. That's why I always hated vocab quizzes because all it showed was that you memorized the words in the definition, but not really what it actually means.
A lot of Miki’s activities, as well as vocabulary learning, are revolved around what the students already know and what the students can figure out from that. It isn’t until after hearing, seeing, and using this word that they will look up the definition in the dictionary. She also doesn’t directly tell students things, but creates activities that encourage the students to figure out what it is she wants them to learn. Not only do i think this is a good idea, but i think this makes things fun, in a way like a solving a puzzle. She does this by questioning. Questioning is a very important tool. Students will ideally reason out responses in their heads. Thinking is done in language as much as speaking and writing. She refers this to metacognition. It is very important to encourage the students to ask questions. Miki states, “you want them to ask good questions – of you, of each other, and of themselves” (45). This is an important process in the students’ learning and understanding of the material. Miki encourages questioning by continuously asking students how they came up with an answer, or how can they phrase something a different way, or what did you know that helps you think of a solution for something. She focuses a lot on students talking their way through problems, with small groups as well as with the whole class. I think that talking your way through a problem is a very effective way to learn.
You all did great. I posted in the other location in response to Jacki and Melissa. I appreciate all your posts especially as you are specific in discussing the actual reading for the reading, raising confusion or questions that come up, and making connections (text to self, text to text, text to word). Summarizing the strategies and your opinion of them is fine to mention but is not necessary as a focus of your post. Most of you understand that, it feels to me. Looking forward to the discussion tonight.
One thing that caught my attention in Ariel's post particularly is the idea re: comprehension vs. coverage. You will ALWAYS feel pressure to COVER, whether or not you have a test. You must decide what you are teaching for (one of our EQ's of TCH 323) to help you make the critical choices all teachers must make in deciding what's important to address so that students really UNDERSTAND. This is one thing that makes teaching the best job on earth!
Some notes on our discussion on 3/18
Here are some things that I jotted down from our group discussion in class…
We spoke about how we liked the idea that teaching math vocabulary should be thought as not something additional to the lesson plan/curriculum but something that should be done
We had a nice chat about the letter being sent home to parents. Zailyn mentioned how it was a good idea to get the parents involved. Then as a group we looked at the bigger picture. Not every student lives with their parents. In addition, the “family assignment” is at a designated time, between 6 and 8 at night. What if the students have outside responsibilities and are not able to watch television at that time? What if the students do not watch television in general?
Jacki said how she figured out solutions to the questions on p.52 and 54. Great way to be!
We all agreed that we liked that the students had a say in making the rubric.
Melissa noticed many connections to our class: the word wall, I have, Who has, just to name a few.
A question that was brought up was if this could be applied to high school a classroom considering the book is written for a middle school classroom. We agreed that the methods discussed could be applied and tailored for the high school level.
For next time:
We will be meeting April 8 to discuss our next reading (Chapter 4-6).
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