Reflection #4: Picture Books, Narrative & Expository Texts

     The Daniels and Zemelman chapters this week mainly talked about the role textbooks (and additional resources) should play in the classroom.  Although textbooks are great resources, they are often not enough to use by themselves.  Students may struggle with the readability of the textbook, or may need to see problems presented from a different perspective.  As a result, students need access to other resources such as other math books or the internet.  There are several great resources online, including coolmath.com or wolframalpha.com.  It is important for teachers to plan what resources will be given to students for each lesson.  Teachers can differentiate instruction by providing resources for students at various reading levels.  Furthermore, the Harvey article mentions the importance of integrating non-fiction readings in the classroom.  According to Harvey, “nonfiction breeds passionate curiosity; passion leads to engagement.”  Students are typically more comfortable reading nonfiction literature.  Incorporating nonfiction readings into the classroom can work as a hook to draw students into the lesson.  This can be especially useful when it comes to mathematics—a subject that is typically a challenge to draw curiosity in students.  The Allen article also discusses the importance of reading aloud to students.  This can help students focus on what the text is saying, rather than the words on the page themselves.  I often do this with word problems in math.  I have students put their pencils down and just think about the problem as I read it aloud.  This works well with my students.

Reflection #3: Strategy Instruction

     This week's readings on reading strategies were very interesting!  As I read each of these chapters, I tried to think of ways to incorporate these strategies in my mathematics classroom.  I believe that one of the most challenging factors for my students is understanding mathematical vocabulary.  For example, if I ask a student to find the domain of a function, they may look at me like I'm crazy.  But if I asked that same students to list all of the x-values of the function (same question, different wording), they could probably tell me.  It is so important for students to understand vocabulary in math.  I really liked the idea of creating a vocabulary tree so that they can see the relationship between mathematical vocabulary words.  For example, students could see that domain, independent variable, and x-values are related to one another, while range, dependent variable, and y-values are also a set of related terms.
     Chapter 6 of Daniels & Zemelman stated that math textbooks are "typically the hardest to read" (154).  I would have to agree with this statement.  Students are used to textbooks with a certain language flow such as novels for an English class, passages from a history textbook, or even passages from a science textbook.  However, mathematics textbooks are different altogether.  These textbooks not only present new vocabulary words, but they are also made up of mostly mathematical examples, which may not make sense to students.  It is important to teach students how to read a mathematics textbook.  I really liked the idea of using the Guide-O-Rama study guide to help students understand the textbook!  This would enable students to see what information is most important and will help guide them through the textbook.

Web Resource Review #1: Coolmath.com

     I chose to review the website coolmath.com.  This website is primarily for high school math students, although the website mentions "math for ages 13-100."  Yes, this is definitely a website that could be used for school.  In fact, I have let my own students log on to coolmath.com in their spare time.  My students use computers every Friday to do math assignments on tenmarks.com.  When students are finished with all of their assignments, they are allowed to log on to coolmath.com.  There are countless games and activities at coolmath.com that relate to our mathematics curriculum.  This is often a great way to engage students.  The site is very interactive.  All of the games and activities on the site require the student to interact with the program in some way.  The site is not very commercial.  It is more about promoting student learning than promoting a product.  I would say that a major pro to using this website would be that it is a great way to engage students in learning mathematics (which can be a challenge from time to time).  One con that I have realized about coolmath.com is that this website is only designed for the high school math level.  I believe that having math games and activities for younger students (K-8) could also benefit students, but that is a feature that this webpage lacks.  The webpage does not require me to sign up for anything.  Adult supervision is not required for this webpage.  I would say that adult supervision would only be required if you want to ensure that your students do not get on other websites that they should not be on.

Reflection #2: Text Structure & Accessing Text

     The readings this week seemed to focus on strategies to help students to read and comprehend different texts.  For example, the Tovani passages described the importance of modeling reading to our students.  As a mathematics teacher, I recognize that many of my students struggle with comprehending word problems.  It is important for me to model to my students how to go about reading a word problem.  Especially, picking out the information that is relevant to solving the problem and recognizing what information is not relevant.  I have already started teaching my students this reading strategy in the classroom.  In addition, the Bakken and Whedon (2002) article also mentions reading strategies for students who may not be used to reading expository texts.  Many of these strategies still help me comprehend expository texts today.  I especially liked the order strategy for a history textbook.  For a mathematics textbook, however, I believe that the compare and contrast method may be the best strategy.  This would allow students to compare and contrast new mathematical concepts to previously learned concepts.  Math is a subject that builds on previously learned skills, so I believe that this would really benefit students with both reading comprehension and mathematics.

Reflection #1: Scaffolding Reading Experiences

What shocked me the most about the readings this week was the Hart & Risley article, The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3.  It was not surprising that children pick up the same vocabulary skills as their parents.  I was just shocked that there was such a language development gap between children from different types of homes: "in four years, an average child in a professional family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words, an average child in a working-class family 26 million words, and an average child in a welfare family 13 million words" (Hart & Risley, 2003, p. 9).  As a teacher, I believe that it is important to look into what kind of family a student is from if they struggle with reading.  This will help me to identify whether or not the student has enough support at home to further develop his or her current vocabulary.  If there is not enough support at home, perhaps I could arrange cooperative learning activities for the class to work on building vocabulary.  This also draws upon Daniels & Zemelman's description of building a community of learners.  I plan to create a welcoming classroom environment where students are respected and respect one another.  With this environment in place, this may be the perfect opportunity for students to work together to build one another's vocabulary skills.  As a mathematics teacher, I would focus on vocabulary in mathematics.  However, I could also use this as an opportunity for students to build upon their everyday English vocabulary.  For example, I could have students research the roots of mathematics vocabulary words or find words in English with similar meanings to those vocabulary words.