Course Reflection – Kristy Treadaway November 20, 2009

Course Reflection

Through this class, I have learned a lot about different teaching strategies that can be used when instructing students. I found the article readings and the research on the internet to be the most helpful. I learned a lot about reading and vocabulary instruction. There were many things I would not have taken into consideration before, because math and math professors do not always stress vocabulary instruction. However, mathematics vocabulary and instruction is very important since math has its own set of words and definitions. Over the course of the semester, I found the PBS Teachers and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics websites to be most helpful in finding lesson plans, materials, and activities. The materials and activities I discovered are definitely things I plan to one day use. The activities, materials, and lesson plans accumulated during this course will be great for engaging students and teaching them to use correct vocabulary.

Lesson Plan 2: Kristy Treadaway November 17, 2009

Lesson Plan2

Lesson Plan Title: Mathline the Math of Bicycles: Wheel Figure this Out

Website: PBS (http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/4413/preview)

Objectives:

                6th Grade: 3.02 Identify the radius, diameter, chord, center, and circumference of a circle; determine the relationships among them.

                The Mathline activity is a lesson plan that involves the class going outside for an experiment to determine what circumference means. Students will use various sized wheels. Students will measure the wheels radius, and diameter before starting the activity. Next students will mark the starting point and measure the distance the wheel can travel in one rotation.  Students will need to record these dimensions and distances on a piece of paper, so they can later determine the relationship between the two.

This activity is a great way for students to understand pi and where it originated from. Also the activity is a visual demonstration of circumference and what it is. Student will be able to benefit from learning these ideas because they are connected to many different aspects of a circle.

Lesson Plan 1: Kristy Treadaway November 17, 2009

Lesson Plan 1

 

Lesson Plan Title: Fractional Clothesline

 

Website: NCTM (National Council of Teacher of Mathematics) http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L784

 

Objectives: 6^th Grade: 1.01     Develop number sense for negative rational numbers.

1. Connect the model, number word, and number using a variety of representations, including the number line.

1.04     Develop fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of non-negative rational numbers.

1. Analyze computational strategies.
2. Describe the effect of operations on size.
3. Estimate the results of computations.
4. Judge the reasonableness of solutions.

                   7^th Grade: 1.02 Develop fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of rational numbers.

1. Analyze computational strategies.
2. Describe the effect of operations on size.
3. Estimate the results of computations.
4. Judge the reasonableness of solutions.

 

The fractional clothesline is basically a number line made of string reaching across a classroom. On this clothesline there should the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 written on index cards and pinned on the line with equal space between each number. Students are given fractions in either fraction form, improper fraction form, and in mix number form. Students are to put the fractions on the clothesline in the proper order. To mix things up a little bit, instead of handing students index cards with fractions, the students should add, subtract, multiple, or divide fractions to find the numbers to write on the index cards to be placed onto the clothesline. The task would be worthwhile in helping visual and hands-on learners see where multiple types of fractions would be placed on a number line. The fractional clothesline would also be a wonderful activity to get students up moving around the classroom. I would use this lesson plan and activity to help student practice placing numbers in order on a number line and/or practicing mathematical computations with fractions.

Article 3: Vocabulary Instruction Kristy Treadaway November 17, 2009

A Professional Development Initiative for Developing Approaches to Vocabulary, Art, Science, and English Teachers

A Professional Development Initiative for Developing Approaches to Vocabulary, Art, Science, and English Teachers is an article about four high school teachers and university faculty joined together for a National Reading Panel challenge. Over the course of one year all teachers and professors came up with collaborative ways to help students learn vocabulary. The vocabulary used in the study however appeared in other content classes besides, English.  The key aspects of effective vocabulary instruction used in the study was developing rich representations of word meanings and learning how words work. To help these instructions take proper form in the classroom, these teachers were encouraged to use strategies such as; literature circles, multigenre reading and writings, compare and contrast, discovering shared word roots, and highlighting word meanings and features. At the end of the one year challenge all four teachers gave positive feedback.

How did these strategies change the way you viewed vocabulary instruction?

Which instructional strategy do you believe will be more beneficial to the students?

Do you believe these instructional techniques will improve the schools test scores and why?

Article 2: Multigenre Papers Kristy Treadaway November 17, 2009

The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest Motivation and Functionality in Research

            Everyone has had to write a traditional research paper in high school and/or college. The article The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest Motivation and Functionality in Research is about finding alternative methods to writing a research paper. However, the authors main focus and alternate method choice is a multigenre paper. A multigenre paper is using many different genres of writing in one paper. A person may make a birth certificate, write a newspaper article, and/or write a poem, etc. all in the same paper. The idea behind using so many genres of writing is to explain or demonstrate a different aspect of a person’s life story or a story in history. At the end of each page or genre of writing there should be a end note to explain the findings, and method or source of research. Through the process of writing a multigenre paper the author’s students said they were more engaged and excited about their research papers. I also believe I would have learned a lot more by writing a research paper in a multigenre style.

 

Why are new methods of writing a research coming about? What are some reasons traditional research papers are being criticized?

What are some benefits the article list for using a multigenre paper?

If you were to have students write a multigenre paper, what are some things you would change from the authors multigenre papers?

Article 1: “I” Poems Kristy Treadaway November 17, 2009

 

“I” Poems: Invitations for Students to Deepen Literacy Understanding is an article about how to introduce poetry in first person to a class of students. According to the author when students are writing in first person they will be able to express their own voice. “I” poems are used in the article as a way for students to build background knowledge before reading a novel. The students had to write about different places, settings, animals, or plants found in the books. By having students’ research about the surroundings in the book and reply as if they are there in first person, helped the students to be interested and engaged in their readings. The students were engaged more after writing an “I” poem before reading the story even though reading and writing are already considered cognitively engaging.

Why do you believe students feel more connected to a story after writing an “I” Poem?

Why is the term “I” Poem used?

What are two benefits from using an “I” Poem to introduce a novel or other reading materials?

Strategy 4 During Reading Kristy Treadaway October 20, 2009

Title your post: During Reading Strategy 4

Your Name: Kristy Treadaway           

Name of Strategy: Concept Cards

Source (Where did this come from?): Promoting Reading Strategies for Developmental Mathematics Textbooks

Link to the Strategy:

 http://www.nade.net/documents/SCP97/SCP97.2.pdf

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

            Concept Card reading strategy is a way to help students understand a math textbook. Math text books are difficult to read and understand for many students. The idea of concept cards are every time a student reads a concept, formula, or definition they are write out what they believe it means in their own words. This will allow students to use terminology they understand instead of math jargon.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

8^th grade objective 5.01 - Develop an understanding of function.

1. Translate among verbal, tabular, graphic, and algebraic representations of functions.
2. Identify relations and functions as linear or nonlinear.
3. Find, identify, and interpret the slope (rate of change) and intercepts of a linear relation.
4. Interpret and compare properties of linear functions from tables, graphs, or equations.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

            Concept cards will work for any objective or subject. In the case of objective 5.01 students can write out what relations, functions, linear, nonlinear, and slope (rate of change) mean in their own words. They can compare different representations of a function to the cards as well. These cards are a great way for students to understand what they are learning about. Also, the cards will be written in their own terms therefore when it is time to study for the test the concept cards will be a great study and review tool.

Strategy 3 After Reading Kristy Treadaway October 20, 2009

Title your post: After Reading Strategy 3

Your Name: Kristy Treadaway           

Name of Strategy: Exit Slips

Source (Where did this come from?): Reading Rockets

Link to the Strategy:

 http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/exit_slips

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

            Exit slips are given to the teacher as students are leaving the room. Students give written responses to questions the teachers poses at the end of class. These quick responses will help a teacher understand what students learned and did not learn during the class period.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

8^th grade objective 5.01 - Develop an understanding of function.

1. Translate among verbal, tabular, graphic, and algebraic representations of functions.
2. Identify relations and functions as linear or nonlinear.
3. Find, identify, and interpret the slope (rate of change) and intercepts of a linear relation.
4. Interpret and compare properties of linear functions from tables, graphs, or equations.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

            Exit slips can work for any standard and for any subject matter. In this case students would be answering questions about the day’s lessons on linear functions. They will need to answer questions about an equation placed on the board. The students will be asks whether it is a linear function, how to determine its slope and what it means. Then students can let the teacher know what they learned and did not learn from the day’s lesson written in a few sentences.

Strategy 2 – During Reading Kristy Treadaway October 20, 2009

Title your post: During Reading Strategy 2

Your Name: Kristy Treadaway           

Name of Strategy: Guided Question or Think Aloud

Source (Where did this come from?): Literacy Matters

Link to the Strategy:

 http://www.literacymatters.org/adlit/questioning/during.htm

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

 

            Guided Questions are teacher constructed questions that help students focus on what they are going to be learning. For mathematics these question could be like; what is going on here, or what do you think will happen next, and why. These questions will get students to thinking about what they are learning.

            Think- Aloud is used to capture the student’s attention while reading the text. This is also a strategy that uses questioning to keep students thinking about what they are learning/reading. In most mathematical textbook’s students will not be asked about a character but why a certain procedure takes place in a math problem.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

8^th grade objective 5.01 - Develop an understanding of function.

1. Translate among verbal, tabular, graphic, and algebraic representations of functions.
2. Identify relations and functions as linear or nonlinear.
3. Find, identify, and interpret the slope (rate of change) and intercepts of a linear relation.
4. Interpret and compare properties of linear functions from tables, graphs, or equations.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

            The strategies of Guided Questions and Think- Aloud are good strategies to use in a math classroom because they involve questioning students and helping them develop their own mathematical knowledge. A teacher could these reading strategies after completing the growing patterns activity in strategy 1 to ask students, do you know what the word linear means, is this equation linear and non-linear, what does the term slope mean, how can I determine to slope of this equation, and what is a variable. This time the teacher is adding in vocabulary in order to help the students begin thinking about the terms that are used when talking about linear functions and what they mean.

Strategy 1- Before Reading Kristy Treadaway October 20, 2009

Title your post: Before Reading Strategy 1

Your Name: Kristy Treadaway           

Name of Strategy: Pre- Reading

Source (Where did this come from?): Reading Strategies for Mathematics

Link to the Strategy: http://www.ltl.appstate.edu/carol/unit3/Reading%20Strategies%20Applied%20to%20Math%20Presentation.pdf

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

 

Pre-Reading is using a preview/survey or Pre-Reading plan, Anticipation/Prediction Guide, Graphic Organizer, KWL Chart, or Semantic Mapping (Webbing or Clustering) to get students thinking about what they will be learning.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

8^th grade objective 5.01 - Develop an understanding of function.

1. Translate among verbal, tabular, graphic, and algebraic representations of functions.
2. Identify relations and functions as linear or nonlinear.
3. Find, identify, and interpret the slope (rate of change) and intercepts of a linear relation.
4. Interpret and compare properties of linear functions from tables, graphs, or equations.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

            The pre-reading strategy will work in mathematics when students are building upon prior knowledge. For this standard in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study students are building from 6^th grade through 8^th grade an understanding of a linear mathematic equation. For the pre-reading strategy, I would give students an activity that is applying prior knowledge in a deeper way. An activity that would be good for reaching this goal is the Growing Pattern activity on the PBS website. In this activity students are to build a linear equation by looking at a changing pattern. Students will already know how to solve for a missing value (a variable) but they will need to explain what they see occurring and how their equation works. This activity will get students to thinking about something they have already learned, but it is setting them up for what they are going to learn about linear function and slope (rate of change).

http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=15425