As We Reach a Close

As we reach a close of this semester, its a great time to reflect on things we've discussed and learned. I've learned many different things about content literacy. Though my definition really hasn't changed much, I think I've developed a better understanding for what content literacy is. Throughout this semester, I've learned to adapt strategies and collaborate with other people to make things that will work with the kids that I work with.

Each semester, I am more and more excited to work with my students. All these strategies and ideas for working with them seem great but the problem is, I don't really know if the strategies will work. For me the most exciting thing is getting to start on my own and get more ideas. I'm excited to work with students and find things out through actually working rather than getting idea after idea without trying them.

Thank you for a great semester filled with ideas about content literacy and my ideas on teaching.

~The Teach Fairy

Groupwork and Assessments

As the semester closes, it seems like we have less and less to talk about yet surprisingly we find more. We read a couple chapters in Tovani's book, "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" about group work and assessment.

I'm a pretty social person so I've always loved group work. It was fun working with friends and discussing problems. The worst part about it was getting stuck with people who won't get anything done. I feel like as a teacher there can be problems with group work too. Tovani mentions a few strategies for some problems we can run into with group work. The first issue she posed was, "Someone hasn't read the material or completed the task." Tovani suggests to have a little quiet station where students can finish the task before getting back with the group. The next problem we can we can have is that "Someone talks all the type." She suggests that we give this person a task to do, maybe write down the points from the group or give feedback. Of course there could be many problems that could happen with a group but the last one Tovani discusses is when "someone doesn't talk." This can be frustrating for many people but she suggest a couple phrases to include the kids that don't necessarily get a chance to talk or don't prefer to talk. She suggests to directly approach the student and ask if they have something to share. I definitely think these are great ideas for facing group work. Though group work doesn't always run smoothly, these tips can help it run a little better.

The two things I took away from the assessment chapter was how to go about assessments and conversation calendars. Tovani says, "Decide what you want to assess. Give a variety of ways for students to demonstrate understanding." Then, "design assessments that are checkpoints for understanding." This keeps the idea kind of simple but it can be complicated. I can see what my objectives are and then decide what is important. Based on that, I can plan activities that will help my students understand the objectives in a variety of ways, since all students learn differently and at a different pace. Then I would base my assessments on what I wanted them to understand. I feel that if I planned each unit like this, assessments would be effective and test their understanding. 

The other part I liked was Conversation Calendars. I thought it was a really cool tool that helped build rapport with the students. There was a mini calendar. The students could write a question or response each day or tell me something they wanted. They would then grade themselves on behavior and participation that day. Then under their question, I would respond and give them a grade that I thought. I thought this was a cool way to communicate with students and learn about things that are going on in their lives. That way, I could base lessons on their lives and discuss other confusions.

Can't believe the end of the semester is approaching. Let's make it a great couple of weeks. :)

~The Teach Fairy

Different Perspectives

I enjoyed looking at my friends' blogs this week. It gave me different perspectives and new insights that I had not thought of before. Here is what I found.

1) Tri Colour Education 2015

    Quote from this blog: "As educators, we need to allow our students to express themselves freely and feel comfortable in our classroom environment. If they like ponies, so be it."

     My Thoughts: I agree with this statement especially dealing with middle school students. We all know middle school was an awkward time that everyone has to go through. Why should we as teachers tell students what they should and shouldn't like. We don't define the students. Yes, we help mold them into citizens in our society but shouldn't they be entitled to freedom of expression just as we are. Yes I do understand their are rules about these sorts of things but we as teachers should allow are students to feel safe when expressing themselves but in a healthy way.

2) Teacher Tales

    Quote from this blog: "I think that knowing each student well can help us teach content literacy. The more I know a particular student, whether they might be gifted, on the autism spectrum, have a behavioral difference etc, the more I can help them learn! I think this takes time and effort, and much of that time is probably going to be outside of the classroom. But, I would say it's worth it."

     My Thoughts: I definitely think this is the case. From personal experience, my favorite teachers were the ones that cared. These teachers took the time to help me when they knew I was struggling. They would meet with me before school and discuss with me ways that I could improve my study habits or comprehension skills. They not only knew me inside the classroom but would often ask me how my life was. I loved it! 

3) Breaking Literacy

    Quote from this blog: "Teacher voice and how you speak is something else that is very important to the the classroom. To start the class take a deep breath and slow down and lower your volume. When you come into class worrying about getting throughout everything you will talk fast and loud as you push the information at the students. Students will rely when you are relaxed because they are very good at picking up on body language. In my practicum, I came in sick a few times with bronchitis and students immediately came up to me and asked if I felt okay and said I looked tired and sick. This was as they walked into the classroom before I said or did anything. This made me realized just how much they can pick up on. 

     My Thoughts: I had a similar experience. I was having a not so good day and I was very frustrated with a previous student and colleague. I didn't really think I was showing it but a student approached me and asked if I was okay or if something was wrong. I realized at that moment how much my students pay attention to me. That moment is a crucial moment. We as teachers can choose to sulk in our misery or turn it around and make a better day for yourself and for your students.

4) Pin it to Teach it

    Picture from this blog:

    My Thoughts: I loved this picture because I thought it was so cool that the teacher asked her students what they wanted from her. You are with your students so often and finding out what they want from you will allow them to develop a better relationship with you. Also, you can ask yourself what do you think you would want from a teacher. You can then tell your students what you want from them. I like it:)

5) EDunite

    Quote from this blog: "When are we going to use this in real life? This is a response I'm sure every teacher has heard to at least one lesson they have taught, no matter the content area. Math is a high contender for these types of statements because students are always wondering when am I going to use the quadratic formula, the Pythagorean Theorem, or even how much money and I going to need to buy 87 watermelons? And yes, I even ask myself, who in their right mind would buy 87 watermelons?

    My Thoughts: I think we can all agree with this one. I think it's hard for me as a teacher to come up  with a reason why some of this stuff is important. But I think I've made it a goal for myself to approach each lesson with an intent to make the lesson fun and interesting so that my students don't have to ask me that. I want them to enjoy learning so that it doesn't feel like a chore.

~loving this warm breezy weather <3

  The Teach Fairy

Mark It Up

I've always loved opening up a textbook and having highlighting, side notes, and left over post its from the person who last had my book. They're giving me their insight along with the text itself, and then I can add my own side notes. But what is the point of "marking text"?

This week, while reading Tovani's text "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" I was able to explore why marking text is so helpful and important that we teach our students to do so in the right way. She tells us to have a conversation with ourselves about something we have read. For example, if there was a quote in the book that I liked, I would highlight it. I then could ask myself questions in the margin. Some questions could be...what does this quote mean? What are some key words? What was the writer feeling when he/she wrote this. That way when I go back to look at it later, I have more than just a quote highlighted. If there is no space for my questions, that's when sticky notes come in handy. They're colorful and add more space for us to develop our own thoughts. After we've asked questions, we can also write our opinion. Then, Tovani says that we should communicate what we've found with a partner. I think this is beneficial to find out where we are at. I could say my views and my partner would critique me or state their opinion. That way, we can develop a dialogue about the text we've just read.

I noticed something else from Tovani's book that I thought I would definitely use. I've used them before in my course. They are called Double- Entry Diary. But this time there was something called QUAD-ENTRY DIARY! It was great! Tovani shows a great example of one used for algebra. It would be a great tool to review for a chapter test or even a final. The students were able to clear up misconceptions and see what they really knew or what they needed to review. Here is a picture below.
I hope to use something like this to help my students with an overall understanding.

I loved this section because I found two really great things to use. I wanted to finish by quoting a poster said she saw. The poster read, "Individually we are smart. Collectively, we are brilliant. I think this quote shows how important exchanging and dialoguing with each other can be. We can each learn something from someone else. I hope to print out this quote and use it in my classroom because I think as humans we are social beings. Working together we will develop better social skills and push each other to find a deeper understating of the text.

~The Teach Fairy

I've Been Thinking...How Can I Give My Students a Better Understanding

So I've been thinking...how can I give my students a better understanding of the words that they're learning. I researched some websites for content literacy in a math classroom. I found this great slide show that really helped me find some great ideas. The slide show was called Growing the Connection Between Mathematics and Best-Practice Reading and Writing Strategies with Jennifer Kosiak, Sue Schumann, Ann Harry, and Bonnie Jancik.

We as teachers need to scaffold on our students knowledge by activating their prior knowledge. They talked about a few great exercises but my favorite was called word splash. So the students would be presented with these words as shown below.

Now, it's the students' job to find the connection between the words. How are they related? I think this is a great activity to use because making connections allows us to process information better. It allows students to be creative with their connections and truly think about the importance of each word and how it relates to the others.

The next activity I found in the powerpoint, was called the Teacher Generated Anticipation Guide. This basically helps your students when they are reading a text about math. I will write a couple statements that I think could be controversial or that I think are important. The students will check off if they agree or disagree with my statement, before they start reading. After reading, they have a chance to change their opinion. 

I think this is a nice quick activity. It could be used as a formative assessment to see where our students are at and then how they change their opinions after reading.

The next activity I found in the powerpoint would help with vocabulary. I'm sure many of us have played with a puzzle in our life. They are pretty fun and can sometimes be challenging. We can use word puzzles to help our students have fun while reviewing important information. Here is an example of it below, as seen in the powerpoint.

The last activity I found has to do with comprehension strategies. The first one shows a concept map of all the things that reminds a student of addition. This will help them show all the different ways it is used. The second picture is a cool map that shows a concept of definition map about subtraction. I think this one is really cool because it discusses the definition, similarities and connections we can make, it also shows the concept and gives examples or illustrations. Here are the two examples.

I think I will definitely use these in the classroom. I think they are great tools to help review for tests and show a breakdown of important concepts. 

So since I was thinking about how to help my students understand better, I figure that these strategies will help them to build on prior knowledge and expand for the future, along with having fun:).

~The Teach Fairy

"Why Am I Reading This?"

I think "why am I reading this?" is a question we often ask ourselves at school. We don't really know the importance of this topic and we end up reading a whole section of a book while thinking about "what mom's cooking for dinner." Or at least...this is what I thought about.

After reading Tovani's Chapter 5 of "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" I realized that it is our job as teachers to make the importance of reading known to our students. Tovani mentions a child that associates good reading with fast reading which is something I think a lot of kids struggle with. I know that when I was little, I didn't want to read out loud in class because I was a slow reader and in my mind, that made me a bad reader. But, this is not the case. If we as teachers, can assign purpose, students will reading as they search for something and pay more attention to what we, as teachers, want them to know rather than them trying to remember every little part in the text.

So now we have a big question: What do I teach? And what do I leave out? I feel like all teachers debate with this question. There is so many things that we could all cover but not enough time to do so. So I will ask you this question my fellow fairies, HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO INCLUDE?

Tovani mentions this great instructional focus sheet. And frankly, I'm obsessed. I like that it asks simple questions and I feel like I could definitely use this sheet to help plan my lessons. Here are the two examples that I would love to use. The first is a math teacher and the second is a science teacher. But the questions asked are simple and to the point. For myself, I would want to make a couple copies every time I make my students read an article or when I am planning for my math unit. That way, everything is right in front of me and I think about how my students will react to the topics presented.

Tovani says, "If we don't help students pill out essential information my giving them a purpose for their reading, they will often get lost in the extraneous details." I love this quote because I think it defines our job as teachers. We are trying to make their life a little easier because stressing them out with too much text is only hurting them. "A clear instructional purpose can greatly improve a treader's comprehension." She has proof that this works so I plan on trying my best to make my students' lives a little overwhelming from the reading and getting down to what is important. I'm not saying that I will not have my students reading because I do think reading is incredibly important. But what I am saying is that I will give them tools to help the reading become tolerable and comprehensive.

~Your Truly, 

The Teacher Fairy

How 'Bout a Text Set

These past couple of weeks, we've been talking about text sets. I'm not sure if I'm completely sold on them but I thought I'd start off by making up a problem to go with a standard, finding some material that could help a student with this problem along with giving them help on things they should know leading up to this question and then see how I like it in the end. Hopefully we'll both gain more experience as this goes on.

So I'll start off by showing you my essential question for 4th Grade Math: How can we model answers to fraction problems? I started off by finding a question to ask for the division problem 1/3 ÷ 1/2. My question is: My favorite breakfast recipe calls for 1/2 a cup of cheese to make one cheesy omelet. If we have 1/3 cup of cheese, how many omelets can I make.

To solve this problem, we can easily use the keep, change, flip method to find the answer 2/3 as seen belowBUT...rather than just teaching our students to do the "Keep, Change, Flip" method, we want them to develop meaning with multiplication and division problems of fractions.
Two things I think a student needs to have an understanding of before they start multiplying and dividing fractions are one, what a fraction is and how to work with them, and two, equivalent fractions. The first part of my text set is a recap of what fractions are.

I liked this video because it helps show students what a fraction is and specifically mentions the part of a whole which is a super important concept to grasp. If a student doesn't know this, then it will be hard to represent fractions with a model.

The next part of my text set will be talking about equivalent fractions. BrainPOP is one of my favorite places to find simple videos that really help. For this, you need an account to access the information but I used it last semester when I was helping out in a science classroom and I loved working with it. They have a video on equivalent fractions and it is great. It shows exactly what students should be learning about equivalent fractions, and gives them a chance to practice at the end. I think it is a great way to recap a section a student misunderstood or see where a student may have a misconception about equivalent fractions.

Another fun way to learn about dividing and fractions is the book, The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. It is a story book about a mom who bakes cookies for her two kids. The kids start to divide up the cookies between each other but as the doorbell kept ringing and more people arrived, they had to divide the amount of cookies by the people that were there. I think this models dividing fraction. If you can't find the book, here is the story read aloud on youtube:  

One of my favorite ways I've learned to model fractions are in this book called Mathematics for Elementary Teachers by Sybilla Beckmann. She does an excellent job at going step by step and model many amazing ways to solve a problem. In this book, I've learned two other ways to model the problem I presented in the beginning. The first is with a strip diagram:

The next way I learned how to do it would be in a double number line, as seen in the picture below:
These are two great ways to show an understanding of fraction division that are shown in Beckmann's textbook.

Another text I found was on Annenberg Learner. On this site, I found a way to model division of fractions using little blocks. If a student doesn't understand how to do it on a double number line or a strip diagram or can't process it by just keep, change, flip, here is another way to model the division of fractions.

And lastly, I decided to bring a little baking station to the classroom. I would have the recipe but different amounts of ingredients that could make more than the recipe or less than. I think this would be an alternative way for the students to actually see what's going on and interpret division hands on.

So after finishing this text set, I do think it would be useful. Though it does take some time to do, I feel that it will definitely benefit your students. It would be cool to see teachers collaborate on text sets for a certain unit. That way it would be less work for one person but it would still come out with a killer text set. 

~The Teach Fairy

Me, the Teacher

Let me just say that it is gorgeous outside today. So I'm sitting on the couch reading my Tovani text. For this week, we read Chapter 4: Real Rigor: Connecting Students with Accessible Text. The thing that I enjoyed most about this chapter was that Tovani stressed the point that often times, there is "too much content to cover (and not enough time to cover it), and the textbook for the class [is, oftentimes] too difficult. If teachers want students to read difficult texts, we have to first give them the opportunity to read texts that are related to the topic but not as difficult, and teach them how to improve. We as teachers need to find accessible text. Tovani says that "accessible text helps students to make connections between school subjects and the real world because it helps them experience reading that is done in the real world." It is our job to help our students. I think a great idea that she mentions is having a choice for students about which text to read. As long as the reading pertain to the class, and as long as the students are making connections, they can choose the reading at their reading level or one that challenges them the perfect amount. 

The thing I liked most about this chapter was that it reminded me of how I want to be as a teacher. I want to be there for my students. Middle school kids are an interesting bunch. I think they need the most understanding but challenging teachers. I want to challenge my students in a way that they enjoy learning. I know they may not always have a good day or enjoy the topic we're studying but I want them to be engaged. I hope to make all my lessons important to their life. It does concern me that there will be so many students and so many topics to cover but as long as I'm being myself and helping my students learn in a way that's best for them, I know that is what's important. 

The picture above shows a quote from Albert Einstein, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." This quote has a lot to do with how I want run my classroom. I want to teach and test my students in a way that will help keep their confidence and allow for learning through their mistakes. I don't want any of my students to feel stupid or think a grade defines them. 

The teachers that I love the most were the ones that not only challenged me but talked to me about life and shared advice with me. With those teachers, I felt like me, rather than just any other student. 

So I know that seems a but short for this week but my teaching philosophy is pretty simple because of my prior experiences with teachers. I hope to be a little teaching fairy in their lives, trying to make each day a little more easy in their hectic schedule.

~The Teach Fairy

Snowed In

This week in Georgia has been a bit crazy. Last week I wore shorts to class but now I'm snowed in. I'm not really a fan of that. But here I am listening to podcasts and watching videos on how to benefit my future students. I started off my listening to a podcast from Literacy in Content Areas: A Podcast with Penny Little where Franki Sibberson discussed choice literacy. The main purpose of this podcast was to show ways to help kids have patience to go deeper into difficult texts. I saw this kind of like my snow day. I started thinking that maybe I didn't like them so much because I felt trapped. I know that a lot of students fell this way when faced with difficult texts. I realized that I have to deal with the fact that I can't go anywhere and not keep trying to get out. My time will come when the sun is shining and all this ice goes away. So I was thinking about my students feeling trapped with a difficult text. Most kids try to find a way around reading it and really digging deeper. What we need to do as teachers is help them when they feel trapped. We can teach them to not be afraid of nonfiction and difficult texts. I think my favorite part about this podcast was talking about research projects. I know that many schools make students research the same topic, but what this does is not allow for creativity and ownership of ideas. Penny Kittle said to see what your students' individual questions are and find what inspires them. Then they can research that topic and engage in great research. When people are interested in topics, it becomes easier to read or learn about. Now we just have to enable them.

The next thing I watched was a YouTube video called "Common Core in the Classroom: Math in Context Algebra that "Makes Sense"." Lauren Brooks shows how she uses technology and creativity to connect the math to the lives of her students. Lauren explains that math before was all about procedures and things that were outside of context, with word problems at the end of a unit. This doesn't show a student why things are important so there's really no point in learning it if there is no purpose. Most students have an "aversion towards word problems" she says. I can support this claim because before college, I did not want anything to do with word problems and they always gave me trouble because they weren't taught to me in the right way and usually had nothing to do with my life. Lauren now says that the way we do math now is...ANGRY BIRDS! Yay! This is such a fun game and can be used to teach quadratic equations in the classroom. She starts about by having a live demonstration. I think this is so great because many students have played this game and it is so cool to see it in action. She then allows her students to revise their findings and experiment with the game on their phones or iPads in the classroom. After everyone has experimented, she then asks her students, "What do you need from me?" At that point she shows them an equation of how quadratic formulas are represented and asks them to talk about how to find out the answer or how to "hit the pig." I saw this with in Dan Meyers talk before and I really think it does wonders for content literacy. Students are communicating and experimenting about math. They then look at graphs and begin to formulate expression once they understand the material. I can't wait to try something like this!

Lastly, in class, we've been working on something called "Think Aloud." I used a clip from Lauren Brooks video from above. She told her audience to read the following:

Here is my script as I began to read the text:
Me: "Okay so what do I remember from high school about Quadratic functions? I think I remember the vertical line test is a test to see if something is a function but I don't really have a definition for it."'
Me: "So what is the point of all this?"
Me: "I need to analyze (so for me this means to be able to dissect and understand and pick apart) a quadratic function. I need to be able to pick apart a quadratic function. Now it says I need to draw its graph, and eventually find its maximum or minimum value. (Ok so a maximum is the highest point of something and the minimum is the lowest point."
Me: "BUT...I still don't know what a quadratic function is."
Me: "I see a parabola on the page and it says they're usually represented in a parabola so maybe its a parabola. It also gives me the two forms so I'm going to circle those things but I still don't know what it is."
Me: "I'm going to work out the example and that makes sense but I can't picture this in normal life. Maybe I should go online and see what I can find about parabolas in everyday life....here is what I found:

Me: "Now things are starting to make sense. Its probably like an equation for an arc."

This is how I would ask questions to myself and read. I know I will be able to get better with more practice but as for now, I'm still snowed in and hoping the sun will come out soon.

~The Teach Fairy

Lots of Magic

Last week in class, we were told to make up a starter or bell-ringer for a class that would require students to engage in content literacy. So of course, I just googled a bell ringer of math and this is what I found:

My instructions were to work the problem then write out how you got your answer, then discuss with a partner your process. This would allow students to write out their thinking process and discuss with their partner misconceptions and methods.

For this weeks reading, we read Cris Tovani's text, "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" Chapter 3. Throughout this chapter, I realized how important it is for all the teachers of various content to work together in order for our students to be well rounded in content literacy. For example, the math teachers would teach how to go about doing word problems and dissecting graphs. Science teachers would teach how to read science text and understand data. Literature and English teachers could then go over fiction or non fiction books and poems that help students. If all teachers helped out students become literate in their content, students would benefit so much. Tovani then mentioned some strategies in which we could help our students, first by identifying what your students are struggling with, then modeling with them how you read these difficult texts, and lastly share with them how you overcame these struggles. When reading this, I thought these were three clear and practical steps that were relevant across all content areas. Before starting this class on content literacy, I was similar to the Melanie that Tovani mentioned. She said, "If someone could teach these kids how to read, I could teach them science." I feel that if not educated on content literacy, a lot of us, as teachers, have this mindset, but if we all work together, we can make our students more literate over all contents.

While trying to help out our students become literate on a variety of content, we have to embrace the technology that is constantly becoming more and more advanced. We know that our students are very literate with the technology have today, so why not use it as a tool to help them. I watched Kate McKnight's video on Educational Technology in the 21st century and I absolutely loved how she explained its importance. She explained that is our job to explore different means of technology such as: Edmodo, GoogleDocs, Twitter, or Moodle. She revealed this strategy where a teacher posed a question to her students on google docs. Each of the kids had a laptop and they would respond to the question. The teacher was then able to respond to her students ideas and questions. This strategy allows everyone in the classroom to participate at the same time!! The teacher is also able to watch and participate with her students on a space that they all can go back to in the future. I hope to use this strategy with my future classes. I am really looking forward to trying it.

So I've talked about starting off the class with content literacy, and continuing it throughout the lesson, but what are we supposed to do before we start with a difficult text? I think pre-reading is very important so you can prepare yourself for what you are about to read. I found this blog that talked about the importance of pre-reading (The Reading Corner). Shantell writes:

I love how she worded this and it really shows why it is important! Yay Shantell!

I hope you enjoyed this week's dose of magic:)

~The Teach Fairy

"I Don't Get It"

As I've been trying to stay bundled up, with this crazy 1 inch of snow Georgia has, I've been listening to a talk from the Hempfield School District talking about content literacy strategies and how it is time for students to take responsibility for their learning. Throughout this talk, a lot of the teachers were saying that if students are faced with a problem that they don't understand, they will completely give up and ask the teacher for help or for the answer. I know that when I was in middle and high school, if I didn't have a sample problem to look at or wasn't "spoon-fed" the answer, I often times would give up completely and wait until the next day to ask my teacher to show me how it was done. Kelly Gallagher mentioned a way to help your students pin-point where there are misunderstandings. For example, if a student said to him, "I don't get it," he would respond, "show me where you are confused." Let's face it we've all heard, "I don't get it," and we are all guilty of saying it ourselves but by asking our students to pin-point where they are misunderstanding, it requires them to dig deeper in to the text rather than giving up after one sentence that may seem a little confusing.

Another part that I liked about this talk was "Talking to the Text" that Kate Hough and Heather Carroll demonstrated with their class. Basically both partners read a passage. While they do this, they write down things they understand or are confused about. They note setting and characters. They highlight and see what information they can grasp from the reading. Once both partners are finished, they have a dialogue about what they have just discovered. Both partners take notes on sticky notes and discuss what their struggles and findings. After the conversation is finished, you can put the sticky notes on the pages you read and will have this as a quick review when studying. I think this is a great idea for students to use especially for short stories in class. It allows students to take responsibility for their reading comprehension and allows them to dig deeper in understanding the text. 

Another strategy I've learned an hope to use is the "Double Entry Diary." Though this is not covered in the podcast, I think it benefits students. There are two columns. On the left side you put a quote, problem, or excerpt from the text and on the right side you write your thought process. We experimented with it last week in class and I think it is a good way for students to make connections. When I give it to my students, I would allow them to write what they think or even draw pictures if it helps them understand the meaning of the text better. We even looked at this strategy with math terms. In this process, students explained how they went about doing a problem. When I tried this for math, I drew a picture to make connections. As long as the double is aiding the students in thinking about the material, I think it is a good strategy to use.

My last little thought before I go out and play in the snow ("slush"), is from a blog called Yo: A Math Teacher's Blog. Nico Rowinsky showed an idea of how to get students thinking about math on the first day of school. All of us have different schemas about math so this is why I think it is a fun and interesting activity for both the students and the teacher. So here's the assignment:

I watched some of the videos and was enlightened about what kids are actually thinking. It is a project that teaches the importance of math by writing and talking about, and then communicating it in a way that we could all understand or relate to. I think this would be a fun project to do especially since it broadens students horizons on math and incorporates content literacy. 

~The Teach Fairy

Reading...not a fan

Throughout most of my schooling, reading was not a hobby of mine. I knew how to read yet I did not care to get any better. I can probably count on my fingers the times I read a book for school from cover to cover. I rarely ever read the text book. BUT, here I am wanting to be a teacher. Now I realize that reading is very important and it is involved in every content, including math (And I thought I was being sneaky in trying to avoid reading).

For this week and throughout the semester we will be shaping our definition of content literacy. For now, my definition is making sense of and engaging in reading, writing, listening, and speaking over all content areas. To develop a better understanding, we are reading a book called, "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" by Christ Tovani. I actually have to read it since I have to comment about it on this blog. As I read through the second chapter, I realized I was just like a girl Tovani described. I was always thinking, "why do we have to read this? or what is so important?" It wasn't until college when I realized that if I made things my own and important in my life, it would be easier to develop an understanding. What some of my teachers were missing was "making connections." 

Tovani describes in detail of the "So What" exercise she ran with her students. She would ask the student to make a connection to their life. Then she would ask them a follow up question: "SO WHAT?" Basically she is asking the student why their connection is important. I thought this was an interesting technique and I think it would work really well. From experience, the times when I made something relatable to my life helped me remember it later on. With this chart she and a colleague developed, we see that using a text, we then make connections, then ask a question so we can require our students to dig deeper. Then we ask, "how does this thinking help you better understand the text?" Which we then relate that back to the text. 

I feel that this process of thinking will help students take charge of their learning and make meaning with the texts they read. Though this is just one strategy for helping students to understand what they read there are many more which I hope to learn more tricks and strategies throughout my journey. 

After reading Tovani's text, I listened to a podcast where Joanne Deshawn was a guest speaker. Her area of focus was science. She described how texts can be used before, during, and at the end of the unit to enhance or summarize the unit. They can also be used to clear up many misconceptions. I like how she uses these types of strategies with even kids in first grade. She has them emailing or taking notes on specific things they are learning. When they are encouraged to write about what they learn, they foster a greater understanding of it.

I hope to be able to use some of these strategies learned this week in the future. Can't wait to experiment!

An Introduction

Good Evening Fellow Teach Fairies :)

I am a Middle School teacher in training. My areas of emphasis are Math and Science. For a Content Literacy class, we are required to make a blog.  I guess we are exploring how content literacy is important and how crucial it is for middle school students.

For my first post, I read a blog post called "How Important is Teaching Literacy in All Content Areas?" This opened my eyes to what literacy means in our society. It no longer only means being able to read and write but to communicate with the people around us. As teachers, it is so important that we encourage and enable our students to participate in discussions because that is how they learn and make content meaningful in their lives. I agree with what Rebecca was saying throughout her whole post. She helped me to realize that though we need to work on communication of our students, we also need to find opportunities for our students to practice their writing. The more practice our students get with communicating amongst their peers and quick writing about different topics, the more they will think and become more literate.

Over the course of this semester I hope to share my ideas about teaching along with learn from other teachers out there. I also hope to establish a network of support for when I begin my teaching, all while getting a better understanding in content literacy.