"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