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