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.