Disciplinary Literacy - Math

Synthesis:

Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas:
The text this week focused on strategies that teachers can use to help their students when it comes to learning math concepts.

• We want students to use their prior knowledge that they gained in previous years of math instruction to help them understand new concepts. Through teacher guidance, we can help students unlock this knowledge to benefit them in the learning process. This reference to student background knowledge needs to occur at the beginning of the lesson. 
• We want students to make connections while learning. They need to make connections to knowledge that they already have, and connections to their own lives. Teachers need to explain how the students can use the math skill outside of the classroom. The students will greatly benefit if they understand the real world application of the concept. Ohterwise, it will just be a useless skill with no real meaning. 
• If students make these connections, it can also improve engagement and motivation towards the topic. 
• Students need to write and talk about these connections. Discussion and writing can be powerful ways for students to express their thoughts and feelings about a topic. The students can learn from one another during the conversations to help their understanding. Teachers can gauge student learning by reading student writing, and hopefully be able to see if the students understood the teaching or need more instruction. 
• Students need to see the teacher modeling how to perform the math operation, and ALSO modeling the correct mathematical language in the correct context. This will help student learning as they are able to see the appropriate way to use the math term. 
• Teachers need to provide feedback to students throughout the learning process. The teacher can clarify meaning of mathematical language during discussions and mini lessons. Periodical one-on-one or small group conferences can also be beneficial to monitor learning and help students. 
• Once students have learned the math concept, they can show their learning by writing mathematical texts and problems. The students become the teachers as they create the problems and they can allow other students to solve them. 

Jetton and Shanahan:

This chapter focused on the planning of math lessons, and how the reading teachers (and reading specialist) and the math teachers can work together to improve literacy in math. Teachers need to:

• Identify texts to be used. Teachers need to choose texts that include real world examples to allow students to make connections. 
• Plan the reading and writing required for the lesson. The students need to read and write throughout the process, along with discussing the concept and asking questions. This part of the learning should involve student and teacher collaboration to learn mathematical vocabulary 
• Develop a plan that allows the students to make sense of the text through application. Text is just text until the students are able to make sense of it. 

Moje: 

The presenter discusses literacy across the disciplines. The contexts of the literature in secondary schools becomes much more complicated as students progress throughout school. Although the texts in secondary settings can be complex, teachers need to avoid the focus on learning facts. We want students to ask questions throughout the learning process and think for themselves about the content.

These "E"'s can help teachers and students when learning the disciplines:

• Expose - help students of all ages navigate the text
• Engage - practice generating and communication knowledge to foster learning
• Elicit and Engineer - teach skills and practices that help students make meaning of the text
• Examine - teach how words are used in a given discipline and model the use of this language
• Evaluate - figure out why you should use these methods and when it is not useful 
• We also need to Expect the best from our students and challenge them to reach new goals.

Moje stressed the importance of taking the navigation journey of the texts WITH our students. We need to read often and closely with our students, and discuss, question, and analyze the reading together. The students should have the opportunity to write responses and read their peers' writings.

Responses:
(text to self)
The Jetton and Shanahan text spoke to me, because I want to be a reading specialist after I graduate. Jumping straight into grad school after I graduated, I knew that I was passionate about helping students who struggle with reading. But there is a whole other aspect to being a reading specialist that the text discusses. Reading specialists also need to work with other teachers across the disciplines to offer insight for reading instruction.

(text to text)
The text this week connects to the text from last week. Although ELA and math are completely different subjects of learning, these disciplines both involve the learning of vocabulary and language. Students go through a similar process of learning, no matter the discipline.

(text to world)
The text this week (and weeks past) have discussed the importance of students making connections with the text. This got me thinking about my student teaching experience. My mentor teacher would give the students sticky notes to write thoughts or connections while they were reading. Sometimes she would give them a guide to use to help them process each part of the text. I think this can be a powerful way for the students to analyze the text.

Questions:

1.  What is your strategy for identifying what text to use? Do you base it more on student opinion/interest or textbook/district suggestions?

2.  How do you help students to make real-life connections if they don't have the real-life experiences to understand?

I look forward to reading your posts and hearing your input!!! :)

Disciplinary Literacy - ELA

Synthesis:

Jetton and Shanahan:
The reading this week focuses on literacy - how we can best teach literacy to help students be able to read, write, and communicate to the best of their ability. we need to expose our students to multiple types of texts and lessons. We need to model reading, writing and thinking strategies for students to be able to understand how to become independent students of literacy. We want students to make connections to their own lives and also connections across each discipline.

The text also discusses multiple literacies and the challenges of learning in the 21st century. The days of paper and pencil are coming to an end as students are learning through blogs, twitter wikis, and e-readers. Students are now expected to use advanced skills while learning and showing their knowledge. Students have to problem solve and work together to learn together. Then students demonstrate their critical thinking and technological skills when presenting information. Technology literacy is important, and will only become more important in the future.

The reading mentions multiple challenges when it comes to teaching writing. We cannot just assign a writing prompt to our students and expect them to write a great essay. We need to show our students different types of texts and genres. Exposure to text is an important part of improving vocabulary knowledge and literacy in general. We also need to teach our students about writing for different audiences, and how their writing should change depending upon who will be reading their work.

The text discusses the reading process in detail, from before it starts to after it ends. Questions are a vital part of this process. We need to ask students questions before they read that allows them to make personal connections to the text and engage them for the learning. Students can also write their thoughts and discuss feelings about the text or topic with peers. These discussions should talk about textual elements, themes of the story, and author intention. While reading, students need to continue writing, commenting on their thoughts and questions that they have about the story. After reading, students need to be able to demonstrate their comprehension of the text in multiple ways, including writing and speaking.

Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas:
This reading discusses reading in every subject and how we can help improve student literacy in each subject area.
History- The students should interpret the text and be able to explain the text without repeating the author word for word. The students should also ask their own questions about the historical event and about the author. They should make connections to their own lives and connections to other subjects they are learning.
Science- Teachers should allow students to not only learn from textbooks, but also from online articles and magazines that can give students another perspective. Many times these articles will allow the students to make a real world connection to the topic.
Math- Reading for math can be challenging. It is important that students understand the mathematical vocabulary to comprehend the text.

The text also discusses how we can improve student engagement and motivation towards texts. Interest surveys and allowing choice with reading can be a big factor to help encourage students with their reading.

Responses:
(text to self)
While reading, I was thinking about how I could help my students in the future improve their literacy skills. I know that there is a lot that I can learn from my students since they are growing up in an era that they have always had technology at their fingertips. I know technology can help motivate students, so I want to use technology to help students learn and show their knowledge whenever it is possible.

(text to text)
The readings this week have connected to texts we have read in this class and texts I have read from the past about how we can help our students on their literacy journey and understanding text. We have read a lot about how modeling and teaching students to make connections is an important part of the learning process.

(text to world)
The text made me think of my experiences in middle school and high school. In schools today, motivation is such a huge issue. My teachers did not always create lessons that were relevant to us or that engaged us with the learning. I think this could have been improved if we were able to show our knowledge in ways other than a written test.

Questions:

1.  What are some teaching strategies that you like to do with your students every time you discuss a text?

2.   What are some different ways that students can demonstrate their knowledge of the text, other than the tradition written exam?

Thanks for reading! :)

Text Complexity - How do we teach disciplinary texts?

Synthesis:

We know that as students progress throughout school, the texts that they read become more difficult and complex. In order for students to be able to navigate these texts, we must explicitly teach skills and strategies to help them grow as independent readers. We need to teach our students the importance of these strategies, and model how to use them effectively while reading.

• Setting a purpose for reading can be the first step to increase student comprehension. If students don't know why or how the reading is useful to them, they will be less likely to pay attention or want to understand the text. Teachers must explain why the text is relevant before using it in a lesson. 
• One factor that makes content-specific texts so difficult for students is the vocabulary. These texts use tier 2 and 3 vocabulary words that must be explicitly taught for students to be able to understand. We cannot expect our students to know these words walking into the classroom. 
• Exposing students to various types of text is important to help build background knowledge. The students in our classroom may not have access to many books at home, so allowing our students to see and have experience with lots of books is vital. This includes balancing challenging texts with easier texts. Allowing students to have input and choice when it comes to text is important too, and can help with motivation and comprehension. 
• Teaching students how to monitor their own comprehension can be hugely helpful for students while they are reading. Some students can just be tempted to skip parts of the text they don't understand to stop reading all together when they run into a challenging section. Students need to know how to break down vocabulary words into meaningful parts or how to use context clues to gain understanding. 

Text to text: 

The readings from this week reminded me of the chapters from the previous two weeks about teaching vocabulary and comprehension. We must teach specific strategies to students to allow them to be able to understand the text while reading independently. 

Text to self: 

It can definitely be frustrating to not have all the knowledge needed to understand a text. I have personally been affected by this in the past. Because I did not have the strategy knowledge, my motivation was reduced and I gave up trying to understand on my own. 

Text to world: 

I think this is a common occurrence among students. If we teach our students reading and comprehension strategies, hopefully this will help this problem and allow our students able to understand the content-area text.

Questions: 

1.  What are some effective strategies to use to motivate students to want to read content-area texts? 

2.  As a future reading specialist, what can I do to help content-area teachers learn how to effectively teach reading strategies? 

Comprehension is the goal! How do we get there??

Synthesis:

The readings this week focused on the importance of comprehension, the different components of reading that affect the reader’s comprehension, and various strategies that teachers can use to facilitate their students’ comprehension in the classroom.

We know that we want our students to comprehend what they are reading. Comprehension is the entire purpose and goal of reading. If our students are not comprehending what they read and gaining understanding from the text, reading will simply be seen as a meaningless and boring activity to them. But there are multiple factors that can interfere with reaching comprehension. Texts become more difficult during the secondary school years, specifically by containing content-specific vocabulary and more complex sentence structures and ideas. Texts are expository and informational, and require a higher level of thinking.

According to Fisher, Frey, and Ross, these variables can influence student comprehension:

• ·      Reader variables (age, ability, motivation)
• ·      Text variables (genre, features)
• ·      Educational-context variables (environment, task, grouping, purpose)
• ·      Teacher variables (knowledge, experience, attitude, teaching strategy)

Now, how do we help these students? What can we do as their instructors to help foster their comprehension of these difficult texts? The readings this week had some answers for us.

(Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas)

• 1.     We need discussion in the classroom. Comprehension will be strengthened when the students have the opportunity to listen and learn from one another. Teachers need to introduce and dialogue with students about the academic language of the content area during these discussions.
• 2.     It is important to ask students quality questions to check for student understanding of the text. We should ask students questions that make them look at the text again and reread. These questions should make students think critically and may spur other discussions.
• 3.     In-depth vocabulary instruction is vital to understanding the reading. We cannot just expect our students to skip over the vocabulary that they do not know. We need students to be familiar with the vocabulary, or be familiar with different ways that they can problem solve to figure out words (such as looking at structural analysis, examining the context of the vocabulary, or looking to other resources).
• 4.     We have to set a purpose for reading before our students even open the text. This will focus the students’ attention and will motivate students to read the text carefully and meaningfully.
• 5.     Modeling can be helpful for students to see how they should be thinking while reading. If we can let our students get inside our brain for a second and see how we problem-solve and make sense of the text, it may help our students do the same.

(Jetton and Shanahan)

• 6.     We need to concentrate on planning lessons and picking text that is engaging and meaningful. Taking into account student interest and prior knowledge are two other important factors that we should remember while planning.
• 7.     Social and cultural views may affect comprehension and learning in the classroom. We must consider the different cultures and backgrounds of our students when planning lessons, and make sure that all of our students will benefit from the teaching.
• 8.     Mental imagery can be a key factor in the brain comprehending the text. Choosing texts that students can visualize, and letting students talk with one another about their images can be valuable to comprehension.
• 9.     We can teach students to make inferences while reading. This is an important strategy for students to construct meaning from informational and narrative texts.
• 10. If students can monitor their own comprehension, it can definitely help their level of understanding. Students should be taught that going back to reread, accessing prior knowledge, and using vocabulary analysis strategies are great ways to help build comprehension.

(Fisher, Frey, and Ross)

• 11.  Reciprocal teaching allows students to become leaders in the classroom. This method allows students to boost their comprehension by teaching and learning from their classmates.

These points are for ALL teachers. Every subject of learning needs to incorporate comprehension instruction and teach strategies to students to help figure out the text.

Responses:

(Text to self)

Many times in middle school and high school, I remember reading something for class and thinking, “Why in the world am I reading this?” I don’t think many of my teachers did a very good job of sharing with us a purpose for reading. I remember it greatly affecting my motivation to complete the reading, and in turn affected what I remembered and took from the text. I understand the importance of showing the students the purpose behind the reading, and also making sure that the text is relevant to the students.

(Text to text)

Once students reach upper elementary, the focus of school takes a turn from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. I remember hearing this many times in my undergraduate courses. These chapters discussed how we can help this “reading to learn” process. It can be a difficult transition once students reach secondary school because the text becomes much more complex. This just proves the importance of teaching the comprehension strategies.

(Text to world)

In today’s educational world, where there is such a focus on testing, I can’t help but relating the comprehension strategies to testing strategies. Teaching our students to go back and reread and use vocabulary analysis to figure out words are two big methods we can teach our students to help them during important tests. 

Questions:

• 1.     How can I make sure that I am picking texts that are relevant to both the content and the students’ lives?
• 2.     How can I help build up my students’ background knowledge to help them comprehend various texts? 

I want my students to have access to various texts that are relevant to the content and also are relatable to their lives. This seems like a challenge to me that I would love to have your input!

Thank you for reading! J