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!!! :)