Resource Blog #3

Content Area Literacy in the Mathematics Classroom

Content Area Literacy in the Mathematics ... - Barbara Blackburn

This link is for a journal article that includes strategies that can be adapted to help build students’ literacy skills in the mathematics classroom and help them communicate mathematically. The article lists 6 strategies that teachers can incorporate to help their students. One strategy is, The Frayer Model, which helps to build academic vocabulary. Another is to encourage authentic question generation through the Q-matrix, which is a grid in which students develop questions on different cognitive levels. There are also multiple different ways that we can use visual supports such as pictures, charts, and graphic organizers. There is an example of how to incorporate a think-aloud to guide mathematical thinking. And the sixth and final strategy is to have students write to learn or demonstrate their acquisition of mathematical knowledge.


-130

Synthesis Blog #3: SM Ch. 6

As outlined in the chapter, one of the tactics that teachers need to use to help students more effectively use the textbook, is to not assign the whole textbook. We need be more selective in what we have our students read. I have had classes in the past where we were assigned huge, bulks of the text to read and other classes where the teacher would assign certain sections of the text in which he or she found important for us to know. I much preferred when the teacher pointed out which parts to focus on, because I had a better sense of what was important. Rather than reading the whole, huge chapter and not knowing which parts were most important and trying to guess which parts to remember and focus on, the teacher outlined that for us. By doing that, we don’t have to remember the whole text, in which there are parts that are not necessarily important, but instead, we can focus on what is important. As teachers, we should go through and outline the important parts of the text that we want our kids to focus on. In the chapter it said, “Not only are you a grown-up and a subject matter expert, you have also read your textbook five or twenty times before. The material may seem easy to you, but it may really by Greek to the kids.” Therefore, we should know what is important for our kids to read and focus on. This will make it easier for them to narrow down their focus to certain parts of the text, rather than having to learn and comprehend all of the text. It goes on to say, “make more selective assignments for your students. Instead of plowing through the whole book, make strategic choices about what is most important, assigning fewer pages and helping students study them much more carefully." Also, if the text is hard, or “content loaded,” the students are going to need more help. 

-329