That was the theme of chapter three in the textbook. I appreciated this chapter. I have noticed this problem a lot even in my classroom - not just reading words but understanding what all the words mean. I can't imagine how it must be to teach English where that is constantly the problem. In my math class, students are constantly taking notes, doing examples as a class, but when it comes time to do them by themselves, they freeze. They can't do it solo. This is an issue that I am currently struggling with and I feel as if most new teachers do. Thus I was excited to read the chapter. Perhaps there would be some useful pointers that I could actually implement! Perhaps there was some small tid bit that would change the way I am teaching in my classroom. Sadly, I was yet again disappointed by this book and its lack of focus on how math teachers can implement these strategies in their classrooms.
The most useful part of the chapter discussed what skilled readers can do: preview, summarize, use clue words, pointer phrases, etc. These are all the things that my students SHOULD be able to do. But most struggle with them. Another one that I thought of was pulling out the main idea or the bigger picture. Connecting one topic with another. I often get tons of complaints from my students regarding the fact that I move onto new things each day. But really it’s all the same. There is a theme per unit. I am fully aware that this is the fault of the teacher, however, I am not sure how to fix this. We discuss our agenda for the week each Monday. We discuss the unit before it starts. I come up with sets so that it can relate to their lives. And yet its not all good enough because after working on it for 2 weeks, I still have students that don’t realize that when they are talking about slope-intercept form, they are talking about a line!!!!
And here in lies the problem. What do I do? I feel as if I was not given many, if any at all, strategies to fix this problem!!! Now I realize that my students don’t know how to read the notes they are given (sometimes I truly wonder what the point of notes are…why not just do example after example because none of my students ever reread their notes…) BUT what are my options? There were suggestions such as think pair share, which I have tried occasionally. Each of you do a problem, then turn to your neighbor and see if they get the same thing. But yet again, my students don’t see the point of this. They aren’t working together to solve the problem. They first do it individually and THEN they share. Its that damn big picture issue again! I need to start visually showing my objectives on the board with each subtopic below…perhaps that’s what I will do this week. Ready. Set. Go.
Laura, keep doing the good work down there in the Delta. It's so hard teaching and the kids can't make the connection with comprehension. I can't imagine how frustrating it may be to read a book that has so many strategies, and "nuggets of wisdom," but neglects the needs of the math teacher. Nevertheless, I'm sure you've found the best way to implement the strategies and make your kids smarter and more knowledgable.
ReplyDeleteYes, Laura, keep doing what you're doing. I always assume some how that most of us in the program have figured out things that I haven't--like how to teach a concept and actually have kids UNDERSTAND it. We're all doing the wrong thing over and over again and every once in awhile doing the right thing. Every day I'm confused and defeated. Every day I go back for more. I admire your courage for doing the Think-Pair-Share. Kids hardly ever get to talk to each other in my class even though I'm sure it would help them. Maybe next week... You're trying new things all the time, and that's not easy. Keep going, Laura Jones. You're a rockstar.
ReplyDeleteMs. Jones - I know exactly what you're saying. I have a session of notes nearly every day, and often wonder what the point is. I've been told that if a teacher talks while the students are taking notes, that they won't retain anything you say, but then I wonder if I didn't say anything at all, what would be retained? It seems so much of their learning comes through demonstration, but again, is that comprehension? or is that the observation of patterns? It would be interesting to poll the students after a class one day and ask "what did you learn today?" then "what does that mean?". Math is tough, and the book shed some light, but ultimately your relationships with these students will bridge the gaps.
ReplyDeleteI've started having my students write down the days objective at the beginning of each class. I used to just write my objectives on a chalkboard in the back of the class but I was still have a lot of trouble with my kids having no idea what they were trying to understand for the day. Honestly, many of my kids probably still have no idea what the day's objective is, but at least now I feel like they have no excuse.
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