So one of the grad classes I am taking is about reading in your content area. Yeah I know what you are thinking because I have been thinking it the whole time – “Reading in math? What? How does this class apply to whats happening in my classroom?” Well I don’t really have an answer for you. I am still trying to figure that one out for myself.
I just finished reading chapter four in a book we were assigned. It had some pretty useful things in it but again, I am not really sure how to apply. Better yet, I am not sure why I need to apply them. The chapter was giving me various ways to assess my students literacy ability and ways to get to know them, which would have been better read at the beginning of the year. I suppose I am just stuck on what I do once I assess my students. Yes its true that there are basic sentences to read in my class. Yes you have to read word problems. And yes you have to be able to read the test. I still don’t see the value of assessing my students reading ability. There are key words in math that my students pull out. Even my SPED students can pull them out. Perhaps its just because I don’t have anyone who is severally behind in reading?
Not sure. Anyways, the one section that I have been thinking about in the chapter was about standardized tests. Seeing as I am an Algebra 1 teacher, I have feelings about this age old debate: teaching to the test vs not. To me they can not be separated. I HAVE to look at past state tests to see what material is presented and in what fashion and even what language do they use. But I often catch myself teaching things and not thinking about the test. I teach because its important for the kids to know certain things if they are in algebra, but at the same time there is this test that they must pass to move on. Its definitely a balancing act but not a one of the other situation.
That’s about all I got out of the chapter at this point. Perhaps I will learn something new in class on Saturday?
Laura,
ReplyDeleteI really can't say I understand your dilemma. I am very thankful that I am not state tested because I feel like I still have so much learning as a teacher to do without the added pressure of being state tested. But, my administration has asked me to give mostly multiple choice tests to help out the state tested teachers, so I try to do that. But, I am still not convinced that assessing using a multiple choice test every time is a ood measure of their knowledge.
Laura, my heart goes out to you. This class seems much more relavent to other content areas (especially English, and even science classes where textbook reading is essential), but I'm not sure I see the point for math classes. You're focus should be on mathmatecial concepts. I understand that these students have servere trouble with reading and comprehension, but if we start taking time away from math instruction to improve english, then we start neglecting a new problem to fix another one. Time needs to be dedicated for each subject. The only benefit I can see for english in math is teaching them how to read and decode the state test. I know the quesitons on the english II state test are very tricky and i'm sure they carry over to math. That would be time not wasted in a math class. Good luck LJ!
ReplyDeleteThese thoughts come from someone who is not a non-math teacher but is also quite bad at math. Just be warned.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at the new state test for biology I noticed that some of the questions were very similar (content wise) to simpler questions from older tests. The new questions merely obfuscated the real question within a complicated sentence or framework. The "scientific word problems" have convinced me more than anything that it's important for my students to improve their reading comprehension skills. Perhaps the same is true for math? I mean, how often in the real world will students be presented by a math problem that is clearly and obviously stated with no extraneous information. We live in a world full of word problems and I think that reading comprehension and, by extension, critical thinking is probably the solution.
Hmm... I can agree with Elijah's comment.
ReplyDeleteRoomie you know I empathize with you big time! However, when my kids took the benchmark test, there were definitely a TON of word problems on the test. I remember very few actual math equations listed with no words. I'm sure the same if true for Algebra I.
The thing that's the most frustrating is my English colleagues are not working their asses off to increase the kids' comprehension, so more of the burden falls on me. Ugh! This district is so frustrating.
Despite this, I will continue to fight for justice and for the kiddies of GPSD.