Math and Student Emotions

Class was very interesting.  I learned so many helpful tips, I have to share!

In today’s class, I learned about a very interesting and clever way to make sure your students are well prepared for the tests you present them with. My teacher’s tip: Make the test first, and then the lesson plans that accompany it. This way, the lessons you create will reflect the test and you will head your students in that direction. While this sounds simple, I hadn’t heard of this. I think it’s a brilliant way to start a unit.

I also learned about the value of having students keep a math journal. In the past, I’ve heard about journals for every other subject, but never about math. Today, the teacher presented some very good reasons for doing this. Math tends to be one of those subjects that create a lot of anxiety among students. Having your students journal about their emotions regarding math may help the teacher know how to help in alleviating this stress amongst them. This can be done through a math journal, or kids can even blog about it. The point is to give students a place where they can share their feelings about math. This then becomes a tool for teachers to help students in their math apprehension. While blogging about this now, I wonder, can having students journal about math also help a teacher know if his or her students are progressing? While I know assessments are very handy for this, I wonder if reading kids thoughts in a blog or journal would give you even better feedback.

In terms of the implications for classroom practice, the answer seems pretty simple. Don’t assume math is only about numbers. It’s also about feelings, and these feelings should be valued and listened to. Teachers can easily make time every day or at least once a week to have students write about their feelings in a math journal. What did you think of the material this week? Is there something else you’re still wondering about? Is there something I can do to help you learn the subject better? These are just some of the potential journal prompts.

School lessons-- They will always be connected to the real world!

**No Week 3 Post because there was no school**

In today’s class, we learned many things from both a student’s perspective and from a teacher’s perspective. From a teacher’s perspective, we learned the importance of doing your work carefully and the value you add to your work when you make it look professional. In the beginning of class, our teacher gave us a mini-lesson on using Microsoft Word to create math worksheets for the students. It shows the students that you care enough to make their work, and it shows that as a teacher, you take pride in your work.

We also learned the importance of being meticulous when creating graphs. We had a project where we got into groups and had to create a story out of data (chosen by each group) and represent that story in a visual graph. In today’s class, we had a gallery walk where we walked around the room and left questions and comments on people’s graphs. It was really interesting to see how having the story in our heads sometimes causes us to forget important details in our graphs. When creating such graphs, we must always do so in such a way where we assume the audience knows nothing about the story, and must therefore be done very carefully. Interpreting a graph correctly can only be done if the graph itself was done right. So, how can I make this relevant to my students’ lives? I understand that by allowing the students to choose their own story to tell, I am allowing them to make a personal connection to the project. Still, making students feel like the lessons they learn in school are relevant to their lives goes much further than this.

The implication for classroom practice in regards to this topic would be to get the kids to start thinking about their futures. Have them share their potential career interests and have them do a project where graphical representations would be relevant. Still, this is hard to do since middle school adolescents often change their minds about future careers, but it will at least get them to start thinking about the association of the lesson and careers in the ‘real world’.

Literacy Project 1- Lesson Plan

Lesson Outline

Objectives
To work on improving sentence structure by revising samples of incomplete and run-on sentences.
To discuss his run-on sentences and improve his usage of commas and periods.

Standards
GLE 3.3.4: Knows and applies punctuation rules. Uses commas after an introductory phrase or clause.
GLE 3.3.6: Uses complete sentences in writing.

Materials
Example of writing, pencil, red pen, 1 piece of blank lined paper

Instructional strategies

This lesson will occur in a writing-conference context.

I will ask M to read the piece of writing I provide him with and ask him the following questions: What did you think about the writing?  What do you notice about the sentences? Incomplete sentences? Run-on sentences? What made the sentence either incomplete or a run-on?

We will discuss what makes a complete sentence (how commas are used to combine different ideas together, what elements are necessary), then work on the sample sentences by correcting  two of them together.  The five sentences that remain will be corrected by M. Using a red pen, he can write the corrections he feels will improve the sample.

Once M finishes correcting the sentences, we will talk about how the changes improved them.  If there are incorrect revisions, we will discuss what could be changed.

After M has gotten practice determining what makes a complete sentence (and not a run-on sentence), and feels more confident making revisions, this will lead us to the next  part of our lesson. I will ask him to  read over his original piece of work, “My Dog Kunoa” and have him see if he can spot any incomplete or run-on sentences.  Once he points them out, I will have him rewrite them on a blank piece of paper so that the sentences both flow with the rest of the story, and also get revised as complete, coherent sentences.

I will ask M to read his revisions out loud once he is finished.  

I will discuss the changes he made and give him feedback on how much better his story flows.  We will then have a conversation about what can be  done next to take his writing to publication.

Assessment
I will informally assess how M corrects the remaining five sentences on his own .  Then I will check how he revised his run-on sentences from his story, comparing them to how he had originally written them in his rough draft. I will refer to the sentence fluency portion of the 6-Traits to assess how he made his improvements.

Literacy Project 1-Analysis

1. The title of M’s fictional story is My Dog Kunoa. It was created after his class was given a prompt to write a story about animals that can talk. The story is about a talking dog that goes to the zoo on its grand opening day. Their adventure is cut short when Kunoa gets injured, loses his ability to talk, and has to be taken to the vet. After x-ray tests are done, we learn that Kunoa is alright and just needs some rest.

2. 6 Traits

Ideas: M’s story is clear and focused, and it definitely holds the reader’s attention. His writing contains a lot of details to support his main ideas. As the reader you can also tell that he wrote from experience, “The guy in the box office gave us our tickets and a catalog,” but yet his ideas are fresh and original, “Kunoa wanted to stop at the Dots Ice Cream stand which left me thinking that he was very spoiled.” The piece of writing also displays a high level of insight, demonstrating an understanding of life, “Doctor Yakamoto came in to show me Kunoa’s x-ray.”  

Organization: There is an inviting introduction to M’s story, drawing the reader from the very first sentence. His story has a clear beginning, middle, and ending displaying careful thought and organization in the structure of his story (sequencing is logical and effective). His conclusion was thought through carefully, letting the reader know that his dog Kunoa’s health was in good condition, but also reminding the readers of the main idea of the story with the last sentence (main idea-the day all animals could talk), bringing the story to a smooth closure (Routman, 2005).

Voice: M’s strong focus on his topic speaks strongly to his audience. His use of detail is appealing, and the language that he uses to do so is natural and engaging. His story flows, and his use of specific details lets the reader know that there is an inclusion of personal details and sense of familiarity behind his words, “The guy in the box office gave us our tickets and a catalog” (NWREL, 1992).   

Word Choice: The word choices made by M give the story a very interesting touch, while enhancing the meaning of the story. He uses a lot of lively nouns, verbs, and phrases such as fainted, Doctor Yakamoto, snoring mode, and knocked out like a rock. He even used a simile in his writing, “Doctor Yakamoto came running out like a deer.” The beginning and middle of his story contained a lot of lively word choices, but the ending seemed to lack them a bit. By this point in the story, the audience is already used to a certain level of description and the conclusion paragraph doesn’t support this strongly. He does contain some striking words, “…he went into snoring mode,” but more detailed wording would have been better (NWREL, 1992, p. 5).

Sentence Fluency: The sentences in the story vary in length from short to long, make the story easy to read aloud, and they enhance the meaning of the story. He added dialogue where he felt it expanded the story, “I wish I could swim like you,” and “My dog has hit his head.” His thesis sentence in the beginning paragraph clearly communicates to the audience what the story is about, “That’s the start of the day all animals could talk.” An area we felt he should improve on is preventing run on sentences, “Kunoa went crazy he jumped up, and down yelling, “I wish I could swim like you.” ”

Conventions: Overall, M’s story displayed good capitalization and paragraphing, reinforcing the organizational structure. There are some areas where we feel he needs some improvement and practice. In order to avoid run-on sentences in his story, he needs to learn the proper use of commas and where to start new sentences. His overall spelling was great, with the exception of one misspelled word, eventully.

3. M definitely displays ownership of his writing. He said he likes writing and coming up with creative things, but he does need a title or an open-ended prompt to get started. When asked what makes him want to write, he responded with, “It’s fun thinking of all the action stuff to write about. I’m better at understanding nonfiction.” His fondness of writing even went as far as attempting to write a chapter book at one point. He continued with, “Action makes stories more fun, and since every story has a problem, there needs to be a solution for kids to come up with… but they also have to come up with the fun stuff in between.” M appears to be very proud and confident in his writing, loves to let his imagination take over, and he ended this portion of our questions with, “I think I’m good at writing.”

4. When looking over M’s spelling words from our first session, Sarah and I believe he is a good speller. The only words he missed were ‘cattle’ and ‘fortunate’. He spelled them as ‘caddle’ and ‘fortune’. In terms of misspelling cattle, he spelled the word the way it sounds and he knew the double consonant rule for the word, but he chose ‘d’ instead of ‘t’. For fortunate, he got stumped on the ending sound, changing it entirely to fortune. He showed that he knew how to spell the root word but struggled when spelling the ending. He was also aware that he misspelled the word but wanted to move on. All the other words were spelled correctly and he seemed to have no problem with them, writing them quickly and automatically.

During these two short sessions with M, Sarah and I have learned what it is like to work with and learn from an enthusiastic reader and writer. He is a student that takes pride in his writing and enjoys taking his stories to the next level. We feel that in order for his writing to continue flourishing, he should work on sentence structure to prevent run-on sentences, as well as the proper use of commas. We look forward to continuing our work with him.  

Connections to Readings:

6+1 Trait Writing

Routman, R. (2005). Writing essentials: raising expectations and results while simplifying teaching. Greenwood International.

iPod Touch, Part 1

It’s exciting to think of the ways classroom environments have changed with time. Here we are posting ideas of how to integrate an iPod Touch into our classrooms! Who would have thought this 50 years ago? The education system is changing and as teachers we have the opportunity to incorporate innovative technology into kids’ worlds that will make their learning very enjoyable.

Below I talk about three students in my main placement who I feel would benefit highly from using the iPod touch for certain activities.

All the students’ names have been changed to protect their identity.

A)

Steve is a student that gets distracted easily. If a student in his table moves the desk slightly or makes a noise, it completely throws him off to the point where he begins making noises and becomes a distraction to his classmates. I have noticed that when the teacher starts playing music, he clams down and seems less stressed. This is what brings me to the idea for Steve’s situation, which is to give him the iPod along with some headphones. With this he can listen to soothing classical music I have downloaded, allowing him to focus only on his work and not become distracted with his surroundings.

B)

Ines is a student who seems to struggle with spelling. What is particular about this student is that she doesn’t like asking for help. Once I offer my help to guide her in sounding out the words, she is accepting of the assistance. Still, she is refusing to ask for help when she needs it herself. Overall, she is a quiet and shy student, and I feel this plays a major role in her reluctance to speak out. For a student like this, who in her writing has displayed an interest in marine life, I would have her play the Spelling-Wiz-Oceans game on the iPod. It will introduce her to various marine life and increase her vocabulary as well as enhance her spelling skills.

C)

Kevin is another quiet student who struggles with math. He seems to be distracted a lot in class lately, mostly towards the last part of the day. I have worked one-on-one with him and math seems to be of no interest to him, and his grades are suffering. He saw me walking around the room with the iPod recently and he seemed interested with the gadget. My goal would be to set a daily goal for him during math. If he can complete the assignment (or whatever goal I set for him) he can use the iPod Basic Math application for the remaining ten minutes of the lesson. I feel that using the Basic Math application where he can practice addition, subtraction, and eventually multiplication and division, he can become interested in math and actually begin to enjoy it.

Remembering Early Math Lessons and Manipulatives

This week in math, I learned many things. I started off being amazed at how often we overlook the details in the things that we learn. The foundation for various subjects is engraved in us from young ages and we often don’t even notice it. For example, we all did algebra in the first grade when we did problems like 3 + 4 =__ or 3 + __=7. If we put an ‘x’ in the blank spaces, we have Algebra, a part of math that is often feared by many students since they forget the preview they had in younger school years. This brings up an interesting question for me. Should you explain to the first grade kids that you are doing algebra, or would this intimidate them? This question is debatable, which is what makes it so difficult to answer. Some people would say that it would make the students feel special to be working on algebra, a subject they know middle school children encounter. Other people, however, would say this can create a mental road block for some kids. During my observations, I often heard a first grade teacher tell her students that they knew things (in this example, continent names and locations) that fourth graders didn’t know. While most of the class would feel proud and excited by this comment, I did notice some students become nervous. Therefore, is this the right thing to do?

In class we also talked about the use of manipulatives. Our teacher said something that is very true, “Everyone has a manipulative that they are more comfortable with.” In our last math class we used beans to solve some problems. For me, the beans were confusing. Even the number line was confusing. I’m used to converting symbols: two plus signs is a positive sign, one negative and positive result in a negative, and two negatives result in a positive sign. Simple. Well, I saw some students love the bean idea. The concluding thought: all students learn in different ways, and as teachers we have to offer the curriculum in various methods so we reach all our students.

In terms of classroom practice, I see the value of various forms of instruction and this would include the use of manipulatives in some lessons. Not all children learn the same way. While using puzzle pieces always seems to confuse me more, I have seen other students reach an ‘aha moment’ because of them. Different forms of instruction not only help children reach their potential, it makes learning fun.

Teachers Keep Learning

While doing math activities or games with my cohort classmates, I can’t help but to notice that we are all still learning and while working together, we reinforce what we already know and learn new things. As teachers, our skills will continue growing. As we explore and look deeply into math activities with our students, we will learn new things and new strategies. I will be honest. While doing some of the math activities, there were things I didn’t know. Luckily, other students knew how to proceed and I was able to feed off of their information and knowledge which helped bring back the mathematical information that had been buried in my mind from early school years. I’ve been very happy at the times I have been able to help others if they needed mathematical assistance. We can’t go into the teaching field thinking we know everything. If we do, we wouldn’t be good teachers. With this in mind, I wonder, what can a teacher that believes he/she can’t learn anything more, or can’t learn anything from his/her students do to realize they are limiting their own learning potential?

 Information and strategies are constantly changing and our minds will continue to expand. I look forward to the challenges we will come across in our math class this quarter. It’s a safe environment where we can make mistakes and learn, the way all classrooms should be.