Prompt- Field experiences relating to content literacy- observations, interactions, and questions. Response to Readicide. Suggestions for seminar topics on 3/08, progress with literacy explorations and strategy lesson, reflection for how to avoid readicide in your content area.
I am finding myself somewhat at a lost for discussing content literacy in my field experience. For the past couple of weeks, the only literacy that I have witnessed at all has been directly implemented by me. My host teacher simply does not bring in outside examples of literacy to the classroom. In his defense, this is a Math classroom and for two-thirds of he day, he is teaching either AP or Accelerated classes. The students in these calsses are highly self motivated and are often reading literature on their own. This is my his first semester teaching any Support calsses in a long time and I truly believe that he does not feel a need to implement other literacy. On the other hand, I do see that the teacher holds a high standard for communicating Mathematically. He continually requires the students to explain steps to example problems using Mathematically appropriate language. I find this strategy very meaningful and I have tried to use it myself in my TWS unit.
I thoroughly enjoyed Readicide. Although it can be very discouraging to read about how schools are contributing to students low reading achievement, it is also nice to have some pointers about what can be done better. I also really like th part in Chapter 5 that talks about how maybe we are fixing the wrong things. Professor Yong Zhao points out that although there has been a scare about the United States being "Math and Technology Illiterate" that we still manage (at least for now) to produce a considerable amount of teachnology and Math to the world.
Seminar topics ideas: I was hoping to just hear about other literacy engagements and how they are coming for others. I have found it difficult to find five different opportunities to implement strategies and I would like to know what has worked.
Speaking of literacy engagements, I have completed two more since our last class meeting. One involved an Article of the Week type activity where we read the article together as a class and I tried to model strategies for reading mathematical literature. The other engagement involved a graphic organizer to assist the students' understanding of some pretty tricky vocabulary terms. I actually like this much better because I actually heard the students reference the organizer later when preparing for a quiz over the topic.
As far as avoiding readicide in the future, I can onlyhope to balance between overteaching and underteaching. This is something that I have found is a difficult balance for me in general. One of my negative critiques from my first observation was that I shouldallow for more "wait time" and allow the students to have a chance to answer.
I hope that everyone is surviving all of this and I will see you Monday!
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I'm sorry to hear that you're having difficulty find literacy engagements. I'm working with honors students, so their self motivation to read outside of class is low. Out of curiosity, I gave students an article and asked them to read it over the weekend; there were no consequences for not reading (no external motivation), and I wasn't surprised to see that 2 of the 26 students read the article. If it doesn't affect their grade, they don't care. In fact, if it affects their grade, most of them still don't care (because homework and participation is such a small part of their grade). I'm afraid that if I were to assess them on the reading, I would be contributing to readicide. Like you, I'm trying to find a balance between too soft and too hard.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy to swim against the tide. To Chante, by your description, your classrooms are rich literacy contexts. There seems to be communication and discussion occurring, even if not wide reading in printed text. What are your students strengths? What areas could they use support in? How are they applying math concepts to real life situations and problems?
ReplyDeleteTo Corey, remember the gradual release model. Students might not take an article and read independently. Think about how Gallagher starts them off in class with burst of reading in short text for allotted time and then focused discussion of confusions and important ideas. Be sure to give students structure (purpose) and short time intervals to start. The selection of text helps if you make it relevant to their lives and their interests.
I agree with Corey that balancing is a challenge. Remember your vision for your students. What do you want them to know and be able to do that will prepare them for the challenges of the 21st century?
Not to sound too corny, but this is really our future that you have in your classrooms.
Chante,
ReplyDeleteFirst off I am having the same struggles with the implementation of content literacy by my host teacher. Not only do I provide the only literacy stratagies, but also the idea of including content literacy seems to be a laughing matter to my host teacher. I guess we wasn only hope to influence our o3wn future classrooms by the experiences that we are seeing.
I am interested in you literacy engagement that you discussed in your blog. If you wouldn't mind to fill me in during class it would be appreciated. Also, I have a literacy engagement that I would like to show you. It is a "Fix-and-Learn" activity where the students had to write about their mistakes on a test or quiz in order to receive additional credit towards their grade. Not only did the original grades improve, the comprehension levels of those who worked the process rose as well. I will show you when we meet again.
P.S. Have you found a job?
Chante, my host teacher also critiqued me on "wait time". He said that is the most common problem he sees with student teachers is that we always want to rush through things so fast and the students end up getting frustrated because they feel like they aren't getting everything or can't catch up. I wonder if it is because we have been in college classes for so long that we ourselves are used to the fast paced environment where you have to get it all, and if you don't sorry your out of luck. I personally feel like if i'm not speaking or teaching that i am wasting time because we have so much we have to cover in so little time i don't want to waste even a second of time in class. Oh the joys of teaching.
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