I chose to read the Allsopp article about why students with special needs have difficulty learning math and what teachers can do to help because I thought it was the most relatible to my own classroom. I have one special education student in my classroom whose math scores are so low he actually qualifies for pull out special education math support for a half hour each day. He is however still in our classroom for part of his math instruction and I have seen him struggle to stay focused and keep up day after day. Allsopp also named attention problems as a major barrier for special education students because they often miss important information during instruction. In addition to special education students, I think the majority of us have students who simply have trouble paying attention. As I was reading I found myself thinking not only of my special education students but also others in my class who could benefit from the strategies that they article suggests.
I really liked the examples of how to directly model, let the students use language to describe math, and continue to give meaningful feedback with performance charts. My students have a lot of experience with modeling because of our literacy curriculum and it has been very successful. So I think directly modeling expectations and strategies during math lessons would benefit students as well. Even if the whole class didn’t require it, I could directly model for individual students as they head back to their desk. Not all students need to be dismissed from the carpet at the same time. Those that need more modeling could even stay together for just a few more minutes of instruction. Another option might be to talk with the special education teacher and make sure that we are both on the same page, using similar strategies when the special education student is pulled out for math. One thing that I realized was that my CT and I usually follow the math book very closely, using the examples from the book. I really liked the way the teacher in the article used much more authentic examples for story problems. I think it would really help my special education student if his name and interested were in the math stories he was supposed to solve. Not only would it be more memorable for him but also probably keep his attention longer if we were talking about topics he already knew and liked!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
At-Risk Students
I read “Problem Solving and At-Risk Students: Making ‘Mathematics for All’ a Classroom Reality”. This article is about a teacher that was used to teaching students from wealthier, more privileged families and his first year as a fifth grade teacher in an area where the majority of the population is below the poverty level presented many problems for him. I related to this article because about 60% of the students in my class get free or reduced lunch. The small town of Leslie is a poorer town.
The teacher documents a few of his greatest obstacles with the children. Some of the activities that were a snap to his previous classes were really hard for his new class to handle. I really liked the way the teacher handled the challenge that was presented to him. As Robert stated in the article, teachers often time give up on students like these because they think they are “hopeless”. This entire year Robert kept the students in mind. “Children desperately need the chance to explore, create, and resolve conflicts with one another if they are to move beyond the cycle of failure.” There are a lot of students in my class that make comments calling themselves “stupid”. I also do not see a huge amount of student involvement. There are some parents that you can tell are very involved in their child’s education and there are others that I have never met nor heard anything from. Sometimes school is all the student has for support in learning and it is so important for their teacher to give them the support that they need.
The lessons that Robert challenged his students with taught them how to work with each other and how to think critically. He built up confidence in his students by giving them small successes. “The objective of these small steps was not for the students to master the magic square but for them to experience repeated successes in problem solving. My hope was that by accumulating small successes, they would build confidence, perhaps even overconfidence, to approach more difficult problems.” I think it is very important that students feel good about themselves and their accomplishments. Robert notices on the first day of school that the students were intimidated by their math. They said things like “this is too hard” or they would just throw their pencil down and say they weren’t going to do the work. Robert realized that they didn’t believe in themselves. They quit when they were presented with a challenge. Robert turned that around and showed the students that they CAN do it. He taught them that they have the ability to think critically and to accomplish difficult tasks.
Reading-Class connections
In reading “Collaborative problem-solving in mixed language groups,” I was immediately reminded of my students and a conversation I had with my CT. Even though we do have a student who speaks a language other than English at home, the piece of this article that stood out to me more than the ESL piece was the small group interactions. This Wednesday, as a part of a fire safety lesson, we divided the students into groups of three. Pictures of different objects or situation were shown on the overhead and groups were asked to work together to come up with a safety rule related to each picture. Since we have many natural leaders in our class we ran into the problems of students butting heads with other natural leaders in their group; dominating the entire activity; and/or failing to include one member. Our ESL student happened to been in a group consisting of two natural leaders. Near the end of the lesson time, this student approached me reporting that his group was not including him. I joined the group to see what was going on and observed one student writing and drawing as the other student spouted off ideas. I asked why they were not including M and they said they couldn’t hear him. I then suggested that the students take turns writing so that everyone can be involved.
After school my CT and I talked about this. She mentioned how she has heard it said that you should have the same number of jobs within a group as there are students in the group. We tried to brainstorm some ideas, but could only settle on the recorder and reporter rolls. This article seemed to support my CT’s suggestion. In the article it mentioned that the students who improved the most on their math assessment were the ones who had engaged in the discussion and problem-solving process during the collaborative math activity. As an act to engage those students seemed uninterested and scored poorly, the article suggested that you assign jobs such as recorder, checker, summarizer, and materials manager. I know working in groups will be beneficial for my students especially in math, if not academically then surly it will benefit them socially. For future groups, however I will certainly structure it more by making sure each member has a job within the group.
After school my CT and I talked about this. She mentioned how she has heard it said that you should have the same number of jobs within a group as there are students in the group. We tried to brainstorm some ideas, but could only settle on the recorder and reporter rolls. This article seemed to support my CT’s suggestion. In the article it mentioned that the students who improved the most on their math assessment were the ones who had engaged in the discussion and problem-solving process during the collaborative math activity. As an act to engage those students seemed uninterested and scored poorly, the article suggested that you assign jobs such as recorder, checker, summarizer, and materials manager. I know working in groups will be beneficial for my students especially in math, if not academically then surly it will benefit them socially. For future groups, however I will certainly structure it more by making sure each member has a job within the group.
Connections between readings and classroom
I read the article Helping Students with Disabilities Understand what Mathematics Means. In this article it talks about different ways to help students understand math. The first guideline they talk about is to use various models of representation. Educators should represent math in different ways so students have can a variety of ways to visualize a problem. Because many students have a hard time understanding what math means, this could provide many different ways to have students see what the math concept is about. In our classroom we have a couple students with special needs and my CT makes sure to have a lot of different manipulatives and show problems in a variety of ways. One thing I like that my CT and I do is to include movement in a lot of our lessons. For First Grade I think this is really important not only for special needs kids but for all students.
The next thing this article talks about is to consider appropriate structures for teaching specific concepts. This section talks about different ways to present material to students. One way is to have a compare and contrast, another way is to show examples and non examples of things. In my classroom I have found that during some lessons my CT uses these. She does not go as in depth as they do in the article. I think one reason for this is the one student who this would benefit is not always in the room during our math time.
The next part of this article is to consider the language of mathematics. Sometimes language can be something that students get stuck on, especially in math. It may be hard to learn new concepts when you can not understand the words. This article suggests breaking it down in simple language and using lots of examples. My CT does this anyways in First Grade because most of these concepts are new to students anyways.
It is also important to make real world connections and provide detailed instructions. These are important so students know exactly what to do. Also if students can make a connection with something they already know, they are more likely to pick up on the concept. My CT uses these strategies in our classroom not only to support the students with special needs but also in general.
I have found that through this article my CT uses some form of all of these guidelines. I think this article was really beneficial to read to make sure that when you are planning your lesson or your unit you make these considerations.
The next thing this article talks about is to consider appropriate structures for teaching specific concepts. This section talks about different ways to present material to students. One way is to have a compare and contrast, another way is to show examples and non examples of things. In my classroom I have found that during some lessons my CT uses these. She does not go as in depth as they do in the article. I think one reason for this is the one student who this would benefit is not always in the room during our math time.
The next part of this article is to consider the language of mathematics. Sometimes language can be something that students get stuck on, especially in math. It may be hard to learn new concepts when you can not understand the words. This article suggests breaking it down in simple language and using lots of examples. My CT does this anyways in First Grade because most of these concepts are new to students anyways.
It is also important to make real world connections and provide detailed instructions. These are important so students know exactly what to do. Also if students can make a connection with something they already know, they are more likely to pick up on the concept. My CT uses these strategies in our classroom not only to support the students with special needs but also in general.
I have found that through this article my CT uses some form of all of these guidelines. I think this article was really beneficial to read to make sure that when you are planning your lesson or your unit you make these considerations.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Components of Lesson Planning
I anticipate that the most challenging of the 5 components of lesson planning will be managing the classroom talk. For one, talk moves are still a relatively new concept for me. Obviously teachers have always been using certain talk moves and I unknowingly had as well, but I had never really paid much attention to which ones or which were most productive in a given discussion until recently. Besides that, I have always liked to be a listener during conversations and discussions in my placements because I find what students have to say so interesting. I'd much rather listen to them talk than think about how specifically I am going to ask them a question to get them to talk. I realize how important it is for the teacher to guide discussions at times so that all students have the opportunity to hear, say, and learn concepts from different perspectives, but it is admittedly taking a lot of practice to remember to think so specifically about what type of talk I am going to use and not just let the students conversations flow.
I worry that I might get stuck in a rut and inadvertedly keep using the same talk move or forget ones that would be perfect for a certain situation.
The book mentions that the "managing classroom talk component would be the time during which you would make notes to yourself about talk such as vocabulary definitions and other related info the students might ask. It is sometimes difficult to anticipate what directs the discussions during a lesson may take and that too makes being completely prepared with all of the information you might need difficult.
I worry that I might get stuck in a rut and inadvertedly keep using the same talk move or forget ones that would be perfect for a certain situation.
The book mentions that the "managing classroom talk component would be the time during which you would make notes to yourself about talk such as vocabulary definitions and other related info the students might ask. It is sometimes difficult to anticipate what directs the discussions during a lesson may take and that too makes being completely prepared with all of the information you might need difficult.
Thinking about the Mathmatics
The first three components of making an effective lesson plan all relate directly to the mathematics you as a teacher want to highlight in a lesson. The hardest part for me, in regards to forming productive lessons that include math talk is coming up with the questions that will be asked. If you don’t research the misconceptions commonly associated with the math concepts you are trying to teach, how can you expect to come up with questions that challenge the students to address the errors they may have in their thinking? As the book said on page 175, “student’s comments in math class are largely a result of their current understanding…” We shouldn’t expect students to know their misconceptions or that they misconception will always be revealed without digging for it. The questions are also what guide the conversation and if not though through the questions might quickly take the class away from the objective of the lesson and may actually cause more harm and confusion than good. The level of the question also dictates the depth of the conversation. If purposefully thought provoking questions are not determined before the lesson the teacher might find him/herself asking very basic knowledge level questions. I love how the author gave some strategies and resources that teachers can use to identify concepts that might be problematic for students. Before reading the chapter I don’t think I would have known where to start looking for misconceptions let alone how to address them in the form of a question.
Scripted curriculum and 5 lesson planning goals
I think you could still implement the lesson planning strategies into the classroom even if you have a scripted curriculum. I feel like that is what my CT and I are doing anyways. At my school they have the Everyday math curriculum, which is very scripted. I think this program does a good job anyways of putting the goals at the beginning of the chapter and they are clear so you can see what pre-assessments you need to do, and what the main goal out of all the lessons is going to be. The next component you would have to tweak would be anticipating confusion. This would take more effort from the teacher to sit down read ahead and look at the concepts that are coming up. From there generate a list of potential problems and come up with additional activities to solve those misconceptions. This can be helpful because "you are more likely to make sure that students think carefully about these ideas and procedures during this time," (174). This would also apply to the asking questions component. While I think the Everyday math book does a good job of pointing out little things to ask the students I don't think it goes very in depth and sometimes seems disorganized. This again would take effort from the teacher to sit down and pre-read the chapter to find more engaging questions to ask the students. The implementation is suggested in the book and I do like how it gives you multiple ways to give it.
The hardest part of incorporating this would be the generating questions. Like the books says, "The most challenging questions ask students to explain a complex situation, evaulate the usefulness of a method, or synthesize a set of findings," (180). I think this can easily be done in a scripted classroom but would take effort from the teacher. This is something that I think would be important, to make sure the students get the most from the lesson.
The hardest part of incorporating this would be the generating questions. Like the books says, "The most challenging questions ask students to explain a complex situation, evaulate the usefulness of a method, or synthesize a set of findings," (180). I think this can easily be done in a scripted classroom but would take effort from the teacher. This is something that I think would be important, to make sure the students get the most from the lesson.
Scripted Curriculums, good or bad?
I think you can definitely still effectively implement each of the five lesson planning goals even if you have a scripted curriculum. At my school our math is scripted, we use trailblazers. At the beginning of each unit in the book it lists the goals for the students for the different lessons for each unit. There are also pre-assessment questions that you can use that include a variety of school the students should already know and adding a few more steps which will lead to what the next lessons are going to teach. I think since the units are scripted the idea of anticipating confusion could go both ways. It could be hard because all of the students learn differently and do things differently. I think it could be easy though because the book prompts you for some questions that the students might ask and it then lists teacher responses for these questions. It could then be hard if a student asks you a question that you are not prepared for you may not have an answer ready. Asking questions would be easy because it gives you sample questions to ask the students in order to guide their learning and their thoughts. In order for a teacher to manage classroom talk it is important to read over the scripted lessons beforehand so that you can maintain the language that they use in the books. It is important to use the same language so that the students will become familiar with it and will eventually be able to use it in their own talk. Planning the implementation would be easy with a scripted curriculum like trailblazers because it gives you worksheets and homework that go along with the lessons. There are small pictures of them in the lesson book and there is also a master book that has the master copies of the worksheets. Using worksheets also is important in a lesson because it gives the students something to use personally in their learning of the ideas versus being in a whole group and looking at the overhead. I think also that have a worksheet gives the students opportunities to use manipulatives and also to practice what they have been learning.
I think a good teacher can make an effective lesson plan with whatever resources he or she has. If you do have a scripted curriculum there are ways to personalize the lessons while still maintaining the value of the lessons.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Thinking about discussion goals
I think it is very important to think about the math goals prior to beginning a discussion rather than just seeing where the discussion goes. One reason is that I hope if I as the teacher have a clear focus and goal in mind then the students would hopefully see that I am trying to emphasize certain areas and they can focus on that as well. It will also be good practice for when they do small group discussions so hopefully they can realize what being on task looks like as well.
I also know that if I were to let them go off and take the discussion into a different direction it will be harder to get them back on track. I also think it would benefit myself to decide on goals ahead of time so I am prepared and it will help keep me on track too and clearly know my goals for the lesson.
Something I would need to work on and practice and get more experience with determining when a discussion getting off task. There was a couple times in the lesson I observed last week where I thought the lesson was getting kind of off from the overall goal of the lesson and my CT has very good strategies for getting the students to regroup and grab their attention. Kids can get so caught up in their personal stories that I know in my class before we start a discussion and call on kids we remind them if they have a question or a comment or if they actually just have a story to tell that may not be relevant to the discussion. It also discussed in chapter nine due to lack of time it is important to make the most out of your lessons and knowing the goals ahead of time will help in that aspect as well.
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