Writing

As someone who wants to teach math, I can say that I haven’t given a lot of thought as to how I writing to play a role in the classroom. There are many opportunities for such activities in English and History classes, but with math you rarely see this. However, it is important to remember that writing is a critical part of students’ learning and therefore should be implemented in all areas of their study. Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction addresses the concept of “writers attending to their own thinking (p. 155).” This idea provided me with my own.

I plan to emphasize the importance of critical thinking and problem solving within my future classroom because I believe that is what students will take-away from the course and apply to their lives. Because each student thinks differently and goes about solving a problem differently, it would be interesting to have them “attend to their thinking” by writing out a process of how they came to a certain conclusion. When they share these with their classmates, they might pick up new insights from others that will help them to better understand the topic.

When considering multiple texts, it is important to remember that, although the majority of mathematics does not change over time, the way it should be presented does. Unlike history, which is constantly growing and changing, mathematics generally remains unchanged throughout time. It is very important to make the material relevant to the students though and that is why it does matter which books you decide to use for your class.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

All Talk

Talking is something that, undoubtedly, your students will love to do. Much like everything else, there is a specific time and place for discussion. There are going to be many times in a classroom setting where students are not supposed to be talking. Teachers should, however, give them the opportunity to do so, because it is an important part of their education.

There are many ways to incorporate effective talking activities into the classroom setting. Teachers need to be very careful in how they structure it though because students like to and will get off topic if given the opportunity. Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice gives very helpful advice in structuring these sorts of activities. In chapter five, the author emphasizes the importance of asking the right questions. The questions should be complex enough that the students don’t simply answer it with a yes or no, but they should not be so complex to where the students don’t know how to begin to address it. In either of these situations, you are going to have very quiet groups, and the goal is to get them thinking critically and discussing with one another.

In a math classroom, there are many opportunities for discussion. Oftentimes classmates are useful in working on in-class assignments. If one student at a table understands a certain problem, they can explain it to the others. In order to do this successfully, they will need to have good speaking skills so they can relate their thoughts and procedures to others so that then they also understand.  

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Integrating Technology

Technology is more present now than it has ever been in our schools and in our society in general. Many people may see issues with using technology within the classroom, and there may be disadvantages, but it would be a waste of a resource to not utilize it. In the book Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, Fenice Boyd and Andrea Tochelli address the advantages of using multimodal instruction in the classroom. They tell the story of a teacher who had her students look beyond their given text to really investigate and understand the Little Rock Nine. She found that her students were able to relate better to that event in history through the use of videos, pictures, and other types of resources available outside the text. Literacy does not just involve the use of textbooks, it involves using outside sources to help you better understand the text that you are analyzing.

Sara Kajder also looks into the ways in which technology can benefit students in the book Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Some teachers have implemented the use of blogs in their classrooms. This allows students to express their thoughts about academic topics in a more informal way. Their peers can then read and respond or reflect upon what their classmates are saying. Another example that Kajder gives is podcasting. In this activity, technology is integrated into classroom group discussions. Students record group conversations that take place in class, and then they, along with the teacher, can go back and analyze the discussion.

Math is another subject that has greatly benefitted from the use of technology within the classroom. Math is often a difficult subject for many students to grasp. However, if we have resources that provide us with interactive means for students to practice it, we increase the likelihood of their success. Another way technology has helped the math world, is through the visual representation of complex problems. As you get into higher-level math courses, you deal with a lot of graphs and objects being represented through equations. For students (and myself!) it is very difficult to see how these letters and numbers represent a shape, but when there is a visual that goes along with it, it becomes much more clear. 

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Beyond English

Teachers need to be prepared to have students in their classroom for whom English is not their first language. English might not be much of a language at all for them. Many teachers may think that they don’t have to worry about being put in these situations because of the location of their school (maybe it is out in the middle of nowhere), but you cannot make generalizations like this. Our country is comprised of many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, so it is something that teachers need to be prepared for.

In Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, Leckie discusses strategies for teaching students who have English as an additional language. Leckie highlights the fact that students in this “category” are already proficient in at least one language and are learning a second, which is more than most English-speaking citizens can say. Leckie suggests that we take advantage of these students’ abilities to understand how languages work in order to teach them. It’s the same idea as using a student’s strengths to help them learn.

In Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, Aguilar focuses more on the actual language development of English Language Learners. On thing that was mentioned in the text, was that vocabulary is a key to success for these students. They need to focus on vocabulary words that they don’t understand while reading different texts, so that they can identify it both broadly and in the specific context with which it was used.

American classrooms are diverse in today’s society. There are many students in the American school system that do not speak English at home or have not grown up speaking English. Teachers need to be ready to know how to teach these students and help them in their developing English language.

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary plays a huge role in students' ability to comprehend literature. There are many different ways that students can develop an advanced vocabulary. Ideally, students will have built upon their language skills over the years, but unfortunately many students will arrive in their high school English classroom very unprepared. This is difficult for their teachers because the material they need to teach requires advanced vocabulary. 
Hinchman provides many different ideas about how teachers can present vocabulary to their students. Some of the ideas mentioned in her book, Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, include; a word a day, K-W-L (which stands for know, want to know, and learn), Teach-Teach-Trade, root words, and digital words (ch. 7). Teachers will be able to know what works best for their students in their classroom after trying these different approaches. What works well for one teacher might not work for another depending on the environment and the students.
Beers also discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction in the book Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Beers focuses more on how students learn vocabulary and what general methods best work in successfully teaching them. An interesting question that was brought up in chapter seven was, "What does it mean to know a word? (Beers, p. 91)." We talk all the time about the importance of vocabulary, but we fail to address what it means for a student to know a word. They may be able to use it in a sentence and spell it, but that doesn't mean that they know what it means. I'm sure there are still some words that I use just because I have heard other people use them all the time so I know the context with which they apply, yet I don't get the entire meaning. We need to make sure students understand the meaning of words. Just being able to read the word and say it aloud does not make it known to the student.



Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Motivation

It would be nice if all students got excited about learning, but unfortunately this is not the case. As students get older and school gets harder, the general atmosphere about education goes downhill. Think about; it’s easy to enjoy something that you are good at, but when difficulties arise, you generally don’t look forward to it as much. It is for this reason that motivation is a vital ingredient in teaching students.

According to Hinchman in the book Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, “Developmental trends indicate that a marked change occurs in students’ motivation as they progress through school. Research findings show us that the school learning climate becomes increasingly performance oriented (vs. mastery driven) as students move through the grades (p. 38).” Students who grow up struggling with reading and writing are going to come across performance issues quickly as these skills are involved in everything. These students believe themselves to be less capable and competent in higher-level education (Hinchman, p.39). It is important that teachers motivate their students so that they don’t hit these “road blocks” and lose courage at the first sign of difficulty. Junior high and high school students particularly look for approval from their peers. This can also influence their desire to do well or bad.

Teachers need to be aware of the ways in which they can motivate their students to do their best. One issue that often interferes with motivation is the stereotypes that shape teachers’ opinions. Beers talks about this in the book Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise Into Practice. They suggest that teachers can easily give up on students who are lower-achieving students, rather than learning how they can help those students. However, when teachers give up and stop engaging with their students, they are depriving them of one of the most important forms of motivation they might receive in their education. “The type of engagement so vital to them for school learning is the engagement that comes through relationships with their teachers (Beers, p. 246).” Teachers need to leave stereotypes behind and “argue against those who believe that some students deserve less because they are less deserving or less able (Beers, p. 256).”

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

High School Readers

High school students generally don’t enjoy reading assignments. Often they view these tasks as difficult and impersonal. If you were to examine a classroom throughout the day, the times that you would see students most engaged and involved would be when they get to work and collaborate with their peers and even with their teacher. It is necessary however for students to read a variety of different literary content in order for them to learn what they need to in school. So how can we make challenging texts more approachable for high school students? Hinchman discusses this in Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction.

One of the main problems, according to Hinchman, with texts that high school students are asked to read, is that they are not comparable to the types of literary material that they are accustomed to. “The texts of high school classrooms are not embedded in the social networks of most students’ daily lives (p. 209).” Teenagers emerge themselves in social media. The majority of students are comfortable with the literary caliber that is required in these situations, but the reading their teachers give them is not found on Facebook or Twitter. Some teachers try to appeal to their students’ interest in social networks by making connections in class to the formatting of these sites. The goal of these assignments is to adapt to the writing style that teenagers are used to. “One challenge to interest and motivation may be that although adolescent students may be highly interested in a topic, they are often less engaged with academic texts about the topic because of the writing style of the text (p. 219).” Even if students are motivated and interested about a certain subject, they may still be discouraged because of the difficulty with which the text is presented. The thing that social media often has that many academic texts don’t have is a clear voice. When reading a friend’s post, there is an evident voice. However, many high school reading material “lacks a voice” so students have trouble identifying with it and the general meaning of it all.

One aspect of reading that is often included in mathematical texts is the use of tables, charts, and graphs. We may think of this as a visual image, rather than a section of reading, but students are required to read them. We can refer to this as analytical knowledge and skill, and it is very important to the understanding of mathematics (along with other subjects). Oftentimes students give up on reading and interpreting tables before they even begin. A smart strategy in addressing these types of texts is to ask broad questions about the table to get students thinking about the meaning of the numbers and figures presented. Hinchman talks about definitional knowledge on page 211. One person could know the definition of a word, but that does not mean that they understand it in the context that is being used in. So not only should you make sure that your students know the definitions of important vocabulary terms, but you need to check up on them to make sure they understand the ways in which they are being used. 

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Comprehending Comprehension

It is important to remember that most of the stuff you are teaching your students will be the first time they are hearing it, unlike yourself who has been familiarized with it. This being said, I think that one of the keys to understanding complex subjects is to give the students time to think about what they are learning in class.

Often times teachers progress too quickly from one subject to another. Also, within math classrooms, teachers don’t give students adequate time to work on solving problems if they even give the students any opportunity to work on their own without the assistance of the teacher. Students aren’t going to know if they are able to solve a problem if their teacher is always there to tell them how to go about solving the problem. Chapter four in Adolescent Literacy Turning Promise into Practice suggests that teachers “set aside some chunks of class time for focused, silent work in which students can concentrate on more deeply understanding one idea- give them time to listen to themselves think and consider subtleties instead of rushing to memorize the next thing (p. 36).” Other ways to promote a student’s understanding of complex concepts is to have them discuss with their peers in class. According to Beers, this not only helps students to better understand the material that they are teaching to each other, but they also might be able to make connections with their peers that their teachers were otherwise unable to make.

Because the comprehension of texts is such a vital part of learning, it is necessary for teachers to check in on their students to see if they understand, or are at least on the right track. According to Hinchman in Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, questioning students is a good way to monitor their comprehension. Certain questions could definitely prove to be unhelpful. So, in order to be effective, questions must be selected carefully so that they aim at measuring a student’s comprehension, rather than a factual answer. Hinchman also says to teach students strategies in which they question themselves as they go along their reading. This way the teacher doesn’t need to be present for them to stay on top of their comprehension.

Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Tackling Text Complexity

Text complexity is an issue that many students run into. Unfortunately increasing a student’s ability to read complex texts requires them to try to read material that is out of their comfort level. This concept is almost identical to Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory. His theory is that students need to gradually be pushed to the step that is just out of their reach, so that eventually they will be at that level. If a student keeps reading books that they feel comfortable with, they will most likely be very efficient at that level, but they don’t have the ability to improve in more complex texts. Chapter six of Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction puts it this way; “The notion that skills do not improve much once they become automatic is one reason teachers who use repeated reading of texts to build reading fluency do not involve students in reading the same passage a dozen times…students generally develop sufficient fluency with the passage, and further practice is mostly a waste of time….challenging tasks are required to improve skills (p. 111-112).” This isn’t going to be an easy or enjoyable process, because most people don’t enjoy trying to do difficult things that they are not good at.

In general, math isn’t something that is easy to read. Math textbooks have one purpose in mind and that is not to entertain the reader with clever literary tactics or suspenseful story plots. The goal is to portray the material in a clear and dry-cut manner. Therefore, I would say that mathematical texts do not generally become more complex in terms of text structure, but rather in relation to the more difficult topics with which they deal with. Math builds upon itself. To understand new concepts, you must have a comfortable understanding with prior knowledge. This also adds a certain complexity to math texts because often it is assumes that the reader knows how to apply what they know to the new processes.

Chapter six of Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction also discusses deliberate practice. According to the text, there are three main components that teachers need to take into consideration in order to effectively provide deliberate literacy-related practices for their students. These three points are “previously acquired abilities, steady progression of difficulty, and immediate, valid feedback (p. 108).” Teachers who develop good readers into even better readers are able to do this when they keep those three components of deliberate practice in mind.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.