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.