posted
Literacy in the content area. I'm supposed to be teaching kids how to read within my subject, which is math.
Here: y= 1/3x + 7
Read that.
This is really frustrating and I really feel like I don't have any idea where to start. Two lesson plans due on Friday, for topic that I can't even begin to think of.
I hate summer courses. Everything gets crammed into 3 weeks and you have no time to absorb anything. This needs time to gestate, and I don't have it.
And Hatrack isn't helping, just by being there.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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"Why equals ecks-thirds plus seven." Or "one-third ecks", if you prefer. What is the problem?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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"Write a paragraph about how you feel going into this question. What confuses you? What are your thoughts? Are you confident you can work it out? What do you think the answer might be? Why?"
*after doing question*
"Was the question easier or harder to work out than you expected? Why? What specific challenges did you have to overcome? How does this make you feel?"
(Let's just forget that this is cutting into the actual math-teaching time...)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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KQ: I have to base the lessons on straregies learned in class. One has to be for vocabulary words. Actually that one is probably easy, I'll use the Frayer model.
The other one has to be a reading strategy that helps the child's comprehension. A pre-reading strategy like K-W-L (sorry, jargon). That's the one that's just not coming to me. The problem is that all the reading strategies really don't work when all you're reading is a one or two sentence word problem.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Glenn, I don't know what age you're dealing with, but in Jr. HS, our math teacher gave us a weekly problem about "Bobo the Clown". Bobo was pretty stupid, and was always getting himself nearly killed and stuff. We were given the problem with a page-long setup, including a little story about how he got himself into this situation, and then had to use our math skills to get him out.
So I have no specific advice, but I know what you're going for. I'm sorry I was facetious. *hangs head*
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Do they know what variables are? If not, start by explaining that X and Y (and any letter) are magic -- they can stand for whatever number you want them to!
Now, shoo. Only one of us can be slacking off instead of doing our teacher-work, and this is my Hatrack shift. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Well, I turned in one lesson plan on using the Frayer model graphic organizer to learn vocabulary words. I also turned in my graphic organizer portfolio.
But about two hours before class I called my professor and told her I'm completely frustrated by the reading strategy lesson.
See, the class is for secondary teachers of any content area, and social studies, science, and english are prefect candidates, but math has virtually no narrative text, and the expository text is spotty, usually less than three sentences long. So anticipation guides, or chapter walk throughs are just meaningless.
What I've been working on is using problem solving strategies as a reading strategy. Some of you clued into word problems, and I'm sure that's where it will have to come from. The problem is that I think the strategy should be incidental to a math lesson, rather than teaching the lesson on the strategy itself. What I keep doing is running into roadblocks in whichever word problem I'm using, because there are steps in the strategy that don't apply to the word problem I've chosen. So I leave that word problem unfinished, and choose a different word problem that needs that part of the strategy. Whe that sours I try rewritingt the lesson plan with a different problem solving strategy, but really all of them are based on Polya's, it's just a matter of how much detail they add.
What I really need is a word problem for the 7/8 grade level, that includes math vocabulary that 7/8 graders might NOT be familiar with, that includes unnecessary information, that has several keywords that indicate operations, several words that indicate relationships, that isn't represented as a single paragraph, and includes a formula, and a diagram, and white space, and requires the student to provide an answer that isn't the result of the equation you need to solve in order to find all the unknowns.
Tonight was the last class, but she gave me until monday to turn in the lesson plan.
Yes, I've been spending too much time on Hatrack, but given my level of frustration, I need a distraction.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Y'know - it's story problems like the one you describe that kept me from EVER being friendly with math. There are enough meaningful real life problems out there to solve without complicating the issue, y'know . . .
Let's see - something meaningful for 12/13 year old kids.
Can't do it - can't remember that far back - wait! no, no - that won't be good . . . hmmmm - how about something to do with how many songs of what time each can you fit onto your i-pod, and/or how many years/months/hours would it take to listen to them all . . . or how many random variations can they be played in . . . or how long is the download time for the available storage space . . . or how many friends can share . . . anyways -
I'll stop rambling now -
Go back to lesson planning, Glenn!
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Yeah, that's the way I feel. See, if I was planning a MATH lesson I could just incorporate pieces of the reading strategy a little at a time. But my professor want me to teach the lesson on the reading strategy using math as the content area.
The more I work on it, the more belligerent I become. I'm sure there's someone out there who has put a lesson like this together, but I don't think you can do it on command.
I think that as I begin to actually teach I can build the strategy into my lessons, and take notice when I find word problems that work especially well. At some point I'll probably teach a lesson and say "wow, that's the lesson she wanted me to write for that class."
But this is a 3 week summer course. I need time for the ideas to gestate, and I need to play with it in front of students to see how it works. As it is, everytime I start to write the lesson, it behaves like a fractal. I'm trying to keep the lesson focused, but there's just so many ways language can be misinterpreted, and I'm trying to anticipate them all. When I try to guess which misinterpretations the kids will have, I feel like I'm either going to insult the kids' intelligence, or I'm simply going to miss the boat entirely.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Huh. Googling "Bobo the Clown" and "math" came up with this. It's geared toward calculus, but it's got a list of resources that may or may not be helpful. Also, it hasexamples of "cases" (including some involving Bobo, which is how I found it) that are very reminiscent of the style of the ones my 7th grade teacher gave us. (I don't know if she actually wrote hers herself, but someone must have something to do with Bobo out there for him to occur not only in her problems but in these ones, and with such similar styles). Maybe that'll give you some ideas of what I mean?
I wonder if you could find an e-mail for her or something... Her name is Michelle Guire. There's a Michelle Guire in Burbank, which is very close to where I grew up and a reasonable place for a teacher at my middle school to live, whom you can find an e-mail for at Yahoo People Search. If that's her, I'm sure she'd be thrilled that a former student remembered Bobo and wanted to point you toward him. It's worth a shot, right?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Hey! Do you ever listen to Car Talk on NPR? They have some pretty interesting story problems - you might check that out . . .
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Those look great! Kinda weird that "Bobo" is being used for Calculus, rather than introducing fractions to 3rd graders, but I guess high school/college kids like silliness.
As it is, I've got a lesson plan coming along. I have to turn it in tomorrow, so I'm not going to restructure everything.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Now that Glenn is allowed to be here, can someone yell at me and make me go back to sorting papers and studying for my quals? Better yet, can you just be interesting in some vital way so that I feel obligated to stay here so that I don't miss anything?
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Good thinking, rivka! I can't go do my work, because I'll make you feel guilty. In the same vein, you can't go do your work, cause then I'll feel guilty!
I'm actually not going to be doing anymore tonight, I think. I've already sorted and studied for four hours today. I can do more tomorrow (and every other day for the rest of the summer). Man, this qualifying exam thing just stinks.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Yikes. We haven't even officially started summer yet, let alone summer classes. Glenn, stop complaining!!
(Actually, you're allowed to complain. I'm really into reading in the content areas . . . gave your problem about 3.7 seconds of thought, then decided I was glad it was your problem, not mine. My new specialty is differentiation, anyway. How 'bout a lesson plan for math that differentiates for reading ability? I can totally hook you up . . .)
This has been the summer for rude awakenings. I finished class in May, and figured I actually had time off before summer sessions started. Well, I had 10 days, during which I was supposed to do a pre-assignment, so school started much faster than I thought.
Then, I was finishing up this class last week, thinking I would finish Friday, but because of this nightmare I finished today, bought my book for summer II, and began my pre-assignment for the next class, which starts friday.
WHEN DO I GET A VACATION?
Now why is it I'm NOT supposed to be complaining?
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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'Cause I just got rid of my darling babies on Friday (is why you're not supposed to complain)! As I always tell my friends who work in cubicles -- any "work" day without kids is like a vacation. That's where I was 4 days ago . . . trying to keep the screaming and running around to an absolute minimum. Keepittogetherkeepittogetherkeepittogether . . .!
But, to be fair, I do know when I get a vacation -- next week, after I'm done with curriculum committee. Since I was too late with my brilliant reading in the content areas ideas, maybe I can make up for it with your next class. What's the topic?
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