To be completely honest, I came into the semester rather doubtful of the course. I thought, "How is this course even a requirement? I am trying to be a math teacher, not a literature teacher." I really had never given much thought to literacy in terms of math.
It is easy to come in with preconceived notions. We have always linked literature and reading to Language Arts courses yet we rarely put it into other contexts. In grade school through high school we are given textbooks to learn from for most subjects yet textbooks were never really classified or even called "literature". We reserved literature and literacies for Shakespearean novels and the like.
I personally think that this closed mindset seems to be changing. With our ever-expanding technology and access to new knowledge at the click of a button, we are able to better expose students to different texts and literacy practices.
It is vital for us as future teachers to take different strategies and mold them to fit our own curriculum. If we see an interesting and or helpful strategy used in history why not customize it to our own discipline. By using different literacies we essentially broaden our students' mindsets and make them think outside of the box. We must teach different skills to our students so that they are ready for the difficult readings and tasks that lie ahead of them. In using different strategies we can hopefully make them enjoy reading and search for more information outside of the classroom.
The importance for teachers to have positive expectations of students to read complex reading texts in order for them to be prepared for the 21st century. The author talks about the importance to “expect” the students to read and not to “force” them to read. Forcing students to read creates a negative atmosphere for the students because according to the author students become more resistant to learn through reading. Students tend to feel resentment, anger and frustration when forced to read specially when the students are not prepared for the material.
ReplyDeleteIn the other hand, teachers need to expect the students to read and not to forced them to read as a form of empowering them as readers. It’s best for students to that independent reading helps them to be prepared for the future of their professional careers. According to the author, teachers need to invite student to read complex reading materials that can help them created their own opinions about the complexity of this would. Reading your post Marisol, reminds me when I was doing my observation hours because I noticed that the classroom atmosphere was created for the purpose of inviting students to read, enjoy, explore, learn, and feel that reading, writing and thinking about the context of books, articles or internet sources are practices that will help them for their professional careers. I mention careers because the teacher was always motivating students to think about their future and what they want to study when they graduate from middle school. The different strategies that the teacher was using in class helped the students interact with each other efficiently regarding the readings/texts of the class therefore making it interesting for all the students.
Hello Marisol,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post this week! I absolutely agree with you. Being a teaching of math major, I was very unsure as to how this course was required for us. I never once thought about disciplinary literacy, what it meant, etc. Literature is believed to be what we used in English classes. I never thought of textbooks as being literature because it was not in my English classes. Unfortunately, this type of mindset is what I observed in my observation hours because the teachers were shocked that this course even required observation hours. You are right. We are in a technology age with new ideas and concepts at our fingertips. We are constantly expanding our knowledge and changing lessons to better fit relevant topics. We need to be using the strategies that we discussed in this course and bring them into our classrooms. These strategies definitely broaden their mindset, but also get them to think about disciplinary literacy which is essential. After taking this class, I am now aware how important disciplinary literacy is in math now more than ever. We need to take the skills we learned in this class and bring them forth into our future classrooms.
Hello Marisol,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post about customizing literacy practices this week! Just like you, I had the same feeling towards taking this class before this semester because what I had seen the literacy in math so far came to proofs and word problems, and that's it, which did not as much as other subjects. However, this class changed my mind that how essential the literacy in math is. Furthermore, I agree with you that "it's vital for us as future teachers to take different strategies and mold them to fit our own curriculum". Every student in our classroom has his/her own way to thinking and treating one problem, so we should be open-minded to accept their different thinkings and offer the diverse strategies to allow them to think differently so that they can reach their academic potential abilities. And I also agree with Laura's opinion on the importance of the positive expectations of students to read instead of "forcing" them to read. When I was a high school student, I really hated to read the articles when teachers said we had to read or we could not get points on the test. If my teacher used another way to encourage us to read, I think I will like reading more.
I had a similar preconception coming into this course because although I will be teaching English and History I did not realize how much there was to learn related to literacy. When I think of literacy simply it is reading and writing, but it goes much deeper than that. I agree that we need to take different strategies and mold them to our curriculum because that way we help our students. I also do think we would broaden their mindsets and maybe even show them some new material that they might enjoy and would not have realized it without us introducing it to them. I think by showing different strategies we show students that there are multiple ways of understanding the material and we can help them figure out what works best for them. Great post.
ReplyDeleteMarisol,
ReplyDeleteI really like the photo you added to your blog. I completely agree with your comment; at first glance of the course, I was confused on how this class was needed for future math teachers. It never really occurred to me that Mathematics would have literacy involved. I was always in that mindset that Mathematics only involved problems and even though to me my textbooks for my math courses were really important I never took it as literature. We have those notions on what is considered Literature and from what I have learned there are many ways to incorporate literacy into a math course. As many have stated we have strategies in place that can broaden students’ mindset and like you mention prepare them for future courses. As you mention if a certain strategy is used in history there is always ways to mold that strategy to fit any discipline. We have seen this in our strategy presentation as well. This course really helped me understand how literacy is important not just in English but in all disciplines.
Marisol,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a point i believe most of the mathematicians have pondered throughout the course of the class. A lot of what we learned throughout this course pertains to incorporating subject area literacy into the classroom. And while we have read a lot of material which backs the research, I'm still left with wonderment on how to fully incorporate these techniques into the classroom. Especially when it comes down to talking about sensitive topics, I still feel in the dark about how to incorporate these topics into my classroom.
We all want our students to further their education. I believe a lot of this class has helped shape all of our future educational practices.
Marisol,
ReplyDeleteI think that Beuhl sums it up very accurately toward the end of chapter seven where he shares that learning about disciplinary literacy is actually learning to teach. Generic strategies and methods classes are good to the extent that they situate you in the process of teaching and navigating through the content that we need to teach, but disciplinary literacy practices create a strong foundation for understanding the thinking that our disciplines demand and how to engage in that thinking.
I definitely agree with you and believe that throughout this course we have gain access to various literacy practices and tools that we can use in our future classroom. It is essential for us as future educators to teach our students different skills and practices so that they are able to display disciplinary thinking as readers and writers. However, I believe that it's also essential that in the process we help our students see these skills and strategies as beneficial for them as learners. By doing so students wont see this as something force on them and they might feel like they have some agency on their learning.Thus, we must try to invite our students to read and write through disciplinary perspectives rather than forcing them. Students need to understand that the thinking through disciplinary lenses is needed for us to interact and understand the world around us.
ReplyDeleteI had the exact opposite perception: after looking over the course description and textbooks, I thought to myself, "Wow! It's been twenty-two years since I've been in am education classroom. What have I missed out on?" I didn't have to take this course, but chose to do so because it is required for all B.A.T and M.A.T. students as part of their certification requirements, so I figured I needed to take the course as well to become updated--and I am glad I did.
ReplyDeleteAs Buehl discussed and some of you touched upon, I love that the strategies give us an opportunity to configure and adapt them to our particular subject areas and classrooms. In a sense, my "toolbox" has just become filled with more tools, giving my greater flexibility in my teaching strategies and empowering me as an educator. My only problem right now is that there is so much to assimilate that I will have to re-read the materials again in the future when I have a chance. I also have to change my mindset, not easy to do after teaching for twenty-two years, but such a change will require time. And then there is the factor of time. How will be able to accomplish what I need to do to help my students increase their literacy proficiency for the 21st century while maintaining the pace of my course as per the curriculum and departmental expectations. I may even suggest that the World Civilizations class be split into two years instead of being just a year-long class and help integrate new literacy strategies into our curriculum so that all teachers are required to employ them and not just me.
I also need to work on creating a more inviting atmosphere to read, which is difficult to do given that my room is small and I cannot re-arrange my seating so easily. I also need to think about how to expand the scope of the types of reading I give in order to make reading more inviting.
Your point about adopting literacy strategies to our own curriculums is well made; lifting a strategy out of one of Buehl's texts and asking a class to participate won't cut it. Perhaps because I felt we only just touched on it, I find myself thinking about the social justice component of disciplinary literacy. Buehl mentions in his final chapter the importance of asking "why" we teach disciplinary literacy. This matters - even more than the particular strategies we devise, I would say.
ReplyDeleteIt is not enough to say "we should teach disciplinary skills to prepare students for college," in my opinion. Our goals need to be more significant than the purely academic ones that tend to dictate state and federal policy. Literacy isn't just "knowing how to play the game;" it is also knowing how to change the game. I know that going forward my focus will no longer center on teaching particular content or even skills, but instead on how what I teach will equip my students to articulate their own identities and to dictate their own place in their community.
Marisol,
ReplyDeleteI had the same preconception when coming to this class. I wondered why I am required to take literacy class while I am going to teach chemistry. However, I have learned many useful strategies that could be used in any science class. I have learned that as a teacher I have to model for students how to read, write, and think like a scientist. I have learned that it is not enough to teach content knowledge but it is important to teach literacy practices alongside content. I also have learned that students should not be always looking for answers for teacher’s questions, but they should be given the chance to be question askers. They should have the chance to find answers for their questions on their own. Moreover, while students are searching for answers, they should learn how to read complex chemistry texts independently and have the opportunity to conduct experiments and analyze their data and results. They also have to learn how to think about their results metcognitively. This approach for teaching chemistry is called inquiry-based learning.
I have observed two chemistry classes with two different teachers. The first teacher was using the traditional lecture-based teaching approach while the other teacher was using the inquiry-based learning approach and the flipped classroom method. I found that students in the second class were more engaged in the class, and they had more time to learn literacy practices during the class. I can see how using the inquiry-based approach and the flipped classroom strategy have engaged students more in deep and meaningful learning processes than the other approach. Now I understand why I had to take a literacy class and why it is important to teach literacy practices in all disciplines.
Marisol,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post this week was spot-on! I completely agree with you. I was very hesitant in the beginning of the course, I didn't know what to expect since I am a teaching of math major as well. I wasn’t sure how I would need a literacy class to teach math. Most of us have that preconceived idea that literacy is only for language arts classes, which is not necessarily true. I have learned a lot from this class and looking back on it, there was no need for my initial hesitation. There are so many strategies I have learned from this class and I do believe it’ll make me a better teacher one day.
Hi Marisol,
ReplyDeleteYour post summed up the course very well. I also did not know what to expect when I signed up for it. I definitely thought at times what literacy had to do with science. Because in the beginning I thought of literacy as something only taught in the language arts classroom. However now that the course is coming to the end, I can honestly say that I will take a lot from the course that can be used in my future classroom. The strategy presentations, Buehl and the other readings exposed us to so many ways literacy can be taught in each individual discipline. I now know how important it is for teachers to encourage students to "think like scientists" or "think like mathematicians depending on the nature of the subject being studied. Buehl mentions towards the end of Chapter 7 that "insiders who have gradually become accomplished readers, writers, and thinkers in an academic discipline may take for grated the processes that have become second nature to them (Buehl 279)." However as teachers we need to remember that these strategies may not be second nature to our students.
Hello Marisol,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog post and feel like you did a great job and looking at the importance of the course. I looked at this course at the beginning of the semester I, like many others, had my assumptions. I thought great more on how to read and write. But i have greatly appreciated this class more for being able to show me all the deeper meaning there is to reading and writing and how i can implement it to my future class room. Being able to encourage students to read what ever they read with a deeper understanding of it is something that i feel will really help build strong literary students. That being said i feel that the strategies we have picked up in this course has really helped us better understand that sometimes as teachers we need to go back to the basics and re-evaluate what we have seen and learned in the past. By doing that and learning about these strategies we improve our own understanding and overall the learning environment that students deserve.
Hey Marisol,
ReplyDeleteAs another Teaching of Math major, I definitely shared many of your early sentiments concerning this class. However, I've truly enjoyed this class because of the way that it allowed me to change my perspective not only on the relationships between various disciplines, but also the idea of literacy itself.
I feel that many of us came into this class thinking that literacy meant reading and writing and nothing more. I can without a doubt say that I am not the same person I was when the semester started thanks to this class. This class really opened my eyes as to what we should be striving for as teachers, and that literacy is not something so surface level as reading. Thanks to this class I was able to get a lot more from my observations, being able to compare what was being taught in our class to how different teachers all have a different ways to approach literacy within this classroom really helped me out. You can definitely tell who are the more literacy oriented teachers when you observe and have that prior knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHi Marisol,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we future teachers need to be open to new ideas and techniques in order to foster the needs of our students, especially because as a whole they will likely come from diverse cultural backgrounds combined with a modern and futuristic sense of technology. We need to be open to advice and criticism, especially from our own students, so that We can better prepare oursepves for the next school year.