Useful tools for the classroom

Before taking education classes in college, I figured that when I taught my future math classes I would use the things that worked for me in my schooling. Little did I know that there was a lot more to providing a good classroom then what I thought. As mentioned in a previous post, I've often struggled with reading and writing because I have not found them necessary or I use the cop-out phrase of "But I'm a Math Major I don't have to like reading". I have discovered through our readings that I have this animosity towards reading and writing because I never did get encourage with other outside tools or never found anything I really enjoyed.

By reading Chapter 11, I began to understand what trade books are and their purpose within the classroom. Trade books can be a really good supplement to the textbook that can enhance a students learning in a content area. Developing a good classroom library will take time to build up but with the upcoming project I hope to get a good basis that I can hopefully build off of someday. One thing I thinking about while reading was how was I going to get a good enough trade book that will satisfy most of my students. I was thankfully reassured though that no one book will satisfy all readers. This really made me think that if I can find one trade book that will satisfy one student I will have accomplished something. The ultimate goal though would be to have every student have some form of a trade book that will aid in their learning.

In the Writing to Learn chapter, I found out that I do this more often then I would have expected. As it was briefly discussed about in the chapter most people who do this don't even know that they are doing this form of writing. I was surprised that I do this because I definitely don't look at the notes that I take as a writing tool for learning. I think this aspect that even the smallest or insignificant forms of writing should be stressed to students that this is a form of writing and it is a good thing to be doing this as it is a way for us to process our thoughts through words. I am looking forward to seeing the different forms of writing to learn in the upcoming chapters.

What are effective methods in assessing students?

Through my purpose question, I really focused on the different areas of assessment for students. At the beginning of this chapter, it talked about the formal method of assessments, standardized tests. This form of assessment is not an accurate or effective method for students. The standardized tests are more focused on helping the schools interpret their data rather than the teacher interpreting the data of their student. This use of formal, high-stakes tests can cause a lot of negatives for the students as their are many complications that can go wrong with students trying to take this test. One factor that plays into formal assessments is the student's literacy. Student's have to understand the language the test is written which can be far different from the language and vocabulary their teacher uses. Teachers can help in making the formal assessments more effective is by understanding the language that these tests are written. By doing this, it can better students performance because it will allow them to understand the instructions and questions within the formal assessments.

One of the more effective forms of assessment for students is the informal and authentic based assessments. These are more student and classroom based and provides a more accurate account of the knowledge students are gaining within the classroom. Through the observations based from the informal assessments it can better increase a teachers efficiency and effectiveness. Observations and assessments aid in the teachers understanding of his or her students. Through constant use of these methods it provides important feedback for the students improvement in performance as well as effective teaching methods from the teacher. Another informal assessment this chapter discussed was the use of a portfolio. I thought this idea was interesting to me as it provided me with a new type of possible assessment for students. Through one example given in the book I thought I could try and incorporate this in my classroom by have my students do research on a topic to better understand how math can be used in the "real world". I know I have wanted to incorporate this idea  into my classroom but having the portfolio provided me with a context in which I could use this to see if the students would understand the material being taught.

Through this chapter, I have learned that multiple forms of assessments should be used in order to be effective for students. By interchanging the forms it provides students with multiple ways to show their performance. However, for multiple forms to be effective it is up to the teacher to understand the strengths and weaknesses found within the classroom in order to challenge the students but also make sure it is an accurate display of the performances being observed within the classroom.

The Challenges Await

Throughout both of our readings for today, I compared it a lot with my personal experiences in school. As an aspiring math teacher, I excelled more in this subject and didn't take to fondly of subjects involving intense reading. I now believe this is because I was in part illiterate in other subjects. I could read and understand more of the text as a mathematician rather than a scientist, historian or an author. In the book, Content-Area Writing, it stressed the importance of how engaging students in writing can take different forms and is important in all contents and throughout a students life. I found this reading very interesting because it provided me with insight into how I can personally better my writing skills, as well as taking them into my teaching profession. I have struggled often with my writing and I know that it is an aspect I would like to work on, but often it falls short of my priorities because I was never taught to enjoy writing. This will play an important role as I begin entering the classroom because I will strive to better my writing while encouraging constant forms of writing for my students so they can learn and understand the importance of writing, within math as well as other content-areas. One aspect of this reading that challenged me as I go forward, is to make sure the writing in my class is engaging as well as a constant use of varying intelligences that are apart of writing. Writing takes many forms in different content-areas so teaching multiple will help in keeping the students engaged.

In our second reading for today, Content-Area Reading, I was again challenged in how this type of teaching or lack thereof played an important role in my life. I often have found myself disinterested in reading as it is a challenging thing for me. Whether it be the pace in which I read or a lack of comprehending I have really struggled with picking up a book just for fun. Due to this being a missing aspect in my life, I have struggled in other areas, such as writing, vocabulary, and overall knowledge. As a young student, I was engaged in many books and truly enjoyed this hobby, but as time grew on I wasn't as strong as my fellow classmates so I opted out of this hobby. I however, excelled in mathematics where others were not. I kind of blew this off thinking that it wasn't that big of an aspect missing from my everyday life. As I read this book, as well as discovering it over the years, I have realized the importance and emphasis reading should be within the classroom. This book has challenged me to incorporate this in my life and in the classroom by also encouraging and emphasizing it in the life of my students. Through the every changing world, new literacies have come about which bring on the task of having teachers be more aware of how we can better suite our students to strive to become literate as it will influence their life more than it may have ours. Along with writing, teaching reading in our specific content has to be engaging. Otherwise, like it did mine, this simple hobby or task can often be lost in a student's life. Through teaching reading, content-area teachers need to use the text and the different literacies that play into a classroom to highlight how the "content determines process" theory comes about. All in all, these readings have challenged me to make my classroom an engaging area for my students to learn through different processes, and to encourage the reading and writing methods found in my mathematics class.