Final Synthesis Blog

At the beginning of the semester, I was unsure of how literacy could be applied and taught across all content areas. I struggled to see how we would apply literacy to non-content literacy classrooms, specifically math. However, throughout this semester, I have learned the importance of how literacy must be applied in all content areas. As I reflect on this course, I can identify various tools, strategies, and lessons that I was able to learn from and hope to apply to my own classroom one day.

First, I think a key takeaway was through book club. I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment, as I explored the book, Prisoner B-3087, outside of my content area. Through book club, I was able to learn about roles within a group and see how they can be applied in the classroom. Our course book, Subject Matters, provided guidelines for assigning specific roles, ensuring that all group members are involved. Often times, book clubs or group activities can be found with one person doing all the work and others sitting back letting one person lead. Therefore, the designated roles was extremely beneficial. I found these roles to be helpful, as they guided our group discussions. While this was specifically done in book club, I can see how defining roles for group worthy activities can benefit the group norms and participation. Also, I noticed how book club could be used in all content areas, even math. But, that is not to say that creating book club will not present a challenge for a math classroom. However, I am able to see the benefit of allowing students to step away from the typical norms of a mathematics classroom, while viewing mathematics with a literacy mindset.

Additionally, I enjoyed the reading strategies we learned and applied throughout various assignments this semester. Through text sets, in class readings, lesson plans, and journal articles I was able to see how beneficial and practical these strategies are for a reader. Personally, I found myself more engaged and attentive with the reading. I think these strategies are excellent tools for students to use across all content areas. These strategies from chapter 2 of Subject Matters included setting purpose, using prior knowledge, asking questions, evaluation, and discussion; to name a few. For example, I was able to apply these strategies to text sets for math and science, while also using the strategies for the group lesson plan where my group was able to annotate a mathematics text. I now can see how reading strategies before, during, and after reading can guide and benefit students. It allows students to understand their goals and purpose while reading to keep their focus on what they are reading and its application. Chapter 6, How to Use a Textbook in Subject Matters, reminded me of the importance of being mindful of what texts we are assigning to students. Textbooks and other texts are great resources to help students learn; however, teachers must be mindful of what matters and the levels of importance. Therefore, when students read selective textbooks and other texts, they are able to pay more attention using the reading strategies to help them learn and better understand the material. As a future educator, I plan to use these strategies in my classroom, as students will have a better awareness and understanding for what they are reading, the goals and purpose in reading it, and how to apply what they read to what we are learning.

Overall, I gained a new outlook and perspective on literacy across non language arts content areas. This course challenged me to remove preconceived ideas and practices towards literacy, seeing how they can be used in mathematics. I want to use what I have learned to help students bridge the gap between all content areas, as they are all related to one another. I feel more prepared to creatively plan for lesson plans through the synthesis and resource blogs that provide a plethora of resources to use that specifically relate to literacy and mathematics. Also, our book Subjects Matters, provides a resource to continue to use throughout my time as a preservice teacher in order to help me as a begin to teach and lead my own classroom. A key idea from our book is a quote from chapter 2 that states, "If we understand that reading is not just 'receiving a message,' but actively building meaning upon prior knowledge, using staged, strategic thinking, then we will teach differently (pg. 41)." I feel that this summarizes how literacy should be used in all content ares because it is a foundation on how we think and teach.

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Single Member Journal Club in Focal Area Math

Journal Article Link- http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=fd263553-9a9e-46d7-9953-20c345e29293%40pdc-v-sessmgr01

Journal Article: Working memory, negative affect and personal assets: how do they relate to mathematics and reading literacy?

Summarize the Article: The article provided a framework around the impact of working memory, negative affect, and personal assets and the ways in which they impact students' success and challenges specifically in mathematics and literacy. The article provides the ways that students are struggling with their academics, due to what's happening in and around their lives. 

Make Connections: I was able to make many connections throughout this article, as I thought back to my experiences in middle school and also considered my interactions with middle schoolers. One idea that was discussed was the increased anxiety around mathematics. I connected this to my experiences in school. I have always enjoyed math and did not fully experience math anxiety until higher level math in high school; however, I saw this in my friends and classmates. Many people believe they either are or are not a math person; therefore, it math becomes a place of anxiety due to the idea of not being a math person. As a result, students struggle with math because they likely do not feel support around their mathematic aspects of life. Teachers can often look over their students needs if they are not mastering a subject and then students lack support at home leading to anxiety in their life and academic success. The article also discussed how personal assets impact school performance, specifically discussing the support of academics within a household. I was fortunate to receive support with my academics, but in working closely with other middle school students, I know that this support is not experienced for all. I can think of many students who are dependent on a teacher to encourage and support their academic achievements. 

Critique: This research is relatively new; therefore, there is little research of various measures that have been conducted. While they have a great standing for the research provided, it would be beneficial to test students around the United States and other countries to be able to see any correlations between students of middle school age in various locations around the world. There were also greater findings related to mathematics than reading literacy. I found the mathematics sections to be interesting, due to my focal area in math; but could see where greater research in other subject areas would be beneficial. 

The Importance of this Article: This article was extremely beneficial and a good reminder for me, as a future educator. I think as a teacher, it can be easy to get in the mindset of getting everything done in order to prepare students for standardized testing and meeting school standards that we can forget that our students are dealing with a lot. This article made great points reminding me of the importance of checking in on students and realizing that there is a lot going on in each of their lives. The article was focused on middle school, making it extremely relevant to my future as a teacher. It spoke of the changes that come with adolescents which creates an increase in anxiety and depression, to name a few. Therefore, as an educator, I must be willing to know and invest in my students in order to help them achieve their own success both in and out of the classroom. They need support during these years of their life and studies are beginning to show their non-academic lives impacting their academic lives. 

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Podcast

Attaching our Podcast Assignment-

Prisoner B-3087
Group: Dennis, Katie, Shelby, Corben, Sarah Ellen

Link- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WS-UJYJqO2QpDM0N5Xlg6zQkvkeUY5g8/view?usp=sharing

Strategy Lesson Plan Reflection

Overall, I think that our lesson plan went well. When we began the assignment, we struggled to figure out how to annotate for math, but then decided to present a word problem. We felt that a word problem was most effective for this strategy. As we presented the assignment, I felt that it was effective, but also could have been improved. First, there were a few class periods that have passed between our submission of the assignment and our presentation. We knew what we were presenting, but I felt that we could have prepared a little more for the presentation in order to know who was explaining and teaching which parts of the lesson. However, it was still executed well and effective in teaching the class. Also, the handout we provided to the class could have been written differently in order to provide more space for annotating and working through the problem. Additionally, we could have better explained the process of annotation and what an inequality is. However, I felt that our group was prepared in using different highlighters to annotate the problem and we were prepared with our materials. I think it was helpful to ask the class how they arrived at an answer and also to answer their questions throughout the presentation.
I think it was beneficial for us to do a problem first, then allow the class to lead us through the problem, in order for the class to then complete the assignment on their own. In summary, I think our group did a great job teaching the lesson and everyone enjoyed learning how to annotate a math problem.

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Resource Blog 5

https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/mathcore/#.Xa0YKC2ZN0s

I have really enjoyed finding math resources to use in future planning and teaching and was excited to find another great one! PBS Learning Media gives lesson plans, videos, and interactive thinking and teaching for parents, students, and teachers to access for free. This resource is specifically for 5th-8th grade. It gives excellent resources to help parents better understand what is being taught, allows students to interact with games, quizzes, and more to help grasp and master a concept, and gives teachers a resource to reference for lesson plans. I think teachers could also assign various interactive assessments to add variety to a student's homework. The website is divided up by topic and grade making it easy to navigate and distinguish between topics. The topics are based upon the common core curriculum ensuring that students are learning and developing skills that complement the concepts that are discussed in the classroom. Additionally, each of the concepts provide support materials and list the various standards that are met throughout the lessons and videos.

While this website and resource is specific to math, the PBS Learning Media website covers all subject areas and also includes arts, physical education, world languages, and professional development. I think this is an excellent resource that we can all access and use within our classrooms and lesson plans. Each of the content areas have multiple sub topics to choose from and are each framed around specific grades, including the middle grades. This is a resource that can be used for all content area teachers, a tool for a parents, and another resource for students!

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Synthesis Blog 5- Differentiation and Book Clubs

Classroom teaching and learning must constantly evolve and look different. In order to do that, teachers must differentiate materials assigned and given based upon the classroom environment, size, and skillset of learning needs. Throughout Subject Matters, we have learned ways to challenge and grow our students through various literacy approaches, one specific example being book clubs. Book clubs can be used in all content areas, as we encourage our students to pick up a book pertaining to a specific topic or content area. Book clubs allow students to work together in order to unpack, understand, and learn about a given moment in history, concept, or character's story. It gives a deeper understanding or new approach to a given topic. It challenges the student to ask questions, share ideas, and work together to better understand the book.

Book clubs seem great and extremely beneficial when they are managed well. However, it is easy to identify the ways that a book club might go wrong or even how it might not fit a specific subject. But the book provides an outline to help teachers prepare to lead a classroom and facilitate book clubs and book club discussions. I really liked the practical steps given in the book, in order to create and use a book club in any classroom. I feel that it is crucial for steps, tasks, and jobs/roles to be given to each person within the group, so that one or two people are not pulling the weight for the entire group. I have enjoyed discovering and removing the previous idea that book clubs are typically only used in language arts classes; however, now I can identify the benefits within all subject areas.

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Resource Blog 4

https://www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-math-help/76317-math-projects-for-middle-school/

As teachers, we must create opportunities for our students to be creative and engaged in materials, rather than just learning through lecture, worksheets, readings, etc. This resource provides multiple in class and out of class projects that students can create in order to display their understanding and knowledge of a material. These projects are specific to math and include ideas such as survey projects, building a classroom to scale, and pre-algebra board games.

Each of these projects give a brief explanation and guideline on how to share the project with students. It also allows the teacher freedom to make their own decisions toward their purpose and expectation for the project. I personally made a board game in my sixth grade math class and loved getting to create my own game. Then, we were able to spend a class period playing other games while practicing and preparing for our summative assignment. Many of these projects include both math and writing, allowing students to use cross circular schema to conduct their project. This can be extremely beneficial, as it encourages students to consider multiple subjects while creating their own project.

While this website is specific to math, I am sure that there are other similar resources available for other content ares. Projects are a great way for students to break out of the traditional classroom norms and teaching, giving students the opportunity to express their understanding and knowledge while having fun with the materials at hand.

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