Week 12 blog
The two readings that I had to read
this week were “Problem solving and At-Risk students” by Margot Robert and
“Differentiating the curriculum for elementary gifted mathematics students” by
Wilkins, Wilkins and Oliver. In both articles they discussed the importance of
allowing the students to feel comfortable in their learning environments and
not to make the students feel dumb or overlooked.
In the At-Risk article Robert
discusses the importance of modifying tasks for students to not feel left out.
She goes through an example of how she approached a problem, which was too
extravagant for her at-risk students and modified it by giving select answers
in the problem. When the students were able to figure out this problem, she
began to see an increase in the students confidence and saw that the students
were now able to problem solve.
She discusses the key idea of how to help these at-risk students is to
not allow for them to feel incompetent. To help the students in not only
mathematics but in their schooling over all Robert found that the students need
to feel confident in what they need to do.
I think this issue of confidence can
be linked with the gifted math students article as well, in the article the
authors discuss how many teachers get annoyed and don’t know what to do with
their gifted students when they finish their work earlier then other students.
I have often seen this in my own classroom; it gets to a point where the
teacher ends up yelling at the student because they tried to advance on new work.
I think when these gifted students are asked to do nothing or “go read a book”,
the teacher is not allowing the students to advance. Which can allow these
students to shut down and not enjoy the subject as much, also relating to
confidence issues. The students know that they are good at this subject but do
not see how they are being challenged in this area and become frustrated or
bored. To help out with these students Wilkins discusses the importance of
setting up extra activities or MIC centers. Which are open-ended questions,
with a higher-level task that allow the students to explore new ideas. The
authors found that the students were not excited and intrigued to be challenged
by these tasks. However, once the MIC centers were introduced the students soon
began to love math again and loved being challenged.
Overall, I think that by allowing for
many different modifications in your lesson plans and ensuring that students
feel confident in their tasks, teachers can make their classroom an open and
relaxing environment for all students.
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ReplyDeleteThe two readings that I read this week were “Helping Students with Disabilities Understand What Mathematics Means” by Susan P. Miller and Pamela J Hudson, and “Problem-Solving Support for English Language Leaners by Lynda R. Wiest. The “Problem Solving and At-Risk Students” article that Molly wrote about describes the importance of modifying problems in order to gain better understanding. This also has to be done for ELL learners, as addressed in the “Support for English Language Learners Article.” Both articles talk about how being able to problem solve successfully will increase confidence in learners. For English Language Learners, problems not only have to be modified, but they have to be thoroughly explained first in order for students to be able to solve the problem, which will in turn help with their confidence. The article talks about one problem that Mrs. Higgens gives to the class. Before they start working on the problem, Mrs. Higgens facilitates initial understanding of the problem in order to set them up for success. The article also addresses modifying the workload by having students work in groups of four. If students work in groups, student participation is encouraged and learning and communication skills developed. If an ELL makes a mistake among a few peers, instead of the whole class or teacher, they do not feel embarrassed and their confidence does not decrease. This article also addresses the importance of using visual aids and hands on materials, and language support.
ReplyDeleteThe “Helping Students with Disabilities” article also addresses modifying problems for students who struggle, just as the other two articles suggest. One guideline that is addressed in this article is, “Use various modes of representation” (Miller, Hudson). Because different students learn in different ways, it is important that all students in the class can understand problems presented to them. By providing different forms of representation, more students will understand the problem. This article also talks about how different concepts should be taught in different ways. The compare and contrast structure is beneficial when students need to recognize similarities and differences between two things. Another lesson structure is the example and non-example structure. This is helpful to understand concepts more deeply. These structures themselves work with modifying teaching in order for students to learn the mathematics concepts.
All four of these articles address how important it is to differentiate instruction and learning in math. All students learn differently and face different challenges, and it is important to understand the challenges they have, and figure out the best ways to teach them. This may involve modifying problems, instruction, or lesson structure. Making modifications will not only help them become more competent when it comes to mathematics, but it will help them to become more confident.
The first article I read was “Differentiating Instruction in Mathematics for the English Language Learner” by Deandrea L. Murrey. This article really stressed the issue that even though math is mainly numbers and can be thought of a universal, ELL students can still struggle with it because language is used to explain and teach it. This can create a barrier to understanding the subject because if ELL students cannot follow the instructions and/or the explanations that help understand the concepts of math, they will struggle to learn. Murrey explains how there are two different levels of language proficiency. There is BICS, Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, and CALP, Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. BICS is language that is learned and used by talking to friends, teachers, buying something at the store, etc. CALP is academic language that is used and learned. Even if a student appears to know English, they might have BICS but not CALP. This can hinder there learning if a teacher does not acknowledge this and teachers them as if they fully understand and speak English. There are 4 principles that help acquire academic language. Comprehensible input is speaking slower, repeating instructions or ideas, and making sure that the students understand what is being taught. It is very important to know that the tasks or lessons do not need to be easier or lower level but guiding their learning needs to increase. Contextualized instruction is learning as the lesson goes on. Making connects while the tasks are occurring is easier to learn then giving students the main ideas and focus before the lesson start. Having a low-anxiety environment is crucial to having a successful learning atmosphere. This is an environment that students feel comfortable with participating and taking part in tasks. Lastly, engaging in meaningful learning activities is giving the students time to talk, write, and read about math and learn the use of the language. With all these principles, ELL students have a better chance at understanding and succeeding in math.
ReplyDeleteThe second reading I had was “Learning-Disabled Students Make Sense of Mathematics” by Jean L. Behrend. This article focused on two students, Cal and Even, who were labeled as learning disabled. Both students struggle at math but overtime have learned to find math fun. The instructional approach the teachers took was to focus on the student’s strengths and the prior knowledge they have. After working on this approach and helping students through tasks, they found it prepared students to solve a lot of different type of problems in mathematics. They learn to better communicate their strategies and how they are working through problems. Focusing on their strengths also builds confidence in student’s abilities.