Podcasting

I took a look at Podcast Pickle. Just by searching "math" I see a ton of different people whose podcasts relate to math. Then in each one you find many more. I don't like that you cannot link directly to a specific users channel or podcasts. Two that I found where interesting were Mathgrad.com that talks about everyday math, and Math factor which looks at math puzzles and brain teasers. I really enjoyed the one that talks about zero, I would use this in my class, and I think just by listen to a podcast about students are more likely to remember zero is not positive or negative 'I remember that from the podcast'. I love to use brain teasers with my students whenever we have a few extra minutes.
podcastpickle
Search "mathgrad" and Zero is #15

My Podcast can be found here

Video

I used two new video searches, TeacherTube and Videopedia. I can't say that I prefer one over the other, I wasn't looking for anything specific. I like the fractions video. This would be a good video for middle school students. I can definitely see the students I taught last year start rapping parts of it. I also chose the tutorial on podcasting because we will need to do one for the next mod.

Rss Feed

I didn't know what an RSS feed was until I did this. I like the idea because I won't look at the blogs and sites I have chosen unless I know there is something new or interesting on it, and eventually I will get tired of going to each one to see if there is something new or relevant to me. I enjoyed the new post by Graham Wergner, it was actually a piece that related to something posted by another blogger Dan Meyer on Groceries that is also on my Blog Roll and RSS feed. I enjoy seeing others comment on how to "save" math education, and hope that people continue to do this to share the great ideas that are out there. Like I have heard many times "why reinvent the wheel", share with others and get and give ideas.

Delicious Tag Cloud

My Delicious Tag Cloud
This is a great idea. I love how I can tag the same site multiple ways and find sites that others have found that are great too.

Social Networks

I chose to Join Education Technology. I think it is a good social network to join because I can see how members are posting things that can help other members get technology into their classroom. I like the step by step instructions on pod and video casting, as well as the forum on using wikis.








I have a dual screen, that is why you see two images

Todays Learner

Learners today are like computers. Not only are most computers different makes and models, they differ by the things they know (the programs on them). Depending on interests, a person can add programs and software to increase the productivity of the device. Just like as a person learns more and more they are more likely to be able to complete tasks and solve problems. With a computer you can try a program and if you don't like it you can delete it, if you find it useful, you find ways to make it even more useful to you. Just like a learners does when they find something relevant to them, or not.
"Including technology and connection making as learning activities begins to move learning theories into a digital age" (Siemens, 2005). Not only is a learner like the computer, or technology primary used today, they are also the means in which meaning is made. As students talk with one another at school and on social networks, they are just like that of a computer, using the technology at hand to find and talk with other people. "Words give life to thought, our ability to express our self and our knowing increases as we express our selves and externalize our knowledge." Often all we need to do is express our questions in order to gain answers, and synthesize knowledge.


Siemens, G. (2005, January). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Retrieved September 12, 2009.

The Impact of Social Learning

Uses for Blogging

1. Blogging can be used for reflection. Constructivism places emphasis on reflection after a learning experience. Blogging could be one way to get students excited about doing it.

2. Questions. This would be a great way to allow students to ask questions. They could receive answers from classmates or find that classmates have similar questions and get answers from the teacher or other online sources.

3. Getting to know each other. This could be a good way for students to express themselves and get to know each other. It might be a good beginning activity in a computer or technology class.

Blogs

Hi everyone,

If you are looking at my blog entries all of the ones previous to this one relate to another class that I took. These blogs all relate to Assessment, Diagnosis and Intervention (EDU 572).

“1. Reading is a construction of meaning with text. It is an active process of using background knowledge along with the text” P 161

The main point here is that it is and ACTIVE process, being a robot and reading does not mean you construct meaning. You can sound beautifully when you read but if there is not connection to the text then you are not really reading.

“ They use current knowledge and develop new insights that will improve student learning” P 162

They see what is good and right and then try to find ways to make it even better. This is something that manufactures do all the time, they make and sell a product that is good, and then try to improve it to sell more and be more useful for a greater number of people. We need to do this too. To get to a place where we can evaluate how to make good lessons even better to reach even more students more effectively


“Kennedy found that when teachers focused on student learning rather than approaches to instruction, hey did advance student learning” P 162

But where do you start? If you have never taught how do you know what will advance student learning? I think you need to start with some kind of approach to instruction.

“Study groups are organized around a particular theme or topic.” P 164
Where does the time for this come from? It sounds like a great plan, but realistically who has the time?

“He began to see how purposeful interactions with writing enhances student learning” p 165

Just wringing random letters and numbers does not teach students purpose, writing the work cat over and over does not give them a good understanding of writing. They need a genuine purpose, in order to gain insight into the meanings and purposes for writing.

Chapter 9

“Instructional materials often align with specific views of reading” P 149
I have seen this in my observations. At Starpoint I taught some reading and language arts (even though my concentration is in math). I was instructed to use the teacher book and pick out some of the points and activities that I thought were useful. That is exactly what they teacher did. She basically taught from her teacher’s book. Where I am now students very rarely use a text book. They are surrounded by more student centered activists and real novels.

“ Chapter books do not have an instructional manual, nor are they designed to a specific grade level.” P 149
This is what makes them such a useful tool. There is no “right way” to do things, and nothing to sway you to do the ‘right’ thing. They allow the teacher to differentiate the instruction based on that student or students needs.

“They [struggling readers] often benefit from watching a video of a book before reading it.” P 151

Hmmm. I can see the benefits of familiarizing them with the concepts in the book. However I think it would give away the whole story (I know they are never exactly the same). I guess it would depend on what skills you would be working on. If you watch a film about it then you wouldn’t really be able to do predicting. As I reader I would not want to read they book, my motivation for reading is to find out what’s going to happen next, and if I already know why bother?

“ Student can be drawn into a text when characters are interesting and readily befriended, words provoke strong images, and stories have unanticipated twists.” P 159

I think for these reasons a lot of children, and adults took to the Harry Potter series of books. With characters that show traits of their own friends and twists and turns that keep you wanting more, people couldn’t help but read. I wonder if they same connection could be made for the Twilight series.

“When students believe they can make choices about the books they read, they are more likely to be interested in the books and the activities surrounding them.” P 160

I have been thinking about this in terms of the student I am tutoring. I know quite a bit about her, however I think that giving her some choice would allow me to pick on topic over another. This might be beneficial because I know she would be somewhat interested if she choice that particular text over another.

Chapter 7

“ For this student, a text that was near frustration without teacher direction could be independent level with instruction by the teacher.” P 123

This is the goal of everything thing that we do as teachers. We want to instruct students so that they can now do things on their own that they could not do, or would not even attempt without our guidance. This situation may not be the outcome every single time but it should be the goal every time we go into a teaching situation.

“Modifications of hypotheses can occur as the teacher responds to the student’s needs during instruction.” P 125

I do this all the time. Today I started a lesson and realized that my kids were not going to get it. So I had to modify my plans, give them some more support than I had expected to the lesson was modified to give them some more straightforward steps, and less confusion that would have put them at the point of frustration.

“If mediated instruction produces an independent reading level, the diagnostic teacher carefully evaluates the task modifications and teacher investment, or assistance, to establish the instructional modification that produced the change.” P 127

So if we get to an independent reading level through that task modification what happen next? Should I continue using the strategy with more difficult text? Should I try another strategy at the same level? Should I introduce a new strategy at the next higher level?

“ She changed the task from silent to oral reading when Terry could not talk about what he had read silently. She segmented the passage into sentences when he could not follow the paragraphs demonstrated. Moreover, she shifted from simply demonstrating to demonstrating with inquiry questions in order to help Terry see relationships among the ideas in the text.” P 128

This is what I would consider chunking the material. When some students do not get the big picture I break it down into smaller more manageable pieces. Once they grasp the smaller pieces they can then start to understand the concept or the big idea.

“These lessons use two readings of the text—one immediately after instruction and another several hours later—to establish a learning rate for that particular instructional technique.” P 130

I wondered if this is something that we should also do when using the Diagnostic lesson using Baseline Data. I am wondering if after initial instruction and then immediately having students try it, if the success of some student might be related to the time period in which they are asked to demonstrate the new skill. If they can perform immediately after at the independent level, will the also be able to perform independently hours or even days latter? I think it is an important piece. It is great if they can do it right after a lesson but can they still do it later, or is it lost in space?

Chapter 4

“Effective diagnostic teaching results from a balance of challenging and easy reading tasks” P 60


For struggling reading this is a great way to build confidence. If they experience success they are more likely to be willing to try more. If all they experience is failure, they will not want to even try because they already know the outcome is failure.


“During FTT, students use their developing strategies and skills within the context of already-known material” P 61

This is a good way to help students develop strategies. They can attempt the new idea in something that they are already familiar with, and at the same time if they are familiar with it then the do not need to focus on other things that would take away from practicing the strategy.


“Constructing a graph or a self-assessment rubric of strategy use provides an avenue for the students and teacher to discuss the strategies that the students are using and how strategies or skills will enhance active reading.” P 67

I like this because it gets student to think about their thinking. When they are forced to do this they realize what they are already doing and what they need to work on. It is also great to see some of the focus put on the student, and making it part of their responsibility too. To often student think that it is all the teacher's fault. I get students who try and blame me because they cannot find their homework.

“Writing and reading influence each other, and both develop from children’s desire to communicate.” P 69
I think we need to emphasis this more than we do. I do not think that children realize that reading and wring stem from the need to communication. If they knew that we teach them these things so that they can communicate with adults and each other, they might approach reading and writing differently. To most kids they read and write (at least in the older grades) because that is what they are told to do.


“Students are taught to match the book to their reading levels by using the rule of thumb (Morrow & Walker, 1977).” P 69

This rule of thumb is something that I had never heard of, but love. I always want to know how to find materials that are at the right levels for my self, students and little sister. The only thing that I know of is lexile scores, which is what is used at Wilson. I don’t know much about how the score is determined, but I do know that once you have yours you can go on to a website and look up the lexile scores for most books.

Chapters 5 and 6

“When reading orally, the reader must attend not only to meaning but also to the oral production of the text.” P 74

Oral reading demands more from the reader. I read Christopher Paolini’s Eragon and to my self I had one way of pronouncing Eragon to my self I pronounced it e ragon (like dragon). This is how I came to know the character in my heard. After seeing the movie I realize that I was incorrectly pronouncing it in my heard. It did not affect my comprehension of the text, but if I were to read it orally it would have taken away from my initially fluency, and may have distracted me from what was happening in the story because I was too busy trying to correctly pronounce names I had never hear.





“ After memorizing a few books, often students can recognize a few words” P 81


I remember Dr Seuss The Foot Book. This was one of the first books that I memorized. I could recite it without looking at the book. After I could easily read his book The Ear Book, which I soon also memorized.



“Recognizing the initial sound leads the way to noticing the initial phoneme and rimes in a word” P 84

I never realized that nursery rhymes have such a wonderful purpose. They are not just stories to tell children for entertainment or morals, teaching tools for literacy. So much happens to develop a young child’s mind that I did not see happening. However fewer children are familiar with the nursery rhymes that were listened to and read as children. Often times worksheets with riddles refer to them and children do not get the little puns because they have never hear of those once popular nursery rhyme. Is there a connection to how some children struggle with early literacy?


“Young readers use the strategies they have been taught. Therefore, readers differ in their use of strategies to construct meaning because of the instructional emphasis in their initial reading program.” P 105


This makes me wonder about students who move a lot. Do they have time to develop a strategy before they move to anther school that emphasis a different strategy? We have had a few students coming in and out of the 6th grade this year, some of them are going on a third school this year. How are they going to develop the skills and strategies that they need for reading and math? I feel bad for these students because there success may be limited due to a lack of structured learning. They can still succeed but they face extra hurdles to reach their true potential.



“When they do revise their predictions, passive readers change only one part of their predictions. Less active readers hold on to previous predictions rather than become more tentative about their approach to text.” P 110


I find that students do a similar thing in math. Once they have and answer (or a prediction) they hold on to it and do not want to let go. They do not want to evaluate their answer to see if it makes senses or if it still holds true. I have students who give me answers like a pencil is 6 miles long, because once they have decided they do not go back and check.

Chapter 3

“The reflective diagnostic teacher considers and selects among instructional alternatives and, at the same time, anticipates the consequences of differing decisions on student learning. This reflection helps teachers know why they teach and facilitates their explanation to others” P 44

I think of reflecting as something to do after teaching. I was always taught to reflect on what went good, and what needed to be thrown out or what needed to be improved on. They talk about refection as something to do before and while planning. This is a different way of thinking for me. I do typically consider my students their possible responses, needs and interests but never though of it as reflecting. I always thought of writing things in a notebook after the fact, not before I always though of that process as just planning.

“When students have success, they tend to repeat the literate activity. Obviously, success is a powerful motivating factor.” P 47

This year one of my students was tested for learning disabilities. It was noted that she had previously struggled in reading and had attended a learning center in elementary school. She has shown some improvement in her reading abilities and knows it. I can see how having made progress that she now actually enjoys reading. She often comes up to me and shows me the books that she is reading and often times I share with her what I am reading or if I had already read the books that she has chosen.


“When students are unsure of a response, she asks them what they know so far about the story. Then she asks them to explain how they came to that conclusion. From this information, the teacher develops leading questions or examples what will guide the students’ interpretation.” P 48

I love this technique! I do this with my students when they ask for help on their math homework. I ask them what they think the answer is or how they think they should attempt the problem. Them I work on how they know that or what makes them think that’s what they should try. From there I don’t give them answers I ask them questions. From theses questions they develop meaning and understanding by making connections about things they already know. (I had a college professor that did this to us all the time, he never answered your questions, just asked you a different one.

“Not only does the diagnostic teacher direct the learning process by explaining the steps and guiding the practice, but she also gives students ownership of their learning by encouraging them to think about their thinking.” P 51

I find that student have a difficult time with metacognition. They don’t want to think about what they time that just want to know the answer. Especially in math class, a lot of students think this is the answer, done! But that is not the case. They need to think and process the information to be able to understand and develop the correct process and answer. Students have a hard time with multiple step problems for this reason. They want the answer to be there they do not want to have to think about what they know and how to develop a method to solve it.


“They read as if they believe that getting every word right is reading.” P 53

A student came to me last week and asked if I would sign the book completion sheet for one of her books. (They need to read 25 this year for reading class) She asked me because she often stays after with me and I had seen her read it. Before I would sign it I asked her to tell me a little about it. She could tell me what happened in the beginning and the middle but had no memory of the end. I told her to read read the last two chapters to refresh her memory. So she went back and did, but she couldn’t; tell anything about it because she had only read the words, not the story. Frustrated with her I told her to take the book home that night and really read the story for meaning and to come see me in the morning to tell me what she had figured out about the end of the book, then I would sign her slip. I am proud to say that she did reread it and we had a brief discussion the next morning about the events that occurred. Even better later that day we had our Page Turners Competing and because she re-read and understood she was able to correctly answer questions about the end of the book leading our team to 2nd place!

Chapters One and Two

“Active readers monitor their understanding to see if it makes sense (Alexander & Jetton, 2000).”



I find that students are often in such a hurry to get things done that they do not check to see if the answer makes sense in the context of the problem. On the last math test my students took I noticed half of their responses did not even make sense based on the question they were asked. I think they were in such a hurry to get done with they test they rushed through the problems especially the word problems and gave incorrect answers.







(On open ended and non-literal questions) “This type of questioning required her to think in a different way. She was used to reading the text and answering questions that were directly found in the text.” P19



I find that if the textbook does not say the exact answer, then students get frustrated and most of the time they gave up. I am not sure if they are just used to that kind of thinking or if they are lazy. The students that I work with I find are a little bit on the lazy side, others work their but off and still struggle sometimes. They don’t always want to apply their knowledge, just copy it from somewhere.





“Personal response lets students talk freely about their reactions, thoughts, and feelings about the text they have read. When giving a response, the student cannot be wrong, …” P19



I recently gave students a question that asked them what they think and in each class at least 5 students asked me for help. My reply I cannot tell you what you think, you need to think about it and tell me what it is you are thinking. They did not like this kind of questioning even though there was no wrong answer.



Therefore, if a teacher prompts the student to clarify a response or asks the student to search the text, he influences comprehension and changes the original task demand. This change often increases comprehension.” P 21



The reading lab teacher that I work with does this with her classes. I was in one of her classes and saw how she had students work in pairs to answer test comprehension questions. They look at one question at a time and compared answers, and then she asked the groups (only 2 of them) where they found the answer. This made students go back and actually find the answer, which made them, better comprehend their answers.





“Because each text format if organized differently, readers do not have the same experiences with them, thus increasing the variability of their performance (Pearson & Camperell, 1994).” P 23



I started the year off with a scavenger hunt in their new math textbook. I understand that not all of the students have the same experiences with math books, especially since they are coming from two different elementary schools. I also have found that they forgot about all of the things that they book can help them do. Before the chapter tests I remind them that there is section in the back that highlights each different part of the chapter by giving examples and problems for them to try. I have also recently had two students discover the homework help that is available online, even thought this is one of the things that I showed them in the begging of