Final Synthesis Blog Post

Before this class began, it was very difficult for me to imagine how I would implement literacy instruction into my content areas; math and science. Previously, I solely viewed math as computing numbers to get an answer to the problem, and science as the study of the natural and physical world through observations and experiments. I never would have thought that I would need to teach literacy strategies in addition to my content areas for my students to be successful in my classroom; however, I will admit, I was wrong.
This semester, I first learned the importance of strategically picking textbooks that suit a teacher's teaching style and how important role textbooks really play for both the teacher and the student. Daniels and Zemelman relay "textbooks continue to be overused and should be supplemented generously or replaced with other reading materials where possible" and I think we can all agree on that(2004, p.52). Too often, in my experience, I practically relied on the textbook to give me all my answers to any question I had in that subject area because it was what the teacher relied on as well. This task becomes very tedious after a while because "textbooks are designed to inventory huge amounts of information..."(Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, p.54). Students quickly lose interest because reading these textbooks becomes very boring and hard to comprehend the information given. Now, this is not me saying that we should do away with all textbooks; however, I believe it is important that I keep this in mind when picking what reading materials I will use in my future classroom, as it plays a key role in my students' learning. I want to implement materials such as workbooks, podcasts, and videos that all relate to my content area and the topic we are discussing. The resource blogs we worked on all semester will definitely be something I resort back to when finding these materials. I believe this will really help keep my students engaged and perhaps even learn something in the process!


Another aspect to this semester that I will continue to use not only in my future classroom but life is the: Before, During, and After reading strategies. Ironically, I discovered that I actually utilized some of these strategies in my prior readings, I just never realized until this class. Strategies like "promote self-monitoring" that allow students to "clarify confusion only if they stop to notice when this happens.", which is essential during reading strategy (Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, p.281). I think it is important for students to become aware of this strategy as it will allow for less confusion and difficulty as they engage with a text. I've learned that teachers often rush a text, simply so they can get through the material. In turn, this forces students to rush and not fully grasp the content. If we, as teachers, really promote this self-monitoring strategy students will (hopefully) slow down and understand the text.

In addition to self-monitoring, I learned it is important to be able to retell what one just read. In my personal experience, I know I could read an entire chapter and not be able to tell you one thing I read. This lack of reading comprehension could very well be a reason why our students do not enjoy reading. However, if we promote self-monitoring and chose readings that engaged the students, a child's reading comprehension is a lot more likely to increase.

Unfortunately, there is this certain stigma around being a teacher and how "easy" it is to be one. If I've learned anything from this course, it is- teaching is anything but easy. We have to not only teach our content, but we have to incorporate/teach literacy strategies all while building a connection with each student. Though it might be a very tedious, time-consuming, and difficult position, it might also be the most rewarding job of them all (but I'm biased!).

While this course has considerably challenged me mentally, I really would not have changed a thing, as I believe I'm a better teacher for it. 

It's been real Nick, thanks for everything.

One last time- good night!
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Podcast- I am Malala!!! Good night!!!

Our first and last (sad) episode!!

Featuring: Alena Locurcio, Carter Gibbons, Callie-Ann Cardin, Heather Perry, and Katie Story.

Enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eCkM4GiDdbwxUC_XnX0muRP6Dlk_zebT/view?usp=sharing

Strategy Lesson: Reflection Post

My group which included Sarah Ellen, Brittany, and Shelby focused our lesson plan on a key math concept that is taught to students in middle school. Our lesson plan focused on inequalities but more specifically how to solve and graph an inequality problem.

After presenting our lesson to the class, we found some areas in which we can improve for the future. One of the improvisions we would like to implement is the idea of simply slowing down when we are explaining what an inequality is and the steps it takes to solve an inequality. We would also like to pause and ask the class if they have any questions regarding the material. Though we did not have an entire class period to present our lesson plan, I believe the point of being patient with both the lesson we are instructing and the students who are learning this for the first time is a crucial part of being a teacher in middle grades. 

On the flip side of this, I really thought, and so did our fellow classmates, we did well on making it a point to annotate each piece of the word problem given. Not only is this a crucial math tool when solving word problems but is also a great literacy tool that can carry over to other subject areas as well. Everyone seemed to be really engaged when we let them annotate a problem on their own and was eager to tell us what he or she annotated in the problem. Engagement in the classroom and an eagerness to do a certain activity I have learned is an extremely important asset to have when dealing with middle school students.

Overall, I think my group did very well for this assignment and was a great learning experience. I know we will all take the grows and glows into our future teachings.

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Synthesis Blog #5- What should differentiation look like in my classroom?

This week's synthesis blog proposes the idea of a differentiated classroom. The term "differentiated" is a term we are seeing a lot in today's educational system. Students are getting bored and disinterested in the basic teacher instruction. So, how do we allow our kids to be more involved and have a willingness to learn?

I found an article, related to the math classroom, that discusses some "tips" to help us as future teachers to create a differentiated classroom.

Tips for a differentiated math class!

From this article, there was one tip that stood out to me- "Offer choice (as often as possible)". This idea can be hard for us, or maybe it's just me, because I know I like to be in control; however, studies show that giving students a choice "a minimum of 35% of the time in class will increase their intrinsic motivation to learn." (Smith, 2016). Now, by choice I do not mean a students has the choice to do an assignment or not, but rather giving the students a choice to work on the assignment individually or collectively as a group. There are many students that feel pressured completing a task on their own. Allowing the students to have a choice will help those students that do not perform well on their own and can help increase their social skills.

A differentiated classroom does not have to be a hard task for teachers to implement, rather something that we have to be subconsciously aware about when making our lesson plans.

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Resource Blog #4- Recycle City

CROSS CONTENT!!!!

This week's resource blog is probably my favorite I've done so far because not only is it interactive, but it is so informative not only for the classroom setting but for real world problems as well. The website I found is called Recycle City (link down below!) and is meant for users to see how the people of the city: reduce waste, use less energy, and save money by doing simple things at home, at work, and in their neighborhoods.

A huge part of the middle school science curriculum I have found is discussing topics such as energy and how we can save that energy for later dates. This website gives a plethora of examples showing that "how". I believe students will find this website very easy and fun to use because of the vibrant colors and facts that it provides about what is going on in today's world. Many students, as we all know, become very disconnected when they do not see the point in learning certain material when they will never use it to their advantage in the real world, so it is our job as teachers to always provide them with that "real world" piece even though it may be tricky sometimes. This website does a terrific job providing those students with that piece of reality. 

The website gives a map of the city and goes through each part of the neighborhood and different ways one can recycle, save energy, save resources, etc.. Perhaps one day everyone will be familiar with these ideas and create a better, safer, healthier world to live in!

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Link: Recycle City

Synthesis Blog #4- Tearing Down the Wall: Literature and Science

***OUT OF CONTENT!***

Summarize: 

In this science article, published in an english journal, I first discovered how to incorporate english literacy in the science classrooms and science in the english classrooms. Moreover, I found that there is a relationship between these two subjects, we as teachers, just need to show that relationship, which may be easier said than done. At the end of the day, it is essential to find a healthy balance of both science and english literacy. 

It is important for us, as teachers, to have solid background knowledge in all subject areas so we can incorporate little bits and pieces of these subjects to create a very diverse but intellectual classroom. 

Connections:

As I read this article, I came across the discussion of the movie, Back to the Future, and how this movie can incorporate both science and literature elements. This is a great connection as I have seen this movie and helped me bridge the gap between science and literacy.

The article also provided examples of what kind of experiments modern day scientists, such as Verne, conducted to illustrate electricity in the classroom. I loved this because it allowed me to think of what type of experiments I would use in the classroom if I were one day to teach science.

Critique:

I believe it makes sense and is also important that the author incorporated specific examples of science in literary contexts. This allows the teacher to use these resources for his or her classroom. 

The first sentence of this article, "Something there is that really does love a wall, especially in the land of academics" does not make sense to me and kind of threw me off for the rest of the reading (Westcott & Spell, 1999, p. 70). 

Why is this important?

This science article allows for teachers, of any subject area, to incorporate english literacy in everyday instruction. One may be blind to how the english subject can be incorporated at first, but it is honestly very apparent once you dive deeper and read articles such as this one. 

Many students do not perform well in Language Arts because they only associate English learning in one classroom. If we as teachers make it a point to incorporate some of the skills and techniques into other subject area classrooms, students will not only be better off in the english classroom but in life as well. 
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Resource Blog #3- NSTA

This week's resource blog, although outside my content area, was really seen as beneficial to me if I were to pursue Science Education. This website provided teachers (or anyone really interested in the Science curriculum) books, articles, and activities for help with instruction. The reason I chose this website specifically was because it provided readings that are real word issues today. Such issues include: global warming, recycling, nonrenewable resources, etc.. It is important to talk about these issues in school not only because they matter but because it keeps the students engaged. Personally, I always wondered why we were learning about specific things in science if we were never going to use that knowledge in the future. This website allows for students, like me, to finally start making connections from the classroom to the real world!

This website also provides experiment outlines for teachers to use if they so choose with a specific lesson. Often times it can be hard to just come up with an experiment for students to conduct so having this resource is not only helpful but a huge time saver. This is a great tool for science teachers to utilize because conduction of experiments in the middle grades science program is a huge part of the curriculum.
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https://www.nsta.org/publications/freebies.aspx

Synthesis Blog #3- How to Use A Textbook

This week's blog post really focuses on the daunting task of using a textbook. I know for me personally, I never really liked the idea of a textbook because I knew it would require reading. So when my teacher assigned a reading from it or we had to do practice problems out of it, I was never inclined to do so.

However, this chapter in, Subjects Matter, really focuses on how a teacher can use a textbook efficiently, which is something I really appreciate. For instance, Daniels and Zemelman explain "don't leave kids alone with their textbooks...having kids work in pairs, groups, and teams at all stages of reading" in order to fully grasp the concept they are reading (2004, p. 183). This is a great way for kids to be social yet productive in our classroom. Bouncing off ideas from fellow peers and breaking down concepts in small groups can be an excellent strategy to boost not only understanding of the subject but reading comprehension as well.
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Resource Blog #2- Teaching Math Without Words

For this week's resource blog, I wanted to find a tool to help my future students that are more visual learners. While writing down numbers on a whiteboard is an effective approach sometimes while teaching math, there are many students that have learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, who struggle with words and will not understand the lesson completely. We, as teachers, need to teach to all our students, not just a handful of them.

In this Ted Talk I came across, Matthew Peterson explains how interactive math games that provide visual feedback demonstrate amazing results among students of all learning types. Through these games, Peterson describes how students can touch, feel, and see how certain mathematical problems work. More often than not, students do not completely understand a math concept; they do, however, know how to solve the problem and memorize it from then on. With these interactive games provided by, ST Math software, it clears up misconceptions about certain concepts and allows for students to truly understand the concept at hand.

This video provides math teachers yet another tool to use in the classroom that is geared toward his or her students in the classroom that have a learning disability. And who knows, they might even have fun while doing it :)!

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https://www.stmath.com/

Synthesis Blog #2- Help for Struggling Readers

This chapter in Subjects Matter, focused on strategies to help the students in the classroom in which reading and writing are not their strong suits. One of the points that particularly stood out to me in this chapter was to "create supportive relationships" between the teacher and student regarding reading in class (Daniels & Zemelman, p.281). Many students who struggle with reading "feel that adults have somehow abandoned them, or pre concluded that they are failures" which, in school, is something that can have an effect on the students in the future (Daniels & Zemelman, p.281). Therefore, we have to create an environment in our classrooms that is supportive, yet effective in order to have successful readers. 

In my entire school career, I have never been good at reading. It was always something I could do, but I never excelled in it. It never really effected me or my grades until freshman year of college. I believe if I were to have that support from my teachers in elementary school and/or middle school, I would have been a lot better off.

500 × 281

Though my emphasis is in math, I want to still help my students who struggle with reading because there is so much more to math than just numbers and critical reading is a crucial life skill.

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Resource Blog #1- The Myth of 'I'm Bad at Math'

We've all heard it before- "I will never be a math person." Though that might be true, this article by The Atlantic, analyzes why some people believe that and how we, as a society, can alter this pessimistic mind-set. 

We begin with mathematics as almost being a "a nature vs. nurture" debate. Many people believe that math is just innate and one cannot excel in it if it is not in the genes; however, this cannot be farther from the truth. The Atlantic describes "different kids with different levels of preparation come in to a math class", students that are more prepared excel faster while the ones less prepared do not (The Atlantic, 2013). The unprepared kids realize just how well the prepared kids are performing and "assume that genetic ability was what determined the performance differences" and immediately claim themselves as just "not being math people" (The Atlantic, 2013). 

This wrongful accusation of themselves, the unprepared people, is why we as a society have so many people that do see math as a mental asset. While there are many jobs and places in the work force where math will never be used, I believe it is still an important subject for students to know and value. The Atlantic goes on to explain that math is not the luck of the gene pool, but the ability to work hard. Instead of not performing well on a math test and simply giving up, students should "respond by working harder at it" and challenge themselves to do better next time. 

While I cannot convince everyone to love math the way I do, I can try and help them realize they have the potential to be a so called "math person" if they work hard and are willing to face challenges.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/

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Synthesis Blog #1- How Smart Readers Think

After reading through the chapter in Subjects Matter, it is kind of frightening how much I connected to what the authors were describing. The authors of this book describe how hard it is sometimes for students to sit down and focus on a reading and then be able to comprehend what they just read. More often than not, this task is hard if not impossible for some students. I would consider myself included in this group as I am not the best reader nor can I comprehend very well.

I found it interesting that they are different "ways"of reading: clunk or click. The writers of the text describe "clicking" as "smooth, unobstructed reading"; whereas, "clunking" is where one has to be "more conscious and visible" when reading the assigned text (Daniels & Zemelman, Subjects Matter, p. 28). These two ways of reading and processing the information help explain why certain material is easier to read to a student than another. For example, if a student is really into baseball and he or she is reading a novel about Jackie Robinson (an infamous baseball player) than it would be easier for him or her to read and comprehend what the book is explaining
rather than a book over the history of the Americas.

Therefore, as a future teacher, it is critical that I create assignments that implement both reading and what my students find a particular liking in, in order to keep them engaged in the class. If they find the subject material hard and/or confusing I "will provide them tools and activities that help them question, interpret, and harvest their responses as they go" (Daniels & Zemelman, Subjects Matter, p. 41). I believe this excerpt is crucial in order to keep students engaged while in our classroom. Most of the time, students quickly lose interest (and hope) once they do not understand what they are reading. If we, as teachers, can provide tools to help them understand and comprehend, I believe the students academic life and life outside of school will be much better off.

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Children's Book Reading- Alena Locurcio

Hey guys, my name is Alena Locurcio. I am majoring in Middle Grades Education with an emphasis in math and science! The book featured above is titled "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?" written by Dr. Seuss. This story provides a variety of sounds to the listener that reveals examples of figurative language and rhymes. Enjoy one of the classics written by Dr. Seuss!

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