Entry 0. More than halfway through the Summer 2013 semester, and it's hard not to look forward to being finished with the cert (next Friday, baby!). Especially after downloading the couple dozen-plus readings for this next class, Content Area Literacy. The instructor comes highly recommended by last year's students, and clearly there's a lot to learn what with the class resources being all Wikied up and the assignments all blogified and such. I'm guessing this is going to be a big departure from the other blogs I've started and abandoned, there being little room in this one for observations on traveling or kitchen projects ... but I might be willing to try.
On the bummer side, the one time I land a class with a professor who's also a practicing math teacher, it's all about texts and reading. While I'm absolutely sure I will learn a ton, it's frustrating not to be able to work on refining math teaching skills more directly. I'll tell you for sure that this program is challenging my powers of reasoning as I attempt to adapt to the math classroom all the information intended for ELA (English Language Arts) teachers.
On a bummer side note, despite the fact that every class in the program so far has stressed the importance of differentiating instruction and materials in accordance with the specific needs of each student, that doesn't end up happening for us. In every class with the exception of Internship II, every student gets exactly the same instruction. Apparently this is something that we, the teachers-in-training, are supposed to do even if our instructors don't. No offense intended to any of the fine professors I've had the privilege of studying with, but doesn't it seem maybe a little ironic?
Dave, thanks for the post. Tabitha and I had a talk today about the need for some mathematics methods instruction. First, feel free to ask me any questions you'd like about math instruction or even if you want to discuss any challenges you've had with the instruction. I can tell you that I work hard to help my students understand the process of what they are doing rather than memorizing algorithms blindly. It has become more of a culture in my class to constantly ask why something works and students are held accountable for this. One way I do this is through writing. Students are expected to explain their process as well as why it works out. Writing is also useful because students can write their own problem situations. THis helps them begin to understand the nuances of the meanings of various phrases to make better inferences. It also challenges them to be clear enough to allow others to make those inferences.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about differentiating the instruction to meet specific needs of the student. Teaching is a tough job because the expectation is that you are expected to be perfect and well-versed on the first day of the job when in reality, it takes years of experience, trial and error, and reflection to become a highly effective teacher. I'm still working at it myself . I wonder if any program can truly prepare teachers enough to be highly effective once they graduate or is it in the nature of the job to learn more as you practice and reflect? I think a teacher ed program does its best work to lay foundations for you but trains you to be willing to be constantly critical of your practice to continually grow. Let me know when you want to talk about math, I'd be glad to share my insights. I'll try to add some here and there during class too.
Hi Jim, thanks so much for your response. After a day and a half of class, I already see that I was too hasty in concluding that there would be nothing specific for me to learn as a math teacher in Content Area Literacy. I really appreciate the suggestions you've given me so far, and I'll likely be pestering you for more advice soon.
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