Final thoughts on intermediate math

Prior to taking this first math methods class, I had neither idea nor experience in how to teach math. Everything presented in this class was new to me and I soaked it up like a sponge. In conjunction with this class, I took the opportunity to teach only math lessons in my Dyad placement this quarter in order to use what I was learning in class in my own lessons. I found this to be very beneficial in helping me to see how what we were learning worked for me as I taught, worked for my students and aided in my retention of this new knowledge.

There is a lot that I have learned during my time in this class. The foundation of my knowledge began with the constructivist view on teaching math; where we help students build connections in their math learning by meeting them where they are. This is view allows for lots of discussion, questioning and exploring, and is different than the drill and kill method. Then, I gained some helpful criteria for group worthy tasks; ensuring that everything we give to student to accomplish in groups is both worthy of their time and allows each student to contribute their strengths. Learning about math discussions and sequencing student presentations that scaffold important mathematical ideas in a way that is most beneficial to students was fascinating. My dyad partner and I even tried this in one of the lessons we taught together. It was challenging, yet engaging for the students and I know the students gained from this experience. I also learned about the value of integrating other subjects and resources, such as manipulatives, into math lessons. This integration invites all students to be successful in the lesson and can increase engagement. I could go on and on with all that I have learned, but there are two important pieces I will take away from this class. One, we should never to answer questions that students can figure out on their own. Instead, using excellent questioning strategies we can aid students in reaching understanding on their own. They may struggle, but in the end this will be more beneficial for them than for us as teachers to simply give them the answers. Second, each student has his or her own math identity and each student is good at math in some way. I was that student who always thought I was bad at math. I am looking forward to helping all students find their math identity and understand that they all have a brain for math.

Much of what I have learned I have already begin applying or plan to apply to my own teaching. In fact, practicing what I was learning this quarter while teaching myself was very helpful. When it comes to questions I may have following this class, I cannot think of any at this moment. Due to the fact that everything I learned this quarter was new, I am still taking it all in and I know I have so much more to learn. What there is for me to learn I am not sure of.

I think this class was beneficial and I thank you for the time you have taught us. One thing that would have been helpful for me this quarter would have been to have some sort of objective for the day’s lesson. While I was enjoying class, and learning much from my reflections on class and readings, during class I often found myself wondering what I was supposed to be learning specifically from what was being taught. I do not mean to be harsh by any means, I loved this class, and I know that you enjoy going with the flow of the class. Although, I would have liked to hear from you what it was that you wanted us to receive each day from the lessons you provided us (implications for teaching). I wanted to gain more from your knowledge and not just my peers. Again, I appreciate you and your wealth of knowledge. Thanks for this quarter!

Making writing regular, enjoyable and worth it

Through much of my readings in literacy this quarter I seem to continue to come across the same three ideas: regular, enjoyable and worth it. These are in my own words of course. I keep circling back to these ideas for a few different reasons. For one, these would not have been the three words I would come up with when asked about teaching writing. Secondly, I have not seen these modeled in my current placements so these ideas stood out to me as something very different than I am seeing. I love these ideas because I think they are critical to teaching students how to write and I think they tie together much of what we have been learning.

Regular & Enjoyable

In Routman’s book she discusses how writing needs to happen on a regular basis. In addition, writing needs be completed in varying contexts. This can be a writing response, a free write, writing for another subject and so on. Something in this past week’s reading that stuck with me was how Routman explained that students need plenty of time practicing reading without being tested, and the same goes for their writing. Students need to have plenty of practice writing without it being graded. This was a major aha moment for me. I was under the impression that every piece of writing needed to be checked or graded; in the past this frustrated me when teachers did not follow through on this. Now, I understand that students need to practice without the pressure that they are being graded. Granted, students still need to practice good writing skills and the writing process even though the piece may not be completely checked. As for enjoyable, if writing is more regular I believe students will come to love writing. Additionally, if students are given options during their regular writing, they may find an outlet of writing they love. Celebrated student writing is also more likely to help students enjoy writing!

Worth it

In my observations, and my time as an elementary student, student writing is rarely celebrated or published in some way. Writings are usually published at least twice a year. Students need to have a sense that their writing is important and that it is worth it. I believe with worthwhile assignments, many opportunities for publishing and still more opportunities for celebration of writing will help students to feel like writing is worth it. In the end, this too will improve student writing.

Here I am now

Looking back on my thoughts on the use of iPod Touches or other similar hand held technologies, my thinking has not changed too much. I think in the beginning I was more skeptical as to whether or not these were actually being used in the classrooms and now I have arrived at the understanding that they may not be in full use but they are being used. In addition, their use is spreading.

In my previous post on the iPod Touch, I was missing real life examples of how a class set of these are being used in classrooms today. I am struggling to find this information, although I am definitely on the look out. I plan to keep my eyes and ears open in the months to come for more practical uses. The reason why I am still searching is because I do not think the way in which we have used the iPod Touch this past quarter is realistic for an individual teacher to do on their own. Each interaction we have had with students and the Touch is one on one. Granted there have been some helpful applications, such as being able to record students as they read. On the other hand, I am still searching. I have been checking out professional blogs and YouTube videos for answers.

Lastly, I am interested in the funding of a class set of iPod Touches. I am sure there is some grant out there that would help pay for something like this for classroom use. I would love to be the teacher who has them in her classroom. Maybe then I can experiment with more uses. Therefore, I am on the hunt to find funding for a project like this because even though I am searching for uses, I do believe the ipod Touch can have a positive impact on student learning.

It didn't seem like math

What I loved most about our math class last week was that it did not seem like math. Now, when I say this do not intend to negate the necessity of math. Instead, this made me think about how we teach math to our elementary aged students. This past week in our math class we were able to explore Gapminder.com, which offers important world statistics in graphical form. This site is fascinating and instantly the whole class became engaged in manipulating this graphical information to display information that was most interesting or important to themselves. What I loved about this particular activity was that it did not seem like math, this was not your typical direct instruction lesson where the teacher gave us a new topic, demonstrated it, we practiced it together, then we were sent off to work it out on our own. Instead, we were set out to discover, interpret and essentially play with math.


Thinking back on this specific class made me think about how many teachers teach math today. Many teachers simply use the direct instruction route and this leaves many students fearful of their lack of what they think are math skills and they simply check out. What if we taught more math like this? With discovery. I do not mean to say here that there is never a need for direct instruction in math classes, instead I think there needs to be less of it. I personally would say that I do not like math. I am one of those people who never had the "math class" skills. Although, if you read one of the articles we previously read this quarter about math identities, I have many other mathematical skills. It was encouraging for me, with my lack of "math class" skills, to feel like I succeeded in class this last week, that i had something to offer my group and that I was interested in the content. Nevertheless, this class made me think about how I want to teach math, what to consider, and and how math should not only be taught in "math class".

Pattern Making Machines

In class we often hear that our brains are pattern-recognizing machines. When it comes to adding single digit numbers, my brain is admittedly not so great at recognizing patterns. In fact, when I was growing up I was constantly getting in trouble for using my fingers to add and subtract. I even remember the math tutor I had to go to who would make me sit on my hands when drilling me with single digit addition and subtraction to avoid using my fingers. Little did she know I was still able to make it work.

        

Growing up, teachers were constantly telling me not to use this method, so I switched to a new method – counting up or down from the highest number. For example I saw that the number 3 has three points on it. If I were to add 3 + 8, I would start by saying 8 then count up three by touching the three points on the 3 one at a time. It was at this time that I was not taught to see that 8 +2 = 10 + one more = 11. This would have been much more efficient.

I bring up my personal story because I have been enjoying what I will call “pattern training” by my Dyad teacher. To begin a math lesson each day he puts virtual dice up on the smart board. He “rolls” the dice and asks students to add the numbers shown on the dice. He begins using two dice and progressively moves up one at a time until students are adding 5 dice. After asking the students to respond with the answer, all dice added together, he asks students to share any patterns they found. The patterns this teacher is looking for specifically are double numbers or combinations to make fives or tens. The students are very excited to share their own methods on how they have added the given numbers to get their answers. We know already that this method of having students share their own methods helps them to understand more about why they did what they did and allows other students to learn from their peers.

At first, when observing this part of the math lessons I thought “drill and kill”. Weeks have passed and I am now beginning to appreciate the pattern recognizing aspects this has to offer. In fact, I myself am seeing my single digit numbers in new ways. This experience has taught me that we do not need to get rid of all of the “kill and drill” methods we once learned, although an addition like this can enhance student learning. 

Making math relevent

One discussion we had in class last week was about making math relevant to students. So often we give students completely abstract or adult focused examples of how to use the mathematical idea we are attempting to teach and so often we completely lose our students to utter boredom and dislike of this “useless idea”. This is something I focused on while creating a lesson to teach with my dyad partner this last week. Our goal was to teach students different approaches to solving two-step word problems and help them to see that there are many ways to arrive at the same correct answer. For this lesson we could have stood up and taught straight from their textbook or the teacher’s curriculum guide. But, after looking at the direction the curriculum was going and the examples it wanted us to use, we realized this lesson would quickly become mundane and not applicable to our students. Therefore, we began our lesson by telling our students about a recent problem we had where we had to use math to solve and fix our problem. More simply, we told our students a real life story. Then, we helped them connect our story to the idea that math word problems are like real life problems where ordinary people need to use math to solve. We involved students in the word problem examples we used; all of the problems involved students’ names and were real problems that the students were or could be experiencing. We noticed that our students were highly engaged in solving these “problems” for their peers. When it came time to have students write their own real life word problems, they were excited at the chance to share a problem they had that involved math. We did not use silly stories. There was never an example like “There are two frogs in the pond, five frogs come to the pond and three frogs leave. How many frogs are left in the pond?” Who cares! Our students definitely do not. This is just one example of how we as teachers need to make our lessons applicable to our specific students.

Mathematical identity and our students

This week I read Exploring Our Complex Math Identities by Keith R. Leatham and Diane S. Hill. This article was fascinating to me personally because of my own view of math. I have never enjoyed math yet I always seemed to get good grades – telling me that maybe I am pretty good at it. This article discusses how our beliefs about math affect the way our students engage in math and the way we as teachers teach math. This I knew already, but I did not now how to tackle these views we all carry in order to benefit a classroom of students. The article defines mathematical identity as an individual’s relationship with math, this includes the way the person learns, thinks about, retains, does and associated with math (Leatham & Hill, 2010, p.226).  Some of our mathematical identity is observable and some is not. A classroom discussion focused on mathematical identity can help students determine their mathematical identity and that of their peers. The main questions used to facilitate this discussion include: 1. What does it mean to be good at math? 2. What is mathematics? How useful is it? 3. How do we feel about our own ability to do math?

I enjoyed reading this article because it put something I always thought of as very abstract, how we feel and think of math, and put it into describable words. I see how a discussion such as this can be very beneficial to a teacher – understanding more about our students. Although, after reading this article I am left wondering how early is too early to have this discussion with students. I wonder this because it seems as though many of the student examples in this book are from middle school, high school and college aged students. In reality, most of us are beginning to form and cement our thoughts about math when we are in early elementary school. How can we create discussions around the three main questions to determine mathematical identity in a way that is age appropriate for younger students? Do you think it is too early to begin discussing math in this way at this age?

Show Me How

A few weeks ago when I was first introduced to the use of ipods in classrooms I was curious about how realistic the whole idea was. After doing a little research on my own recently I see now that ipod use in the classroom is increasing as teachers and administration gain a better understanding of what they have to offer and how they can enhance the classroom instruction. I see now that it is important for us as future teachers to get to know how to use the ipod touch and discover useful ways to integrate them in the classroom. This takes us to my next question.


I see how the use of a handheld device that has audio, video, picture, and Internet capabilities can be useful in the classroom, but how? I have read many blogs, watched many videos and searched the Internet for ideas, but few people are actually giving examples of how to use them. I think the way in which we are currently using the ipod touch with kindergartners is unrealistic,  I do not think as a sole teacher you can just hand off an ipod touch to each child and ask them to do something on it. Talk about classroom management! So what are some realistic uses? What are some ways that the ipod touch is more beneficial than the laptop already in the classroom? 


Don't get me wrong, I love technology, I love Apple products and I love the ipod touch. I am on my way to becoming a proponent for their use in the classroom. Although, before I get there I need to see ways I would be able to successfully integrate these into a classroom, where they are used regularly when I am the only classroom teacher. Therefore, these are the things I will be looking for in the coming weeks.

Putting Reading into Practice

I taught my first math lesson today. I stood up in front of 15 fourth graders (I know, small class) and stayed there for an hour teaching perimeter and area of rectangles. It was exciting, fun and nothing like I imagined. I feared students asking questions I would not know the answers too. In fact, I even wrote out and solved every example I planned to use so I didn't actually have to do the math off the top of my head. Don't judge :) Although, the most interesting part of my experience was seeing the way the lesson I planned played out and what perspective my students had on it.

Based on our readings and discussions in our math methods classes I tried to create my lesson around these ideas: do not say anything that students can say and use questioning techniques to guide student responses to the correct answers you are looking for. I used these ideas in what was a review of perimeter and area. From my perspective the students were engaged, gave lots of answers and asked questions. I rarely answered a student's questions on my own; in fact I tried to see if another student could answer it for their peer. This allowed students to show me what they knew while explaining a potential challenging idea to another student. When it seemed like a dew students were confused about the same question, I took that moment to explain the idea on my own. Although, again, I did not do this often.

After the lesson my partner, the teacher and the students all gave me feedback. The students specifically said that they noticed I did not answer many of their questions on my own. I could not tell if they brought this to my attention because they thought I did not know the answers or if they did not like this style of teaching. This made me wonder…if we are going to teach with this new constructivist view on math, how do we anticipate how students will respond? Should we slowly introduce this type of teaching or go all out and talk through our own reasons for teaching this way? In my experience these students I taught today are used to the teacher taking more of a direct teaching approach, where he tells his students exactly how to use the new mathematical method they are learning. 

The Joy in Writing (Post #3)

Joy in writing. I don't think I would ever use those two words in the same sentence. I do not find much joy in writing. I am learning this may have to do with the poor writing education I had and the lack of reading support at home as a child. Despite the fact that I don't enjoy writing, I found this "joy in writing" idea to be a theme across my readings this week. One major way in which we, as teachers, seem to be draining the joy out of students is boring them with forced and very structured writing assignments. For too long the focus has been on standards and correct writing 100% of the time. Students detest writing! Rarely are students given the chance to write for a real audience, on their own topic, and in a form different than the perfect paragraph or the five paragraph essay. With these things in mind I think that freedom in writing can bring joy. There it is, writing and joy in the same sentence.

I remember my most favorite writing assignment in high school. For this assignment I had to describe a day in the life of my family. This assignment opened up so many opportunities for me. We could write a short poem, a long poem, a full story, etc. There were options. Plus, when writing on a topic such as our family there was so much experience to tap into. I felt as though I could tell my story and someone would listen. It was through this assignment I was able to bring my voice to life in my writing for once and with it came the love and pain that was encased in my family. It was powerful and I was proud of it. 

After my readings this week I had new eyes to bring to some of my classroom observations. I watched two writing lessons and....yawn! Conventions, the proper way to edit papers and the need to bring voice to writing (without it's importance) was pushed into students heads only falling right out the other side. Again, I fear writing and I have even more of fear when it comes to teaching writing. But, after only a few readings this week I was empowered and wanted to stand up and take over a few writing lessons. I wanted to give students a choice in their writing and let their imagination run free. I wanted to hear students share their writing and praise them for exactly where they were at! If only I could get up and teach. I could change the world! At least this is how I felt for a time. Then I remembered I have so much more to learn.

Ohhh....I can't wait to have my own classroom!

Literature and Manipulatives in Middle School Math

Today I read an article by Cara M. Halpern and Pamela A. Halpern titled Using Creative Writing and Literature in Mathematics Classes. This was a fascinating read because of the very creative idea contained in it. The authors believe the use of literature and creative writing in mathematics motivates students to find a connection with math instead of becoming bored and disengaged. They find reading literature such as picture books to their students helps them to learn and remember important topics and mathematical vocabulary. The creative idea they came up with was to assign students a project where they changed an already existing fairy tale or create their own. With this story they had to incorporate the current math topics they were discussing, in this example it was polygons. Student examples are shown and these students were very creative! By reading this article I learned how engaging math can be when incorporating other subjects students love such as creative writing. The downside to lessons or projects such as these is that I do not think you can always integrate lessons in this way. There are times when as a teacher with a subject to teach like math you need to give more direct instruction or at least more focused teaching on the topics students need to learn. Therefore, projects such as these would fit great into the classroom as supplemental work that reinforces what students have already learned.


I also read Keeping It Real: The Rationale For Using Manipulatives in the Middle Grades by Dana M. Freer Weiss who advocates for the use of manipulatives for middle school students to increase understanding of math concepts and reasoning. By reading this article I learned that many teachers in the intermediate and middle grades do not use manipulatives because they are unfamiliar with how to use them and they think their use is only for children 4th grade and younger. After 4th grade many teachers believe math is abstract so the teaching of math should also be abstract. I have always wondered why more teachers do not use more hands on activities when teaching math, knowing this was the way I learned best. My one question related to this topic would be, "How do we re-teach the veteran teachers, who are no longer in school and keeping up with the most up to date research, how to use resources such as manipulatives in the classroom?"

Car Commercials and Phonemes (Post #2)

Do you ever watch car commercials? I never seem to notice them, until of course I am in the market for a new car. Have you ever noticed that? We seem to see past things that are not relevant to us at the time, even though these things might be right in front of our faces. As soon as you are in the market for a new car you realize the television is flooded with car commercials. I noticed this same situation happen to me around the topic of phonemes and word recognition. After reading the first three chapters of Word Identification Strategies: Building Phonics into a Classroom Reading Program I am starting to realize that teachers all around me are incorporating an emphasis on phonemic awareness in the classroom. I have also observed younger “readers” using word recognition strategies that I always thought was just memorizing.

During my time in a second grade classroom in September I often observed the teacher give the spelling pre-test. During this pre-test I see now that she was reinforcing phonemic awareness by explaining the types of phones present in the specific pattern of words she was giving. This was the beginning of second grade and there are several students who are on IEPs or are ELL so it makes complete sense that she would still be emphasizing phonemes in spelling even though the students are second graders now.

I also noticed the fourth grade teacher I am working with this quarter also used a spelling pre-test as an opportunity to still reinforce phonemes. After giving students the correct spelling of their words, the teacher wrote the word on the board by dividing it into phonemes. I asked later why and how often he did this with his fourth graders. He responded by telling me his students are more likely to spell the words correctly in the future if they see how the words are broken up into their sounds.

As for word recognition, I realize now that I have also observed students using word recognition techniques in an attempt to read. In my dyad placement we take our fourth graders to read to or with their kindergarten buddies every Monday. While observing this take place I have seen some kindergarteners using both the pictures and the shapes of words while “reading” a book to their big buddy. The best part is seeing their confidence as they “read” to their big buddies.

I hope as I continue to learn more about how to teach students how to read and write I will also become aware of more ways in which current teachers are actively teaching this in their own classrooms.

Group work and discussions

In my readings for math this week I learned about the essentials for effective group work in classrooms and those necessary for advantageous class discussions that make teaching high-level topics more manageable. First I will talk about the essentials for effective group work.

According to Rachel Lotan’s article titled Group-Worthy Tasks, there are 5 design components for creating assignments that are “group worthy” (2003). In order for an assignment to be considered “group worthy” it must have open-ended assignments containing complex problem solving, afford students outlets for multiple learning styles, tackle “disciple-based and intellectually important content”, require opportunity for individual accountability as well as “positive interdependence” and finally it must include clear expectations and evaluation of the students’ work. (Lotan p. 72). This article intrigued me because I myself have never enjoyed group projects. Often times I am the one who ends up doing al the work. Although, if more group work and projects were to be created using this criteria I can see how my learning would have benefited and I may have done less of the work on my own. On the other hand, this looks like it would be a lot of work to look at group assignments in this way. Is it realistic to think that all group assignments can be planned in this way? What about partner work that is done during class? I am not negating the usefulness of creating the group experience in the way in which Lotan explained, I am just wondering if thinking in this way would eventually become more natural or if as teachers we will most likely be limited to using this only on larger more detailed projects. As for implications for classroom practice, I think following Lotan’s design components are excellent criteria for which to form our thinking about student group assignments. Ultimately, as Lotan shares, I believe effective group work will enhance students’ critical thinking skills and can be conducive to building classroom community (Lotan p.75).

Looking at Orchestrating Discussions by Smith et al., there are 5 suggested practices for preparing and carrying out successful group discussions on a new mathematical idea that may be challenging to present. The stage is set once a teacher has tasked students to solve a given problem on their own. These practices then will aid the teacher in collecting information from students during individual work that will aid in the group discussion to follow. Basically the teacher will work to anticipate the answers students will come up with and how they will come up with them, monitoring their work and use questioning techniques to guide their thinking, choose specific students who will share their responses to the whole group and in what order and finally connect all student responses to the main mathematical idea that is being taught. I thought this was an excellent way to run a class discussion that allows the teacher a chance to see where most students are at in their thinking and allow the students to explain to each other how to solve the problem. I do not have any further questions about this method for group discussion, instead I am excited to incorporate it in my lesson planning!

iPods in the classroom

As someone who owns a an iphone 4, I am familiar with the software used on the ipods. Therefore, it is difficult for me to think of questions I may have about the use of ipods in classrooms. I know how to use the ipod so I am only curious about how to use it in a classroom.The only thing I currently wonder about is how realistic is it to study the use of ipods in the public school classrooms. Many schools can barely afford new books, relevant curriculum or much if any technology. How many classrooms are actually using the ipods today and is it projected that more classrooms will begin to use them since they are more affordable than a classroom computer?


I am excited to research current apps that would be beneficial in the classroom. I will be discovering both math and early learning literacy apps in the next two months. I am also looking forward not only to finding apps, but also considering how I can use ipods to enhance learning of a topic I may already be teaching students.

My head hurts but I like it

After 4 minutes and 32 seconds of watching this video I feel as though I have been slightly brainwashed...at least this is what my hurting brain is telling me. This video seeks to explain what the Internet or "machine" has become today and how it is using us to learn and grow. This video is so fast paced it is hard to keep up. On the other hand, it has opened my eyes a bit to see how vast the web is and how extremely fast it is changing and growing due to our additions. Specifically the video points out how easy it is to share text, pictures and video today in a ways that are not restrictive to certain platforms. The sky used to be the limit and now the possibilities available to us are limitless.


I like to think of myself as someone who is comfortable with technology. Usually, I can search around to found out how to do something I am not sure about or how to solve a problem I may be having. Although, when thinking of the web as this "machine" or what I would like to think of as a "monster" is a little overwhelming. I guess I never realized the magnitude of or the power of our own contributions to the web. For someone who has long had a fear of writing, it is somewhat empowering to know that what I write is out there for anyone to see (taking into account privacy settings of course). So I say, "Bring on the blogs and the reflective writing process!" Let's see how I feel about all of this in a few weeks, though.

Emergent Literacy (Post #1)

Before getting into my thoughts on literacy for this week I think it would be worthwhile to share a little about my own literacy background. As I shared before, I have never really enjoyed reading. As relaxing as it may sound to sit down with a good book in a peaceful place there are two problems I often encounter. One, I have trouble finding titles that can keep my attention long enough before I bore and give up on the book altogether. Two, when I actually have time to sit still in a semi-peaceful place I often fall asleep no matter how amazing the book may be. So, with this in mind you can get a sense for my excitement for reading. I am learning already that my lack of enthusiasm for reading may be closely aligned with a deficiency of motivation in my childhood towards any and all reading.

As for writing, well, everyone has that one thing they think they are horrible at and for me that thing is writing. I am not sure when it started exactly but I was always a bright student. Sadly for me, a huge defining moment for this poor view on my writing comes from a history teacher I had in high school. One time she handed back a paper I wrote and in front of the whole class she said, "This is the worst paper I have ever read." Now this was not a paper that I skimped on and hoped she did not notice. This was a paper I tried really hard on. I was scarred from then on. I even feared going to a small university where professors would be able to associate my crappy paper with MY face. This is why I started at a large university. 

With time my fear of writing has subsided. This has probably occurred only because I have had to write so much so often I no longer have time to sit and stress about what someone will think of what I have produced.

Well, after this long-winded story there is a point. Although in my childhood I lacked motivation to read, which may in turn have had an affect on my writing, I believe very strongly in the importance of literacy and in surrounding children with reading and writing at a young age. This transitions into my thoughts on the article by Teale and Sulzby titled Emergent Literacy: New Perspectives. They focused on the development of reading and writing in young children. I admit, before beginning this class on Literacy I come with zero knowledge on how to education children in reading and writing. Since this article focuses on young children, this seemed even more overwhelming to me because, well, they can’t read or write yet.

What I loved about this article is that it pulled together many pieces of everyday classrooms and home routines that are already in place and of which are becoming the building blocks for childrens’ literacy development. Activities mentioned by the authors that I loved were activities such as read alouds, morning messages, and responses to text. These are all activities I knew about before yet I had not fully understood their importance in the classroom.

What I have come to understand through this reading is that much of what we have already been taught to do in the classroom is also inviting students into a literate community. Things such as labeling every item in the primary classroom with names (ie. Clock, stapler, sharpened pencils), writing morning messages, reading aloud to students, and creating art or writing assignments that respond to a text are all engaging students literacy. In fact, I loved how the authors said, “literacy should be an integral part of the overall curriculum” (Teale & Sulzby, 1989, p. 7). This article has provided me with the excitement I needed to open my mind to the opportunity of motivating students in a subject I have long feared.

Response to Kloosterman & Gainey Article

The article by Kloosterman and Gainey titled Students' Thinking: Middle Grades Mathematics discusses differing theories on how students learn and what teaching methods are aligned with these theories. Ultimately, the focus of the article is on the positive aspects of Constructivism and the benefits for student learning. Basically, the constructivists argue for the connections that students create during learning. Therefore, as teachers we need to help students understand new topics by aiding them in finding the connections between already known information and new ideas. This is the great search for how we help students find their own understanding of the topic (math).

Some implications for teaching include understanding how students take in, interpret, remember and practice information based on what they already know. As teachers we need to use questioning techniques to discover students' understanding and use their current understanding to aid in new connection building. Some techniques for helping with this process include using more manipulatives, challenging students to think about why something is rather than memorize it, aid students in making connections between procedural and conceptual.

After reading this article I think all mentioned theories together can be beneficial for student learning. Although, Kloosterman and Gainey seemed to stress only the negative aspects of the drill and practice method associated with Associationism. Can't the drill and practice method also be beneficial? I think it is definitely time saving to have students memorize some basic facts.