Urquhart, V. (2009, April). Using writing to improve math learning. Middle Ground, 12(4), 17- 18.
In her article, Urquhart explains the steps that one teacher took to use writing to improve students' math learning.
1. Identify the current mathematics content and the learning goal (e.g., activate metacognitive process).
2. Develop or select a question or prompt that will help students access prior content knowledge and focus their learning.
3. Introduce the writing prompt to students through a variety of methods.
4. Model for students examples of responses of varying quality and discuss each.
5. Allow a few minutes for students to respond individually to the prompt.
6. Collect and quickly scan responses to get insight about students' readiness to learn.
7. Adjust your lesson accordingly. (If many of the students are not ready to try something new, you might need to review earlier content, or you might want students to work in pairs of triads to collaboratively solve a new problem) (p. 18).
What do you do if students have a hard time comprehending the material they are reading and need you to define and explain a great deal of its content.
ReplyDeleteStep 2 will play a big role in this. With all lessons, you should activate prior knowledge. That's going to be the fall back point when students start to struggle. I was talking with a teacher who said he was struggling to get students to understand that waves pass through a medium. He said that they just couldn't get that. Then he dropped back to the show "Medium," and they got it. That's activating prior knowledge. Once you can relate what's being learned to something they already know, you've conquered the hardest part.
ReplyDelete