Our first class asks these essential questions: Why does literacy matter (for me)? What does it mean to be literate?
First sherpas, please blog about our first class especially after you've had a chance to read one or two of our first readings. Post by midnight on the Sunday after class and be sure to name the next sherpas. Follow the handout to guide you ... I thinkyou will have to post a comment to this but if you are able to post a new blog entirely on this site, go for it!
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12 comments:
I have an obvious answer to the question, "What does literacy mean for your subject area" because I plan on teaching English. Aside from the general "everyone should know how to read", I never really gave much thought to why literacy is vital to the success of many other subjects. For example, when we spoke about getting word problems in math incorrect not due to mathematical problems, but due to literacy misunderstandings, I began to realize how important it is to be a GOOD reader, writer, and communicator, not just getting by. I think it is interesting in the Beers e-reserve reading that the students are placed in a literacy classroom to up their scores in English and Math classes. In the story, literacy is defined as a "set of skills that reflect the needs of the time". This makes sense to me because there are definately different levels of literacy and actually being literate depends on the demands of how much you should be able to read, write, and communicate.
I nominate Larry DePrimo for next week's sherpa.
Hi - My subject area is Social Studies and traditionally this is a field with a lot of reading that can be dense, dry, and hard to slog through (mixed metaphors there, but it's late). I think that if and when students can "hear" through reading the individual voices from the past that they can make connections to history and also realize that they are living in history themselves.
Politics too - these are tremendously interesting times politically and each and every candidate has a great website with video, email newsletters, event announcements, and more communication devices, making the political process personal and accessible.
Anita Prentice
Hello again - I did figure out how to change my display name, finally.
What we students are doing now is commenting - to properly blog, we would all need to have the password so that we can post - or we can each create our own separate individual blogs that we update and then read each other's blogs-and link to each other.
One good thing about being the one who posts is that you can use keywords to identify the topics you are posting about, ie literacy, reading, writing, speaking, listening, etc. That helps whoever is reading the blog to keep track of post topics after a large number of them have accumulated. Commenters can't do this, however.
Cheers, Anita
Krystina, it's good as an English teacher to realize the importance of literacy in other areas. It is definitely in your interest as a future English teacher to become an advocate of content literacy among your colleagues in other content areas ... otherwise, the job of nuturing adolescents' literate selves - if left up to English teachers alone - will become a virtually impossible one to do.
As of right now, I don't feel as though people have to know how to read in order to be literate. I feel as though being literate and being compotent go hand and hand. Therefore people who display a sense of compotence on the job or when raising a child to become a moral indivdual, but are unable to read a lick of Dr. Seuss does not make them illiterate. Literally, yes, they can't read words, however this should not be the beginning an end of anyone's potential to have a role in society that can be a benefit to both them and others. Cleverness goes beyond reading words. I hope (I snap out of this thougt mode)
CHEERS
I also look forward to reading what people have to say from the world of science, math, and s.s.
Last semester, when I saw that this course was the next one (sequencially) to take, I recall rolling my eyes—Literacy in Math? That's going to be interesting.
After Prof. McCarthy talked to me for a few minutes about the topic, I began to reconsider my initial reaction, and over the break really started to consider the amount of literacy required for math. I also started looking at it from the other direction—other than for the pure enjoyment of mathematics, what good is it without a "real world" context? If you can't understand both the mathematical jargon and the real context to which it applies, what good is knowing the processes? There has to be connections to real life, otherwise our students will have no reason to learn other than to pass a test. If we can improve their literacy in both math and in general, students will be better equiped to draw on their own experiences and to structure their own learning. Literacy and Math, contrary to my initial reaction, do go together.
Ok this is my third attempt at posting on this blog and hopefully it will be a successful one because I don't know how many more times I can try to recall what I originally said :)
First, there were several comments from our first class that have stayed on my mind. The first was regarding how literacy affects math, which is a subject area that most people don't really link a literacy connection to. However, the fact that a student was not able to solve a math problem based on the fact that he did not properly understand the wording of it reflects his literacy skills not his math ones. I thought that was such a great point. I also liked the comment regarding how literacy is a form of art which some people master while others struggle with. The classmate who brought this up mentioned that the ability to write and speak well might not be something that everyone may have and who are we to set the standards to what we feel is the necessary level to achieve? I can certainly see that point, for example I am horrible at math including all the basic skills needed for daily life but I manage to be just fine without mastering them. So does a person who struggles with mastering literacy at a greater disadvantage than I am?
Those statements (as well as many others in class) along with our reading provided a very well rounded perspective on the necessity and meaning of literacy. Beers actually even gave a chronological look into the evolution of the meaning of literacy which began with the ability to write your name. I think Beers also brought up a great point about taking into account a student's life outside the classroom to understand their achievements and failures inside it. Maybe instead of testing to see if students are achieving the expected standard for their age, they should be tested to see if they are achieving personal progress. I think the biggest issue is deciding what has greatest relevance in the long run for a student like Derek who is struggling with his literacy skills. Should it be mandated that he take an extra course to help improve his test scores which require that he be taken out of his teen leadership class that he choose to be in? What has a greater positive long term effect in his life between the two?
One of the most interesting parts of the Beers article is when the principal says, “Why would anyone want to read their ideas? We aren’t here to give these students a chance to publish teen diary dribble on the Internet? We’re here them teach them the information they need.” As a future history teacher this is the complete opposite of my personal vision and teaching philosophy, as it should be for every teacher! I want to encourage students to question what is presented to me and not take everything I say as the final word. I want students to be able to research and analyze information to properly argue their point of view, which is all part of literacy and one of my many responsibilities to teach them.
I think this just about covers everything my previous posts meant to say. Also as the next Sherpa I nominate my new friend Mike to change it up a bit and get a grad student. Thanks Mike!
Thanks, Alena. It was worth the great. I appreciated how you (like Krystina) commented on specific ideas and comments others made in that class and then connected them to some of the readings. You helped me to bridge the last class to the second and got me thinking again. That's a great sherpa!
Hello everyone! My subject area is math.
First of all, students need general literacy skills to learn a subject matter, I mean they have to be able to read and write. For me, to be literate in math means:
• Students understand the math vocabulary.
• Students know how to read a math problem; how to read the important information in a math problem solving.
• Students know how to write an answer to a math problem solving by using the math vocabulary.
• Students make meaning and understanding of math concepts by making connections to their everyday lives.
• Students are able to create, compare and analyze data, charts and graphs.
When, I will teach a math concept to my students, they will have to know why they are learning this concept and how to apply it in everyday life.
The big motivation a teacher can give to her/his students is to make connections to the learning.
Math literacy is an ongoing way of learning; each day students learn new math vocabulary and build understanding on their prior knowledge.
Cheers, Dalila
All good comments from the class. I first asked myself whether literacy in math was synonymous with proficiency or skill level in math. I then figured this was too easy an assumption to make. Literacy, in my opinion, has to do with how one uses a particular language in order to gain proficiency in any particular subject, be it math or history or science. Literacy also relates to how one transfers knowledge to other fields as well as how one articulates a particluar subject.
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