Chapter 5
It says: that B-D-A reading is a great way to get students to get a better grasp on what they are reading. Before reading activities are meant to encourage and motivate students and ask questions before delving into the activity. The during reading activities promoted interaction between students and also helped students have a "purpose" for reading like we talked about earlier in class. The after reading activities wrap everything up; they provide a great way to come back to the main ideas and touch on them one last time. It says you can ask follow up questions or come up with a worksheet with the main ideas on it for the students to complete.
I say: that B-D-A reading is a good way for students to fully comprehend something with complex vocabulary and figure out what the text is actually saying. I really enjoyed the math examples that they used in the text; the examples made it very clear on how I could use something like this in my classroom. It stressed that vocabulary is one of the most important things in math and I have been told this before as well. If I lay groundwork for the vocabulary the students will be able to read the dense textbook easier and will be able to understand what it is saying when they have the right background knowledge.
And so: I will definitely use this B-D-A framework for an activity in my classroom. It is a great way for students to get involved in what they are reading (even if it is a very dense math book) and they may be able to make a personal connection. When students are able to make a personal connection to something they read, it is definitely something they will remember it better and they will be able to use the concept when the time comes.
Chapter 9
It says:that writing helps students explore and think about concepts when they are reading. It really emphasized that writing is important in all disciplines. Writing to learn was one of the main strategies and it gave many examples of different types that I had not seen before.
I say: I know we have learned about the WTL strategies before, but there seems to just be an endless amount of ways you can use these strategies! I thought the example about the poem about a trapezoid was awesome and it was something I would have never thought about doing until I read this chapter.
And so: I want to start exploring different ways that I can reach my students through WTL strategies. When students are able to put things in their own words to understand a concept it is ten times better than sitting up in the front of class telling them how to think. Using writing in math will be more difficult than in a literature or history class, but I think it will be a fun challenge and I know it will be very beneficial to my future students.
I agree with you about the WTL activities. I hope to explore different types and variations of these activities to further help my students understand the content. I also think that having variations for these activities is very important because we all know how sometimes there's that one lesson that just goes completely awry. Being able to have that back-up plan is key to having success in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when it comes to your math classroom, I think there are many ways you can make these activities work. Page 75 in Content-Area Writing gives an example of a Write-Around activity that can be used for a math class that I think sounds like it would have been helpful when I was in high school math.
I, too, think the BDA format is a staple for lesson planning. This is how we create the relevance and engagement for students!
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