Rebecca, here! I am a grad student studying
Curriculum and Instruction and am working toward becoming a high school
mathematics teacher.
This is me!
I am taking a course informally
titled, “Disciplinary Literacy and Learning in the Digital Age.” A primary goal
of this course is learning about disciplinary literacy.
“Disciplinary
learning is…a form of critical literacy because it builds and understanding of
how knowledge is produced in the disciplines, rather than just building
knowledge in the disciplines,” (Moje 2008).
This blog, Exploring Volume, is an inquiry project that will help one better
understand the demands of the growing field of literacy in the mathematics content
area. It will be about discovering the ways in which students can use literacy
to deepen their understanding and knowledge of geometry – specifically the
ideas that come with learning volume.
Geometry can be a challenging topic
for secondary students to understand and master. Going from 2D objects to 3D objects
is difficult and being able to visualize and comprehend what we are doing when
finding the volume of something can be difficult if a formula is just “thrown”
at a student.
I think that literary techniques have the potential to be a tremendous
aid in the understanding of what exactly volume is and help students learn
through new, yet effective, ways. That is
why I want to dig a little deeper into the topic. I want to teach students that
math is about problem solving and seeking proof of something; that math focuses
on questioning, contextualizing, and representing. I thought volume was a great
place to start.
As a new teacher, knowing a different
method to teach something can be a useful tool to have up your sleeve. Being
aware that there are different ways of knowing and practicing any topic. I want
to open the door to understanding for students and having literacy in the
content area is one way to accomplish that.
Moje, Elizabeth Birr. "Foregrounding the
Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for
Change." Journal of Adolescent &
Adult Literacy52.2 (2008): 96-107.
I really liked the definition of literacy that you gave at the beginning, since it helped me see what you are focusing on in this blog. Also I am very excited to follow your blog since I sometimes struggled with geometry, since like you mentioned it can be difficult to think of three dimensional shapes when your younger. I felt that the image you included was a nice, quick reminder of some of the formulas used for volume. And I loved your comment on how just "throwing" the formulas at the students do not help them at all. Finally I really liked how you mention that you are interested in finding different ways of teaching volume, since I feel like this is key in education since all students learn differently. Great post and I am looking forward to seeing what you find!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your push for proof and problem solving. I dare say that if a student is comfortable in those areas, then they are prepared for anything math related and have a useful mindset for other anythings! Proof is important for deriving the formulas for volumes. For me, there is something completely satisfying about reading a well-written/clever proof and I look forward to seeing how many you will find for volume formula derivation.
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