CCTM- Learning to Read Mathematics

presented by Sharon Benson
Mostly elementary and middle school based concepts and strategies. What I took away

• Students skip to pictures/diagrams and guess what they have to do to solve the problems, especially second language learners
• Sometimes text is misleading, sometimes pictures/diagrams are misleading especially if different than what students pictured when reading text. The conflict makes them shut down and not attempt a problem
• ESL students get the big, important, explicit vocab words but need help with the little words
• Ask students to highlight words/phrases/diagrams that they don't understand to visually see what the roadblocks are for students. May use this to ask students to exchange papers and have another student try to rewrite highlighted parts in their own words. If both students don't understand it, they may be more willing to admit it to the teacher and ask for help.
• foldable for Frayer model to help kinesthetic learners organize vocab components
• color code your word wall into categories makes a word wall even more useful
• constantly use formal and informal vocab at the same time as a behavioral pattern of teacher--students pick up on our patterns and will start to do the same, thereby increasing their vocab. Ex. Remember that the diagonals of a kite are perpendicular, cross at 90 degrees, perpendicular. The more we repeat, the more it sticks.
• As last part of problem solving process, have students restate what the problem was in their own words, this helps them recognize if they've missed anything
• There is a graphic in my notes about layers of word problems with what the question is asking on the outside and the solution on the inside. A good exercise may be to give them a number (solution) and have them work backwards through the process to eventually come up with their own problem. This makes them more aware of each step. When they feel confident with each step, they may not be as intimidated by going the right way. I may need to demonstrate this with a screen capture later :)

What do you think?