Teaching Students to Visually Represent Data and Information

Visualizing data is crucial part of 21st Century Learning.  Students need to be able to look at data and interpret what the data means.  I think this is where math and science classes play a large role!  In mathematics we teach graphing and ways of representing data so we can understand the implications of the data.  Students need to know how to read and create many different graphs including pie charts, bar charts, line graphs.  Students need to be able to look at trends that occur on graphs so students can make conclusions from the data.  

Teachers can help with this skill by giving many examples of different ways to represent information of data and by discussing the meaning of the graphs.  As I think back to a project I assigned my students on college costs, I wish I would have specifically told them to include a graph in their project.  They came up with a list of numbers that they could compare college costs, but I think if they would have made a graph it would have made more of a lasting impact.  These examples should be throughout all content areas so students see the need to represent data throughout different areas.

In science there are pieces of equipment used to visually represent data and help students draw conclusions.  The Vernier Labquest (see picture to the right) along with CPO equipment has data collectors that can be set to give students graphs.  These graphs help students to see trends.  As a science teacher it is important to discuss the meaning of these graphs with students so they can make conclusions.

Additionally, teaching students how to create infographics would be a helpful tool.  It could be extremely helpful outside of the classroom to convey information to others in a professional setting.  It can also be used to persuade one to look at a topic from a different viewpoint.  

Sources

https://www.vernier.com/products/interfaces/labq2/

In the Hunt for Information

I remember as a student learning how to look through the card catalog to find the book I wanted  later in high school we were able to use the computer to find books along with having the ability to search the internet.  I remember we were taught the skills necessary to search the catalog and then to find a book.  I do not remember being taught specifically how to search the web, nor have I taught students how to search the web.  Just type in the key word, that’s it, right?  Well, there is more to searching online than that and as teachers we need to teach students how to effectively search online.  It is easy to search online, go through a series of websites and get lost in a sea of information.

1. Teach what students should type in the search.

I need to be sure to teach and encourage effective searches.  I just printed off this poster to hang for next school year, so students can use it as a reference in my classroom.  I think I have heard once or twice to use specific tips to narrow down my search, but I certainly do not use those tips regularly.  The first time for the school year where students complete research in my class, I will give students a handout on these tips and discuss each tip.  Teachers should demonstrate how to use quotation marks, + (addition sign), OR, AND, - (minus sign), and NOT.  Additionally teachers should show students how to search within a specific site, how to search for sites linked to a particular url, how to search for a site with a particular indexed title, and how to search for a site with a key word in the web address(Frey, Fisher, & Gonzalez, 2010).

2. Teach students to evaluate sources.

Here is a link to 7 fake websites.  Teachers can use this website to have students go to websites and evaluate if it is a legitimate website.  The CARS acronym helps students know what to look for to evaluate websites.  CARS stands for Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support.

3. Teach students to cite sources.

When I was a student, citing my sources was a complex task, now it is much simpler.  Students have tools such as Citation Machine, which once you enter in the information it will give you your sources in the needed format.  We need to make sure students know what information to find so they can enter the information correctly.  For example, when typing the title of a journal article, only the first word is capitalized.  Citation machine will not correct how you type information, only the format.

Additionally, tools such as Diigo help students organize information as they complete searches.  We need to teach students these tools so they can highlight information and save sources.  They can also share those sources with others and use those sources if they need to go back to it later.

Source

Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher, and Alex Gonzalez. Literacy 2.0: reading and writing in 21st century classrooms. Moorabbin, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow Education, 2010. Print.

"8 Great Free Technology Posters to Hang in your Classroom." Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2017.

Kirschenbaum, M. (2017, May 05). How Savvy are Your Students?: 7 Fake Websites to Really Test Their Evaluation Skills. Retrieved May 23, 2017, from http://www.easybib.com/guides/7-fake-websites-to-test-students/

Teaching Literacy in Math and Science

I currently teach math and have taught physics as well.  Within both of these subjects literacy is crucial and I think it is just an expectation that I have not thought much about.  My 10th-12th graders should be literate, right?  Well, literacy 2.0 goes beyond basic reading and writing, it extends further than Literacy 1.0.  According to Nancy Frey “Literacy 2.0 requires knowledge of 21st century skills, especially those related to collaboration, creativity, listening and viewing, and sharing, locating, and storing information” (Frey, Fisher, & Gonzalez, 2010). These are skills that students continue into high school and continue to develop at a higher level.  Additionally, we are teaching students the language of our  particular content areas and reading non-fiction materials.

In science courses, students complete many labs over the course of the year.  One struggle was getting students to read and follow instructions without me basically describing every single step.  One thing that I could really focus on at the beginning of the year in physics is teaching students how to read through the lab and note the instructions.  I can use metacognition, thinking about thinking, to help my students know how to read and pull out the important directions from the lab.  This is a skill that goes throughout content areas, reading and following instructions.  Nancy Frey stated, “what are needed are curricular approaches that encourage students to think across knowledge bases to build a schema of understanding” (Frey, Fisher, & Gonzalez, 2010).  

I wrote last week about the importance of teaching word problems in math courses.  This is a huge area of literacy instruction within mathematics.  In addition to teaching word problems, literacy 2.0 teaches students about locating information.  There are many great resources online that can help students with mathematics.  I give my students several resources they can use and encourage them to find resources to help them with their math if they are struggling(or even if they want to just learn more).  This is a skill that can help them throughout high school and into college all the way through graduate school.  Several years ago I took a graduate level physics course.  I needed extra examples and needed to rehear how to do the problems that I learned during direct instruction.  In undergraduate I never used the internet for help, because there was not much available at the time.  For my graduate course however, I sought out online instructional videos on how to solve the problems, which helped me within that course.  I wish these tools would have been available when I was in high school and college.  The literacy 2.0 skills we are teaching students will be use throughout their school years into college, graduate school, and into their careers depending on their path.

Sources

Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Gonzalez, A. (2010). Literacy 2.0: reading and writing in 21st century classrooms. Moorabbin, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow Education.

Tools for Teaching Literacy... In Math Class?

As a math teacher, teaching reading and writing is a bit of a stretch for me.  I like many others grew up when subjects were taught separately, so combining math with reading and writing was not common.  However, in 21st Century Education it is important that the subjects overlap so students see the importance of how each of the subjects blend together and rely on the other subjects.  My Discrete Math students are currently completely a college financing project where they are applying math of finances to a particular situation after they read and do research on three different colleges.

One of the hardest areas in math to teach is word problems.  Students do fine with math symbols, but when students have to translate words into math symbols they often freeze up.  There were lots of great tools posted on our classes site, but I wanted to find a tool that would specifically help with students with solving word problems.  I came across WolframAlpha which I have used for math classes before, but there is a new feature. In addition to solving symbolic math problems, it can now solve word problems. Here is one example for algebra.  The more elementary examples have visuals that would be helpful with younger students.  It cannot do every problem that is typed in, but it would give students a tool that shows the equations in words and symbols to give them more examples of word problems.  

News articles often include numbers within the story.  A way I could incorporate reading and writing into math class is have students read an article, for example here is a story from TeenTribune from the Smithsonian.  Within this article there are many numbers describing self-flying taxis.  Students could be given a word problem based off the article for example, “How many times would a self-flying taxi need to stop to travel 120 miles.”  This would be a multi-step problem where students would need to read through the story, choose the needed information, create a strategy to solve the problem, then actually solve the problem.

This is just a couple of ways I can incorporate tools for reading and writing into my math courses.

Teen Tribune

WolframAlpha

Literacy in the 21st Century Classroom

Literacy has changed and evolved for the 21st century classroom by going from information that is simply read to information that is interactive.  Instead of simply reading an article on a topic, students can read information plus click on a link with additional information.  Additionally, students can often comment on the information they read.  Instead of simply having a student write a paper, students can now publish information on a website or a blog.  Literacy 2.0 offers more options and is more interactive than Literacy 1.0.

Vocabulary, comprehension, reading, writing, critical thinking are all crucial just like they were with Literacy 1.0, but Literacy 2.0 adds more skills to Literacy 1.0.  Literacy 2.0 includes collaborating, watching, listening, sharing, evaluating, and being creative.  

One skill that is especially important with Literacy 2.0 is being able to evaluate the accuracy of information.  For example, this week during the flooding around the St. Louis area a picture was floating around showing Six Flags was flooded.  The picture looked real, however it was from several years ago in Georgia not Missouri.  Countless people reposted the picture on Facebook or Twitter rather than evaluate the accuracy of the source of the information.  Here is the link to the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s article on the fake Six Flags picture.

Several professional organizations have recognized the fact the lines between technology and literacy are blended.  Additionally, literacy is taught more throughout all subjects rather than just being saved for reading or language arts classes.  

The text discusses the importance of focusing on the functions of literacy rather than the tools students are using.  The functions the text recommends include searching, communicating, producing, listening and viewing, sharing, presenting, storing, collaborating, and networking.  These are the skills that students need to have in order to be successful in the 21st Century Classroom and more importantly prepare students for 21st Century Careers.

References

Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Gonzalez, A. (2010). Literacy 2.0: reading and writing in 21st century classrooms. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Twitter Chat

I loved the Twitter Chat!  I don't like Twitter regularly, but I loved participating in a Twitter Chat!  It is fast paced and trying to keep up was a bit frustrating, but there were so many ideas and so many who are excited about teaching!  Using Tweet Deck helped to keep up with the conversation.

I participated in two Twitter Chats and attempted a third.  I participated in #EngageChat and #EduGladiators.  I attempted to participate in #iteachphysics.  I tried to participate in the
#iteachphysics chat that was posted for a particular time, however when I tried to join there was no one there!  I felt like I was stood up. Oh, well.

It was great to hear from teachers all over who are facing the same issues in the classroom.  As educators we often feel isolated and feel like we are the only one in our situation.  However, of course that is not the case.  There are teachers all over who face the same challenges and have great ideas to overcome those challenges.

#EngageChat was focused on engaging students who are culturally diverse and the second was #EduGladiators which was again focused on engaging students with technology and relevancy.  Both chats were extremely encouraging by the other participates and fast paced!  The two Chats were not that different except for the content of the information.   I did add a couple of people to follow after both chats.  The ones who I added were the ones who I had talked with during the chat.  I also added EduGladiators so I can keep up with other chats.

I think continuing to participate in more Twitter Chats will improve my experience.  The first time I was in a Twitter Chat I didn't know what to expect.  Now that I know what I am doing I think the next Twitter Chats will be more beneficial to me.

Picture Source: http://socialnicole.com/twitter-chat-participate/

My PLN Reflection

I've have created a PLN throughout this course.  (I made a mistake on the graphic, it should of course have PLNs instead of PLCs.)  I have created my PLN mostly on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinetrist.  I have used others, but not to the same extent as these three.  My favorite is Pinetrist!  I switched content areas this school year from Physics to Math, so I needed some ideas one how to get started.  I had taught math previously but by getting on Pinetrist I was able to get a lot of quick ideas, and as a teacher anything I can do that saves time helps!  I love that Pinetrist has a picture highlighting the information and then you can go to the website.  I feel that is by far the easiest to use.  I love how I can easily organize my information and follow others who have similar interests.

I have used Facebook for years.  I have continued to add to the number of  pages that I follow, most of those are physics related.  I plan on adding more math pages throughout the school year on my Facebook account to give me additional ideas.  The great part about Facebook is because I already spend a decent amount of time on it, so I can be looking at what friends are doing and links for teaching will pop up.  I think this is great because I'm not always thinking about teaching outside of the work day,  This encourages me to continually engage in professional growth without spending tons of additional time.

I don't particularly like Twitter.  Although I will continue to give it time to see if it is something I may eventually like.  It may be that I am still getting to know a new program.  I did however like the Twitter Chat and added more to my PLN through the chat.  I was not a fan of Google Plus either, again that may change over time.

It is great to communicate with others throughout the United States and even on the world on how to best teach.  The encouragement from others is extremely beneficial.  Prior to this course I did not think about using social media to help me to be a better teacher, but now... how did I teach without it!