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.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of having students carefully read through the labs for comprehension. I too have a lot of trouble with getting students to read the directions. Is your focus here just getting them to read them in general or comprehending specific types of instructions unique to physics? How will you get them to pull out the important information from lab directions?
I did not even think about word problems when I was trying to decide how literacy fits into mathematics. I think it's awesome that you are finding resources for your students to use to help guide them through word problems. What skills do you/can you teach them in class to help work through those?
April,
DeleteI encourage my students to underline/highlight and make notes on their word problems. This helps them focus in on what the question is asking rather than looking back multiple times trying to figure out what it is asking. This year with my Algebra II course they solved word problems in groups. They first had to read, mark on their question, and then try it on their own. After some time for them to attempt on their own they got together with their table discussed their results and came up with a conclusion as a table. For the most part students did a great job describing to each other how they solved the problem and helping each other understand how to do the problem. It worked better with some classes than other classes. For physics, I would have them write the variable along with the corresponding given value and put a question mark next to the unknown. I taught my physics students 7 steps to solving word problems and had it posted in my classroom. 1. Read the problem. 2. Figure out what it is asking. 3. Write out all givens. 4. Write out all unknowns. 5. Write down the equation. 6. Plug in the values and solve. 7. Check for reasonableness of the results. (Check for units and if the number value makes sense.) My focus with reading the labs was mostly for comprehension. I think one thing I would try differently is to have students write out the instructions in their own words and compare those steps with classmates. This way they have a better understanding of what they are doing before they go to the lab.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great example of following directions in a science lab as being literate in regards to Literacy 2.0. I think using those listening and speaking skills (following directions) are an often forgotten part of literacy, but yet very important.
I also liked what you said about the word problems in math. I know this is a very difficult skill for my third graders, because they come to me with very little experience on solving word problems on their own. They have to be able to read the word problem, comprehend it, pick out the important information, and then use "clue words" to decide what kind of math they need to do. I know it is especially tough for my kids when they go from knowing two kinds of math (addition and subtraction) to four kinds of math (multiplication and division) within a couple months of being in third grade. I love your idea of having them use the resources they have access to (the Internet) to help them with problems they can't figure out. I think that definitely promotes more critical thinking than me just telling them answers.
RE: “For my graduate course however, I sought out online instructional videos on how to solve the problems, which helped me within that course.”
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
You and Frey are correct. The ability to find information and apply it for learning is a very important skill in Literacy 2.0. Your example of finding videos to help you learn in your graduate class is an excellent example. Video is such an important media type today. YouTube is now the 2nd largest search engine in the world surpassed only by Google. Check out this infographic that communicates the power of YouTube:
https://www.mushroomnetworks.com/infographics/youtube---the-2nd-largest-search-engine-infographic
Dr. Dell