I can not remember a time when I didn't have a book in my hand. My mom always had books around the house and I just packed them around. In kindergarten I would get my work finished quickly so that I could go to the play area. However, toys weren't at the top of the list. I would find my favorite book and climb into the beanbag chair and read. Most of the time I have enjoyed reading anything I have been given to read.
I can remember the first time I started hating reading...it was a sad day. I had a history teacher that had us read out of a textbook and then memorize dates to take tests. It was the worst and I started to not like history very much. It then continued on for the rest of my high school career. It's been interesting to read the textbook and watch the videos because it made me realize why I started hating those history textbooks. First of I was reading a book two grade levels higher than I could understand so it was hard to read. Secondly, there was not the reminder of background knowledge that I could refer to. We were just given the book with questions and expected to answer them without instruction.
So the big question becomes...how do I foster a love of reading math and not make it the worst subject on the planet? Maybe expecting students to read the text and figure out math for themselves will make it an awful experience. I have a love for math and feel that students can at least learn math if they have an understanding of what they are doing. I find that math is a lot more fun if you are working with it not drilling it into your head. There are so many ways students can explore math and really come to understand why math is going to be part of their everyday life. I took a History of Math class a few semesters ago and the idea that I kept thinking about was sharing where math comes from with my students. I like to know background information because it helps me relate better and I feel like my students would feel the same way.
So...reading whether for pleasure or for knowledge is an amazing thing when you love what you are reading!!
I've always been really jealous of your love of reading and your ability to read so much along with comprehending it so well. Even when you were reading our math book for Calc. 2 you could read over things and soak up what you needed to do for the problem we were stuck on.
ReplyDeleteIt's not you, I've been reading these and there are many of the same elements with the "disparaging" paragraph. I could be wrong, but I think many teacher must just get into a groove and stop planning new things. I think that has to be it. I believe as students we are all types of excited to go out there and try new things. Maybe one of the goals that needs to be set is to just not get old and tired. Perhaps it's just the old and tired ones that are boring and hard to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I've had old ones that were great and tired ones that were great. I think you just have to choose one however.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post it reminded me of some of the experience I had in school. I am jealous that you have a love of reading I really never liked reading until I was in high school and had a teacher that encouraged me to read books I was interested in rather than books that I had to read. I think that we as teachers always need to use our text books and I believe that reading is important but I also agree with you that we need to make reading fun for our students rather than a chore. I believe when reading becomes a chore that is when our students stop learning.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the history of math class! I felt like math was more fun to learn about and comprehend when it was presented within an historical context. If we were to introduce the historical aspect of mathematics with the subject matter it may ease some of the tension students feel with learning new foreign ideas. I guess this goes back to Buehl where he says that context matters.
ReplyDeleteI think mathematics is a unique discipline, because a lot of "text" is not the textbook, but teachers' drawings and written explanations on the board.
ReplyDeleteI do think that math teachers can use a lot of supplementary texts to increase students' love of mathematics. For instance, there are a lot of fun apps:
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/03/5-games-and-apps-that-build-math-and-english-skills/
And of course, fun texts as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Simpsons-Their-Mathematical-Secrets/dp/1620402785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422910554&sr=8-1&keywords=the+simpsons+and+mathematics
http://www.amazon.com/Using-Math-Solve-Crime-Mathworks/dp/0836842138/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422910575&sr=8-1&keywords=using+math+to+solve+a+crime
Hopefully you will find some of those texts in your text set that will build your students' love of mathematics!