This class really challenged my view of content area literacy in the classroom. Before taking this course, I had never considered how literacy would look in my math class. I didn’t really think that reading was relevant or important to consider when teaching math. I came in with the mindset that incorporating reading into my math content area was irrelevant and unnecessary. Now, I have such a better understanding of why reading is important and relevant in ALL content areas, not just ELA. One of the first things that I learned in this class is that reading is everywhere. It is the foundation of learning and if a student can’t read, it is significantly harder for them to learn. In a math class, there is way more reading to be done than I ever realized. For example, reading a math text book can be such a daunting and confusing task. In our textbook, Subjects Matter, it explains how textbook reading needs to be accompanied by reading activities or some sort of guided material. I learne...
This painting is by Pierre Daura. It is a called Female Head and is an oil painting on a canvas. I think this work of art is cool because at first glance you notice the different colors and shapes and then if you look closer, you can see the outline of a female head. I think this painting could be incorporated into a math class in many ways. At first, I would have my students count and label as many shapes as they can find in the painting. This is a cool exercise to get them to do because there are more than first meets the eye! Then, I think it would be a good idea to create some word problems that ask about fractions. This could sound something like this: If the green rectangle is 1/9 of the painting, approximately what fraction of the painting is the dark blue rectangle?. You could give the students pieces of information and have them fill in the rest. This also helps them develop some pattern recognition which is an important skill. Another thing I like about thi...