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Synthesis Blog #6

Doing the book club was a very interesting experience. Prior to this class, I never considered having my students read a book in my math or science class. After reading Chasing Vermeer, my mindset on having students read a book in another content area has changed. This book was a mystery that incorporated many math concepts. The book is interesting and engaging and includes many puzzles that the reader can do to uncover secret messages and things like that. In a perfect world, I would love to have my students read a book like this or similar to this and maybe give them a project based on the puzzles or content in the book. Realistically, I think my math class will be too structured to be able to take a break from actual content to read a book. Although this might be the case, I still think incorporating reading in the classroom in important. Something I might consider doing in my classroom is very slowly reading the book or having days where students read a specific section of the book and do word problems based upon what they are reading. I could see myself having a “reading day” every 3 weeks or so where we dedicate that day to a math specific book and do engaging activities based on the book. I think this would be a practical way to incorporate reading in a math class as well as giving the students a break from the usual structure of math.

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