I don’t understand M4th…
Comments(1) I found this chapter to be quite relatable to my personal experience of learning the different subject areas. I remember taking a class in Grade 5 called “Language Arts” not knowing when the subjects actually transitioned to “Language Arts”. I didn’t know what “Language Arts” meant but for some reason, I always did well in that subject. I remember a keen emphasis from the teacher in regards to the grammar, punctuation, and spelling that we were learning. I absorbed this information with ease but realized that as I advanced on to the higher grades, success in the lower grades (in Language arts, math, and sciences) did not necessarily translate into success in the higher grades. The big shock came when I entered into Grade 8 math class. I was enrolled in an enriched math class, unbeknownst to me, by my Grade 7 teacher. The very first day we had to take an assessment test that I was not prepared for. After receiving a dismal mark, my self-esteem plummeted. We were told that if we passed with a 50%, we were able to skip Grade 8 math and move onto Grade 9. Luckily (or not so luckily), I passed the assessment test and I was thrown into Grade 9 math. Starting off that year with a poor mark signaled to me that I was not ready for Grade 8 math let alone Grade 9. I struggled greatly because of the unfamiliar terminology that was used. The teacher’s style of teaching was very fast and weeded out the not-so-smart ones like myself. There was no effort made to teach any of the abstract concepts or borrowed “mathematical” terms to us. It was assumed that either you knew it or you didn’t. Needless to say I dropped out of that class to be in a “normal” math class but my confidence was already shattered. Being behind and now having to “catch” up in a regular math class took adjustment and an effort on my part to retrain myself to think in the language of mathematics. I found that with independent study, I could finally understand how diagrams with abstract concepts worked together. My grades began to improve and suddenly, I could be “OK” at math again. I just needed a bit of tutelage and a new way of framing math problems to succeed.
I also struggled with chemistry but I was very good at biology. Chemistry required some more complex manipulations and not just rote memorization. I had been trained my whole life to regurgitate facts so when it came time to apply what I had learned, I would fail. High school was a difficult time in many ways but it was also a time when I understood that success in different disciplines required looking and approaching them in their own way. The ability to grasp technical terms was crucial in aiding my understanding of big concepts. In this chapter, Zwiers really demonstrates the need for all teachers to be language teachers first, then discipline specific application second.
After I read about your difficult experience with math I felt pretty outraged. As a future math teacher, it is incredibly frustrating to hear that some teachers are doing so little to help their students gain an understanding of math and confidence in their abilities. Personally, I feel like this is a problem that plagues the subject area. Many students are afraid of or intimidated by math and I think experiences similar to yours are a large part of the problem.
In a grade 8 math class, teachers should not be teaching class at an accelerated rate to ‘weed out’ lower achieving students. Because students are pushed into different ‘streams’ in high school, this is the point in a student’s education where they should be given the time and attention they need to make sure they can achieve to their fullest potential. So much of the scariness of math is a socially constructed stigma that I believe can be disproved if students have the confidence and self-esteem to know they are able of being successful but also aren’t afraid to make mistakes and fail along the way. This would help students get tracked to the appropriate stream of math for their skills once they reach secondary school. This is even more important for English Language Learners whose English language knowledge, rather than their understanding of math, may be the source of low confidence or lack of achievement which can cause them to be tracked into the wrong math program. Teachers need to be doing whatever they can to make sure that these students do not fall through the cracks and there are many easy ways to do so in a math class. Taking the time to explain terms and ideas is not complicated. For the any mnemonics found in math, a simple solution could be to get the students to create one that works for them in the other languages they speak. SOH CAH TOA may not be extremely helpful even if students understand what the letters stand for because many people think in their native tongue and then translate that to English afterwards. It could be beneficial to help students to create their own version of SOH CAH TOA that works for them.