The Olympics: A Golden Opportunity for Literacy in a Math Classroom

I am a unique breed: current eighth grade algebra teacher and veteran sixth grade math, reading, language arts, and science teacher.  Being such, I have a perspective as an algebra teacher that is a bit different from my colleagues who come from a more traditional math-focused background.  As many teachers are now aware, the Common Core State Standards emphasize that all teachers should integrate literacy activities into their content areas.  In math specifically, the Standards for Mathematical Practices provide the perfect opportunity for this.  Gone are the days of simple math computations; instead students must construct viable arguments for their solutions and justify their problem solving process.  The math/reading/writing teacher combo in me just loves this!  However, to many math teachers, this can be a very intimidating task.

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with two educational consultants this year, ReLeah Lent and Katherine McKnight.  These ladies are right there with me as huge proponents of integrating literacy into all content areas.  Our conversations have revolved around the merits of having students read articles related to math and write about their opinions, as well as using mathematical computations to argue a point in response to a controversial question.

Cue the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, and you have the perfect opportunity for students to read, write, and talk math.  Olympic.org, USA Today, Live Science, and the New York Times among many others were great places to find graphs, infographics, and articles related to the Olympics.

There is so much math to be done!  Students can find measures of central tendency for race results, and more importantly, argue which is the most accurate representation of the data (and why they believe so!). Using these resources, students can look at preliminary runs and calculate probabilities of various athletes taking home the gold, or they can determine whether or not the Olympics provide a "fair" opportunity for a variety of athletes to participate.
They can convert the cost of tickets to the closing ceremonies from Russian rubles to US dollars, compare this to the cost of other Olympic game events, create a travel itinerary, and create a persuasive argument as to why we should have taken (or not) a school-wide trip to the Olympic games.  (Add a fundraising component onto this field trip idea, and that makes it all the more exciting!)  I also had my kids participate in a Fantasy Olympic league to further spread the "Olympic fever".  (Don't worry, there was no money exchanged over the course of the Olympics, only cute hand-made certificates to the winners.)  Again, there were multiple opportunities to talk about probability, measures of central tendency, and graphical representations of the teams' progress.

While the Olympics provided a perfect backdrop to immerse my students in authentic math tasks while also incorporating literacy into my classroom, I was reminded that I can do this kind of stuff any time!  Yes, these types of activities require time in preparation as well as in class.  And, I do admit that from time to time, the literacy activities I use with my kids may stray from the curriculum standards so many of us fear we won't be able to squeeze in over the course of the school year.  However, in my humble opinion my students are getting a well-rounded and meaningful mathematical experience.  I am creating an environment in which talking about and doing math is valued.  Students are learning to use math to their advantage to draw conclusions, and they are becoming more articulate in explaining their thought process and reasoning.  Most importantly, I am coaching these kids to become problem solvers who use all of their resources and persevere through difficult situations.  THESE are the qualities that will stick with kids for the rest of their lives.  And while I do teach my students a quadratic equations song that they still sing years later when they come back to visit me, I know it is the former skills that serve them well in their day-to-day lives.

Looking for Inspiration and New Ideas to Teach Inferencing

Hot cup of coffee brewed and an apple danish acquired from my local bakery, my mission this morning is to surf the web in search of ways to help my students with inferencing. The amount of materials available through a simple web search never ceases to amaze me, and I love when I have a few moments to discover new ideas to incorporate into my lesson planning. 

My first discovery was a blog called Technology up to Speed (add this one to your favorites).  I have included the link for the post dated August 6, 2013, so you don't have to search out the materials I am about to discuss. Once you find yourself on the post, you will find a link to animated short videos and a link to free graphic organizers to use in conjunction with the videos to teach various reading skills.  The materials offered on the post are organized by the skill you are interested in teaching, which makes it very user friendly.  You are also able to download the materials for future use.  The video shorts are also accessible via YouTube.  Of course, my focus was on finding materials to teach inferencing skills, so I spent most of my  time perusing those videos and organizers, but there were other topics covered.  You will  find links to help you teach cause and effect, compare and contrast, questioning, predicting, and many others.   If your looking for a way to engage your students and teach reading skills, this is a great place to start.


Next, I found myself on site called Haiku Deck. This site offers educators an alternative to using Powerpoint and/or a Google presentation. It allows you and/or your students to combine text and images to share information in a user friendly format without being overwhelmed by having to make too many formatting decisions. The site offers both an iPad app or web app as a free download.  The Haiku Deck also offers educators plenty of information and inspiration to get you started--click here for more information/help.  

After creating my Haiku Deck account and exploring the site a bit,  I came up with the idea of using it to make Inference Riddles.  Feel free to take a look at my example, and use it in your own classroom.  My plan is to show students my riddle, and then they will work on creating their own riddles.  I think this is a great way to help students to understand the importance of using textual clues as well as using imagery to help their peers guess the answer to their own riddle.  They will be practicing their abilities to make inferences and not even know it!

Danish gone as well as two cups of coffee!  
















 on their abilities to use implicit and explicit evidence inference making skills

So Much Gratitude

As most people do when January comes around, we have spent some time reflecting on the past year and how it unfolded. Wow, are we ever blessed! The fruits of our nearly two years of laboring paid off, and we saw our first book published!

Integrating technology into our classrooms is something we both truly love doing--what teacher doesn't love to see their students motivated and invested in their learning?!  We are beyond grateful that Scholastic gave us the opportunity to share our ideas with other educators.

We have received so much support from our family, friends, and colleagues as well.  It has truly been overwhelming and heart-warming.  There were facebook posts, tweets, and newspaper articles.  We were even featured in an interview on mySuburbanLife.com.  Plus there have been an abundance of emails, texts, and phone calls. THANK YOU from the bottom of our humbled hearts.  It means so much to know there are so many people, both near and far, supporting us.

It is our hope that, in time, all teachers will see first hand the benefits of meaningfully infusing technology into their classrooms.  They too will hear the excitement in their students' voices as they realize their first blog post is getting more views than there are students in the class ("There are other people reading what I wrote!?").  They will see the awe in their students eyes as they see their podcast posted on iTunes.  That they will see students grow and thrive beyond their wildest dreams because of the opportunities technology provides to gather, create, and share knowledge.

If you are one of those teachers just getting started with using technology in your classroom, check out our feature in Instructor Magazine to access some lesson ideas and free resources from our book.  If you are one of those teachers already using technology, let us know what your favorite tech-related classroom activity has been recently!

Happy New Years, everyone.  May the year ahead bring us all exciting new endeavors in the classroom and beyond!

Writing Less Stagnant, Writing More Interactive, Blogging!

As Meg and I prepare to teach our first class at the university level, we have been engaged in a lot of conversation about blogging.  This morning, as I sat with my cat perched atop the text we've asked our students to read for class, I began to think about how I've used blogging in my own classroom.  I've come to the conclusion that I need to blog more frequently with my middle school students. Though I've read this book in the past, I love when I am blessed with time to revisit a text and can become more enlightened.  Re-reading the second chapter of the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson has reminded me of the enormous potential blogging possess for educators.  
Richardson has reminded me that a good blog is reflective and conversational.  It is a place for both writer and reader to think and respond.  A blog that is well done in Richardson’s words, “demands interaction”.  It begs for the reader to make a  comment. This makes blogging a more fluid type of writing with no real end. I love this!  While I have used blogging in my middle school classroom, I have found myself  losing sight of the collaborative part of blogging.  I find that I am good about allotting time for students to blog, but I am not as good about building in the time for students to read and comment on the blogging done by their peers.  Big mistake!  I need to correct this!  The idea that blogs are a collaborative space needs to stay in the forefront of my mind.  

In my opinion, this book is a wonderful resource for educators.  It is full of practical ideas and advice to help teachers navigate the sometimes overwhelming road to using technology in the classroom.  I look forward to further re-reading, and hope my graduate students, as well as others, will find this book useful.

Another School Year, Come and Gone

Today was the last day of the school year.  I (Meg) have a new perspective this year as it was my first year teaching 8th grade students as opposed to 6th grade.  Certainly, as my 8th graders reminded me multiple times, this day signifies an end.  My kids are finished with middle school--they're outta here!--and are moving onto greener pastures at the high school.  All the kids move another year ahead in their studies, and teacher pass along their kids to new teachers with the hope that they truly did make the difference they hoped they would make in these kids' lives.

But really, it is also a new beginning for us all.  I am looking at my summer calendar, and while in theory I am excited to start summer break, I really don't have many free days at all!  I am taking professional development course for the next two days on Web 2.0 tools to use in my classroom.  During this course, I will be thinking about the upcoming school year (still 3 months away!) and trying to figure out how I can take this new knowledge and improve my teaching methods so my students will be more engaged.  I will be brainstorming ways to integrate these tools into my learning activities so my students can better communicate what they learn and think critically about the information they consume.

Jamie and I are also teaching a graduate level course at Judson University this summer, LIT 505 Integrating Technology in Literacy Instruction, as a part of the university's Masters in Literacy program.  This is certainly a new beginning for us as we embark upon an exciting adventure in higher level education.  We will be striving to provide our graduate students with meaningful ways to integrate technology into literacy activities across all curricular areas at all different grade levels.  Our many exciting successes from our own classrooms will provide a starting point for these discussions as we explore blogging, wikis, podcasting, digital storytelling, and Web 2.0 resources.  As with any new beginning, this is extremely exciting but also a bit nerve-wracking.  Jamie and I aspire to provide our grad students with an environment where we spark enthusiasm and curiosity, so our students leave us at the end of the summer feeling anxious for the school year to start just so they can try out these exciting activities with their newest group of students.  But we also want to emphasize that we all learn from each other.  Education is a life-long process, and twenty heads are better than one.  For everything we teach our students, we will also learn just as much from them.  I think that is one of those key characteristics of a good educator.  We just love learning so much ourselves that we just need to spread this passion to our students.

So here's to the end of the school year!  Not just an end, but a new beginning.

A Day at Judson with Kelly Gallagher

This week Kelly Gallagher spent an entire day sharing his expertise on writing at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois.  If you have not heard of Mr. Gallagher, you must check out his books. (Two favorites are Readicide and Write Like This). You might also be interested in visiting his website at http://kellygallagher.org.

Gallagher’s presentation focused on the importance of teacher modeling and using mentor text in the classroom.  If we want students to improve their writing skills, we (teachers) must show our students how to write.  Gallagher stated, "We (teachers) are the best writers in our classroom."  Students need to see their teachers working through the writing process.  This may sound scary!  However, it is imperative for students to see their teachers brainstorm, draft, revise, edit, and take a piece to final copy. 

Kelly Gallagher compared the teaching of writing to learning skills in sports. Imagine a baseball coach at batting practice.  Does the coach hand his/her players a book on how to hit the ball or does he/she lead by example?  If this image doesn't work for you, think of a dance instructor showing his/her dancers a new ballet step.  Again, does the instructor hand his/her dancers a list of instructions on how to complete the new ballet step?  Chances are the dance instructor is going to demonstrate the step to his/her students by doing it first while the students watch.  Let’s take this idea from the world of sports into our classrooms. 

Leading by example was the clear message of Gallagher’s workshop.  If the idea of writing in front of your students scares you, remember you are not alone.  There are professional authors out there to help you model (mentor text).  For example, if you are teaching narrative writing, then go out and find some examples of published narrative writing.  One of my favorite narrative pieces is written by Gary Paulsen called Woodsong.   Once you've found the literary piece or text to help you, use it to your advantage to then create your own narrative with your students watching.  You will first want to read through the piece with your students.  Then take time to study the writing with your class.  Look for patterns in the writing, use of figurative language, grammar, punctuation, and anything else you can think of to help students understand what good writing looks like. After the use of the mentor text, use it to start your own writing in front of your students. 

When students observe you (the teacher) using the mentor text to write, they will be inclined to use it themselves.  Remember, after you use the mentor text to model, you might want to allow students time to practice with a partner and/or group.  As students practice, monitor their progress and then allow them time to write on their own—gradual release.  

This whole process seems rather simplistic.  Educators use real world writing examples in their classrooms, teachers write in their classrooms to model, and  students use this mentor text and modeling to foster and grow their own writing skills.   Think of the potential!  

Our Return from IRA

Our year long conference tour ended with a wonderful trip to San Antonio for the IRA (International Reading Association) conference.   We had hoped to debut our book Literacy Lessons for a Digital World at the conference.  Unfortunately,  the publishing date got pushed back a bit, but we are still excited for the release of it in the fall of 2013.  The picture to the left of the text was taken in front of our publisher's booth in the convention center.  We fell in love with the bag Scholastic was giving out this year at the conference.  The embroidered logo reads, "Read Every Day, Lead a Better Life".  We couldn't agree more!  
The other photo was taken outside the room where we presented to approximately 100 educational professionals--teachers, administrators, media center specialists, and other educational support staff.  We enjoyed sharing our ideas on how to use digital storytelling, blogs, wikis, and podcasting in the classroom.
Each time we present, we always discuss how much we enjoy talking with other educators from different areas of the country and world.  Idea sharing is so powerful!  Which brings me to the reason the two of us decided to start a blog.  We hope to use this blog as a way to share what we are doing in our classrooms as well as share our professional development experiences.  Educators are at their best when they are sharing ideas and collaborating with each other.
Meg and I enjoy working collaboratively with each other.  We are constantly challenging ourselves and each other to use best practices, to use researched based teaching methods, to infuse technology into the curriculum in meaningful ways, and to stay up on our professional reading.   May this first post be the beginning of a great journey. We hope to share the fruits of our collaboration and to learn from you as well!