Illiterate America

The battle for literacy is being fought in our classrooms daily, but the true cause of illiterate America is not being addressed by endless hours of reading instruction.  Just as the innumeracy will not be defeated by hours of solving long division problems.  The problem is not our inability to read or compute algorithms, it is our inability to make meaning of the information we read.  As I follow the news about our diverse political thinking it seems as though everyone believes what they hear if the information comes to them from someone with whom they agree.

I had this problem when I was teaching online.  I taught a basic research class for college freshmen who had just finished a course in writing opinion papers.  Many of my students could not make the switch to writing an objective paper.  They were out to prove their point of view and used research from sources that agreed with them rather than searching and reporting on all points of view on their topic.

I fear this type of thinking is becoming epidemic with the Internet.  I regularly receive informative emails from people who want me to agree with their point of view.  They regularly use information that comes from unreliable sources and pass it on as if it were true.  One of the emails that sticks in my mind concerns Jane Fonda.  She is hated by many Vietnam veterans and other patriots who periodically pass on information about her behavior during her visit to N. Vietnam.  No matter how reprehensible her behavior was, most of the information has been refuted by those whom she reportedly harmed.  A quick check of different sources on the Internet shows much of the information in these emails to be false. 

It seems to me our failure in schools is not that we do not teach our students to read, it is that we do not teach them to discern propaganda and rhetoric from fact!

Math Education are we instructing the right part of the brain?

Some Interesting Websites
 Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world. Ever wondered how a word is pronounced?  Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you. You can also record your own pronunciations.
 VPike will fascinate kids and adults alike.  When you enter an address you will see a picture of that place. 
10 Cool Math Sites contains ten math sites for students of all ages, as well as teachers.  There are websites for everything from basic flash cards to game theory. 

Articles on Math Education
 A A-Maze-ing Approach to Math by Barry Garelick in Education Next
'Algebra-for-all' Approach Fount to Yield Poor Results by Debra Viadero Education Week
 West Brain, East Brain by Sharon Begley in Newsweek
Number Wars: School Battles heat Up Again in the Traditional versus Reform-Math Debate  by Linda Baker in Scientific American

Thoughts From Yrisarri
I recently read an article that asks whether or not a math teacher should have a degree in mathematics.  That depends a great deal upon what level is being taught and the amount of math study the teacher has completed.  It is probably a good requirement for a high school teacher with classes in upper level math because of the need for depth of knowledge needed to transmit not only the information but a love of the subject.  I have encountered many math teachers with minimum exposure to math who have been assigned to teach teach math at the middle or high school level.  Needless to say, these teachers are frequently ineffective because they don't know math. There are also many people who know about math but don't necessarily understand how to work with children.  It seems that this problem of math aptitude for the teacher has some real solutions.  The problem however, is deeper than who has a degree and who does not have a degree in math.

The most important skill of any teacher, including the math teacher, is to motivate the students, provide the student with the proper challenge, and explain what they do not understand.  Unfortunately we seem to have a culture in which many people admit they do not understand math or just do not see why it is important to their life.  Elementary teachers reflect the society they represent and many do not understand the relationship between math and problem solving and are unable to motivate their students to want to learn math.  These teachers end up teaching math as a language by having their students solve and memorize equations.  Even if the student is motivated to learn math that is only a small part of learning mathematics .

An interesting study of east vs. west mathematical thinking demonstrates the difference in the ways each culture is taught math.  Using brain scans to determine what part of the brain an individual uses when confronted with a math problem the researchers found differences between eastern and western use of the brain.  Asian brains generally used the spatial/visual portions of the brain while their western counterparts depended upon the language area of their brain.

I spent a number of years in Asian cultures and my experience leads me to believe that a difference between how we learn math may contribute to the difference in how our brains treat math problems.  In the U.S.  we jump immediately to abstract concepts when teaching math.  The use of graphical representations runs counter to a child’s intuitive knowledge about math.  All kids know that three cookies on the plate are preferable to one cookie.  But, when we put the number 3 and the number 1 in writing and begin talking about what they mean, we have moved beyond the concrete operations the child needs to fully conceptualize what we are talking about.

The Japanese use the abacus to learn math.  I vividly remember young children doing math operations on the abacus much faster and more accurately than I could with pencil and paper.  When their students begin solving equations in all four areas of math using a concrete model, our students are memorizing math tables of graphical representations.  I believe this helps to explain why Asians use visual/spatial areas of their brain and we tend to think in terms of language.  I also recall that most Japanese students knew their "math facts" because of repetition on the abacus.

The aversion to math in our culture is often echoed by middle school children and their chants of “boring” and “I’ll never use this”.  This is not something they thought of on their own.  Frequently you hear their parents say exactly the same thing when you discuss their child's problem with math.  We need math teachers who can counter this national aversion to math by demonstrating and relating the subject to daily life and who understand that math is a way of thinking more than a specific operation.  They also need to motivate children by their teaching to want to learn math.     

Teachers do not necessarily need math degrees but they do need to understand and value math at various levels based upon the level they teach.  However, nothing will change unless there is a paradigm shift in our country.  As long as we do more of the same thing in our math instruction, our children will not want to learn math because it seems boring and useless to them.  It is going to require a commitment from the teachers to learn a different way of thinking about the purpose of math and giving our students positive messages about their ability to think in mathematical ways.

Graduation from High School After 10th Grade

 Some Useful Websites for Teachers
My Timeline will help you construct a timeline, adding events, descriptions, and images that help bring content alive.
How Stuff Works is a great site for a student to explore!
After School Activities brings hands-on activities and digital library resources into afterschool play!


Some Articles to Read 
(These articles may require you sign up to read them) 
Librarians' Roles Shifting to Address the Demand for Quality Online Content by Katie Ash 
'Algebra-for-All' Push Found to Yield Poor Results By Debra Viadero 
Educator Teamwork Seen as Key to School Gains By Lisa Fine

 

Thoughts from Yrisarri

This week I read a number of articles about plans for high school aged students to enter college and some about the importance of cooperation among teachers at schools to insure that all students get effective teaching.  I think these ideas have a lot of merit and could be utilized to make education more relevant and effective. 

Ky. in test that sends sophomores to college 
Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com 

Louisville Ky. (AP) — Kentucky and seven other states will participate in a pilot education program that will send some students to college two years early. The National Center on Education and the Economy is providing the program under a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The Courier-Journal in Louisville reported that, under the program, students who complete the 10th grade with test results showing they can handle college-level studies will be allowed to enroll in colleges and universities.  The program is still being worked out, but is expected to begin in fall 2011 with 10 to 20 high schools taking part in each of the states.  Besides Kentucky, schools in Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont will participate.

Why not take this idea further?  Mandatory public education should end after the 10th grade for students who are prepared for the next level of education.  One of our educational problems is the 9th grade.  Young adolescents are beginning to view the world around them with a different frame of reference and become impatient with the schooling process.  I believe if they knew there was only one more year of mandatory schooling, there would be more motivation to finish.  My experience is that students in early adolescence have a hard time assessing their long term future and a shorter goal to graduation would help.  Not all students need to go to college at 16, but they do need to have a curriculum that is relevant to their lives and ambitions.  At end of mandatory public education is the beginning of what Australia calls Tertiary Education

from Australia's Government Website  http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/education.html

There are two types of tertiary education programs: those offered by institutions, private training providers and industry in the vocational education and training (VET) sector; and those offered by universities and other higher education providers.

Why not allow students to make a decision about their education at this point?  Something that is often overlooked about our educational system is that anyone, at any age can change the direction of their careers by going to school.  Some students may choose to work and that should be encouraged and be a part of a planned tertiary education experience. The tertiary experience would provide for a diversity of curriculum, programs and experiences for young people prepared to take that step.  I believe that offering this program would cause many more students to be prepared.  Not everyone will be ready at this point but those who are not can be mentored and tutored in a more effective manner than flunking or passing to the next  level without the skills they need to suceed.

It should be understood by all Americans that  life-long learning is encouraged by our society and there is no real end point or time in life when it is too late to study and change.  Just as there should be no subjective value placed on the work individuals choose to do.  In a democracy such as ours there should be an egalitarian approach to vocational and professional choices individuals make.  All jobs should be understood to have paths for growth and advancement, and that security is possible with most choices made about work.

So how do we decide if a young person is prepared to take this step? It would require cooperation among school, community and business to create a meaningful diploma.  A committee chosen from representatives of the larger community could evaluate a student’s portfolio and decide if they had met the predetermined standards and benchmarks the community believes are necessary to begin the tertiary stage of education and guide them in the execution of their next step.

from When Should Students Graduate ... And Who Should Decide ?
By S.G. Grant  Education Week On-Line

What would happen, we wondered, if state policymakers took themselves largely out of the picture and allowed local, district-based committees to define the assessments that would demonstrate students’ readiness to graduate? Students would still need to sit for and pass the standardized state exams, but those results alone would not determine whether a student was competent and ready to graduate. Instead, state exams and their scores would be part of a larger slate of assessments that gauged students’ knowledge and understanding in more realistic and authentic ways.

A system like this would require that we care about each individual and work together as learning communities.  The burden of success would be local rather than centererd in some distant bureaucracy.  Each student would be required to have an educational plan evaluated at predetermined benchmarks.  Teachers would have to cooperate  to insure that student plans are successful in the long term.  This would cause schools to take advantage of the full talents of their teachers and administrators.

from Teacher Learning: Sine Qua Non of School Innovation
By Stephanie Hirsh 

You wouldn’t know it from current discussions about teacher effectiveness, but the talent and expertise needed to raise student achievement already exist in many, if not most, schools. Unfortunately, too few of them have a culture that encourages teachers and administrators to work together on a regular basis, to consult each other more often on matters of teaching and learning, to share responsibilities for instructional improvement, and to implement professional-learning opportunities that address both their needs and their students’.

Having the right conditions for professional learning promotes trust and respect among educators, the essential ingredients for an honest dialogue about what is working and what needs to change. Absent these conditions, the most effective teachers and successful schools will continue to operate as “islands of excellence,” rather than as places all educators can turn to as a way of learning how to improve their own results.

This plan would require us to focus on the individual students, give them a voice in their educataion, allow for the growth of diverse curriculums in the teritary system, give students authentic instruction, and provide for community and school cooperation at many levels. It would also depend upon rethinking what schooling, education and learning mean and how our society views the value of different types of work in our culture.