Ryan

Response to the questions about Chapters 1 and 2 of Choice Words.

1. Reflect on when you were in school. Can you recall a time when a teacher made a comment to you that either helped you as a learner or hindered your ability to learn?

The way that teachers perceived me had a big impact on my success as a learner. Being called a bad speller always made me feel like I had an excuse for getting poor grades in spelling. It was part of who I was and so it was acceptable. On the other had, I never considered myself good at mathematics until teachers commented that I was one of the stronger mathematicians in class. It gave me the feeling that if I did not know a problem, I could figure it out because it was something I was good at.

4. Where do you think student learning may benefit from more explicit teaching?

Mathematics! As a school we have some very talented teachers who have been able to teach advanced mathematical concepts in which most, if not all, of their class has understood. When it comes times to the ISAT, however, students need to decode the problems before solving the problems. I believe we need to teach mathematical vocabulary more explicitly they will have an increase in mathematics scores. They already have the skills to solve the problems, now they need to know what the problems are asking them to solve.

What do you do already to create identity? How will reading Chapter 3 change or inform what you do or will do?  I think that the conversation from chapter three was interesting. I have been trying to think about how what I say can influence a child, but I hadn't thought about how much tone comes into play. I thought the conversation about how teachers perceived some of the suggested phrases was different than what the book intended.