Math and Literacy Through Literature
May 2003
Instructor: Lorel Preston
Office: 226 Carleson Hall
Phone: 832-2482
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays: 11:00-12:00
Thursdays: 11:00-12:00
Instructor: Kristi Fassio
Office: 217 Carleson Hall
Phone: 832-2488
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays: 11:00-12:00
Thursdays: 11:00-12:00
Course Description:
This course brings together two areas of the elementary curriculum: math
and literacy. By examining a variety of strategies that integrate math and
literacy, students will discover how mathematics develops naturally out of
human experiences reflected in children’s literature.
Course Goals:
Students will have opportunities to:
learn a variety of instructional strategies for integrating math and
literacy core curriculum through children’s literature.
become familiar with a wide range of resources for integrating the
teaching of math and literacy.
analyze, write about, and discuss relevant research
design a children’s book synthesizing concepts learned in the
course
Westminster’s Policy on Disabilities and
Accommodations:
Westminster College seeks to provide equal access to the college’s
programs, services, and activities to people with disabilities as defined by
the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. If you have a
disability for which you will need accommodations in this class, please let
us know as soon as possible. You will also be required to provide
documentation of your disability to the Services for Students with
Disabilities program in the START Center in Carleson Hall at 832-2280.
Academic Honesty:
This course follows the “Academic Honesty” policy of Westminster College.
See pg. 77, Academic Catalogue 2002-2003.
Westminster College School of Education Standards:
Teacher candidates demonstrate their continued building knowledge
through inquiry, critical analysis and synthesis of the subject(s).
Assignments: reading responses, discussion questions, small group
facilitation, lesson plan, book tours, children’s book
Teacher candidates know how students learn and how to make ideas
accessible to them. Assignments: reading responses, discussion
questions, small group facilitation, lesson plan, book tours, children’s
book
Teacher candidates work collaboratively with other candidates and faculty
to critique and reflect on each others’ practice and their effects on student
learning with the goal of improving practice. Assignments: reading
responses, discussion questions, small group facilitation, book tours,
lesson plans
Assignment Rubrics
Reading Responses
A. As you read assigned articles and chapters:
continually ask yourself how you could integrate math concepts
and process skills into the methods of literacy instruction (e.g.,
read-alouds) and literacy processes (e.g., comprehension). Jot
notes on each of these connections as you make them. If you do
not think that math could be integrated into some of the practices,
keep notes on those connections, too.
write notes on what you find to be most interesting and/or
important as you read.
write any questions that come to your mind.
keep track of how your prior knowledge and experiences are
influencing what you are reading. For example, if you are reading
about a practice that you have already tried and found to be
problematic, write about that experience.
B. Using the notes you wrote while reading, explain the following in one 23 page, double-spaced, typed paper. Standard writing conventions will
be expected. Include and label the following sections:
Essential Points: a summary of the most important, essential,
and/or interesting concepts
Connections with Prior Knowledge: an integration of your
own experiences/prior knowledge with what you found in the
readings. For example: How did your prior knowledge and
experiences influence your understanding of the text? How did
the reading change your understandings of the concepts
covered?)
Implications for Teaching: an explanation of how you could
apply what you have learned from the readings to your own
teaching of math and literacy through children’s literature. For
example, you could discuss an idea that you read about and
then extend the book examples to include accommodations for
various ages or abilities.
Discussion Questions
After completing all of the readings for a session, write three discussion
questions (so, if you read two articles, you only write a total of three
questions). These might be questions that you had as you did the reading,
or they might be questions that you had upon completion of the readings.
These questions should be designed to stimulate thoughtful discussion in a
small group. Open-ended, application, inferential, and controversial
questions will inspire more in-depth conversation than will literal questions.
Small Group Facilitation
Based on what you learned through reading and responding (described
above), be prepared to facilitate a small group discussion. Be creative in
teaching your group about your article and in facilitating a group discussion.
Students might lose interest if you lecture them!! Likewise, your discussion
questions need to spark engaging conversation. Remember, you are the
only person in your group who has read this material. It is your
responsibility to ensure the key ideas and issues are understood by
everyone in your group.
Book Tour
When you read chapters from Read Any Good Math Lately, you will be
exposed to many children’s books. Each of you will be responsible for
creating a book tour including books from the text as well as additional
books not listed in the text.
Each tour should include at least 10 books (6-7 from Read Any Good
Math Lately and at least 3-4 from your own research). While reading Read
Any Good Math Lately, you will see patterns and connections that can be
made in books not listed in the course text (e.g., books not yet written at
the time the course text was written). For the 3-4 additional books, try to
include recently published books, big books, poetry, nonfiction books, and
books that are sensitive to the diverse audiences found in many
classrooms.
Each tour should include the following components:
drawing from the Utah State Math Core Standards, NCTM
Standards, and elementary math text books (available in Foster
104 and Giovale), create a list of key concepts related to your
math focus (e.g., subtraction)
show each book to the class as you provide a brief synopsis of the
story,
explain several ways the book could be used to teach specific
math and literacy concepts/skills/strategies/processes.
Lesson Plan Presentations
As you read the chapters in Read Any Good Math Lately, you will be
exposed to many books. Select one of your favorite books and create a
math/literacy lesson around the book.
Your lesson plan needs to list objectives from the state core for both
language arts and math. In other words, each lesson plan needs to
integrate both math and language arts objectives. Make copies of your
lesson plan for classmates and professors. You’ll need to make 11 copies
of your plan.
Include at least the following components in your lesson plans:
Grade level
State core standards/objectives (from both math and language arts)
Specific student-centered objectives for the lesson
List of materials
Any black line masters used in the lesson
Procedures/steps through the lesson (introduction or anticipatory set,
body, closure)
Assessment
Presentation of Lesson Plan: You will present your plan to our class.
You can walk us through the plan as though we are students at your choice
of grade level, or you can talk us through the plan as you would explain it to
preservice teachers. Either way—BE CREATIVE!!
Children’s Book Presentation
Purpose: Writing is recognized as a meaningful learning activity and a way
of communicating mathematical ideas. If students can write clearly about
mathematical concepts, then they likely have an understanding of them. It
is beneficial to include opportunities for students to write about their
problem-solving strategies and about their understanding of new concepts;
trying their hand at writing word problems is also an excellent task.
Another writing strategy is to have students write a book related to a
mathematical concept. This can be done as a class, in small groups, or
individually.
Description: For this assignment you will design, illustrate, and present
your own children’s book related to a mathematical topic. In the book you
will demonstrate your understanding of the mathematical concepts and
reflect concepts related to integrating math and literacy learned in the
course. We have discussed a variety of formats for good literature that you
could draw upon. For your book, the following elements must be included
to receive credit:
Title Page
Plot (problem and resolution)
Characters
Setting
Illustrations
You will present and share your book during our final class session.
Determining Course Grade
Reading Responses (2 @ 10 points each)
Discussion Questions (2 @ 5 points each)
Facilitation of Small Group (2 @ 10 points each)
Book Tour
Lesson Plan
Children’s Book
Professionalism/Attendance
20
10
20
15
10
15
10
Late work will receive up to half credit.
Each absence will result in a loss of 3 percentage points.
Extra Credit Option: In the event that you are unable to have all
assignments ready on their due dates, you may create an additional lesson
plan to receive extra credit points. If this situation arises, please see the
instructors for direction.
100-95
94-91
90-88
89-86
85-81
80-77
76-73
72-68
67-60
below 59
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD
F
Rubric for Evaluating:
Book Tours,
Facilitation of Small Group Discussions,
Lesson Plan Presentations
For each category below, circle the number that best represents
your assessment.
A score of 1-2 indicates that more work was needed.
A score of 3 indicates that all requirements were met.
A score of 4-5 indicates that the student went beyond
expectations as outlined in class and in the rubrics above.
1. How well prepared was the presenter/facilitator?
1
2
3
4
5
2. How informative/interesting/creative was the presentation?
1
2
3
4
5
3. How effectively did the presenter/facilitator include all audience
members in the presentation/discussion?
1
2
3
4
5
4. Did the presentation increase your understanding of how to
design instruction that integrates math and literacy concepts
through children’s literature? Describe one new insight that you
gained:
5. Comments:
Schedule
May 6:
Introduction to the course and to each other
Syllabus
Model Math/Literacy Lesson Plan
May 8:
Read Any Good Math Lately? Ch. 1
“Strategic Reading,” by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis
“Thinking Mathematically,” by David Whitin and Sandra Wilde
May 13:
“Engaging with Reading Through Interactive Read-Alouds,”
by Shelby J. Barrentine
“Read Alouds: Celebrating Informational Texts,” by Linda Hoyt
“Communicating Mathematically,” by Patricia S. Moyer
May 15:
Read Any Good Math Lately? Ch. 2, Ch. 3
“Shared Reading in the Classroom: Capturing the Essentials of
the Bedtime Story,” by Brenda Parkes
“Using Shared Reading for Implicit and Explicit Instruction,”
by Brenda Parkes
May 20:
Read Any Good Math Lately? Chs. 4 & 5, Ch. 6
“Shared Reading in Action,” by Brenda Parkes
“Shared Reading: Big Books and Overheads on Deck,”
by Linda Hoyt
May 22:
Read Any Good Math Lately? Ch. 7, Chs. 8 & 9,
“Guided Writing in the Classroom,” by Jeannie Box
“Modeled, Shared, and Interactive Writing of Informational
Tests,” by Linda Hoyt
May 27:
Read Any Good Math Lately? Ch. 10, Ch. 11
“Promoting Mathematical Discourse through Children’s
Literature,” by Amy Roth McDuff
May 29:
Read Any Good Math Lately? Ch. 12
“Developing Math Games Based on Children’s Literature,”
by Kay Cutler, Deanna Gilkerson, Sue Parrott, Mary
Teresa Bown
“Encouraging a Multicultural Perspective,” by David Whitin and
Sandra Wilde
Due: Children’s Book Presentations