Now, just wait a minute Carissa. You are an English language
teacher! Why are you reading about overcoming math anxiety? Why do
you care about math?
Before anything else, I care about my students being successful in
all subjects. I try to use a little of each subject to teach English. So from
Spanish literature to mathematics my classes try to have it all. On the other hand, if I can help
them with math, then they have more time to devote to other things (like English
homework). Finally, It is VERY rare for a technique to be only helpful to one
subject. If it is helpful to math teachers, I am sure I can find a way to apply
it to my classes.
There is a lot in the book that I agree with, and some that
I don’t. I am going to just pick out 5 main points:
1.
I agree that MANY of my students have math
anxiety. I joke often that even though I teach English I always end up doing a
few math lessons just so they can figure out their grades. They tend to clam up
the moment they see a formula and grapple for their calculators when asked
simple math question. Their lack of creativity in English tends to transfer to their
math. For example, if I ask what the percentage 35/50 is, few of them will
realize they can simply multiply it by two to get 70 faster than trying to
divide 35/50 in their head. In short, yes I see that many students seem to have
“math anxiety” and “math glasses” as pointed out by Zero.
2.
However, I strongly disagree with one of the
main concepts of the book. He argues that math is the only subject that builds
progressively. That is to say, in math if you don't learn something well in one unit (say
multiplication) then the next unit (exponents) will be almost
impossible to learn. His argument is if you miss a day of history (The
importance of MLK in the civil rights movement) you’ll still be able to
understand the next lesson (The importance of Rosa Parks in the civil rights
movement). This argument can be applied to history, and perhaps occasionally
English literature or Philosophy, but foreign languages, science, and much of
philosophy are taught in a spiral fashion. This means that they repeat things,
but are constantly adding new details. For example, the first year of Spanish
you may learn: emotions in simple present tense. The next year you’ll learn emotions again, but this
time you’ll learn more, perhaps some idioms and also a new verb form (I will be
happy when I eat the burger, compared to I am happy). If you don’t know how to
conjugate the present tense you are sure to struggle with the present perfect, present continuous, etc.
3.
There’s also a whole chapter on Bloom’s
taxonomy. When I used to tutor for AVID one of the requirements was that
students had to ask higher level questions. This was especially hard for them
with math. All they wanted to know was, “What’s the answer?” This was against
the rules however, they couldn’t just say, “What is x in 2x-y/3=4xy where
y=4x3” they had to ask, “Explain why we use substitution to solve the problem,” or "Compare the different ways of solving the problem to find the one that best fits."
I agree FULLY that Blooms taxonomy is KEY in English, math, science, etc.
Don’t ask students, “What was the plot of The Body” ask, “What would happen if
the story were set today instead of the 1960s” these questions will make
students think more and help them really learn, not just memorize.
4.
Zero talks about scaffolding in a way I hadn’t
thought of before. As a teacher I am used to thinking that scaffolding is what
I do to help student understand topics. I don’t just tell students, “Write a
topic sentence about The Body.” I say, “What animals do we see in the body”
“What different things do they symbolize” “In your opinion what do the animals
in The Body mean?” All of these questions lead them to more easily write a topic sentence. But Zero’s point is that this lures students into a false
sense of security. They feel that writing a topic sentence is easy in class, but when left to do it alone at home they fail The book states, “It can be a source of pretty high anxiety
to believe that you are fully supported high in the air only to walk out of the
classroom and realize that you are dangling from a precipice with no way to get
back down.” I still plan on scaffolding but I will try to either continue
scaffolding in home assignments or make sure they are confident without the
scaffolding before the assignment is given.
5.
People learn better when they like the subject
and see real world applications! This is important as teachers! It is why I
often change the names in gap fills to reflect celebrities or have my students
read articles from People and Maxim. Having students write essays is great, but
they may find it more applicable to their lives to write cover letters,
resumes, e-mails to their favorite band, or tweets for a company. Finding ways
to make English applicable and enjoyable is harder that it seems, but it is a
challenge that every teacher should take seriously.
The book is written by Zero Angel (his given name is Robert
Richardson) who has been teaching math since 2005. You can see more of his work
here and I’d suggest you check out the book if you (or your students) struggle
in math, or you just want a different perspective of teaching students who may
feel anxiety for your subject.
What do you think? Do we scaffold too much? Should we be certain to make our class interesting? What else can we do?
and gave it a quick read.
