Paul Booth's Math -through-reading Showcase
Master of arts in Education - Michigan State University
“The
students know how to do the math; they just don't understand what the question
is asking.”
In the twelve years that I have been teaching I have said some version of this quote a hundred times. When I started this master’s degree program, I set out to work on a solution to the problem outlined in this quote. That is why I chose my academic concentration to be both literacy and mathematics. Within this page I hope to display the work I have done over the last two years while looking for an answer to this problem.
In the twelve years that I have been teaching I have said some version of this quote a hundred times. When I started this master’s degree program, I set out to work on a solution to the problem outlined in this quote. That is why I chose my academic concentration to be both literacy and mathematics. Within this page I hope to display the work I have done over the last two years while looking for an answer to this problem.
Fall 2012
This was my first semester in the master’s degree program. I thought I would dive right into my quest
for the connection between literacy and math.
This semester I took a literature class that focused on the diversity of
learners and a math class that strengthened my understanding of middle school
math. I think my final projects in both
classes are good examples of my focus for graduate school.
Spring 2013
This semester I decided to strengthen my understanding as a
reading teacher while taking TE 843 Secondary Reading Assessment and
Instruction. Having studied math and
science as an undergraduate I need the most help as a literacy instructor. I would like to share my Special Topics
Project for TE 843 as an example of my continued dedication to my goal. My second class was a school requirement, but
it was one from which I learned the most.
I would like to share a writing sample from that course to give you some
insight into my work in the course.
Summer 2013
The summer was an especially challenging time for me. My two children were home from school, and I
was taking two classes that were on a shortened schedule. Fortunately for me both
classes were about subject matter that was highly interesting to me. First was my Action Research class that let
me dive deeper into what I started to learn about first semester math class. The
second was a type of literature class that was new to me. For the first time in my education career I
was in a class to studied books. The
class was TE 838 Children’s Literature and Film. Below
are my final papers for both classes.
fall 2013
This past fall I took two classes that seemed to point me in
a different direction from my focus for graduate school. That was not, however,
the case. I found over the past year
that not all of my students’ instructional shortcomings were simply their
problems with math or reading. I took CEP 832, Educating Students with Challenging Behavior,
to help out with some of my classroom management issues. I also took, TE 831Teaching Subject Matter
with Technology to help reach a wider range of learners in my classroom. I have attached the final paper for CEP 832,
where I wrote about a student that was having difficulties in my class and an
instructional aid that I created in TE 831.
spring 2014
This is the final semester in my master’s degree program. I
am taking my last requirement for the program, ED 870, a class which will help
me create this portfolio, and I am taking a writing class, TE 848. My hope for the writing class is to learn how
to help my students with their literacy struggles by working through their writings.
I have posted a paper that I wrote for this class, it may be the thing that I am most proud of over the last two year