Vocabulary Lesson

Lesson plan

I was asked to make a 20 minute lesson plan that focused on vocabulary for our unit. The above plan shows a lesson on the word Reflection and what the word means in mathematics. This includes an activity to better understand the vocabulary term that was selected. I did choose to focus on only one vocabulary term. I did.

Performance Criterion 4.1 states Candidates accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline.This means that I can correctly explain the important concepts of mathematics, and in this case I can explain important concepts of transformations. This lesson focused on the definition of a transformation in mathematics. I believe my lesson shows this criteria, because it shows that I understand the importance of foundational  language in order to discuss the mathematical concept in a deeper manner. I even say in my lesson that we are learning the definition, because it will help students better understand the rules of reflection in a later class. I must have a deep understanding of the central concepts of mathematics in order to convey the bigger picture to my students. This lesson is meant to convey to students that understanding mathematical language will help them understand deeper aspects of the content. This is a very important part of mathematics. Mathematical language is  definitely a key concept when learning mathematics. I believe an emphasis on the language lets students know that language is important when learning math.

One thing I learned about myself as a teacher is... I learned that teaching vocabulary in my content area is incredibly important. Mathematics heavily relies on the language it uses. If students do not understand the language, they will not be able to understand complex higher mathematics. Complex problems will sound like foreign languages to students who do not understand the words being used and only confuse them more. I will continue working on putting an emphasis on language in my future mathematics lessons, because I feel language is a major part of understanding mathematics. I will want my students to be able to properly use and comprehend mathematical vocabulary, because this will help them become better mathematicians.

Shadow Puppet and Explain Everything

Link to Progressivism: https://youtu.be/_u34vE1OsIQ

Link to Literacy: https://youtu.be/PI24YdpslFI

In the shadow puppet a partner and I were asked to describe our definition of literacy, how it has changed over the past few weeks, and how we could relate it to our content area. In the explain everything I was asked to explore my teaching philosophy, research theorists and it, and apply my learning to my future teaching style.

In these two projects I found a lot of similarities. As I researched my teaching philosophy I learned that I believe it is incredibly important for students to actively work with material, and not just listen to me talk about the material. When I gave ideas as to how I would assess my future students literacy in math I said I would do exactly that. A great example is starting at 1:23 of the shadow puppet with my partner. We stated that a student must be able to show they are literate in multiple ways. I then gave an example of how a student could do that. Our shadow puppet also brought up the fact that a person who is truly literate in math can apply it to everyday life. I think these are huge points in my teaching philosophy. Students must be able to find connections to their world to find the subject matter interesting. Along with this they must be able to experiment with the material, and actually do instead of just listen. So I believe there are a lot of connections with literacy in my content area and my teaching philosophy.

Performance criterion 4.1 states that candidates must accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline. My shadow puppet with my partner really showed that. One of the key concepts in high school mathematics is the ability to understand signs, symbols, and important language. My partner's and my shadow puppet talked a lot about the importance of understanding these things to be literate in the content area. I think this also covered the performance criterion 5.2 which states "Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills [such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving] to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways". In the shadow puppet I stated students will need to show literacy by taking different text styles and applying them to different text styles. An example of this is taking a graph and find the equivalent algebraic equation. Then I also stated that students need to apply the concepts to the real world, which my teaching philosophy believes is very important. This will require critical thinking skills. Students will need to critically think about how they can apply these concepts to the real world. My partner and I had a picture of a student playing basketball in our shadow puppet, and that would be a great way to integrate critical thinking skills. A student would need to figure out how to apply their math skills to the real world, and that requires critical thinking.

As I have explored my presentations and how they relate to the performance criteria I have learned more about how I can apply the different criteria. When I first read performance criteria 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, and 5.2 I was confused as to how I could apply them, but I started to see that my shadow puppet expressed the importance of being able to understand different mathematical mediums and relating them to real world situations, and I felt that performance criteria 4.2 and 5.2 really expressed that. As I keep moving forward I want to find other creative ways I can relate class projects and experiences to the performance criteria and mission statement pillars