When I was reading this, I had a lot of different emotions. At first I was really excited because it was awesome to see students getting passionate about what they are being taught. Then I got nervous about how to be able to incorporate this. I grew up in the Coventry school system (www.coventryschools.net) and the only time I can really think of the teachers working together was in middle school. Even then, it was rare to have projects that were connected between classes. And the way that my high school was set up, would make this really difficult. We were all separated by our level and any student could have any combination of classes and teachers, so in order for the students to be able to have multidisciplinary projects would be for the whole school to coordinate together. Which I also tough because it is a huge school.
I agree that this type of focused reading is much better for keeping the students captivated than the textbooks. When I was in high school I was told to read the textbook in my math classes but I never did. Math is not a passion for me, it is something that comes easily to me and it is a skill that I chose to teach through. I believe that the textbooks should be there to provide extra support if needed, but it should not be relied on to teach the subject. It will take some out of the box thinking to find students things to read that will keep them interested, but I know I can figure it out.
I also wondered about the reading project described in chapter 1. I never had any interdisciplinary assignments while I was in high school either and I can imagine the organization would be quite difficult. You would likely have to get every teacher in each department on board with it, so it would probably be something planned well in advance and easier with fewer departments involved.
ReplyDeleteI never read any math textbooks either. There was hardly anything to be read within them, just brief instructions on how to solve the problems in the book which the teachers taught us anyway. Do newer high school math textbooks have much written in them? Some of my high school math books were probably from the 80's.
Yes the math textbooks that I had in high school provide examples of how to do the problems, but some were better than others.
ReplyDeleteHi Alix, I had similar thoughts reading that chapter. As a prospective math teacher, I'd like to participate in cross class projects too, but it's not always obvious how we can. It definitely will take some creativity to do so. I've always thought that science and mathematics aren't represented enough in history classes, so potentially we could try to make a connection there. If we know our students are also studying ancient Greece, we could try to work together to research Euclid or Archimedes for geometry. If they're studying the Enlightenment we could tie Newton into physics or calculus classes.
ReplyDeleteHi Alix, I had similar thoughts reading that chapter. As a prospective math teacher, I'd like to participate in cross class projects too, but it's not always obvious how we can. It definitely will take some creativity to do so. I've always thought that science and mathematics aren't represented enough in history classes, so potentially we could try to make a connection there. If we know our students are also studying ancient Greece, we could try to work together to research Euclid or Archimedes for geometry. If they're studying the Enlightenment we could tie Newton into physics or calculus classes.
ReplyDelete