MWSubstack 019: Math secrets; Graphic novels
Add new activities and strategies to your math teacher toolbox. And become convinced that comics and graphic novels have a place in the curriculum!
Welcome to MiddleWeb Substack. It’s a twice-monthly, two-topic, five-minute read for middle grades educators, featuring a selection of MiddleWeb’s most popular and influential articles, a book review, and a noteworthy 4-8 resource or project we’ve spotted. That’s it!
►MATH SECRETS
Tips to strengthen teaching and learning.
In an early edition of the MiddleWeb Substack newsletter we spotlighted popular articles that focus on helping overcome "math hate" in the classroom. We called it Math Love. Since mathematics really does need extra love in our schools and culture, we're offering a second topic, Math Secrets, focused on teaching strategies.
Lifting My Students Out of the Math Fact Fog
After reflecting on her students’ decline in fluently recalling math facts and the resulting lapses in her teaching flow, Kathie Palmieri made some changes. First up: involving students in uncovering the roadblocks and then trying out their own fog-lifting ideas.
A Single Open Math Task Can Work for Every Student
Teacher and coach Mona Iehl shows how teachers can differentiate by using one high quality math task to meet all students’ needs and avoiding ability grouping or creating multiple tasks.
Stop Using These Four Words in Math Class
To reduce confusion, math prof Dan Ilaria recommends substitutes for four popular math teacher expressions: cancel, plug in, reduce, and cross-multiply.
Three Fun Activities for Teaching Statistics
Michelle Russell loves teaching statistics and her students enjoy it, too. But it took her a few years to find activities that really engage them and reinforce standards. Here are three for the middle grades.
Number Sense Builds a Strong Math Foundation
Rote memorization is not nearly enough, writes middle grades teacher Kathie Palmieri. Give students tools that allow them to work flexibly and thoughtfully with numbers.
Math Play with Patterns and Relationships
Math educator Jerry Burkhart loves sharing playful ideas for the math classroom! Students enjoy tackling these clever diagrams revealing relationships between operations and numbers.
2 Key Math Strategies for Students with Disabilities
Bradley Witzel and Barbara Blackburn share research-supported strategies proven effective for students with special needs and mathematics challenges. They model the concrete-visual-abstract sequence of instruction (CVA) and schema-based instruction (SBI) for word problems.
Want more math ideas? Browse our full collection!
Regie Routman “believes that we are most fully ourselves when ‘teaching, learning, and living are interwoven and seamlessly integrated.’ To show us this full self, she shares stories that might help us navigate our own worlds.“ – Read Sarah Cooper’s review of The Heart-Centered Teacher.
►GRAPHIC NOVELS
Don't pass up these engaging teaching tools.
Comic books and graphic novels are an increasing source of effective teaching practice in K-12 classrooms, wrote Dr. Jason DeHart in one of his early articles for MiddleWeb, "Why Visual Literature Deserves Our Attention" (2021). DeHart, a former middle school teacher turned education professor, turned ninth grade high school teacher, offers a convincing argument:
Middle school is, arguably, one of the most ideal times to include these books in instruction. That's my conclusion based on what's available in the marketplace right now – and my years as an ELA middle school teacher.
To be sure, using a comic book (shorter work) or graphic novel (longer work) for meaningful instruction does require some additional steps in thinking and planning, just as using a film with purpose in the classroom entails a sense of intentionality.
Learn how Jason DeHart uses visual stories in his classes and browse his suggestions for books to get you started.
Here are two additional articles by DeHart and several more by other MiddleWeb contributors.
How Might We Teach a Graphic Novel Series?
Teacher and graphic novels advocate Jason DeHart delves deeper into a single text from the Kid Beowulf series for the middle grades, detailing his own instructional strategies.
Pairing Graphic Novels with Their Text Originals
What might students learn about the “invisible process” of reading prose fiction by a comparative study of a novel and its graphic novel counterpart? Jason DeHart promises high interest and aha moments.
Try Nonfiction Graphic Novels to Engage Kids
ELA teacher Kasey Short offers reasons why nonfiction graphic novels expand kids’ knowledge and appreciation of reading. Included: guiding questions for students and suggested science, history and ELA titles.
Kids Need Feel-Good Middle Grades Books
During the Covid pandemic, Megan Kelly wanted her students to remember finding refuge in books. In this post she highlights graphic novels, short stories, mysteries and more she shared to help them feel good and reduce their stress.
Add Comics and Graphic Novels to All Classes
In his review of Tim Smyth's Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels, sixth grade teacher Kevin Hodgson not only praises Smyth's work but shares insights from his own long-time practice of teaching with visual books.
►ELSEWHERE
Graphic texts are a medium of communication, not a genre.
Many teachers see students reaching for graphic novels and comic books more often than traditional books, writes arts educator Nimah Gobir in "Debunking Myths About Graphic Novels and Comics to Unlock Learning." Gobir calls on a variety of experts to explain how we can turn visual texts into learning tools. At the Mindshift Blog.
►OUR BOOK REVIEW
Who Gets to Write Fiction: Opening Doors to Imaginative Writing for All Students by Ariel Sacks
Teacher and coach Ariel Sacks illustrates both the value and the practicality of offering more opportunities during writing instruction for students to imagine and create, says reviewer Stacy Haynes-Moore. Read the complete review.
►REVIEW FOR US!
Browse our complete list of free professional books available for review.
►NEXT TIME
We explore the importance of teaching about character and helping students develop identity.