In order to manage the reading “The send-making qualitative-quantitative methodology” I applied AVID strategies that I have been teaching for the last four years. I broke the reading down into sections based on the natural chunking that author did with section titles. Within each sections I numbered the paragraphs and wrote a sentence summary at the end of each paragraph. If the paragraph was simply explaining something about the structure of the article then I wrote a brief description of the structure it was indicating. If I came upon a particularly difficult section in the reading and could not find a way to summarize the information in a way that made the text more explicit, I highlighted the section I did not understand and created a question about the material instead. While I found the reading incredibly rich it began quite dense. As the reading continued I began to understand more about the process of sense making. Note taking and further processing allowed me to bridge my own gaps and arrive at what I believe the methodology of sense making is.
My two big takeaways from the reading were:
During the reading I kept thinking back to a question heard in most math classes, “When am I ever going to use this?” This gap-defining question is often a barrier to teachers, preventing us from reaching students most traditionally at risk to failing our courses. For those struggling in their math courses, the work required to be good at something students assume they will never need, is a gap perceived too large to bridge. In the context of my big takeaways this question needs to be addressed on an individual basis in order for the gap to be bridged. Individual circumstances that construct the student must be taken into consideration for the response to be effective. It is undeniable that every single student will need a basic understanding of math in order to enter the workforce or university level studies but the individual desires of the student must be considered to inspire the need to continue past the frustration that math creates. Students looking to simply graduate high school will need 3 years of math credit and so the need to fulfill the graduation requirement could be the gap-bridging motivation they need, while students who wish to pursue a career in engineering will need multiple levels of math past AP Calculus and thus their gap-bridging motivation is the desire to be as prepared as possible before entering university. While sense-making theory attempts to predict the way people bridge gaps, the individual must be taken into account. If I was teaching this content to students I would use many more visual mediums to convey the ideas within the text. To demonstrate the ideas of experienced reality and perception I would use those images that appear to be two different objects and have students debate which one is correct. I would pull in visual representations of the sense-making metaphor to help students understand the gap-bridging process. I would create screencasts explaining the methodology section as it is very dense and students would benefit from a visual and auditory component. To model the sense making metaphor I would have students think of their process for learning a new task and have them detail each step in the process. Students would share out to look for similarities and differences in their processing. I would then have students write skills they would like to learn on note cards and exchange with another student in the room. The students would then have to describe how they would go about learning the new skill they were given using the sense making triangle as a model for each “stop step” in their learning process.
6 Comments
Catalina Goldstein
2/17/2019 01:31:16 pm
You were spot on with having to chunk out the reading into manageable pieces. This reading was DENSE. I really liked your second point about making the "system" better with information gained. If we gain information and don't do anything with it then what is even the point?
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Monica Knecht
2/17/2019 02:53:56 pm
Brandon,
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Jona Sandau
2/17/2019 08:37:13 pm
Brandon, your blog really HELPED me understand the article so much better. I also learned an AVID reading strategy! I almost wanted to go back and reread the article using your strategies to see if I could glean more understanding! Almost...lol. When you said, "For those struggling in their math courses, the work required to be good at something students assume they will never need, is a gap perceived too large to bridge," I began to make a much stronger connection between the content and teaching. I also really loved your thoughts about getting students to identify their own gap filling processes and compare. Brilliant! Your blog has really opened up this topic for me--thank you!
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jlovie
2/18/2019 11:03:09 am
Brandon I have heard that same question so many times in my math class as well and it makes me crazy but as we learned in our reading figuring out how to ask questions that focus on the human actors our students could be an interesting journey. We could even guide interpret situations that they encounter everyday that use math which they don't realize especially that phone they are all addicted to. One of my take away messages was that to focus more on the how than the what. Maybe in math if we focused more on the process and the thinking processes they use they would start to make connections to how this can apply to other areas in their future. Lots to think about.
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JP
2/18/2019 10:21:36 pm
On the flip side, I am constantly trying to remind my students how and where they can actually use what they are learning in my class since it is very hands on. The sense making comes when I need them to improvise and take the basics of what they know further! I agree also with how yes sometimes with the data driven content we teach we need to resort to other strategies like using visuals!
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2/19/2019 10:23:32 pm
Hey Brandon
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