Heather's Middle School Literacy Blog

As math teachers, it can often be daunting to compile helpful resources of that fit different learning preferences. I have discovered a resource that caters to different activities and various subareas of math content. Math-drills.com is a helpful (and FREE) resource for teachers to access worksheets, flash cards, and interactive games. One feature that is particularly helpful for teachers is that the free materials provided cover a broad range of topics, such as number sense, arithmetic, pre-algebra, geometry, measurement, and money concepts. You can also narrow down the focus to particular units within those subareas. An attraction this resource offers is that it can be accessed not only by teachers, but students as well. Students can play the various interactive games, such as sudoku, but they can also access vocabulary flashcards. There is also a unit converter feature that allows students and teachers to convert units quickly. Math-drills.com also makes an effort to make lear...

How To Use a Textbook  Textbooks are often seen as the standard text incorporated in classrooms. How effective are textbooks really for our students? The authors of  Subjects Matter  discuss in Chapter 11 how we as teachers should properly engage with textbooks in our classrooms. The reality is, using textbooks as our sole resource in the classroom is not helping our students learn most effectively. The authors write: "Textbook based teaching doesn't work" (178). So, do we completely disregard textbooks? No. Textbooks provide good content for our subject areas. However, we must be choosy with our selections from the textbook and how we present the text to our students.  Rather than present the text by assigning individual reading, use activities that help students engage in the text and draw out the concepts you feel are essential for deep understanding of the subject. One activity in particular that I would like to use in Jigsawing. To use t...

Cool Math Games  Cool Math Games is a website designed to allow students to play games that help them with their understanding in various math concepts: strategy, skill, numbers, and logic. Students can learn these concepts through a nontraditional format of a game. Rather than using word problems to induce critical thinking, students are immersed within the problems posed by the different game scenarios.   makes this resource especially inviting for students is the format itself. Many students are familiar with video games and play them as part of their everyday lives. By using math concepts in a game format, students can better connect with the content, given it is culturally relevant to them. What’s great about this resource is that it is not limited to math, despite the website’s name. There are hundreds of games to choose from. Other content areas include geography and science. This is a resource that both science and social studies teachers cou...

Chapter 11 focuses on methods for providing support for struggling readers. The authors include six major strategies: create supportive relationships, model thoughtful reading, promote self-monitoring, use materials students can successfully read that also still pose a challenge, build engagement with the text, provide books and materials in various formats. Out of these strategies, what struck me the most was the importance of choosing materials students can successfully read. As teachers, we want to pull resources that are fun and engaging for the students. However, the entire point of outside resources in the classroom are for students to grasp a better understanding of the content in class. To cater to all students, we must choose resources that are not too challenging for our students that struggle with reading, but are also challenging enough to push them to grow in their understanding. The authors plainly say, "if a student can't read the material, he can't get anyt...