* Created by Matthew Streit
Rationale
This strategy is useful for students’ monitoring of their comprehension (metacognition) while reading a text. This strategy makes the students’ thinking more transparent and helps them identify their comprehension strengths and weaknesses. I think this strategy would work in many content areas, but it is a literacy strategy that has direct applications for a Mathematics classroom.
Source: Fiene, Judy & McMahon, Susan. “Assessing comprehension: A classroom-based process.” The Reading Teacher. Vol. 60, No. 5. February 2007.
Procedure
I think this strategy would be useful in a Geometry unit in a Math classroom. Geometry (especially middle-school-level Geometry) has a lot of new vocabulary terms, and many of these concepts are related. The “Sticky Notes” strategy would be useful for student to see these connections between concepts and also helpful to identify concepts students need more help with. A math textbook is highly-visual, and students could also use their writing skills to interpret geometric figures, drawings, and formulas.
Here are some sample highlights from using the “Sticky Notes” strategy in multiple math classes about geometry:
1) Students could start by reading about Rectangles and their properties (opposite parallel sides, right angles, four sides) in their math textbook.
a. Sticky Notes could be tacked to the inside of the text with questions and insights (about real-world examples, etc.).
b. Like all strategies, teacher modeling and examples are important when students are learning the strategy.
2) Students could also note different vocabulary and formulas when working with Rectangles.
a. Perimeter, Area, Calculation of interior angles
b. Sticky Notes could explain the definitions and the processes/formulas for calculating these uses.
3) Students could also use Sticky Notes when reading chapters on Triangles, Circles, and 3-dimensional objects.
a. The Sticky Notes could be modeled to help students see connections between various geometric concepts.
i. For example, Triangles can be viewed as half-rectangles.
1. This helps students see the rationale for the formula for area of a triangle (one-half times base times height).
2. This also helps students remember how many degrees are in the interior angles of a triangle (one-half of the interior degrees in a rectangle…180 is half of 360).
ii. Another example would be realizing that circumference is the same thing for a circle as perimeter is for a rectangle.
iii. A third example would compare the formulas for surface area of a cylinder and surface area of a rectangular prism.
Sticky Notes can be revised and used as a review strategy. As students progress through the Geometry unit, they can move Sticky Notes around from section to section to help them remember the important parts of previous sections. Teachers should also review the students’ Sticky Notes to help correct misinformation and direct them to connections that they haven’t identified yet (this step can also be supplemented by student group work to get more peer-to-peer help and insights).
Other Procedures
I'm thinking of using sticky notes to help students keep track of where they start to drift away from the text. If I do timed readings, and/ or require everyone to do at least one sticky note on each page (accurately and honestly noting their thinking), then maybe we can work on noticiing where problems begin. The trick would be to make sure they don't feel like they'll be in trouble for admiting that they were thinking how long until the next smoke break?
:) Jen B.
Contributed by Caitlin B: Students can use sticky notes to help them think metacognitively. Specifically, it can help them label strategies they and others use.
--Have students read a particulalry difficult section of text (one that you have assessed to be beyond their zone of proximal development)
--As they read, stop them at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes. Each time you stop them, they need to write down exactly what they are thinking at that moment on a sticky note.
--After the 15 minute reading time, have students examine their sticky notes. Model with your own. Go through and label different kids of thinking you were doing as you read. have students identify the first kind of thinking they did ont heir sticky note
Example: sticky note-- "this is so boring. When is lunch?" Kind of thinking--outside of the text
--Have students look for patterns in their thinking to help them self-assess their kinds of thinking. Use this as a jumping point for teaching metacognition and self-correction.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.