"Speaking Math" by Janet Graham and Ted Hodgson

"Speaking Math" by Janet Graham and Ted Hodgson is an article about using technology to help students with the understanding of math vocabulary. Because online chatting is very popular among students they decided to start an online chat for talking to fellow students about math. On the chat students would discuss math ideas using math vocabulary to themselves. This would help them better understand how the concepts in their books. This also provides another way for non-native speakers to learn the math vocabulary. By discussing it online and having thier fellow classmates explain it to them they could begin to understand the math ideas. The chat among the students can be viewed by the teachers allowing them to see their understanding. By being able to see the chat they can evaluate what things the students are not understanding and bring up those concepts in class. They also can see which particular students may need extra help and which ones are on track. I think this is a great ideat because it allows the teachers to see exactly where thier students are stuck.

Q1: How could this be applied in multiple areas of my classroom?

I could use this for multiple subjects in my classroom. For example, when I assign a reading for history I could tell them to do an online discussion about what they read. As they discuss what they read the students could each other out with main points they may have missed.

Q2: What could be some difficulties with using this?

A lot of students who have lower socioeconomic status may have problems accessing a computer. The article suggests using a computer lab during class time but I don't understand why I wouldn't just have them talk in groups during class. It would be hard to do at times just because of this fact.