Affective Dimensions of Reading

As I reflect upon my reading experiences, I feel very grateful for all of the influences which I had early on in life that led me to love reading. Because of the people who encouraged me to read, I eventually decided that I want to be a school librarian, which I have done as my minor in college. I want to be a school librarian because I want to share my love of reading with my students and encourage and inspire them to open the world of good books. I also want to help them to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

I think of myself as a "good reader", whatever that label really means. As far as I am aware, I don't think that there is a strict definition of "good reader", but that each individual has to decipher for themselves what this label, or any other, truly means. To me, it means that I can read well, and although I may not be the fastest reader, I take the time to comprehend and indulge in the topics about which I read. I started to read when I was very young and, throughout elementary school, I was told that I was a very good reader.

I like to read books in general, as long as they are clean and wholesome. I particularly love to read children's books, anything from picture books to young adult fiction. My favorite genres are mystery, fantasy, and historical fiction. I also love to read factual books, like books on history, biographies, and the encyclopedia. I absolutely loved reading in elementary school because we read a lot of fun fiction books. I have always loved to read outside of school anytime that I have a spare moment because I can choose my own reading material and read at my own pace. I love to read for my own enjoyment, but I don't mind discussing or writing a paper/reflection on a book if I like it.

I think that I started to dislike reading in school when I hit about 5th grade. If I remember correctly, this is the point at which I began to be assigned a fair amount of textbook reading. Reading a textbook was so much different than reading the types of books that I usually had with me. The format of the text was very different, and my teachers were making me read about subjects that didn't necessarily hold my interest. I think that the main thing I had trouble with was switching from a narrative writing style to a strictly factual and wordy writing style, which we have discussed in class will often happen to students in elementary school.

My family is probably the main social network which encouraged me to read and continue reading. As you already know from my introduction (and my autobiography), my grandfather taught me how to read, and my family has always been very supportive and influential in my reading development. I also had a few teachers who were supportive of my like for reading, and they gave me encouragement at school by suggesting good books to read. I don't really feel that I had any social networks who opposed my efforts to read.

As a mathematics educator, I hope to be able to instill a love of reading in my students. I want to be able to support them in reading in general, as well as in my own discipline. I think that it will be important for me to choose texts that aren't too wordy, to define new words that my students may not know so that they can remain engaged in learning, and to find texts that cross disciplines in order to gain their interest. I think that it will also be important to choose texts which create a safe classroom environment, as well as to share texts that cover and are beneficial to all of the different reading levels which my students will bring with them into the classroom. In these ways, I hope to be able to build my students' self-perceptions of themselves, their confidence in their abilities, and their interest in mathematics.

Affective Dimensions of Writing

Writing has almost always come naturally for me. I think that I have been able to communicate my thoughts well through writing since I was little. I would consider myself to be a writer, especially since I considered English as my minor for a while. I've always had a knack and a liking for spelling words, and I think this has majorly helped with my writing abilities. Out of the many modes of self-expression, I usually prefer to express my feelings through writing or verbal communication with other people around me.

As a little girl, I think that my main form of recreational writing was encyclopedia reports. This tells you how much of a nerd I really am. I loved to read and learn about different subjects, particularly animals, found in the encyclopedia, and I would write my mom a report about the things I learned about different animals. I also liked to write notes to my friends and my family. I think that with the switch over to a technological age during my lifetime has greatly affected what types of writing I do recreationally as a college student. I think that my main form of recreational writing now is Facebook status updates, blog writing, and texting. I don't really do any of these very much though because I am usually busy doing school work for my classes.

Most of the writing assignments that I can remember enjoying in school are those that had a more narrative style. I think the main reason for this like is the fact that I read more fictional books or books that tell a story compared to strictly informational books. I love history books and encyclopedias and information books, too - I just don't read them as much. I think that most narrative writing is done to tell a story, and that's probably why I like this style the best.

The writing assignments which I usually disliked in school were those that required lots of research (i.e. research papers) and those with a more persuasive style. I disliked having to look up so much information to support my reasonings or arguments. Both of these styles require a lot of time and effort, and I usually felt completely exhausted by the time I had completed the given writing assignment. I have come to have a better appreciation for research writing in college, but I still do not do as well with persuasive writing as I would like. I think that I would rather use persuasion in verbal communication rather than written communication.

I don't think that many people see writing as being a prevalent part of mathematics education. Yet, I think that I will try to incorporate writing in my class as part of my students' pursuit of literacy in all disciplines. Because mathematics is a language in and of itself, I feel that it will be important for my students to write mathematics with symbols as well as in words. I think that doing this will help their understanding of the concepts and relationships found in mathematics.

My like for writing as a student will most likely transfer over to my teaching style. I may implement bell ringers as a form of writing in the classes that I teach. I also think that if I have my students produce a report on famous mathematicians or events in mathematics history that I will give them more than one option as to the writing style of their report. In this way, I can complement the different strengths that my students have as writers. These options would include, but not be limited to, narrative biography, informational biography, (fictional) interview, persuasive essay on why a particular mathematician's discoveries are used or should be used by mathematicians, poetry, etc.

Introductions are a Must

Hi class! My name is Melissa Andersen. I am from Logan, UT. In the event that you missed the title which occurs at the top of this blog, I am majoring in Secondary Mathematics Education. My minor is School Library Media, which means that I would either love to eventually become a math teacher or a school librarian. I love to read books, play the piano, and watch old movies in my spare time. I also enjoy sleeping and eating ice cream. I definitely prefer vanilla over chocolate. An interesting fact about me that few people know is that I love rocks, and I own my very own rock collection, which is continually growing (even though rocks don't really grow :).

In the beginning of my college career, I had no idea what I wanted to do or become. I had always kind of wanted to be a teacher, but I didn't know what subject I wanted to teach. I was good at math during middle school and high school, and did well in all the math courses I took during those years. So, after my first year at the university, I finally put the two together and decided on this major. I honestly don't know why I like math so much. I think I like it mainly because I love solving puzzles. I love working on a problem, even to the point of frustration. And then, when I solve that problem, the feeling of satisfaction that I figured it all out is so worth it!

And allow me to put a small plug-in for school librarians at this point. They can help you all so much as secondary education teachers! They are highly involved with the literacy aspect which we will be focusing on in this class, as well as the research skills that students need in the world today. Collaborate with them, and you will be amazed at what they can help you to accomplish with your students. This is something that I am very passionate about, so don't be surprised if you hear more comments like this in the future. :)

Mathematics to me is a rich language of numbers, dealing with their values and the manipulation of their values. I feel that mathematics can be as difficult to learn as a foreign language would be to learn. Some people learn the "language" of mathematics a lot quicker than other people do, and not all people like to "speak" the language of mathematics. Mathematics is also a great discipline to me because there can only be so many answers to a problem or question. In this aspect, mathematics is quite absolute - there is usually only one right answer. It is easy to tell if you have worked a problem correctly or not; I love that set structure.

I want to teach math to students because I want them to know that they can learn something that is difficult. Math will come easily to some students, and not so easily to other students. I want to be able to teach and help all of my students to have confidence in themselves. It may take a lot of work to understand the use of variables in algebra, but I want to be a main support for those students as they struggle and eventually achieve an understanding of math. I definitely am not the smartest mathematician out there; I have to get help from my classmates from time to time in my upper-division math courses here at the university. I think that those types of experiences have been very humbling for me because I will be able to understand the frustration and overwhelming feelings that my future students experience as they stumble through their homework.

I hope and anticipate that this class and you, my classmates, will be able to help me understand and improve my teaching methods, implement literacy into my future courses, and aid the learning of my future students.