I read the "Gesturing gives children new ideas about math", (Goldin-Meadow et al, 2009) article. I found the reading somewhat difficult to read since it included many mathematical examples showing the different groups' means and averages (I'm not even positive that is what the equations are referred to as!) The was difficult to get through mostly because I have been finding it difficult to read and stay focused after recovering from COVID.
Goldin-Meadow provided 3 separate mathematical lessons on equality to 3 separate groups. in 1 lesson the teacher modelled gesturing on the board to an equation that would be equal to the blank in the equation on the right of the equals sign. In another lesson the teacher spoke the equation would equal the blank on the right side of the equals sign and in the last lesson, there was no gesturing suggested in any form.
I am one of those students who needs every bit of additional supports for learning, I repeat things aloud when I am having difficulty understanding. I most definitely utilize body movements for supporting my learning, therefore, reading that these researchers were able to provide evidence that children who incorporate gestures (involuntary or 'rote') into their learning was an enjoyable finding!
Hi Grace, I am sorry to hear how hard Covid has impacted you, I am sure that many of us will be following shortly in the next few weeks. Thank you for taking the time to reflect and summarize Goldin-Meadow et al's article. Like yourself, so many of our students benefit for additional supports of learning. The practices you mentioned of verbalizing and repeating points out loud benefit our auditory senses, and adding the layers of movement deepens the ability to learn in a different form. I think for too long, we have neglected this attribute in mathematics. How often do you hear about creating plays in math? Or singing mathematical songs? It occurs but it something we can all incorporate into our lessons.
ReplyDeleteThe themes in your article seem to parallel the points stated in Gerofsky's article as well. Her article focused on the uses of movement to display graphs, along with descriptive words and phrases. I think this idea of combining ways of learning and sensory inputs is embedded in the themes of this week's readings. Thank you for your insights!
Hello Grace,
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear that Covid impacted you, and hopefully, you can recover soon.
Gestures seem like an interesting topic for children to learn the best and retain information. In elementary school, we were taught to use fingers when reading a story from a textbook. Every night, I read the same Tinkerbell story with my daughter while I used my finger to point at the words and change the tone based on the word. Eventually, my three-year-old read the story the same way I did, using the fingering gesture, despite the fact that she didn't even know the alphabet. So, I would assume that gesture helped her retain the information and possibly rote memorization. In this situation, gestures made with meaningful movement and speech helped my daughter retain the information (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2009). The article only talks about using gestures with elementary children. I wonder how what extent do we use gestures with high school students?.
Thanks Grace and group! Grace, I'm very sorry to hear that you have been dealing with COVID in your life and household, and I hope you are feeling much better now.
ReplyDeleteYour reflections on the article are interesting but brief -- perhaps because you are not feeling so well at the moment. You also have not incorporated any mention or connections to the viewing or the activity for this week. I notice too that your Week 2 post has not yet appeared, and I expect this might have to do with your coping with the after effects of illness.
Please do get in touch with me by email and let me know how things are going, and we can plan to get you on track with the few things that you might need to catch up in these early days of our course. Hope you are feeling better!