Literacy in Math

Literacy is so vital to a student’s education, no matter the discipline. In math I had a difficult time at first seeing how literacy could possibly relate to numbers. My limited view of literacy consisted of reading books and being able to write a paper about it. Although that is a part of literacy, there is so much more to it.

A student who is math literate, in my opinion, is someone who can read a problem, understand what its asking, know how to solve it, and understand how it applies to the real world. That is asking a lot more from a student then just being able to memorize a formula and use it on a test. I want my students to be able to understand why what they are learning is important and how it is applicable to them. This can be done in a multitude of ways. In this education course: Language, Literacy, and Learning in the Content Areas, I have learned skills and techniques that will help me contribute to the literacy of my future students.

I learned techniques in reading comprehension, vocabulary, oral language digital literacy, and writing to help my students to improve their math literacy. To help my students improve their reading comprehension and vocabulary I can use before, during and after reading activities. For example, I taught my brother a small 15 minute math lesson. I had him take two minutes and tell me the similarities and differences he noticed in the five pictures of a line, segment, ray, median, and a perpendicular

line.  (Before reading activity) Then together we discussed all differences and similarities, and I had him write down formal definitions for all five elements. (During reading activity) After the lesson, I gave him a piece of paper with the five elements written down, and he was asked to draw a picture that represented each of the elements. (After reading activity) Using this strategy to teach math, increased my brothers literacy on recognizing different line segments.

Oral language is something I had never thought of when teaching math. Don’t kids just listen to your lecture, take notes, do their homework and get straight A’s? That was my math experience. As a  class we have discussed many different ways to incorporate oral language into our discipline. Planning math lessons that include presentations, class discussions, and small group discussions will greatly improve student’s literacy.

Digital literacy and writing can be combined into a project that involves students researching a famous mathematician, or researching a good math website (like www.AAAmath.com and www.mathforum.com)  and writing about it. There are multiple ways to include both writing and digital literacy into a math class.

Exploring different ways to help my future students become more literate has been a lot of fun. Who wants to simply lecture all day, or even listen to a lecture all day for that matter. I am not saying I will never lecture, but I will do my best to incorporate the techniques I have learned to help my students become math literate. A fun website I came across that has helped me see how other teachers have incorporated literacy techniques into their math classrooms is http://www.brighthubeducation.com/. There are tons of fun activities and suggestions for how to teach more complex topics. It is possible to make math fun and enjoyable, and to help students become literate at the same time.