Literacy in math class?

Usually when you think about walking in a math classroom, the thought is that you will see numbers and drilling. I mean math doesn't involve any reading right? Besides a few word problems, math teachers do not need to address literacy at all. WRONG! Aside from the obvious literacy challenges presented in a word problem such as understanding complex vocabulary and extracting relevant information, "reading" equations and algorithms may be just as difficult. To make matters worse, most students struggling through math class do not even understand why they are made to do this kind of math in the first place.

In my own education, math was rarely presented in a contextual manner and little skills were given that addressed the organization of mathematical equations, word problems, and graphs. Luckily, math and science come easy to me, and honestly sometimes I welcome the objectivity involved with these subjects. On the other hand, I have always had great struggles with ELA. In ELA classes, I was always confused and couldn't really understand why I needed to read a certain novel or write some stupid poem about a memorable experience. Obviously, I understand now that it is important to be able to communicate with the world in various ways and be able understand the world around me. However, at the time I found it extremely difficult to do those things. Also, after basically spending my whole life in school, I realize that I am an extreme visual and auditory learner, so reading alone is kind of a daunting task.

Being forced to learn about something is no easy pill to swallow, and I have found that only 2 things ease the pain. First and foremost, we as teachers must sell it to the students. Its almost as if we have to create some sort of sales pitch to a client. It seems like an idea that gives the students a little too much power, but as a learner myself I can see where they are coming from. Whether it be by generating interest or simply applying it directly to their lives, they have to be emotionally involved to give a damn. Secondly, the way the material is addressed must be in a manner that is understood to them. If you give me written directions on how to build something, I will fail over and over, but give me a picture and I will put it together on the first try. These two things are extremely difficult for teachers, but if executed really make a difference in the classroom.

Last year, I taught a 6th grade math class and struggled on a daily basis to create ways to generate interest in the material. Finally, I saw a video from the TED conferences by Dan Meyer, which completely changed my thinking. I am not going to give a summary of this video because I think you should watch the video and because I think Dan Meyer can explain it better than me. In short, it is about creating video word problems, which I started doing every Friday and it made my life better. At the end of the year, the kids were excited for Friday because it was word problem day, which is not something you hear very much from a student.

Here is a link to the TED talk <-----By the way, the TED talks are awesome. Just saying.

This video is an example of a video word problem I did. Obviously, it would need to be stopped at the appropriate times to allow for group discussion. The answer is below :)

hint: A roller derby track is 180 ft in length (I would only tell this to them once they realized they need to know the length of the track to find the answer)

In my next post, I want to explore literacy in math and science a little more! Stay tuned!

answer: approximately 16,500 meters, if you answered 54,000 feet you didn't answer the question being asked. (The answer is approximate because students may have chosen to round differently)