Running head: LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS

Literacy in the Classroom: 6th Grade Mathematics Vanessa Graves Foster Montclair State University

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS Literacy in the Classroom: 6th Grade Mathematics Is literacy exclusive to the domain of language arts? Given how crucial literacy is to comprehension in the world of education, can any math environment afford to be devoid of rich language influences? This paper showcases one mathematics classroom through the lens of its inclusion of literacy aims, objectives, goals and content, and explores student response, outcomes, and engagement. Classroom Structure The classroom is rectangular and framed by an L-shaped arrangement of 12 large windows, eight along one wall and 4 along another. This is a math and science room, but has only been one for the past year; the history of language arts and social studies is told in a messy classroom library that includes historical accounts of the Wild West, informational texts about insects, and The Giver. No longer the focal point of activity, this group of shelves has been

pushed against the longest and farthest window-wall and completely blocked off by tables with a row of 10 computers. 8 of these computers work. The others have been dismantled for parts. This is the only classroom in the building with so many computers, and this has become a unique station that the students use daily. Pasted above the computers is a chart paper listing of Math Websites that are appropriate for sixth graders: www.ixl.com; www.mathplayground.com, www.internet4classrooms.com, www.studyisland.com. On this same sheet, there is also the suggestion to do a Google search for create

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS a graph pie chart. Each time students work in this center, they clamor for the inclusion of a new website, CoolMathGames.com. I asked one student why. His reply: because its cool!

The two shortest walls are lined with tables that contain various classroom manipulatives: fake money grouped by units, stacking blocks, counters, rulers, circular and rectangular tracing guides, protractors, calculators, colored pencils, paper scraps and more. All of these tools are designed to make math a hands-on experience. The walls are not a decorative space. They have been put to work, right alongside every other element of this classroom. There is little that is prefabricated; lamination is a rarity here. Instead, we see large sheets of chart paper, ripped straight from a lesson. These charts display the trail of learning from September until now: Ordered Pairs; Mean, Median and Mode; Greater than, Less than; Real-world Examples of Lines and Angles; Circumference of a Circle and more. Each of these charts contains more words than numbers or symbols, and much space and time is dedicated to explaining concepts using standard English. Students engage with and reference these sheets frequently throughout the day.

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS Student Profile The students themselves sit in clusters of four, with two students to each long desk, and two desks pushed in to face each other. They work together in these groupings often. The sixth grade in this school is compartmentalized, and so two different groups of sixth graders meet in

this room for math and science lessons: one class of 11with the label Learning Disabled- Severe, and a class of 16 who have been labeled Learning Disabled Mild to Moderate. There is one permanent classroom aide who stays with the teacher at all times, and one personal aide who filters in and out. Once NJASK is completed, this class will return to including science lessons as well. But until that time, each class is offered 1 to 3 hours of math each day. Despite being recognized as a 6th grade classroom, several of the students are reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level. The students have a broad range of diagnosis, from Autism Spectrum Disorder to cognitive impairment, and there is a wide disparity in ability levels as well as engagement in the course material. This has led to a variety of means of engagement and representation of the material: media-driven lessons, songs, manipulatives, word problems, trivia games, peer work, oral questioning, drawing, and online modules are all commonly used to meet the needs of this complex community of learners. Curriculum Given the profiles of the students and the newness of the Common Core State Standards, there is no standard textbook or adopted curriculum that is used to structure the lessons and learning in this room. Instead, the Common Core State Standards for 6th grade Mathematics are prominently displayed on a wall behind the teachers desk, and individual lessons are constructed using a variety of online resources. The standards that this room works toward are as follows:

Ratios and Proportional Relationships o Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS

The Number System o Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions. o Multiply and divide multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples. o Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers.

Expressions and Equations o Apply and extend previous understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions. o Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities. o Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables. Geometry o Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume. Statistics and Probability o Develop understanding of statistical variability. o Summarize and describe distributions.

Beneath each posted standard, the teacher has a print out of student names in the form of a table. When I questioned her about this, she said that this was a way that she used in the beginning of the year to track individual progress along each of the standards. When a student did something in class that demonstrated understanding of the concept, they got a check mark next to their name. However, students began to view this as a ranking system and would often remark on where their level of understanding was in relation to others in the class. This ran against her philosophy of education, so she discontinued the practice. She keeps the standards listed as a way of framing what will be discussed in the classroom, but does not publicly list student achievement of particular goals.

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS NJASK In addition to the common core, there is also a push toward providing students enough support and practice to perform at their best possible level on the NJASK. Much attention is given to identifying and

reviewing the concepts that are most difficult for the students in relation to the test. Practice tests culled from the NJ Department of Education website are shortened, modified, and then given in chunks throughout the span of a week. The questions that have posed the largest problem for the largest number of students are reviewed and then given in a simplified form for homework. Constructed Responses This classroom focuses on preparing students to comprehend and answer constructed response questions on the NJASK. These kinds of questions ask students to explain the logic surrounding a mathematical equation. The chart paper display that deals with constructed responses poses the following questions: What is the question about? What is some of the information? What is the first think you thought about doing? What do you think the answer is? How do you know the answer makes sense? A smaller printed version of these questions is pasted onto every student desk, and students are given daily opportunities to employ the strategy presented here. Additionally, the students have been given a worksheet that deconstructs constructed response questions into how and why categories: how asks students to explain

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS

how they found an answer and to explain step by step what they did to solve the problem; why questions ask students why their answer is correct, and requires that they explain their reason for what they did to solve the problem. An enlarged version of this worksheet is one of the few things that has been laminated and posted on the wall, and only after these particular strategies were proven useful in a classroom lesson. Math Vocabulary One preprinted element of the classroom walls is a listing of math vocabulary words. These words transcend a particular standard, and are instead useful concepts for the basis of mathematical literacy. Each word is written in standard English and then represented by a corresponding mathematical symbol or equation. The math vocabulary words include: evaluate, algebraic expression, numerical expression, exponent, variable, value, multiple, common multiple, common factor, least common multiple, greatest common factor, fraction, numerator, denominator, improper fraction, reciprocals, dividend, divisor, quotient, ratio, equivalent ratio, proportion, quantity, rate, double number line diagram, unit rate, inequality, coefficient, and constant. The words that that are related conceptually are represented in the same color and grouped together; there is no alphabetical organization of the words. The teacher makes reference to math vocabulary words throughout her lessons, and students refer to the listing on their own as well.

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS Daily Schedule This school operates on an A-Week/B-Week block schedule, and the two classes of students in this room alternate between the LAL/Social Studies, Mathematics/Science, and elective classrooms. On Monday, one group is in the classroom for over two hours. On Friday, no group is in the classroom for longer than one hour. As such, the daily routine varies greatly. One element that remains the same every day is the Bite and Write, which is a question or series of questions that are displayed on the smart board in the classroom and completed by students while they eat their breakfast. The Bite and Write is usually the continuation of yesterdays lesson and an opportunity for students to display mastery of concepts that have been practiced in homework. Bite and Writes often feature Constructed Response questions. Once the Bite and Write has been completed and concepts have been reviewed, the following elements may be utilized: explicit instruction, co-calculations, small group activities centered around stations, partner work, individual work, discussion, and games. I will explore the approach used on one particular day. On this day, the teacher transitioned from the Bite and Write into a segment of explicit instruction. This is when she will introduce or further review a concept, and provide modeled examples of the concept being taught. For many students, this is their second year with this teacher. This familiarity displays itself in the way lessons are presented. Here is one example: Do you guys remember the song I taught you last year thats all about mean, median, and mode? Mean, median, mode and range. You guys remember the song? Let me get my money. You guys are gonna be like I dont remember! until I get my money, and they youll say ok, Ill do it! Come on, I know you know it. <Students chattering indistinctly> Ok, who wants to try it? Once you guys try it, I want you to tell me what

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS each thing means <child says thats a kiddy song!> It doesnt matter if its a kiddy song! Its just so you guys can remember the steps. So come on, whos gonna sing it with me? Mean means <AVERAGE!, students sing together loudly and laugh> Oh, I thought you guys didnt know it? No, its ok, now were all going to sing it {to the tune of Frere Jacques}. Mean means average, mean means average, mode the most mode the most, medians in the middle, medians in the middle, range high low, range high low.

The teacher paused when she reached each of the terms that she intended to explore in the lesson today to allow the students to sing it before she said it herself. After referencing this song and students engaged in singing together, several students were able to correctly define mean, median, mode and range. The lesson continued with student and teacher together exploring how to calculate mean, median and mode. At one point, instead of writing the word mean on the white board, the teacher went to her resource wall and pulled off the paper representations of mean, median, mode and range that had been created during a prior lesson and had the definitions written on them. She posted these sheets above the white board, and then used the white board as a workspace where she and the students co-calculated the mean, median, mode and range of the ages of the students in the class. After finding the mean together as a group, students volunteered to go to the whiteboard to find the remaining calculations with teacher support.

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS The next step in this lesson was independent work engaged around finding the mode. The teacher introduced

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this portion by singing the mode line from the song and stating that the class was going to work together to find the mode. Students engaged by singing the mode line and offering the definition of mode without prompting. The teacher distributed a table that had the ABCs listed in order, as well as a cut-out comic strip, and instructed students to work in pairs to find the mode of each individual letter of the alphabet within their strip. This was an adaptation of a lesson that called for students to find the mode of certain letters within an entire newspaper article. After students engaged in the activity in pairs, they gathered back together and read their comic strips to the class. They then presented their findings for each letter. From this activity, the students dragged their chairs and sat around one set of tables toward the front of the classroom. The teacher opened a box, and an all-class game of Taboo began. In order to have a turn, a student needed to correctly answer a question related to current class content. If a student was able to successfully describe their Taboo card, they were given classroom money. This game was played until the end of the 3 hour morning instructional block, when students left for lunch.

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS Analysis Despite being classified as a mathematics and science classroom, this environment is

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absolutely steeped in the stuff of literacy and language awareness. It is a print-rich, with a heavy emphasis on understanding concepts on a deep level and connecting new concepts with prior knowledge. According to Turner et al., literacy leaders seek to challenge their students to think deeply about what they read, for the depth of their thinking is the pathway to intellectual growth (Turner, Applegate, & Applegate, 2009, p. 255). Supporting the learner toward an interconnected depth of understanding is the mark of a literacy leader, and I would say that both the physical classroom and the structure of the lessons support this aim. This class is not about the random accumulation of facts and figures. Instead, it constantly seeks to connect what the learner knows (evidenced by the chart paper snapshots of prior lessons that are frequently referenced in current investigations, and the use of songs and prior instructional techniques to expand and develop understanding around a known concept) to what they aim to know (evidenced by the Common Core State Standards posted on the wall, and the math vocabulary that is grouped conceptually and extends beyond what theyve already explored in the class). This connection is often made in the context of spoken and written verbal explorations of mathematical concepts. According to Fountas and Pinnell, language is governed by rules, purposeful and learned through use, and varies in many ways (Fountas & Pinnell, n.d., p. 58). This classroom supports these concepts in both the content it delivers as well as the pedagogical methods used to engage students. Governed by rules

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This classroom relies on the interplay of the rules of language and mathematics to support its students. In the exploration of constructed responses, students are asked to consider both the mathematical logic of an equation as well as convey a language based conceptual understanding. This calls for the student to be able to use language to make public their personal understanding of a mathematical concept or truth, and this is not a simple task. Purposeful Language is purposeful in this classroom both as a means of exploring and explaining mathematical concepts, but also as a means of engaging in playful and enjoyable exercises. The different games that are employed in this classroom, both classroom-wide and computer-based, use language as a means of engaging the learner. Answers must be input in standard English, drop-down menus must be understood and navigated, and vocabulary words must be described in keeping with the rules of various games. If a student is able to figure out the rules of a particular game and engage in it using the language that it asks for, they are rewarded. All of these educational games have a purpose beyond the initial question that is being answered, and these are convenient ways of underscoring the importance of literacy concepts in unconventional ways. Learned through use It is not expected that students be able to access the literacy or mathematical information presented in this classroom immediately. It is not expected that students display mastery of a concept after only being introduced to it once. Instead, multiple opportunities for understanding are presented and emphasized repetitively throughout both a single lesson and the entire arc of the school year. This is part of the importance of the learning path that is evident in the chart paper that blankets the walls. Students are able to trace their learning from start to finish, and

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there is no consequence for reviewing what is already known or what has already been taught in order to access and understand a new concept. Varies in many ways As evidenced by the lesson example presented in this paper, this classroom engages with literacy and language in a variety of ways. It uses music and song to convey complex concepts and to help with retention of information, visual symbolic representations of concepts, written definitions, graphic print (such as the comic strips) to simplify assignments and support strong conceptual understanding, and it uses online media to allow students to explore both literacy and mathematics in the tech-savvy way that reflects their daily lives. By using a continuum of strategies, every student is more likely to be engaged in the way that works best for them personally. There is no one size fits all approach, and all forms of language and learning are supported and valued. A foundational element of this classroom is group and partner work. Griffin explores the social dynamics of beginning reading, and I would argue that this social element is crucial to the beginning understanding of any new and complex task or concept. Working with others allows learners to help each other fill in gaps in understanding and maintain engagement by allowing for an element of fun. Griffin notes that when students are able to work in pairs, they can create contexts outside of adult control and constraint in which peer dialogue can happen (Griffin, 2001, p. 371). Peer interaction is encouraged in this classroom by the frequent inclusion of student-directed work. A close examination of this literacy context reveals that this classroom is one that is deeply concerned with the language development of its students. The mathematical curriculum is rich with concepts that can be best understood using words, language, and real-world

LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS examples. As such, this teacher has indeed orchestrated an environment that language-rich, accessible in many ways, and conducive to learning for a wide variety of students.

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LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM: 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS References

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Fountas, & Pinnell (n.d.). What teachers need to know about language. In What teachers need to know about language (pp. 57-66). : . Griffin, M. L. (2001, March). Social contexts of beginning reading. Language Arts, 78(4), 371. Turner, J. D., Applegate, M. D., & Applegate, A. D. (2009). Teachers as literacy leaders. The Reading Teacher, 63(3), 254-256.