The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 1

The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom

Hannah E. Gunter

University of Georgia
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 2

Introduction

Reading and writing is viewed as traditional literacy by most people and many educators

as well. Because of this, reading and writing are not traditionally explicitly taught within the

mathematics classroom. Math teachers often assume their students should understand and have

the basic reading skills needed when they come to math class. In a newsletter on best practices,

a consultant says it best: Promoting literacy is a shared responsibility for all content teachers,

not just English/language arts teachers, (HSTW Staff Development Conference, 2012). Math

teachers have a lot of content they must teach students that the reading or language arts teacher

might not think is necessary for their craft. Math incorporates numbers, symbols, images, and

graphs. Who better to teach students how to read those types of things than a math teacher?

Working with many English Language Learners (ELLs) and students under the Special

Education umbrella for the past two years, I understand how important it is to teach math literacy

within my math class. These students need further vocabulary development to increase their

understanding across all content areas. Their language barrier or disability increase their

difficulty of math vocabulary. Therefore, I started researching how content area literacy can help

students be more successful within the content area. I have chosen to focus on literacy within

mathematics instruction. The guiding question for this inquiry is Does content area literacy

strategies help fourth grade math students better understand the processes within math problem

solving and does it raise their math grade and test scores?

The state of Georgia did not formally adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS),

but did use CCSS to guide the new state standards, the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE).

These standards are primarily reading and writing focused, including within the content area of

mathematics. This correlates to how much reading and writing is required in the state
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 3

standardized test, the Georgia Milestones. Students are not only required to shade in the correct

answer (or their best guess) on standardized tests, but they now are required to write about their

thought process and their answer. This standardized test is becoming more and more intense with

reading and writing. I am hoping this inquiry helps my pedagogical stance. Additionally, I am

eager for this research to guide teaching within my fourth grade class.

Literacy has many more meanings that students must be taught through the content areas.

As Maureen P. Boyd (2016) says in the article Calling for Response-ability in Our Classrooms,

teacher talk is not just telling students what to do and what not to do. Teacher talk, a kind of

conversation that allows students to share their ideas and teaches their peers to have respect for

what is said, has evolved over the years and is another type of literacy students must learn to

read. Teachers plan lessons, invite student contributions, and then attentively listen and

contingently respond to student ideas and contributions as they guide thinking in elaborated and

analytic ways, (p. 226). It is the job of all teachers to help teach students how to be respectful

when listening to other people and to respond appropriately.

Theoretical Framework

The constructivist theory centers on the idea that students must have prior knowledge in

order to build new knowledge. An article written by Martin A. Simon (1995) entitled

Reconstructing Mathematics Pedagogy from a Constructivist Perspective, says, we construct

our knowledge of our world from our perceptions and experiences, which are themselves

mediated through our previous knowledge. Learning is the process by which human beings adapt

to their experiential world, (p. 115). I believe that students learn mathematical concepts best by

building upon their prior knowledge and by using real life experiences to apply the concepts. I
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 4

also think that when we use word problems with real life experiences that apply to the students,

they will have a deeper understanding of the concepts presented.

By giving students real world connections when working and applying skills on word

problems, they can connect the dots better and gain a stronger understanding of the concept

being taught through the word problems. From experience, I see students interested and engaged

in learning math concepts when interacting with peers. The social constructivist theory also

guides my classroom activities. Penny Oldfather and Jane West (1999) wrote the social

constructivist teacher reaches into the minds of learners to tap their existing knowledge and

build a basis for them to bridge to the next understanding, (p. 72). By using this theory and the

idea of teacher talk from Boyd (2016), I am able to facilitate beneficial conversations centered

on math concepts. Academic conversations support ELL and students with disabilities as well.

The hope with this type of conversation is that students think of the conversations as they talk

together in a small group that is not teacher led. I plan many activities where students are in pairs

or small groups and are learning from each other by discussing the best way to solve a problem. I

try to help them build these problem solving skills and learn from one another. Many of these

activities involve word problems, which require students to use those reading strategies they

have explicitly learned from their reading teacher. Before, I took their prior knowledge for

granted and briefly reminded them to use their reading strategies when working out word

problems. For this inquiry, I planned out specific lessons to teach students how to use various

reading strategies and specific math reading strategies. So, in addition to students working with

each other and building relationships with one another, they were also working with their own

prior knowledge and experiences to put themselves in the word problems to work through them.
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 5

The social constructivist theory is especially helpful for my ELL students. In a chapter

from Content Area Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms, Gillis et.

al (2012) says we must engage our English language learners in opportunities to use academic

language, not just social language, (p. 68). Later, in this same chapter, the authors describe

reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching involves important dialogue the teacher leads in

modeling the comprehension strategies, but then gradually turns the responsibility for leading the

dialogue over to students, (p. 79). This is similar to the teacher talk and activates that prior

knowledge and teaches students how become literate and social mathematically.

Literature Review

Reading and being literate has become an importance in our student's lives as early as

Kindergarten. The pressures of new state standards (similar or almost exactly like Common Core State

Standards) require teachers to fill the literacy gaps students may have all the way into middle and high

school. The goal of school is to prepare students to become productive citizens of society and in order for

them to be productive citizens of society, they must know how to read. Being literate students and

eventually literate adults includes reading words and reading numbers. Literacy is crucial for development

in all subject areas, especially in Math. Students must have a deep enough understanding in math to be

able to switch back and forth between comprehending words and numbers.

It is not only reading that is involved in being math literate. For students to become

mathematically literate, they must also be able to write about math. With technology playing a huge part

in todays education world, math teachers must take 21st century literacies into account. Gillis et. al

(2012) says, disciplinary literacies remind teachers to focus on preparing students to write within a

disciplinary framework and to prepare writing assignments that help students explore their place in the

production of disciplinary knowledge, (p. 283). Math teachers must be able to educate students on how

to communicate in written form their math ideas and math concepts. This skill will help students in the

future because the face of mathematics changes so rapidly, if they understand how to communicate well
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 6

in written form, they will be able to adapt as the content are of math changes.

Educators must also have the tools to teach students early on to comprehend math word problems

and read about mathematics in real world problems. For example, when students come across a news

article about the price of gas and are at the age they have to pay for gas, we want for them to be able to

comprehend what they are reading, as well as apply their mathematical knowledge to help them solve the

problem and be able to budget for gas money. While this example is a tiny piece of what students will

actually read in math, it is important that we teach students how to use comprehension and decoding

strategies while reading a Math word problem or reading numbers in a book or newspaper article.

In Whitney Davis' (2013) Master's theses, she discusses the importance of literacy strategies in a

mathematics classroom partly due to Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This push for literacy

strategies needs to happen because students are being taught math using real world problems and must

navigate around solving those, but possibly not knowing how to comprehend all of the words in the

problems (p. 9). With this known fact, educators must give their students the opportunity to read in math

class. Beth Hurst and Cathy J. Pearman (2013) point out that Attwell (2007) says "The major predictor of

academic success is the amount of time that a student spends reading," (p. 226). If we know that this is

true, then why would we not devote a good chunk of math class to developing reading strategies with

math?

A couple of authors talk about how reading math is reading words, numbers, and symbols (Davis,

2013; Edwards, Maloy, & Anderson, 2009). Teachers must realize that even when teaching students how

to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, they must teach them to decode uncommon words that students do

not necessarily hear in their daily lives. There are also many math vocabulary words that have other

meanings that are more common to students. Edwards, Maloy, & Anderson (2009) share the example of

product, difference, and represents. In the math world, product is the answer to a multiplication problem.

However, in a student's everyday world, a product is something you can buy. Difference is something a

student might notice visually about two people, but in their math world, difference is the answer to a

subtraction problem. The word represents may be seen in their social studies class when discussing
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 7

politics, but in their math class, it translates to "stands for" (p. 2). While these are only a few examples of

the complexities math vocabulary poses for elementary students, there are so many language barriers for

students to encounter when reading math word problems.

Methodology

As a sixth year teacher, I survived the slump and I feel like I have seen a little bit of

everything. Over the past six years, we have seen a transition from Common Core State

Standards (CCSS) for Math, Reading, and English/Language Arts to the Georgia Standards of

Excellence (GSE) for Math, Reading, and English/Language Arts. In an editorial piece from the

Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), Maureen Downey (2015) discusses the slight changes in the

GSE from the CCSS. There are some sequencing changes and some changes to wording of the

actual standards, but other than that, the content and what students need to learn is the same.

Thus, students still need to be able to decode and comprehend a Math word problem in fourth

grade, despite their first or second grade reading level.

Because of these in depth Math standards, the problem statement addresses the

importance of literacy within the explicit teaching of Math. As standards become more rigorous

in our elementary schools, students are required to read more in depth literature in every content

area. Reading classes include rigorous informational text standards. Social Studies and Science

are covering more content than before, and Math problems are becoming lengthier and require

students to use higher order thinking skills more often. Standardized testing now has more

reading on it than ever before and students are required to test in longer chunks. In order to build

the stamina and higher order thinking skills students need for future academic endeavors, I

believe it is important for students to become more comfortable with content literacy in math

class. Will content literacy in 4th grade Math classes affect academic growth in students?
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 8

The purpose of this study is to determine if literacy will help 4th grade students academic

growth in Math. I researched several books related to literacy in the mathematics classroom and

found Math in Plain English to be beneficial. The book had strategies that were realistic and

attainable within the fourth grade classroom. I slowly incorporated different strategies into my

Math small groups, and also taught three strategies explicitly to the entire class. These strategies

include, but are not limited to teaching Math words explicitly, reinforcing reading

comprehension skills that apply to mathematics, and connecting memorization to meaning in

Math (Benjamin, 2011). I have data from a benchmark test taken by all students in our district.

This information helps me see where students are at the beginning, middle, and end of year. I

also gave students a pretest with eleven word problems at the beginning of the time period for

my data collection. At the end of the inquiry, I gave students a post-test to measure progress.

Between the two tests, students received direct instruction using three different strategies

incorporating literacy into math. At the end of the study, I assessed students again and measured

their progress using a percentage of growth. The percentage will come from the class set of data

and will show the percentage of students who scored a 0-20%, 21%-40%, 41%-60%, 61%-80%,

and 81%-100% on the pretest and on the posttest.

Demographics

The school, Smith Elementary,1 is in Atlanta, Georgia and is a Title 1 school. The student

population is as follows: Hispanic=44.7%, Black=26.8%, White=17.2%, Asian=6.1%, and Two

Races, American Indian, and Pacific Islander=5.1% (Start Class website). Our students who are

eligible for free and reduced lunch equals 67.6%. Smith Elementary is housed in a nice

neighborhood with a strong neighborhood population of students and supportive families.

1 School name has been changed.

The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 9

However, there are also many families that live at or below the poverty line, thus creating

minimal support academically at home due to job constraints. As the data shows, there are also

many families where language is a barrier and the families are unable to help students at home.

This also helps guide my inquiry to help students develop strategies they can perform at home

with minimal to no help.

The strategies were taught to two classes. The morning class was made up of 21-24

students throughout the semester. The afternoon class was made up of 16 students. The morning

class housed our ELL students and students in the EIP program. The afternoon class was a mix

of students with an IEP and students who were high-achieving according to our MAP

assessment2.

Literacy Strategies in the Math Classroom

Throughout the months of January to April, I explicitly taught students how to use

various literacy strategies within their math work. The very first strategy is called UNRAAVEL.

This strategy is a spin-off of a reading strategy created by Larry Bell

(http://www.educationworld.com/node/12382). This strategy also has a song to go with it. I try to

use songs as often as possible so students have something they can sing in their heads silently to

help them work out problems. This strategy has a phrase that goes along with each letter. We

started by writing UNRAAVEL in our math journals down the page. As we went through each

letter, we solved a part of a problem using that letter. U=Underline the question. N=Now predict.

R=Read the problem again. A=Are the important words circled? A=Apply the steps you chose

when you predicted. V=Verify your answer. E=Eliminate the wrong answers (if multiple choice).

2The Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment is given to every student in the
school system as a benchmark at the beginning, middle, and end of year.
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 10

L=Let your answer stay or rework the problem. I also gave students bookmarks to put in their

math boxes and to take home. This bookmark has the steps to help them when they are solving

problems at home. Throughout January, students focused on using this strategy to help them

solve word problems. Students eventually got to where they did not need the steps right in front

of them and were able to go through the steps, almost as if they were habit.

The next strategy I focused on teaching students was explicit teaching of mathematical

vocabulary. Amy Benjamin (2011) wrote the book Math in Plain English. In this book, she

offers many strategies for teaching literacy in the math classroom. She brings up that when we

use ordinary vocabulary (not technical math terms), they are usually combined with enough

context that a student can get a good idea of what the word means. However, with math

vocabulary, that is usually not the case. Many times, students will have one lesson where the

vocabulary word is explicitly taught and then they are supposed to apply that knowledge to all

other times the word is used. Unfortunately, many mathematical terms have more than one

personality, (p. 1). We cannot just teach students the meaning of value one time and expect

them to be able to apply the meaning of that word in all ways it can be used.

During this explicit teaching, I used activating strategies such as word sorts and chalk

talks. With the word sorts, I would give students a picture of the word or the word itself and they

had to sort the words into categories they chose. The goal is they could explain why they sorted

the words into those categories by using their background knowledge. The particular word sort I

used during this part of my inquiry was with two dimensional shapes. Students got a bag with

multiple names of shapes and pictures of shapes and had to sort them. Some groups sorted

according to the number of sides. Some groups sorted according to the number of vertices. And

other groups sorted according to where you see the shape in real life. The goal of this word sort
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 11

was to have students use their background knowledge and activate that prior learning. Then, I

had a base to teach new geometry terms by making connections with what they already knew.

After teaching these two strategies, I took two weeks to allow them time to focus on

using and becoming proficient at using those strategies. In March, I began explicitly teaching

students how to unlock the meaning of word problems as Benjamin (2011) says. In this

strategy, I taught students that they must focus on the language of the word problem and have to

learn how to translate the language into math language (p. 56). If we only teach students that the

word sum will always mean they must add the numbers in the word problem, we have failed as

teachers. Students must focus on the complete word problem and train their brains to turn the

word and numbers in the word problem into a language they understand.

This strategy also supports my theoretical framework and allows students to make

connections with their prior knowledge to solve the problem. Benjamin discusses how much

easier it is for students to solve a word problem if they have background knowledge of the

subject. If we give students a word problem revolving around making deposits at the bank and

they have never made a deposit at the bank or watched their parents make deposits, they may

find that problem harder to solve because they have no background information about it. They

are going to have to work a little harder to figure out the language of the problem. Another job of

educators is to teach students and give them the background knowledge they will need later on in

school. Benjamin says lack of background knowledge is the major impediment to reading

comprehension and information processing in all academic areasthe kind of background

knowledge that students need for school success is the kind they will find in rich conversations

that expand their world, (p. 58-59). That is the kind literacy instruction all teachers should aim

for.
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 12

Findings

I assessed students in January, shortly after arriving back in school from their winter

break. The pretest consisted of eleven word problems. The problems contained addition,

subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. The majority of the problems had a fraction in

them because fractions comprise the majority of fourth grade math standards.

In the morning class, 21 students took the pretest. There were 2 students who scored a

20% or below, 3 students scored between 21% and 40%, 9 students scored between 41% and

60%, 4 students scored between 61% and 80%, and 3 students scored between 81% and 100%.

This class had approximately 15 students who received ELL services and 9 students who

received EIP services. 3 of these students received EIP and ELL services, but did not receive EIP

support at the same time they received ELL support.

The afternoon class had 16 students take the pretest. There was 1 student who scored a

20% or below, 5 students who scored between 21% and 40%, 4 students who scored between

41% and 60%, 4 students who scored between 61% and 80%, and 3 students who scored

between 81% and 100%. There were five students with an IEP in this class.

After teaching the three literacy strategies, I gave a posttest with ten questions. This test

also consisted of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. The morning class

had 24 students take this posttest. 5 students scored below 20%, 0 students scored between 21%

and 40%, 4 students scored between 41% and 60%, 8 students scored between 61% and 80%,

and 7 students scored between 81% and 100%. In the afternoon class, 16 students took the

posttest. 1 student scored below 20%, 0 students scored between 21% and 40%, 1 student scored

between 41% and 60%, 3 students scored between 61% and 80%, and 11 students scored

between 81% and 100%.

The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 13

The table below shows the data for the morning class. The percentages are the number of

students who scored in that category out of all of the students who took the pretest.

Score Category Beginning of Semester End of Semester Percentage

Percentage (student/total (student/total students)

students)

0%-20% 2/21=9.5% 5/24%=20.8%

21%-40% 3/21=14.2% 0/24=0%

41%-60% 9/21=42.8% 4/24=16.6%

61%-80% 4/21=19% 8/24%=33%

81%-100% 3/21=14.2% 7/24=29.1%

The data shows there was a higher percentage of students who scored 0%-20% at the end of the

semester, but there are factors that could potentially go along with that. This posttest was given

at the end of the year when students are mentally exhausted. The posttest was also given after the

Georgia Milestones, which could potentially have an effect on students scores.

The table below shows the data for the afternoon class.

Score Category Beginning of Semester End of Semester

(student/total students) (student/total students)

0%-20% 1/16=6.25% 1/16=6.25%

21%-40% 5/16=31.25% 0/16=0%

41%-60% 4/16=25% 1/16=6.25%

61%-80% 4/16=25% 3/16=18.75%

81%-100% 3/16=18.75% 11/16=68.75%

The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 14

This data shows that the afternoon class did have success in most categories with incorporating

literacy strategies into math.

Student Perceptions

In May, I gave students a survey about their perceptions of literacy in math. This survey

was given for a few reasons. The first reason was to get an idea of how the students perceived the

different literacy strategies taught within the math classroom, or if they even thought of those as

literacy strategies since they were in math class. The second reason was to see what literacy

strategy they found most helpful. The final reason the survey was given in May was to give

students a little time after state testing to calm their anxieties and have a little more of a relaxed

atmosphere.

There were three survey questions and they were all free response. The first question was

What literacy strategy did you like using best in math class? These results were categorized

into 4 categories: 1) the use of the UNRAAVEL strategy; 2) the use of highlighting/underlining

and annotating; 3) Writing in math; and 4) I do not know. The second question asked What

literacy strategies do you remember using this year in math class? These results were also

categorized into the same four categories as the first question. The final question asked was Do

you think literacy strategies help you in math class? Why do you think they help you or do not

help you? These results were categorized into two categories: 1) They helped me because it

makes problems easier to do; and 2) They helped me prepare for fifth grade.

The survey was completed by 35 students. The results are shown in the table below.

The use of the The use of Writing in math I do not know

UNRAAVEL highlighting/underlining

strategy and/or annotating

The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 15

3 students 11 students 3 students 18 students

In the future, literacy strategies within the math classroom will be even more explicitly taught

and emphasized that they are literacy strategies to help them solve math problems. The data from

the pre and posttest was a positive amount of growth after teaching three literacy strategies.

However, these results show that students were unable to connect those strategies to literacy.

The results from question two are shown in the table below.

The use of the The use of Writing in math I do not know

UNRAAVEL highlighting/underlining

strategy and/or annotating

4 students 5 students 2 student 24 students

The results from question three are shown in the table below.

They helped me because it They helped me prepare for I do not know

makes problems easier to do fifth grade

12 students 3 students 20 students

Future Implications

The data shows that students did perform better on word problems after being explicitly

taught the literacy strategies. Students were underlining more and were annotating after being

taught that they could do that in math class. The student perceptions from the survey did not

show that they really grasped the concept of using literacy within the math classroom. In the
The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 16

future, the literacy concepts will be taught throughout the entire school year, as opposed to one

semester. Students will also be taught a couple of additional strategies. There will be a specific

vocabulary section in their journal and writing will be incorporated more. Despite the negative

perceptions of literacy within the math classroom, test scores show that incorporating literacy

within the math classroom does help students succeed.

Conclusion

Based on qualitative and quantitative results, survey results, and discussions with my

students, teaching literacy within the math classroom does help students develop a deeper

understanding of the math concepts. They are able to make stronger connections when

vocabulary is taught explicitly and is connected to their prior knowledge. They learn to read the

language of math and look at problems as a whole instead of choosing a few key words.

Teaching literacy within math helps students connect their real world experiences to the

problems they solve. In order to best prepare our future generation in a math and science driven

world, educators must ignore the phrase I dont teach reading, and embrace that all educators

are reading teachers.

The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 17

References

Barkley, S. (2013). Instructional Strategies Motivate and Engage Students in Deeper

Learning. Proceedings from The 26th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference.

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Benjamin, A. (2011). Math in plain English: Literacy strategies for the mathematics

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Bell, L. Reading Strategies Improve Student Test Performance. Retrieved from

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Boyd, M.P. (2016). Calling for Response-ability in Our Classrooms. Language Arts.

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Downey, M. (2015). State ed board tweaks Common Core. Will critics be satisfied?

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Edwards, S., Maloy, R., & Anderson, G. (2009). Reading Coaching for Math Word

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The Language of Math in an Elementary Classroom 18

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