Reading Strategies in Mathematics 1

Reading Strategies in Mathematics

Michael Roman

Manhattan College

EDUC 403
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 2

Abstract

In mathematics classes, students are constantly reading to solve problems.

Being able to effectively read is an important part of problem solving. While doing

observations, I worked with two students in a freshmen algebra class. These students,

Student A and Student B, were provided with during reading strategies designed to

improve their monitoring/clarifying and self-questioning skills when reading a problem to

solve it. These strategies seemed to be effective to improve both Student A’s and

Student B’s during reading skills. Students were given formal assessments to monitor

their progress and understanding of the content. These strategies helped students to

solve an algebra word problem using monitoring/clarifying and self-questioning

techniques.
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 3

Introduction

Reading is defined as looking at and comprehending the meaning of

material by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed,

according to Google dictionary. Reading is an essential skill to possess in mathematics.

Often, students struggle with reading in mathematics, for example with the textbook and

word problems. This is a major issue because if students are failing to comprehend the

meaning of key words, phrases, and symbols, they will be unable to solve problems and

ultimately struggle with understanding the root of the curriculum.

Look at the Problem

In high school mathematics, students are constantly required to complete word

problems. Word problems require students to have effective reading comprehension

skills and understand the mathematical concepts informed by the words. While doing

classroom observations in a ninth-grade Algebra I class at De Witt Clinton High School,

I noticed that students were very engaged in class discussions and daily work, had

effective and organized notes, and were able to show their work on the board. However,

some students struggled reading word problems, specifically reading those words out

loud. The question I will be researching is “What during-reading strategies can high

school students use to develop their reading of word problems?” If students can learn

and use effective during-reading strategies, they will be able to solve word problems.

Examine what is Known

 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 4

In the Algebra I class, I worked with two students who struggled with completing

word problems; students A and B. While observing the students I noticed different ways

in which they struggled to solve word problems. Student A did not annotate or write

down anything to establish what they knew and what he was being asked. Student A

struggled with monitoring and clarifying; he would be able to solve the problem once he

understood the vocabulary words he struggled with reading. When I spoke to Student A

about what he was struggling with, he said sometimes he does not fully understand

what they problem is asking of him.

On the other hand, Student B’s work did not show he knew the correct steps to

solve the problem. Student B struggled with figuring out the next step after the current

one he was on. However, he understood the concepts behind each step. He just

struggled with the order of them/ When talking to Student B about his struggles, he said

the way in which the problems are constructed makes it difficult for him to correctly

remember the order of each step.

Acquiring Knowledge

To see which during-reading strategies work the best for students, I researched

two of them. Since Student A struggled with monitoring/clarifying, and Student B

struggled with self-questioning, I decided to provide the students with one of each. The

purpose of monitoring/clarifying is to make sure the material makes sense. If the

material does not make sense, then the strategy should make sense of it. The purpose

of self-questioning is to generate questions to guide thinking and figure out the next
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 5

step. I also researched the effectiveness of reading strategies as a whole on students’

performance.

One monitoring/clarifying strategy is KWL (Know, Want, Learned). Students can

use KWL to determine their previous knowledge about the problem (K), determine what

they want to know to solve the problem (W), and determine what they have learned

after solving the problem (L). Students can divide their paper into three columns, one for

each letter, and while reading the problem fill the columns in. This is one of many during

reading strategies Maureen McLaughlin mentions in her textbook.

A study I found focuses on students that have English as a foreign language and

the impact KWL has on their reading comprehension achievement (Riswanto, 2014).

The study focused on eighth grade students. Students were given a pretest before

reading and a posttest after reading to assess their reading comprehension. The results

found a significant difference in reading comprehension achievement between the

students who were taught by using KWL strategy and those who were not. For the most

parts, students that used the KWL strategy had better achievement in reading

comprehension and were enthusiastic towards and active in comprehending reading

texts by using KWL strategy.

An effective self-questioning strategy students can use is Question-answer

relationships. This is another reading strategy McLaughlin recommends. This strategy

helps students understand how to self-question. Students use a combination prior

knowledge and information from the text to solve the problem. There are two question-

answer relationships within these two information sources. Question-answer

 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 6

relationships helps students focus on the information source needed to answer the

question.

In one study, question-answer relationships were used to assess students’

reading comprehension skills (Cummins, 2012). The study focused on fourth grade

students in an urban New York school. Students were instructed to read passages and

then create questions that fit into a question-answer relationships category. The

effectiveness of the strategy was assessed by means of a pretest and posttest. The

findings of this research show that question-answer relationships can be effective. The

increase in test scores with the lower-level students shows the positive effects of the

QAR strategy. The students involved in this study were actively engaged and focused.

The final study I will discuss compared factors between high and low-

performance in reading achievement. The study focused on elementary rural

Appalachian schools (Chambers, 2014). This comparative case study compared

instructional reading strategies, as well as other variables that distinguish between two

schools with similar student demographics and economic disadvantages. The

researcher gathered data through observations and interviews. The observations took

place during each grade level’s reading instruction. The researcher was able to

interview one classroom teacher per grade and the principal at each site. Results from

this study led to the conclusion that specific reading instructional strategies, as well as

other factors, affects student achievement in reading. In one school, teachers meet with

small groups of students for explicit differentiated instruction during the literacy block, as

well as an additional forty minutes during a supplemental reading time. This small group
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 7

instruction during the literacy block occurs with groups of three to four students during

the literacy center time.

In another school, teachers do not meet with small groups of students during

their literacy block. The teachers do not implement literacy centers as part of their

reading instruction. Instead, they implement a traditional approach to learning using the

basal text and whole group instruction as their primary means of instructional practice.

This school’s reading achievement is lower than the first one. One reason for this is

because the lack of strategies the teacher implements into the classroom.

Design the Plan

Now that I figured out which strategies I would have the students use, I devised a plan

that I felt would help students to successfully read to solve word problems. I used

strategies from Maureen McLaughlin’s textbook, “Content Area Reading: Teaching and

Learning for College and Career Readiness” to help students reading.

The Self-Questioning strategy I believe students should use during reading is

Question-Answer Relationships. My plan to implement this strategy was to give

students a word problem from a previous Algebra I regents. I told the students that the

purpose of this strategy is to determine what knowledge they can use from the text and

which they will have to solve themselves. I then told students that to use this strategy,

after reading the word problem, they will have to come up with the two categories of

questions; prior knowledge and information from the text. Then I had students answer

the problem using this strategy. I checked to make sure students were appropriately
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 8

using the strategy, as well as finding the correct answer. Below is the word problem I

gave them from the June 2014 Algebra I regents to implement the question-answer

relationships strategy. I chose to give them a word problem from the Algebra I regents

because their regents exam was approaching, and I felt it would be an appropriate way

of preparing students for it while learning a new strategy.

35. Caitlin has a movie rental card worth $175. After she rents the first movie, the card’s value is $172.25.

After she rents the second movie, its value is $169.50. After she rents the third movie, the card is worth

$166.75.

Assuming the pattern continues, write an equation to define A(n), the amount of money on the rental card

after n rentals.

Caitlin rents a movie every Friday night. How many weeks in a row can she afford to rent a movie, using

her rental card only? Explain how you arrived at your answer.

The monitoring/clarifying strategy students should use is KWL. Students can use

KWL to determine their previous knowledge about the problem, determine what they

want to know to solve the problem, and determine what they have learned after solving

the problem. My plan to implement this strategy was again to give students a word

problem from a previous Algebra I regents. I told the students the purpose of this

strategy is to determine their previous knowledge about the problem, determine what

they want to know to solve the problem, and determine what they have learned after

solving the problem. I then told students that to use this strategy, during reading the

word problem, they will have to write what they previously know about the topic in the K

column. Then they will identify what they want to know in order to solve the problem.

Finally, they will identify what they learned in the reading that will help them solve the
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 9

problem. I had the students answer the problem using the KWL strategy. I once again

checked that the students were using the KWL strategy appropriately and solving the

problem correctly. Below is the word problem from the January 2018 Algebra I regents I

gave them to implement the KWL strategy.

36. The drama club is running a lemonade stand to raise money for its new production. A local grocery

store donated cans of lemonade and bottles of water. Cans of lemonade sell for $2 each and bottles of

water sell for $1.50 each. The club needs to raise at least $500 to cover the cost of renting costumes. The

students can accept a maximum of 360 cans and bottles.

Write a system of inequalities that can be used to represent this situation.

The club sells 144 cans of lemonade. What is the least number of bottles of water that must be sold to

cover the cost of renting costumes? Justify your answer.

Results and Reflection

After Student A and Student B solved their word problem and used each

strategy, I asked them if they believed the strategy was effective for solving problems.

The possible answer choices for each strategy were very ineffective, slightly ineffective,

slightly effective, and very effective. Table 1 shows what Student A and Student B

believed the effectiveness of KWL was and Table 2 shows what they thought about

question-answer relationships.
 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 10

Table 1: KWL Effectiveness

Students A B
Effectiveness
Very Effective X
Slightly
Effective
Slightly X
Ineffective
Very
Ineffective

Table 2: QAR Effectiveness

Students A B
Effectiveness
Very Effective X
Slightly X
Effective
Slightly
Ineffective
Very
Ineffective

Looking at this data, both strategies seemed to be effective for the students.

Obviously, there were some differences in the effectiveness of the strategies due to the

students having different strengths and weaknesses. It would appear that QAR seemed

to be the more effective of the two strategies since both students said they thought it

was either slightly effective or very effective.

Going forward, I believe this plan should be used on a larger size sample of

students. The two types of McLaughlin’s during reading strategies I mentioned, self-

questioning and monitoring/clarifying, as well as visualization can be taught to the whole

 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 11

class. Reading with little struggle is something I take for granted and I strive to make

sure my future students do not underachieve in mathematics because of poor reading

skills. It is essential that all teachers address reading in their classrooms, even in

mathematics because word problems are such a big part of the curriculum. Each

student is a unique learner, so it is important they get exposed to a plethora of

strategies in order to find which one is most effective for them. As I continue working

with students, I would like to see more research on the effectiveness reading strategies

to determine which ones will be worthwhile to my future students.

 Reading Strategies in Mathematics 12

References

Cummins, S., Streiff, M., & Ceprano, M. (2012). Understanding and applying the QAR

strategy to improve test scores. Journal of Inquiry & Action in Education, 4(3), 18-

26

Riswanto, Risnawati, Lismayanti, D. (2014). The effect of using KWL (Know, Want,

Learned) strategy on EFL students’ reading comprehension achievement.

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(7), 225-233

Chambers, J. & Hausman, C. (2014). A comparative case study of factors distinguishing

between high and low-performance on reading achievement in elementary rural

Appalachian schools. NCPEA Education Leadership Review of Doctoral

Research, 1(1), 220-236

McLaughlin, M. (2015) Content area reading: Teaching and learning for college and

career readiness (second edition): Pearson

http://www.nysedregents.org/algebraone/118/algone12018-exam.pdf

http://www.nysedregents.org/algebraone/614/algone62014-exam.pdf