Literacy & Mathematics: The Teaser Trailer

At the start of this cycle of summer classes I figured my classes wouldn't lead to much material that would transfer directly to my own classroom since both of the courses are language-related.  After all, math is heavily reliant on symbolic expressions, graphs, and conceptual understanding - that makes math "culture-free" and it doesn't change with language, right?

TEAL 6310 (Content Area Reading & Writing) deals with advancing literacy in the classroom and TEAL 6770 (ESOL Instructional Strategies in the Content Areas) discusses tools to make content comprehensible for English Language Learners (ELLs).  Much to my surprise, each syllabus included a Unit of Study within our specific content-area (of which mine is obviously secondary mathematics) consisting of 4 successive lesson plans that incorporate the principles we were to learn through the course.  Okay, so there was obviously a direct connection to the classroom there.

With each successive project, however, I am finding more and more connections between literacy, language, and how we teach math in the inclusive classroom.  For the sake of brevity, this is as much as I will disclose today.  Consider this a teaser trailer of the Literacy Chronicles (not to be confused with my heretofore unexplored territory in the Numeracy Chronicles) and what connections I am able to draw between the classes I have taken and the reality I am experiencing.

What up with Spectator Math?

Amy Benjamin

Mathletically Yours,

Ms. Berg