It's Story Time in Math Class!

Jamie & me at my wedding!

This has been an exciting summer for the both of us to say the least.  The weeks have flown by, overflowing with vacations, weddings, gatherings with friends and family, and teaching our beloved MLIT students at Judson University.  And, believe it or not, we also found some time to attend a few professional conferences!

My "hot read" in my classroom

If you have read our blog before, you know that I (Meg) am currently a math teacher, although for the first six years of my teaching career I also taught reading (as well as four years of language arts).  I do love teaching math, but it broke my heart to give up teaching reading.  Luckily, I realized I didn't have to stop being a literacy teacher even though I no longer had the official title.  The  Common Core State Standards call all teachers, regardless of their content area, to include literacy activities in their classroom.  I rejoiced when I realized I did not have to give up read-alouds, my "hot reads" grill, or my classroom library!  My students would still be able to blog, podcast, and write creative stories!  The only difference is the focus of the reading and writing activities would have to shift a bit to incorporate math.

One of the easiest ways to incorporate literacy into a math classroom is via read-alouds.  Particularly at the beginning of the school year, I think this is a great way to engage students.  Kids of all ages (heck, adults too!) enjoy being read to, so setting aside about five minutes of class time for a read-aloud has become a routine in my math classroom.  The read aloud can come from a picture book, a novel, a magazine article, a blog post...the options are endless!

To start the year, both as a sixth and eighth grade teacher, I read the book The Math Curse by Jon Scieszka.  Scieszka is a hilarious author, and in this book he tells the tale of a young man who thinks his teacher put a math curse on him because he ends up seeing math in EVERYTHING.  This book is a math teacher's dream because we are always trying to convince our students how useful math is outside the math classroom.  Following the book reading, I have my students write short math stories of their own about a time they were struck with the "math curse" over the summer.  Since this is at the beginning of the school year, the purpose of the activity is to get their brains thinking mathematically again, not necessarily to connect to a specific topic of study.  Some students write about using math on a vacation, some write about using math when keeping score at a sporting event, and one time a student calculated the approximate number of minutes she thought she spent FaceTiming with her friend.  Whatever the topic, this is a great introductory activity to get students reading and writing about math.

Hanging out with Greg Tang!

One of my favorite authors whose books I use many times throughout the year is Greg Tang.  If you have never seen Greg Tang speak, you simply MUST!  He has a wonderfully dry sense of humor that always has the room of teachers roaring in laughter.  I have seen him speak multiple times, but this summer I got to meet him...and actually talk to him, meaning I had a real conversation with him!  I composed myself enough to sound intelligent as we talked about teaching mathematics, but truth be told, my inner self was screaming, "I can't believe I'm talking to Greg Tang!"  Anyway, Greg Tang's books are full of ways to make math easier by encouraging students to look for patterns.  The Grapes of Math is probably Tang's most well-known picture book, but he has many!  And the best part is that they are all animated and available to read for FREE on Greg Tang's website.  For some great ideas on using Greg Tang's book with math journal writing, check out one of my graduate student's blogs.

David Schwartz is another go-to author for math picture books.  G is for Googl is a wonderful resource to keep on hand for read-alouds related to math vocabulary.  For each letter of the alphabet Schwartz provides a definition of a math term in "kid-friendly" words, as well as an accompanying visual.  From time to time, I start my class by reading a page in the book of a math term related the day's lesson.  I then do a quick follow-up activity to have students either create a motion that will help them remember the meaning of the word (we know from brain research that physical activity spurs memory) or draw a picture in the back of their math journal with the word and definition (the back of their math journal is where my students keep their own personal glossary of math terms, in addition to our class word wall, so they have access to the math vocabulary words outside of school as well).

Another one of my favorite books that I just discovered last school year is The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math by Sean Connolly.  In this book, Connolly sets up various scenarios in which the reader MUST use math to save themselves from some tragic demise (attack by possessed robot, sucked bloodless by vampires...you know, the usual).  This is not a traditional picture book, although it does contain images, and is better suited for intermediate and middle grade students.  Because I then have my students solve these scenarios in groups, I usually save these for Fridays when I may be able to afford a little more than five minutes of time for the activity.

There are a plethora of math-related books out there, as well as a ton of internet-based sources, that can work for read-alouds the math classroom.  Take a look at the GoodReads "math picture books" shelf for some more ideas.  Scholastic also has a helpful web resource for those of you interested in teaching math with picture books.

Do you have other ideas for integrating reading and writing into the math classroom?  We would love to hear your ideas!