The Literacy/Math Connection: It's Storytime!

 Greetings everyone! I am thrilled to share with you today some strategies I've been geeking out on in my car as I commute to work the past few weeks. I've been listening to podcasts from Heinemann, my go-to for all things teaching! Side-plug for Heinemann- I've used many books to supplement my training and and the materials that often come with it are amazing because the video libraries are great ways to see experts model strategies! 

Getting back to literacy and math, I've been trying some new strategies during math lessons that connect with literacy to help my students through word problems. The podcasts were a big help hearing from Jennifer Serravallo and Marilyn Burns how they cross-connect literacy and math using what their students already know and modeling in similar ways across the subjects. 

This year I've been trying out comparing the word problems to the stories we are reading in class and applying strategies from Reading Workshop to help solve them. Recently for two-step word problems, My co-teacher and I have the students read the problem, and we restate/ review it with questions to fill in a B.M.E chart (beginning, middle, end,) like in reading. This has helped students find the missing part of the problem and determine the operation. I've also had students draw a number bond or bar model and fill in the information as they figure out what is missing, and label the bar model as the beginning, middle and end (part, part, whole.) As students work in small groups, we are hearing them using this language more frequently to work through the problems. It's amazing how it's a natural part of our lessons/work as we progress through a lesson. 

One of the key components to our math program is discourse. Each "problem of the day" has three "thinking questions" students analyze before they begin to try strategies for solving. The first question, and probably the hardest, is "what is the problem all about?" Now if you've taught second grade (or perhaps any grade number can be inserted here!) you know what students state right away... either the answer or the numbers in the problem. It took some time for students in my class to realize that this question just wants us to answer with a summary, a word that is a familiar friend in reading. To support them through this thinking, I've modeled for them how to view the problem as a story; who are the characters, what are they doing, and is there a critical story object? If so what is it and how is it important to the problem? Now, granted my students have experience with this language from Reading Workshop, but once they are familiar with it, it becomes easier to carry it over to math. This has helped them to think of the problem as a whole story first, and not rush to grab numbers and add or subtract, but truly think critically what is happening. 

Lastly, to integrate writing, I recently started telling my students that we are the "editors" or "translators" for the author of the problem. In order to think of what the steps are and how to solve a problem, we have to take what the author has written in the story, and rewrite it with numbers in an equation. This has gone over well so far (since students love to correct others' work!) for them as they think about each number and how to manipulate it to solve the problem correctly. 

I've realized that if I had math instruction presented in this way when I was younger, perhaps I would've understood it more, and not developed a fear in the subject. If anything, I've noticed my students who are stronger readers are showing fewer signs of "math anxiety" because we are relating it to reading and stories as often as we can. Like anything else it may not work for every student, but if it even helps just one, then my job is complete! I plan on doing more research on how to integrate ELA into math to benefit my students. I'd love to hear what you've tried, what you have read or heard. The best way we learn is together! 

Final Thoughts: Keep being creative! Think of strategies you use in reading and writing to integrate in math. Keep talking with other teachers, keep listening to experts and reading- it's the best way to get a spark for new ideas to try! Keep discussing with your students how all the subjects are connected and point out all those moments; it will make their minds sharp for noticing those moments on their own as well. Finally, keep doing your best and the rest will flow!