“Reading Next” describes the low literacy levels achieved in America CAL ) suggestion that “adolescents deserve access to a wide variety of reading material that they can and want to read.” In short, the fifteen recommendations provided by “Reading Next” summarize a great deal of suggestions given by a variety of secondary educational professionals in order to improve reading comprehension in all grades.
As a future mathematics educator, I am not only responsible to teach math concepts and applications, I am also responsible for exposing students to another type of literacy. Students in any single math class could be on a wide range of reading levels; therefore, anytime there is a reading activity I must provide a variety of texts. Even in word problems, students should have access to many different types in order to improve their comprehension and understanding of the different situations. Students who are at lower reading levels should be paired with those who are at a higher level so that all students are able to learn and enjoy reading about math. The interaction between students can have a positive effect on the enjoyment of different topics because one student may be able to relate better to a text and share his/her experiences with another student.
It is very important for mathematics’ students to be able to understand what they read and monitor their own reading progress. I will aid in this process by providing reading guides and pointing out important vocabulary; but in a math textbook, it is very important that students are able to read and follow along with examples. Also, when it comes to word problems, summarizing is very important. During my internship, the mathematics department concentrates on a process called “SOLVE” where the S stands for summarize. Students are asked to summarize a word problem and describe what is being asked. I will definitely incorporate this into my classroom for any word problem.
When people think of math, they do not think of literacy, but that is clearly an error. As you pointed out, students still have to be able to read and comprehend their text, worksheets, notes, etc to follow along with the class. For a struggling reader, a word problem would become impossible. I have seen this first hand in class many times. Students "hate" word problems, and, very often it is purely because they cannot decipher what is being asked of them. I feel many teachers do not recognize the real issue and fail to provide students with any assistance in overcoming these difficulties. The "SOLVE" process sounds like a great tool to use. The ability to pull out the important information in a word problem is key to successful completion. I also like the idea to have paired math work, especially for struggling students. Often receiving assistance from a peer engages a student more than instruction from a teacher.
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