How can we use Mathematical Literacy in the Classroom

“Students simply do not retain for long what they learn by imitation from lectures, worksheets, or routine homework. Presentation and repetition help students do well on standard- ized tests and lower-order skills, but they are generally ineffec- tive as teaching strategies for long-term learning, for higher- order thinking, and for versatile problem-solving” (NRC, 1989, p. 57).

Suppose the topic for the day in the math classroom is place value with the concentration of large numbers.  Aside from teaching this topic using place value charts and dictating to the class where each place value is, we should use this opportunity to connect the topic with a real-world situation.  Here, we can encourage our students to make the connection with something they are familiar with so the lesson takes on more meaning.

Here's the question: On April 20, 2010 the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon suffered a terrible malfunction, exploded, and sank a quarter-mile into the Gulf of Mexico.  Up until May 27, 30 million barrels of oil have spilled out into the Gulf of Mexico.  How many gallons of oil have spilled out into the Gulf of Mexico each day if each barrel is equal to 42 gallons?

Assuming the students multiply 42 by 30 million and then divide that answer by the number of days that have passed, 37, the students should be able to solve the problem of 34,054,054.1 gallons a day are spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico.  As a follow-up to this problem, the students may be interesting in learning more about the largest oil spill in US history and prepare a presentation.  This is also an opportunity to connect content areas in your classroom.  As with all investigations that begin with real-world problems, this one spans a number of mathematical skills and concepts.  The students will need to understand and use numeration, data collection, and statistics.  

Testimony: Mrs. C... Michigan 4th grade Inclusion

"Show and Tell has been known for oral language development for the early primary grades. Well, what about Show and Tell to build mathematical literacy? I teach 4th grade mathematics to regular and special needs students that are in one class. My students come from a low socioeconomic community. Many are from single parent homes and/or homes where the adults have a limited education. These children do not get the opportunity to get involved in situations at home that build mathematical literacy. Most of my children have caregivers that have limited mathematical skills and knowledge and, as a result, the only mathematical conversations that they have are in the classroom, where it is my ultimate goal to improve upon their mathematical literacy through Show and Tell.

We do a lot of problem solving using drawings and manipulatives. In addition, my students are required to show ALL of their work. My problem solving activities also require the students to explain their thinking to me and their classmates. During the process, I find students doing some extraordinary thinking when challenged and probed, and I'd like for them to share it with the entire class. This does not work the way I would like because they either only show and tell to a few students (their table partners) or they have to rewrite it on the overhead which can be time consuming and, as a result, they become a little discouraged because they had to rewrite it so that everyone can see it and they wind up losing a lot of what they told me earlier regarding the thinking behind their solution. The process of Show and Tell not only works with problem solving but also with solving mathematical equations in general. When students see how their classmates have solved a problem it opens up doors for them to think differently, "out of the box." This is especially true for my struggling students.

A document camera would work perfectly for building mathematical literacy through Show and Tell. It would allow for students to show their original document using the document camera (without having to rewrite it) and focus on explaining their thinking. The document camera would save time and allow for MORE students to share with the WHOLE class at one time versus just a few. The whole idea behind Show and Tell in mathematics is to expose students to different ways of thinking and to realize that there is more than one way to arrive at a solution in mathematics, and as a result, their mathematical literacy is being further developed. The document camera can make it happen.

You will make it possible for every one of my students to improve upon their mathematical literacy through Show and Tell. In the long run, Show and Tell will improve upon their ability to think in general.