What is Mathematical Literacy?

Before we begin to answer the question; what is Mathematical Literacy?  We must first explore the question; what is literacy?  Literacy can simply be defined as the ability to read, write, speak, and use language.  Mathematical Literacy implies that a person is able to reason, analyze, formulate, and solve problems in a real-world setting (Martin, 2007).  Further, Mathematical Literacy also is the ability to use mathematical knowledge, methods, and processes applied in various contexts in insightful and reflective ways.  Our students first use mathematics as a way to quantify and understand their world around them.  They use reasoning, prior knowledge, and arithmetic to solve real world problems.  Everywhere we look, we can see math; the height of buildings, the length of a street, the volume of a container, the weight of our own bodies.  Mathematics can be used in many different ways to solve many different problems.

When I teach mathematics in elementary school, I always inform the students that mathematics is not necessarily knowing how to solve the problem or use the correct formula but rather the ability to recognize the pattern or the relationships between and among the quantities.

Why is Mathematical Literacy Important?

Mathematical Literacy is important because math is everywhere.  As adults, we use math every single day whether we realize it or not.  The next time you drive in your car, try to count the amount of times you use math on your way from one place to the next.  In order to change the radio station or search through your current CD playing, you need to know the concept of more or less.  In order to stop safely behind the car in front of you, you need to know how fast you are going, how far you have left to stop, and the amount of pressure to use on your brake peddle.  Without this knowledge, you would wind up in more accidents than Evil Kenevil.  As a student, mathematical literacy is very important.  Mathematical literacy is the ability to read, write, use, and speak language; the language of mathematics. 

Our ultimate goal as educators is to teach our students to become independent thinkers and positive contributors in their communities.  Before our students enter the classroom, they may view the subject of mathematics as a useful tool to understand the world around them.  However, when our students enter our mathematics classrooms, the focus is on memorizing facts, formulas, and rules.  Our job is to divert that focus so that school math and real-word math do not become disconnected.  Students need to understand that mathematics is a sense-making experience.  I know whenever I teach mathematics, I try to explain why something makes sense so that the students can see the connection or recognize the patterns.  If we are constantly preoccupied with such low-level computation skills like defining, memorizing, recalling, repeating , and explaining, math cannot be used as the tool that we use to interpret and understand our world.  We never want any of our students to simply memorize something for the sake of passing the exam in order to move on the next thing, especially in mathematics.

When we use Mathematical Literacy...

Mathematics is a language all it's own.  The symbols and letters we use in math each represent a quantity, value, expression, or idea.  When we write the equation 2 + 2 = 4, we understand that if you combine two things with two other things, we will then have a total of four things.  This of course is a very simple idea in the grand scheme of mathematics, however it is an example of this very special and different language. 

Most students who come to the United States while still in grade school have a much more difficult time learning our language than they do working with numbers in mathematics.  This is because mathematics is a universal language that spans the globe.  The number three is the number three in the United States, France, Germany, Korea, and India.  When we use Mathematical Literacy we are communicating with a language that is easily understood across many different cultures and spoken languages.  When we use Mathematical Literacy we are conveying an idea, expressing a thought, bringing to light a problem that needs solving.  And when we use Mathematical Literacy, we are able to reach out to anyone willing to help us solve an equation or a problem, or we are able to solve an equation or problem presented to us by another.

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.

BOOKS

Recognizing Problems with Mathematical Literacy

During my research on Mathematical Literacy, I noticed that there exists many differentiating view points on how mathematics should be taught, what materials should teachers use, and of course the topic of textbooks as a primary tool to teach math.  Being a lover of mathematics, it was hard for me to understand those who didn't "get it" when I was a student.  I was always able to understand the concepts being presented to me, recognize the patterns, and be able to solve a given problem in a number of ways.  Since becoming a teacher and having the skills now to be able to teach to those who struggle with Mathematics, I realize that not everyone can relate to mathematics the way I could.

  

One aspect of teaching mathematics that I have noticed when using a textbook is that not every student can relate to the text.  Most textbooks are written for and contain problems that relate most closely to a white middle-class family  (Over the years, we are seeing a change in the names that are used for word problems.  What once was John and Samantha is changing to Jose and Maria).  This poses an issue because as a teacher of mathematics, you cannot expect every one of your students to become proficient users of mathematical literacy if they cannot relate to the problems to their real lives.  Thus, if a student cannot make the connection between school math and real-world math then they will most likely have greater difficulty trying to learn the material and make sense of the material.  They will ultimately fall short of the classmates in attempting to become literate in mathematics or numeracy.

Conclusion

It is important to engage students in thought-provoking, meaningful mathematics. Mathematics should be taught using strategies that encourage mathematical literacy because when students ask, “When are we ever going to use this?” they are telling their teachers that they do not see the relevancy and importance of what they are being taught. When real-world situations are used in the mathematics classroom, student interest is piqued and they are motivated to learn.  

I can only hope as a lover of mathematics that those who I teach will have the same affection for the subject as I do and I hope that those who teach the subject, will allow their students to explore the world of mathematics and relate their teachings to the real and practical world.