Interviews with the Experts!
In conducted interviews with three high school math teachers: Don Busenbark, Eric Gubler, and Michelle Richardson, and an interview with a mathematics professor at USU, Dr. Jim Cangelosi. I asked them about their thoughts on and definition of literacy in math, the importance of it, challenges, etc.
In my classes up here at USU, I have come to understand the basic definition of critical literacy as being able to "read and write the world" not just the word. In questioning these math educators, their ideas of literacy fall into this definition I have been taught nicely. Their responses about the definition of literacy fall into two parts: 1. literacy in math is students being able to understand and use the language and vocabulary of mathematics--being able to read and understand, and also express, justify, and explain their thinking processes and procedures used, and 2. literacy is being able to recognize when and how to apply mathematical ideas to explore and solve problems in their lives.
Though their individual ideas of literacy in math were different to some degree, it was interesting to me that each agreed that literacy is essential to a student's success in mathematics. It seems as though most people in our culture think that literacy and math are almost entirely disjoint, yet those who teach it see that literacy is essential for success in mathematics.
Dr. Cangelosi talked about how mathematics has always been furthered by people making discoveries/coming up with ideas, and then expressing them so that others could learn from them and build upon those ideas. He said that literacy in the sense of being able to read and write, comprehend and explain is important--the numbers don't really do us much good without being able to explain what they mean. Mr. Busenbark talked about how if students don't understand the vocabulary, they have a hard time understanding the concept and thus fall behind. Ms. Richardson discussed about how because of the hard time they have with literacy, many students will not even try any problem that requires reading. Mr. Gubler told me that literacy is how they develop logical thinking. Each of these comments shows how mathematics and literacy are closely woven together. Each one of the things these teachers mentioned needing literacy are things we associate, of course, with math class, yet still so many think math and literacy are separate ideas.
In the interview with Dr. Cangelosi, he mentioned the scenario that has happened to all of us: we have a question, and raise our hand "teacher, teacher, I have a question!" "--Oh, never mind, I just figured it out." Dr.Cangelosi explained that when we take thoughts and put them into words, like formulating a question, our mind reorganizes and we understand better than before, thus we often figure out the answer to our question, just by organizing our thoughts in such a way that we can articulate our question.
This is similar to the idea that when you teach, you are the one that learns the most. Dr. Cangelosi said "Good math teaching is listening and reading; good math learning is writing and speaking." He went on to explain that when we teach, we need to teach the students to write and speak about what they are learning, and thus we as the educators need to be prepared to listen to them and read what they write. On the same note, he said that we need to also teach students to listen to each other and to read what each other writes. I was interested by this--generally, and especially in math class, our peers never see our work, and the only things said that they take time to notice and remember are things the instructor has said, not things their peers say. Not only will this will develop their mathematical skills, but it will also prepare them to be better thinkers and listeners and understanders in all facets of their lives.
The problem all these math educators seemed to agree on is the attitude toward literacy in mathematics. Students are coming into their classes being able to solve equations and graph lines, but not having any idea how to actually use and understand the equations or lines. People don't think that math and literacy have anything to do with each other, so they don't expect it, and are also quite resistant to it. Memorizing formulas, however, is not the same thing as understanding. To really be able to understand a formula, we need to be able to articulate it, so it is imperative that we teach students to read and write and comprehend and express math. We need to teach literacy.