Language and communication are important to mathematics just as they are to the other content areas. Mathematical Literacy is a powerful resource that introduces you to a wide spectrum of strategies and approaches for building students' facility in mathematical communication.
Mathematical Literacy demonstrates how immersion in the language of math supports improved learning through traditional communication skills such as:
- reading
- writing
- speaking
- listening
as well as math-specific communication skills, including:
- symbolizing
- graphing
- creating diagrams
- using tables.
It provides everything you need to increase the presence of mathematical language in your classroom, guiding you through the ample research base and theoretical underpinnings supporting its ideas, demonstrating implementation through detailed classroom vignettes, and presenting ready-to-use tools and activities that connect theory directly to practice.
Whether you are an individual preservice or practicing teacher, part of a teacher book-study group, or creating whole-staff professional learning, Mathematical Literacy promotes professional learning with questions interspersed throughout that encourage reflection and prompt you to action. It offers many paths for teachers to take as they help students to improve their use of mathematical language and grow as mathematicians.
Help every student become fluent readers, speakers, and writers of mathematics. Read Mathematical Literacy and give young adolescents new ways to explain their reasoning, make connections, debate their thinking with peers, and share their struggles - in short to understand mathematics deeply.
Denisse R. Thompson is the coauthor of three Heinemann titles: Math, Culture, and Popular Media: Activities to Engage Middle School Students Through Film, Literature, and the Internet (2009); Mathematical Literacy (2008) and Introduciton to Reasoning and Proof (2008), part of the Math Process Standards Series for Grades 6-8. A professor of mathematics education at the University of South Florida, Tampa, she currently serves as President of the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2008-2009) and as monograph series editor for the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (2005-2008). Denisse previously taught at the middle school, high school, and community college levels, and since 2005 has been Director of Evaluation for the Secondary Component of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project. She has written extensively on mathematics communication and the use of children's literature to teach mathematics.
Gladis Kersaint is an associate professor at the University of South Florida, Tampa, where she teaches undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses in mathematics education. She is an active member of the mathematics education community at the local, state, and national levels. She currently serves as chair of the editorial panel for the NCTM journal, Teaching Children Mathematics. She formerly taught secondary mathematics in the Miami-Dade County Public School system. She has written articles that address a broad range of topics in mathematics education.
Janet C. Richards is a professor in the College of Education at the University of South Florida, Tampa, where she teaches courses in literacy theory and methods, writing, and qualitative research. She is Senior Editor of the Journal of Reading Education. Richards is a literacy scholar for the International Reading Association and has worked with classroom teachers and higher education faculty in Thailand, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Pakistan, and Romania. She is a former elementary classroom teacher and writes extensively on preservice and inservice teachers' communication skills.
Patricia D. Hunsader is an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee, where she teaches courses in mathematics methods for preservice teachers. She has mathematics classroom teaching experience at both the high school and elementary levels, and her research examines how students' literacy skills and self-efficacy influence their problem-solving practices. She received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida in 2005.
Rheta N. Rubenstein is a professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she teaches courses in mathematics and methods for undergraduate preservice and graduate inservice teachers. She is active in NCTM, currently serving as general editor for yearbooks on algebra (2008), geometry (2009), and curriculum (2010). She previously taught secondary mathematics in the Detroit Public Schools, education at the University of Windsor, and community college mathematics at Schoolcraft College. She is interested in mathematics communication and curriculum development and has written several textbooks.
