Math's Story

I was recently involved in a very interesting conversation with a group of 3rd grade parents who had great concern regarding their children’s success in math. The deeper the conversation went, the more I began to realize that the true concern was for the student’s ability to read- and not only read but understand reading as a process of displaying information. The situation the parents were dealing with was that the students had shifted from common, numerical math methods to word/story problems. The work that was being done both in the classroom and at home, as homework, consisted of written problems and required written responses. Problems arose for the students that were not as strong in their reading and writing, their math was negatively affected by their struggles in another subject. On the other hand, children who were strong in reading and writing, and had the ability to think more logically about math, found that adding word to the numbers made it easier. The parents were beginning to notice that this was having a huge effect on their children’s confidence in math. All three of the parents I was talking with, who all had children in the same class, said that they noticed there was a huge, growing gap in the students when it came to reading, writing, and now math.

I left the conversation and could not stop thinking about what we had talked about and what a huge problem this is for young learners. In my own schooling, I was always the slower reader and writer and I can completely relate to this negatively impacting the other subjects I was otherwise successful in. Routman discusses holding students to a high standard in writing and with this comes making kids responsible for developing efficient reading skills. After having this conversation, I have to say I completely agree with her theories about setting high expectations for students. This was just one glimpse into how all subjects are strongly connected to one another and how learning is a whole package. I used to think that if a student is good in at least on area of schooling, they can succeed overall, and I am finding out that it is not this easy. Sounds like I will have my work cut out for me as a future educator, responsible for all subjects for all of my students!