If teachers have a deeper comprehension of their students' reading ability, it may lead to students' improved literacy and understanding of the subject. The account presented in this article of the author's growing interest in mathematical literacy specifically involves mathematical reading. This shift in interest began with a six-week…

Open-ended mathematical tasks provide great opportunities for students to engage in authentic mathematical practices, such as conjecturing, generalizing, and justifying. Supporting students in open-ended tasks can be challenging. Appropriate scaffolding of a task has been linked to more opportunities for student learning and better student…

Middle school students need relevant, meaningful contexts to apply emerging mathematical ideas. In this project, through the context of an architecture investigation, seventh-grade students engaged in mathematics involving area, surface area, volume, ratios and proportional thinking, number sense, and technology integration. Students, working in…

When students begin work with fraction division in fifth grade or sixth grade, they bring with them experiences from whole-number division. Many students think that a division problem should lead to a quotient that is smaller than the dividend. It is also common for students to believe that the dividend should be larger than the divisor. Many, if…

Interactive whiteboards are somewhat unimpressive at first and look like the whiteboards that already hang on the walls of many classrooms. However, integrating interactive whiteboard technology in a unit on adding and subtracting integers enhances student engagement and understanding. In this article, the author describes how she used an…

Interpreting graphs found in various content areas is an important skill for students, especially in light of high-stakes testing. In addition, reading and understanding graphs is an important part of numeracy, or numeric literacy, a skill necessary for informed citizenry. This article explores the different categories of graphs, provides…

Mathematics education is replete with activities that explore real-world problems. A variety of these problems are added to lessons in the belief that merely applying mathematics knowledge to everyday contexts will enhance the transfer of that knowledge to other settings. However, these contexts are hypothetical rather than authentic. This…

Taiwanese students consistently rank near the top on international exams on mathematics and science. In 2007, Taiwan recorded the highest TIMSS math score for eighth grade. The central education agency in Taiwan publishes detailed mathematics curriculum guidelines, which textbooks and national exams follow closely. In May each year, all ninth…

Diverse contexts such as "take away," comparison," and "completion" give rise to subtraction problems. The take-away interpretation of subtraction has been explored using two-colored chips to help students understand addition and subtraction of integers. This article illustrates how the difference and completion (or missing addend) interpretations…

A conceptual knowledge of numbers, especially fractions, is an important link to a conceptual understanding of variables. This article suggests activities that explicitly show the connections between numbers and variables using the number line as the connecting device. (Contains 7 figures and a bibliography.)

This article discusses ways to integrate reading into mathematics using environmental print or real-time text. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

"Concept study" is described in this article as a collaboration of teachers to investigate images, analogies, metaphors, exercises, and other experiences that are used to support students' understandings of concepts. The discussion is illustrated with the examples of multiplication and prime numbers. (Contains 3 figures.)

The addition and subtraction of integers is the first major avenue, and roadblock, to student success in learning algebra. This article describes a hands-on activity using a regular deck of playing cards that facilitates class discussion and helps students overcome this initial roadblock. (Contains 14 figures.)

Discusses number patterns and Fibonacci numbers found in nature. (YDS)

Uses number sense to involve students in calendar activities based on the Julian and Gregorian calendars. (YDS)