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Running head: LITERACY IN MATHEMATICS

Disciplinary Literacy in Mathematics

Daniel Peña

Arizona State University

RDG 323: Literacy Process/Content Areas

Nicole Trombley

Disciplinary Literacy Paper

November 7, 2020
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LITERACY IN MATHEMATICS

Disciplinary Literacy in Mathematics

The importance of adolescent literacy development is grand, not only for students’

educational careers but future life goals as well. There are two terms to take note of and those are

Content Area Literacy and Disciplinary Literacy which refer to two distinct approaches. Content

area literacy focuses on students learning the reading and writing processes that tend to be

generalized to be used across all disciplines, while disciplinary literacy focuses more on the

unique approaches that are specific to a certain discipline (Wilson, 2017, p. 2-3). This means

there both can work hand in hand with each other while one can be generalized processes and

strategies that can then help and assist students to attain and utilize strategies that are specific to

different disciplines.

Literacy in Mathematics

Adolescent literacy development is crucial as it helps with students’ understanding by

increasing a students’ ability to read, write, listen and learn content from the different subjects.

The development of this provides them with tools they can use to further their learning and help

break down the context of any type of literacy they approach. This perfectly aligns with my

discipline as mathematics requires a breakdown of context and content in order to interpret and

solve problems. Math is its own language; people tend to think it is just the “numbers and

equations”, but it is more than that. Math is about discovery, math is about finding and solving

different ways to approach a problem in order to come up with a solution. In order to do so

students’ must be able to be able to take the context clues of a problem, interpret what exactly

the problem is asking, and be able to articulate their thoughts using “math language”.

Inquiry based learning has been a focus since I have started my path to become an

educator, with this idea of teaching in regards to mathematics we no longer want to just give out
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a formula and have students regurgitate and practice over and over. We want to provide real

world problems, problems they can relate to, problems they can think about or even problems

that can entice students to try and discover the solution on their own (to an extent). This is why

disciplinary based learning is more crucial than ever, students can utilize content area literacy to

start with when it comes to math and as they get deeper into the meaning disciplinary literacy

strategies will be what gets students to their conclusion. Students must utilize math language and

“students need support in using the precise language of math and understanding how words

mapped onto symbolic and pictorial representations of mathematical concepts” (Ippolito, 2017,

p.3).

Math as a Language

Various content area literacy strategies work within the math realm and help students

further their understanding until the point where disciplinary literacy strategies will be necessary

to continue to understand and attain solutions. For example, every grade level utilizes previous

knowledge and the concepts learned from a previous year is necessary to understand high level

concepts. Students can apply prior knowledge and relate even about 90% of the problem to

previous work they have done and skills they’ve obtained. But its that 10% that could be the new

concept and now requires further study allowing students to infer what the solution could be or

even interpret different ways they can approach the last portion of a problem leading them to

figure out what they could to in order to finish.

Math has extremely unique properties and language when in relation to other subjects, for

example the English language will mean one thing while in math, a word problem can use most

or even an exact word and yet mean something completely different. This illustrates math as its

own language. Math requires students to use math verbiage, math is not just about numbers or
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formulas, it involves so much more. Students are now being asked to interpret symbols and learn

their meanings, they learn different functions and learn how placement of terms, variables, etc.

will have their own mathematical operation. Words that we know to mean something in the

English language now have a “math definition” its own new meaning and students will have to

be able to express their thoughts using this “new” language when explaining their ideas and/or

coming up and working on a solution ( Stevens, 2017). This is crucial as we speak the English

language and are taught what everything means as it is but when put in context with math

students must now identify which meaning and also what property/operation it entices students

to use. This goes as far as even using unique symbols like Greek letters, or punctuation symbols

that now represent something completely different than what it does in regard to English text.

Conclusion

This is why adolescent literacy development is important and especially crucial in the

realm of mathematics. Disciplinary literacy development allows our students to reach a level of

understanding where they can apply different meaning to previously learned terms and symbols

while learning and applying new knowledge to higher level concepts and the applications of the

terms, symbols, operations and use of mathematical terminology.

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References

Ippolito, J., Dobbs, L. C., & Charner-Laird, M. (2017) What Literacy Means in Math Class:

Teacher Team Explores Ways to Remake Instruction to Develop Student’s Skills. The

Learning Professional.

Stevens, D., [CDoerrStevens]. (2017, February 07). Content Area Literacy vs Disciplinary

Literacy Minilecture [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH49UMw02Jc&feature=emb_title

Wilson-Lopez, A., & Bean, T. (2017). Content Area and Disciplinary Literacy: Strategies and

Frameworks. Literacy Leadership Brief. International Literacy Association.