Journal of the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association
Volume 50 Issue 3, June 2013
24 – 29
Exploring Children’s Literature in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom
Gregory Bryan and Ralph Mason
The project reported here involved the collaborative design and implementation of a “math-lit” approach to mathematics and language arts instruction in four classrooms from three school divisions. In literature-triggered mathematics, a teacher uses sets of children’s trade books with mathematical elements to lead students into contextually rich, active and interactive mathematics activities. After appreciating each trade book as a literary experience, students engage with the mathematics in the story through various activities. The classrooms contained heterogeneous student groups from Grades 3 to 5 with widely varying mathematics and reading achievement levels. The purpose of the research was to explore the mathematical experiences of children engaged in literature-triggered mathematical activities.
