Why is the Reading and Writing Group hosting Ask the Mathematician on 12/5?

Submitted by Steve Schmidt on Mon, 11/21/2022 - 10:08
  • 59 Views
  • 3 Comments

Hi Everyone,

Ask the Mathematician, a live interview with adult education math expert Brooke Istas, will take place on December 5 at 3 PM ET. (Register here.) Brooke will share lessons learned from her many years of math teaching experience. Bring the math instruction questions you always wanted answered to the event for Brooke to answer!

You may be wondering why the Reading and Writing group is co-hosting this event about math. There are several good reasons:

  • Many instructors, especially in smaller programs, teach all subjects.
  • A major part of most high school equivalency math tests are word problems, a huge area where reading and math intersect. These real-life word problems will be a main focus during the first part of the interview. 

 You won't want to miss hearing from Brooke!

See you on December 5,

Steve Schmidt, Moderator

LINCS Reading and Writing Group 

Comments

Hi Everyone,

On December 5, an enthusiastic group of adult educators attended a live event where I interviewed LINCS Math and Numeracy Moderator Brooke Istas. I asked her a question at the center of where reading and math intersect: How can we help adult learners more effectively understand the real-life word problems that appear on high school equivalency tests?

Brooke described how many supposedly real-life word problems aren’t real world at all. LINCS Community Member Sue Jones wondered if there were any cool ways to take real world situations and translate them into math test problems. Brooke described a recent class where she had students think about potholes and explore how much it would cost to resurface the road in front of their college. Students were able to see first hand the difficult choices governments must make with limited resources while expanding their mathematical capabilities in a motivating context. Rebecca Strom suggested a work place math scenario: “You sell ice-cream and want to see if you can make a cone slightly smaller, so you don’t increase prices…"

The discussion then moved to teaching philosophy. Research encourages instructors to teach math CRA (concrete to representational to abstract). Brooke mentioned that many times, such as in the road resurfacing lesson, that she teaches math RCA (from representational to concrete to abstract). This method starts with a real situation, then models a concrete one (hands-on) before abstract math symbols are used. The group agreed that teaching math RCA is much more effective for students than the LCR (lecture, copy, regurgitate) way of teaching math!

Each month our group hosts a live event, frequently in conjunction with other community groups.

  • What ideas do you have for future events?
  • What topics would you like to see discussed?
  • What adult education experts would you like to hear from?

Thanks for your ideas,

Steve Schmidt, Moderator

LINCS Reading and Writing Group

Brooke recently did an event with the Career Pathways and Postsecondary Transitions group around Using Labor Market Information (LMI) in the Math Classroom and there are definitely opportunities to use real life data and number with reading material when accessing LMI. CareerOneStop.org is a great place to start to have reading and writing material integrated with career exploration.