Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2020 - 7

Math Workshop: A Way to Promote Mathematical Literacy through Language
and Literacy Practices in the Secondary Grades
Laurie A. Sharp, Ed.D., GayLynn Bonjour, Ernest Cox

Introduction
Disciplinary literacy is a vital component for content area
instruction in the secondary grade levels. Unlike content
area literacy, disciplinary literacy does not require all
secondary teachers to be literacy teachers (Gillis, 2014).
Rather, disciplinary literacy calls for the use of disciplinespecific literacy and language practices that vary by
content area. Thus, aspects of literacy (i.e., collaborating,
reading, speaking, thinking, writing) act as scaffolds
that facilitate the learning of subject-specific content.
According to Moje (2007), disciplinary literacy values
the diversity represented among all students by "linking
youth cultural practices and cognitive processes to those
of the discipline" (p. 33).
Despite the focus on disciplinary literacy during the
past decade (Fang, 2012; Fang & Coatoam, 2013; Gillis,
2014; Hynd-Shanahan, 2013; Moje, 2008; Shanahan &
Shanahan, 2008, 2012), there seems to be continued
resistance and misunderstandings among teachers in
the secondary grades (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2014).
Although literature has delineated effective preparation
techniques appropriate for teacher education coursework
that addresses language and literacy practices in the
secondary grades (Conley, 2012; Fang 2014), preservice
teachers often complete such courses with limited
understandings of disciplinary literacy (Masuda, 2014).
As a result, secondary teachers enter classrooms unable
to address disciplinary literacy in their respective content
areas effectively (Masuda, 2014) and tend to rely on
use of traditional, teacher-directed, and lecture-driven
instructional approaches (Boaler, 2016).
A promising instructional framework that promotes
the disciplinary language and literacy practices in
mathematics, i. e. mathematical literacy, is math
workshop. According to Hoffer (2012), math workshop is
a student-centered constructivist instructional approach
that fosters students' "understanding both of mathematics
and of themselves as mathematicians" (p. xviii). At the
time of the current study, there was limited available
literature for math workshop, especially for the secondary
grades. A thorough search of available literature produced
only a handful of practitioner-oriented texts written for
the elementary grades (Newton, 2016; Wedekind, 2011)
and the middle grades (Hoffer, 2012). To address this
research gap, the following research question guided
the current study: How does math workshop promote
mathematical literacy through language and literacy
practices in the secondary grades?
Background Information Mathematical Literacy
Each discipline has its own distinctive principles,
cognitive processes, and discipline-specific language and
literacy practices (Brozo & Crain, 2017). In mathematics,
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (2000) defined mathematical literacy as
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"the capacity to identify, to understand, and to engage in
mathematics and make well-founded judgements about
the role that mathematics plays" (p. 50). Mathematical
literacy relies upon the use of various discourses to
communicate, think, read, and reason like mathematicians
(Friedland, McMillen, & del Prado Hill, 2011; Hillman,
2014). However, such discourses move everyday uses
of natural language towards specialized discourses
that promote "purposeful discussion, reading, and
writing embedded in authentic inquiry and problem
solving" (Yore, Pimm, & Tuan, 2007, p. 565). Thus,
mathematics teachers must be familiar with literacy and
language practices that augment how students learn,
understand, and apply mathematics concepts and skills
during mathematics instruction in the early childhood/
elementary (Adams, 2003; Colonnese, Amspaugh, LeMay,
Evans, & Field, 2018; Cooke & Buchholz, 2005) and
middle/secondary (Beaudine, 2018; Sliman, 2013; Zollman,
2009) classrooms.
Mathematical literacy became a focal point in Principles
and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM), an
updated version of national standards for mathematics
instruction in Canada and the United States (National
Council of Teachers in Mathematics [NCTM], 2000). In
PSSM, NCTM cast a new vision for high-quality PreK-12
mathematics instruction to ensure that students graduate
from high school with a sufficient base of mathematical
knowledge and a capacity for mathematical reasoning
and thinking. To realize this vision, NCTM defined
Content Standards (i.e., Number and Operations,
Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Data Analysis and
Probability) and Process Standards (i.e., Problem Solving,
Reasoning and Proof, Communication, Connections,
Representations) by separate grade-level bands (i.e.,
PreK-Grade 2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12).
The importance of integrating language and literacy
practices throughout the Process Standards is evident,
particularly the Communication Standard (Pugalee,
2001; Thompson & Chappell, 2007) and Representation
Standard (Thompson & Chappell, 2007). The combination
of both content and process standards encourage
mathematics teachers in all grade levels to provide
students with frequent opportunities to use all four modes
of communication in the classroom (i.e., listening, reading,
speaking, writing) and represent mathematical concepts
in both conventional symbols and alternative formats.
By doing so, mathematics teachers transform their
classrooms into learning communities where a wide range
of language and literacy practices help students achieve
mathematical literacy.
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Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2020

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