Deep learning focuses on recognizing relationships among ideas. In the book Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning, the authors state that, “During deep learning, students engage more actively and deliberately with information in order to discover and understand the underlying mathematical structure.”
At Trinity School, we wondered what would happen if we connected mathematics with reading and writing. How might we deepen understanding of numeracy using children’s literature? What if we mathematize our read-aloud books to use them in math as well as Readers and Writers Workshop? What opportunities will teachers have to learn more about their readers, writers, and mathematicians?
These read-aloud moments open up the opportunity for rich discussion and engaging questions. Students received a more organic and deeper understanding of mathematical concepts thanks to the book that brought them to life, and it is an engaging way to look at math through a different lens. As Professor of Mathematics Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education Jo Boaler explains in her book Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching, “Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, flexibility, and multiplicity of ideas, the mathematics comes alive for people.”
Mathematizing children’s literature is one way that Trinity Teachers bring mathematics alive for our learners. We begin with a book or story and end with creative, flexible expression of thinking, problem solving, and success.
Early Learners, Pre-K, and Kindergarten
- Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes by James Dean and Kimberly Dean
- Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant
- Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen
- Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
Kindergarten and 1st Grade
- Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes by James Dean and Kimberly Dean
- The Cookie Fiasco by Mo Willems and Dan Santat
- Goodnight Baseball by Michael Dahl and Christina E. Forshay
- Deep in the Swamp by Donna M. Bateman and Brian Lies
- Dinner at Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson and Nadine Bernard Wescott
2nd, 3rd, 4th Grade
- Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest by Steve Jenkins
- Dinner at Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson and Nadine
- The Lion’s Share by Matthew McElligott
- The Cookie Fiasco by Mo Willems and Dan Santat
- Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson
4th, 5th, 6th Grade
- The Lion’s Share by Matthew McElligott
- Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson
- Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest by Steve Jenkins
- How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara
Boaler, Jo. Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching (p. 115). Wiley. Kindle Edition.
Hattie, John A. (Allan); Fisher, Douglas B.; Frey, Nancy; Gojak, Linda M.; Moore, Sara Delano; Mellman, William L.. Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.