Reading List for Mathematizing Read Alouds

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

Kindergarten and 1st Grade

2nd, 3rd, 4th Grade

4th, 5th, 6th Grade


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.