The Vocabulary of Word Problems: When Math Teachers Must Teach Reading

Some students struggle with math because they struggle with reading. And the trend in mathematics education lately, is to include a lot of applications which involve more reading than ever. Gone are the days where students would do math problems in isolation, so those who didn't read well could still do well in math. Math books contain more written words and language-based tasks than ever. So math teachers find themselves teaching reading skills, especially as they pertain to understanding word problems. This is nothing new; good math teachers have always taught math vocabulary and applications.

For word problems, the basis seems to be vocabulary. Most of us have lists of catch phrases that signify certain operations. For example, "how many more?" indicates subtraction. But we cannot rely totally on vocabulary and catch phrases. Sometimes the situation described in word problems describes a mathematical concept without any signal words or catch phrases.

I am currently trying to get my students to recognize when to use a proportion to solve a problem: when there are three pieces of data and two labels. They all can solve proportions quite well, but sometimes have a hard time knowing when to use one. Having a general guideline has helped them tremendously.

With students in Title I classes, I have found it necessary to slow down and require the students to read (and reread) problems. I have noticed that sometimes math teachers skip having students read instructions, but paraphrase them instead. This can sometimes cause confusion which leads to incorrect work. When a student asks for help with a problem, a common response I have is "Read the problem to me."

Every now and then, it is helpful to remind myself that I am not only a math teacher; I must teach reading as well.