Linking Numeracy with Literacy in the Middle School Classroom

Jane Watson

 

The purpose of this introduction to the web site ‘Chance and Data in the news’ is to illustrate how newspaper articles can be used to promote close links between numeracy and literacy in the classroom. In middle school settings there is also often the opportunity to combine work with other areas of the curriculum, such as science or social science.

Given a particular article there are often several different approaches that can be developed for using it with students in the classroom. As an example consider the following article from The Mercury, 22 May, 1999, p. 25.

Approach 1.

This article can be used to create an awareness of the absolute necessity to have numeracy skills when reading the newspaper, often considered mainly a literacy skill. One idea would be to present the article to students with the numbers (800m, August 7, 2027, 19,000, and 1/12) removed and ask them to discuss the meaning they can make without this information.

Approach 2.

Related to Approach 1 but leaving the numbers in the article, students could be asked to find all of the different uses for number in the article. As fractions do not appear in newspaper text very often, this article provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the meaning of fractions in context, where they actually tell part of the story. This could lead to drawing a scaled diagram of the earth and moon with the distance to the asteroid labelled in two different ways (a fraction of the total distance and as a absolute measure with units).

Approach 3.

Students could be asked to use this article as a basis for writing numeracy questions for each other. This task requires literacy as well as numeracy skills. The questions posed will range from easy to difficult and some may perhaps be unsolvable, but they will inform the teacher about the students’ abilities to use their literacy and numeracy skills. Some possible questions include the following.

  1. How many days is it from today until the day the asteroid is expected to arrive?
  2. How old will you be when the asteroid arrives?
  3. How many times wider than the classroom is the asteroid?
  4. Using the information in the article, about how many miles is it to the moon from earth?
  5. How many kilometres will the asteroid be from the earth at its closest?
  6. If the asteroid were roughly spherical, what would its volume be in cubic meters?
  7. If the asteroid were roughly cubical, what would its volume be in cubic meters?

Notice how many different numeracy and mathematical skills are required to answer these questions. Some of the questions might be used to justify to students the importance of other topics in the mathematics curriculum.

Approach 4.

Some of the questions noted in Approach 3 point to specific lessons that could be structured around the article. These include

  1. working with fractions and ratios
  2. converting units (e.g., imperial to metric)
  3. finding volumes.

On the other hand, articles such as this one could be kept on file to be brought out for motivation and application when the lessons occur in their natural curriculum sequence.

Approach 5.

It is of course possible to extend the numeracy and literacy objectives of using this article to the area of science. Students could be asked to do some research to found out about asteroids, what they are made of, their likely impact if they hit the earth, and the theories on their impact in the past. As well students could collect information on the distance from the earth to the moon in order the check the validity of the figures given in the article. As the distance from the earth to the moon varies over time, this may not be a trivial exercise. It should introduce the idea of average distance and students can use their estimation skills to make a judgement about how accurate the fraction 1/12 is to describe the 19,000-mile distance in terms of its relation to the distance to the moon.

There are undoubtedly other opportunities teachers can find for using this article. It provides a starting point that should cater for students with all levels of numeracy from basic recognition of numbers in context to more advanced skills.

A second article, reproduced below, from The Mercury, 24 May, 1999, p. 13, offers similar opportunities. All of the approaches noted above can be adapted for use with this article.

 

Approach 1.

This article could be reproduced for students to read with blanks to fill in instead of the words and numbers (this is a cloze task): "a little less," "12 tubes," "6m," "12th-century," "six [degrees]," "4[m]," "perpendicular," "5mm," "two [sets]," and "100m." Depending on the age or ability of students, units and nouns may or may not be deleted. Students could make decisions in groups or on their own about what should fill in the blanks. Class discussion could then determine which are the best estimates. An explicit discussion of how students obtain the estimates would be helpful.

Approach 2.

Ask students to read the article as presented and list all of the different aspects of the story that depend on the use of numbers or other mathematical phrases. Discussion of students’ lists will bring out aspects of quantity (e.g., 12 tubes, two sets of suspenders), linear measurement (e.g., 6m, 4m, 5mm, 100m), angle measurement (e.g., 6 degrees, perpendicular), and order (a little less, 12th-century). The drawing of labelled diagrams using the information in the article could be a good exercise for many students.

Approach 3.

Students can be asked to write numeracy questions for each other, displaying both their literacy and numeracy skills. These are likely to display a range of difficulty and include the following.

    1. Draw a diagram to show how the 12 tubes might be positioned under the tower to remove the dirt. Which side of the tower are they on? [There are many issues to discuss here, related to angle, depth, how much dirt might be removed, etc.]
    2. Where would the two sets of steel suspenders be placed in case the tower got wobbly? Draw a diagram to show their locations.
    3. How many hundred years ago was the tower built?
    4. Draw a sketch of the tower and label as many measurements as you can from the information given (e.g., the 6 degree angle, the perpendicular, the 4m lean).
    5. What is the percentage of the decrease in the lean so far?
    6. Using a protractor, carefully draw a scale diagram of the leaning tower. What do you estimate the height of the tower to be from the drawing?

      Those who have been introduced to some trigonometry might ask each other questions based on the sine or tangent, using a calculator.

    7. About how tall is the tower?
    8. Carefully measuring the photograph, estimate the diameter of the tower and as many measurement properties of the tower as you can (e.g., its volume).

Approach 4.

Specific topics that could be motivated by this article include

  1. scale drawing using a protractor
  2. ratios and percentages
  3. trigonometry.

Approach 5.

There are quite a few opportunities for students to do research based on this article. Reading about its history will involve literacy as well as numeracy. Collecting data and plotting the increasing lean over the centuries would be a good exercise that would include graphing skills. It is likely to be possible to follow the project described in the article on the internet. A starting point for such investigations might be "GF’s Leaning Tower of Pisa Web Page."

A third article, "That’s Life — Handguns," with links to the social science part of the curriculum is found on the web site.

This article again contains many numbers that can be considered in the same light as noted above. Besides work with number, however, there is a qualitative aspect of numeracy that arises in the article. It is the idea of a sample in relation to a population.

The Teacher Discussion summarises the issues in relation to the sample-population relationship and the bias that effects the claim in the article.

The Student Questions section provides some questions that could be used with students, although as noted earlier it would be desirable to encourage students to ask their own questions to interrogate each other about the article.

In general the web site, ‘Chance and Data in the News’ is set up as illustrated in the last example. From the start you can follow several paths to find articles for use in the classroom.

The Main Index is set up by mathematical topic. Here there are six major headings related to chance and data and to numeracy generally. Most of the chance and data articles can be used in relation to numeracy as well. On the same page there is also a Topic Index, including reference to articles about Crime, Diet, Entertainment, Environment and Science, Gambling, Gender Differences, Gender Issues, Health, Humour, Marriage and Family, Politics, Smoking, Social Issues, Sport, and Traffic.

Each of the major sections begins with some general questions and then lists the articles most closely related to that theme in alphabetical order. For example, check out the section on Numeracy.

Icons are provided to allow you to choose whether you want to view the article itself, the student questions or the teacher discussion. Cartoons are sometimes featured and you might like to find your way to the one mentioned below which is on the Numeracy page.

The purpose of the web site is to provide a resource for teachers. It is a starting point, not an end point. You are encouraged to adapt ideas, change questions and involve the students actively in using the site. The approaches to the first two articles discussed here suggest possibilities for you to consider. It is also important to encourage students to read the newspaper for themselves, looking for instances where numeracy skills are important. Over time students can be asked to bring examples to class for discussion and analysis as suggested here.