Language and Math

Many of us shy away from math curricula and concepts (or are teaching skills that classroom teachers consider to be mathematical without knowing it, as SLPTanya recently pointed out), but truth is, there is a TON of language in current math curricula, from vocabulary to sequencing of steps, etc.  Valerie Lill, one of my co-bloggers at ADVANCE also wrote a great post on this topic recently.

Check out my colleague Brian Marks' and his cohort Leslie Lewis' excellent website Yummy Math.  This website strives to place math in real-world contexts for kids by sharing lessons that draw on engaging and current topics, such as sports or food. Yummy Math just featured a lesson on the top grossing holiday movies, and in addition to the math components of the lesson, it would also be a great opportunity to work on oral narrative for upper elementary, middle or high school students.  Have the students research the movie plots or watch their trailers (a really fun way to work on inferencing skills as well), then share a summary with peers! Follow Yummy Math on Google Reader (there's a link to subscribe in their right sidebar) to get all these great lessons as they are posted.