This blog shares insights from a paper recently produced for USAID - Towards the Design and Implementation of Comprehensive Primary Grade Literacy and Numeracy Programs. The paper describes the foundational skills young children need to develop in each subject area to be successful at higher grades – those that are subject-specific as well as those common to both subject areas.
Helping teachers understand both the specificities of effective mathematics and reading teaching, as well as the commonalities of effective instruction in both subject areas, is an important aspect of comprehensive reading and mathematics programs, particularly if the same teachers are responsible for teaching both subjects.
Some of the recommendations with respect to the design and delivery of programs that have a dual focus on mathematics and reading, extrapolated from the lessons learned from a decade of research into effective early grade reading interventions in low and middle-income countries, include the following:
- Train teachers on both effective mathematics and reading instruction in the early grades, as well as the connections between the two. Interventions should be explicit about the ways the two content areas are the same and different, and efforts should be made to connect the two areas.
- Provide teachers with a scope and sequence for each subject that acknowledges and respects the progression in developmental learning. This means identifying the key skills children need to develop at each grade level and sequencing them appropriately.
- Provide teachers with instructional materials aligned with the scope and sequence, and that model the specificities and commonalities of effective instruction in the two disciplines.
- Allocate sufficient time for instruction in each subject area. Reading and mathematics should not be taught in the same time block. Rather, there should be a dedicated time of the day for reading instruction, and a separate time of the day for mathematics instruction. The amount of time allocated to each subject area should be sufficient to ensure improved learning outcomes, provided that effective instructional practices and materials are used.
Comments
A very thoughtful approach to literacy instruction .
One thing that it'd be good to know from the authors is this: My guess is that skills in math contribute to skills in reading, and that skills in reading contribute to skills in math. I'd be curious to know from the authors whether that informed guess is true. And, if so, why? Because both involve systems of symbol manipulation? If so, then it makes sense that they both contribute to each other, and also help lay the groundwork for other subjects that involve the manipulation of symbols, such as science (though science using symbol manipulation is usually taught only much later). In that sense, these subjects do not take away from each other, but add to each other. Time spent on both is time well spent, I'd guess. I also find it interesting that the authors do not seem to advocate an integrated approach but separate time for each. Given that there is symbolic manipulation in both, but that they are different symbols, and different symbol systems, that makes sense to me.
In reply to Default Subject by Luis Crouch
Thanks, Luis, for your question! The relationship between mathematics and reading is an intriguing one!
Most of the research shows us that early numeracy skills are a strong predictor of children’s reading skills, however there is limited research showing the opposite relationship. Exposure to mathematical experiences most likely strengthen executive functions (attentiveness, reasoning, logic, etc.), which in turn result in stronger mathematics and reading skills. More research is being conducted on the 2-way relationship between reading and mathematics and hopefully we’ll have more definitive answers in the coming years. In Purpua and colleagues’ (2011) investigation, the authors found that early print knowledge and vocabulary scores uniquely predicted later math scores. When accounting for the other skills, phonological awareness did not uniquely predict later math scores. The authors discuss that print knowledge and vocabulary skills may be more important to early mathematical development than previously thought, both to understand the language around mathematics as well in developing an understanding numerical symbols.
In regards to our proposal of keeping the teaching of reading and mathematics separate, while teachers should seek out opportunities to leverage the natural connections between the two subjects having separate reading and mathematics programs can ensure that students develop the discipline-specific skills required to be successful learners.
Teachers themselves needs to understand the concept first. Secondly the mode of presentation plays a very important role in making students understand the concept, this is more key.