Mathematical learning and children’s literature

• Main Author: Jenner, Donna
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9662

This study investigated one teacher's use of children's literature in her mathematics program during the first term of Grade Two. The study was guided by two questions: What is it about the shared reading situation that creates a fertile context that helps individual children make mathematical connections? How does quality children's literature capture their imaginations in a way that enhances the possibility for them to think mathematically in deeper, more reflective ways? A qualitative research methodology was employed in this investigation. The collected data consisted of videotapes and a handwritten, personal journal. The videotapes documented classroom literature sessions and the journal recorded the teacher's observations, thought, and conjectures. Field notes and photographs were also kept to accurately document and describe students' work on chalkboards. The teacher videotaped the reading and discussion of many different books with her Grade To class, but this thesis focuses on a detailed analysis of just one book, Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt by Barbara Smucker, within the context of the previous readings. The shared reading context and the book provoked he students to engage in mathematical discussion as well as stimulating deep, reflective mathematical thinking. Using an interpretive inquiry approach, initiated by one student's mathematical comment on an illustration in this book, the thesis seeks to uncover the ways in which children's literature promotes the growth of mathematical thinking and conceptual understanding in young children. The power, of wellwritten and illustrated literature for children, to enhance mathematical understanding, has been a long-held personal conviction of this teacher.