\nSt. Thomas\u2019 School has decided to put tile in the math classroom.\u00a0 The classroom is 12 feet x 15 feet.\u00a0 The tiles come in boxes, and each box will cover 6 square feet of floor.\u00a0 How many boxes are needed?<\/strong><\/p>\n
A. How many tiles come in a box?<\/strong><\/p>\n B. What is the area of the classroom that will be covered in tile?<\/strong><\/p>\n C. How many boxes of tiles will it take to cover the area of the classroom?<\/strong><\/p>\n In the question above, students could have chosen the correct answer merely by identifying that option c<\/em> is the only question that asks for a number of boxes.\u00a0 When I tested this question with 16 adult education students with varying levels of math and reading ability, 13\/16 or 81% chose the correct answer.<\/p>\n Questions that involved more complex units like rate were harder.<\/p>\n Question 2:<\/strong><\/p>\n Folders come in packs of 10.\u00a0 St. Thomas\u2019 needs 4 folders per student, and expects to enroll 20 students in September. Folders cost $11 for one pack.\u00a0 How much will St. Thomas spend for folders per student?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. How many folders will St. Thomas need to buy for September?<\/strong><\/p>\n B. What is the cost per folder?<\/strong><\/p>\n C. What is the cost to buy 4 folders for one student?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I put this question through a readability checker to test for vocabulary and sentence complexity, it was given a GLE of 3.2.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Every student I gave this to has a reading comprehension of at least GLE 4 (and some up to 11), yet this question was only answered correctly by 6 students, or 38% of the group.\u00a0 Of those who answered incorrectly, 7 chose option a<\/em>, a question which asks for a number of folders, which doesn\u2019t match the unit of the original question.<\/p>\n What is going on here?\u00a0 It would take more detailed and careful research to answer that question.\u00a0 To identify that option c<\/em> was asking the same question as the original, students would have to realize that \u201cHow much did St. Thomas spend\u201d and \u201cWhat is the cost\u201d are asking for the same type of unit, and they would also have to equate \u201cper student\u201d with \u201cfor one student.\u201d<\/p>\n I wanted to see if explicit instruction in identifying the unit in a question and defining the word \u201cper\u201d would help students with this type of task.\u00a0 The same group of students received one hour of instruction and practice in identifying the units in a question and identifying that per<\/em> described a unit rate.\u00a0 Four weeks later, they were given question 2 again.\u00a0 In the post-test of 14 of the original 16 students, four of the students who had originally answered incorrectly now chose the right answer, while one person who got it right the first time got it wrong.\u00a0 Another way to see it is that 8 out of the 14 post-testers got the question right after instruction, or 57%, which is a modest improvement.<\/p>\n While my informal classroom \u201cresearch\u201d needs a lot more work to tells us anything definitive about what skills students may be missing and how to intervene, it does suggest that the ability to read math problems is distinct from overall reading ability and that instructional interventions might be helpful.\u00a0 I hope to encourage more interest in this question so we can find ways to help students overcome this barrier.\u00a0 If you have your own observations or interventions, or have encountered useful research in this area, please share below in the comments!<\/p>\n <\/a>————————————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n ===================================================================<\/p>\n<\/a>[1]<\/a> https:\/\/readable.io\/text\/<\/h6>\n
![\"Melissa](\"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/adultnumeracycenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2015\/07\/melissa-braaten-headshot.jpg?w=109\")
Melissa Braaten is an adult education instructor at St. Mary\u2019s Center for Women and Children in Dorchester, MA. Melissa has taught ASE and pre-ASE math and reading, as well as ABE writing, computer skills, and health classes. Melissa also is a training and curriculum development specialist for the SABES PD Center for Mathematics and Adult Numeracy<\/a> at AV°ÍÊ¿.<\/em><\/p>\n