Intertextuality in Math Learning: Math Students as Language Learners

• In Event: Math as Language

Abstract

We explore how a teacher and her students use intertextuality to learn and use math language in a seventh grade math classroom. Using the theories of intertextuality, disciplinary literacy, and language socialization, we observed the classroom interactions of students and their teacher and analyzed the types of intertextuality that were initiated and continued during those interactions. Analyzing the classroom data, using the categories of intertextuality developed by Varelas, Pappas, and Rife (2006), revealed two predominant patterns that show the unique nature of math language and the value of linking students’ experiences outside the classroom to math concepts. This paper concludes with implications for designing math curriculum that includes explicit math language instruction and real world connections.

Authors

• Heather Rowlings, Framingham Public Schools

• Christian Leblanc

• Minjeong Kim, University of Massachusetts - Lowell