Inspiring young readers to discover joy and wonder for math

Published: March 10, 2015

Picture a huddle of children, wide-eyed as they listen to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the classic tale of a critter gobbling through one apple, two pears, three plums and oh so much more

On the simplest level, it’s all about counting. Focus the math lens a bit, say two researchers in UW Bothell’s School of Educational Studies, and it becomes a fun problem-solving challenge for first-graders, who add number after number then debate whether the caterpillar eats 25 or 26 things on its way to a tummy ache.

“When you can say, ‘Let’s count how many things the caterpillar’s eating,’ all of a sudden children start seeing math in more interesting ways in the world around them,” says Allison Hintz, an assistant professor who researches mathematics teaching and learning in early elementary classrooms.

Hintz and Antony Smith, Associate Dean of the School of Educational Studies, are researching how this “mathematizing” of story-time reading can nurture children’s joy and wonder for mathematics.

“We have seen teachers transform read-alouds into engaging experiences that are also mathematically powerful for students,” Hintz and Smith wrote in an article about some of their early research published in The Reading Teacher, a national practitioner journal for educators.

In March, Hintz and Smith are teaming with Mie-Mie Wu, a children’s librarian at the Bothell branch of the King County Library System, where they will field test the first of several toolkits they’re developing with step-by-step tips for sparking conversations about math while reading to children.

Wu recommended many of the titles that Hintz and Smith chose for their first two toolkits that will include a set of books, discussion prompts, and story synopses. One focuses on math practices, time, number, and combinations; another concentrates on shape, size, and pattern. Wu is excited to use them during the Bothell Library’s “March Mathness” story times.

“This is such a great opportunity,” Wu says. “We don’t have to be experts who can talk about theorems and proofs to bring math into story time conversations.”

Hintz and Smith will gather data on their toolkits by observing story times and interviewing librarians and parents. Then, they’ll fine-tune their toolkits as they work to develop 13 others, with input from librarians in other King County Library System branches. They hope to secure future funding for a larger-scale study examining story-time math discussions in library and school settings.

“The ultimate goal” Smith says, “is to help children see mathematics as meaningful and relevant to their lives – as a way to make sense of their world – and to see themselves as vibrant young mathematicians and readers.”

Hintz and Smith are two of UW Bothell’s 2014 Worthington Distinguished Scholars, a prestigious faculty honor that awards research funding to promising and innovative scholars.