In this episode of our Literacy Across the Curriculum series we visit with learning consultant and mathematics wizard (in our opinion) Jackie Ratkovic. Jackie shares a number of titles and talks us through how each book can be used to support students k-12 (mostly elementary) in their development of skills and understanding in Math.
Jackie outlines how books used in class fall into three categories:
Text Dependent: You need to understand the math to understand the book
Idea Enhancing: Books do not depend on previous understanding of math and help connect and expand on the concepts.
Illustration Exploring: Books that contain pictures, drawings, and diagrams within the story that help pull out those important space and shape connections that are very much a part of mathematics.
Jackie emphasizes, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Books and websites discussed in the Episode: