Children's literature in the mathematics classroom: a flexible approach to practice

Employing children’s literature in the mathematics classroom is a flexible teaching practice that engages students with mathematics in ways that traditional teaching practice may not. Children’s literature offers opportunities for rich mathematical discussions and thinking through an examination of mathematical concepts represented in the storyline, illustrations, and context. This paper explores the use of children's literature to promote student engagement in the early years (ages 5 to 8) reporting on two lessons planned around children’s literature. A suite of lessons based on 17 children’s books were developed over two years as a collaboration between six Australian academics. The books were selected based on Marston’s (2010) framework for identifying picture books with quality mathematical content. The Framework for Engagement with Mathematics (Attard, 2012) was used as an analytical tool to determine if and how the use of the books were engaging. Relevant mathematical concepts which linked explicitly to children’s lives were addressed. The opportunities to differentiate students’ experience of a task, created through enabling and extending prompts, assisted in engaging the students. Findings from the lessons indicated the utilisation of children’s literature to develop mathematical concepts was an effective tool for extending their mathematical understanding and ensuring substantive engagement.