Math education isn't what it used to be. Today's textbooks may contain more words than numbers, with word problems on every page.

But while these curricula regularly ask students to explain their mathematical thinking in writing, they rarely train them how to do so. That's where Step Up to Writing® in Math comes in, with practical strategies that math teachers can use to help students communicate effectively—both orally and in writing.

"Our goal is not to teach math teachers how to teach math," explains Maureen Auman, coauthor of the new supplemental resource from Sopris West. "Rather, our goal is to give math teachers practical strategies that they can use to show students how to write about a math process or a math concept. It's more than just having students show their work; it's helping teachers learn about their students' math understanding."

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has identified communication as one of five process standards in math education. Writing and talking about math help students demonstrate their comprehension of concepts and better analyze and evaluate their ideas. At a time when more state and national assessments are requiring students to write about math, step-by-step strategies for breaking down, organizing, and explaining their problem-solving processes become increasingly important.

Math applications aren't new to Step Up to Writing. Ways to apply note taking, paper folding, color coding, summarizing, and other multisensory strategies in math contexts have been presented in every edition—and expanded into a subsection of the new Third Edition. Debbie Valette, coauthor of Step Up to Writing in Math, has been training math teachers in the strategies for years, and incorporated her classroom experiences and teachers' modifications of strategies into the book.

"Math teachers are being asked to use more language-rich textbooks and to use more writing in their classrooms, and some of them are uncomfortable with that," Valette says. "This book came out of a need to feel more comfortable with using oral and written communication to learn and teach. When you do this, you have a classroom that's going to go deeper into understanding, and when kids understand something more deeply and retain it, the byproduct is they're going to do well on state tests."

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To learn more about Step Up to Writing in Math, visit www.sopriswest.com/sutw-math

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Mary Billings, a teacher at Franklin Middle School in Greeley, Colorado, was named Citizen of the Year in the local Tribune. We talked with Mary about her 25 years of teaching, her success with Sopris West programs, and her philosophy on helping struggling students.

About two and a half years ago, Greeley-Evans School District 6 was put on academic watch by the Colorado Department of Education. Scores on the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) were low, and educators were facing the challenges of working with a high population of at-risk learners.

"It was a wake-up call that forced the district to really focus on research-based programs that would raise student achievement and test scores," teacher Mary Billings says. "We implemented different programs to meet the needs of different kids."

Two of these programs are REWARDS® and LANGUAGE!™ The Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum. In a district with a majority of Hispanic students, LANGUAGE! is making a huge difference with English language learners, says Billings, who taught the curriculum in previous years. Students who are in need of a more strategic, versus intensive, literacy intervention place into Billings' Reading Essentials class, which uses REWARDS.

The district has made significant progress and was taken off academic watch status this school year. For Billings, this success story is made up of individual students' achievements. One such learner is Jacob Rodriguez, a sixth grade student who had been held back a grade in another school for poor scores and a history of behavioral problems—all of which Billings attributes to his inability to read. (Billings and Jacob are pictured above.)

"We were implementing other programs, but I know for an absolute fact that what worked for him—what clicked with him—was REWARDS," she says. "At some point in the school year, he cracked the code, and the world opened up to him. I've never seen it happen quite so dramatically and quickly, where one day a kid couldn't read, couldn't decode, and at the end of class he could read anything he wants."

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To learn more about REWARDS, visit www.sopriswest.com/rewards. For more information on LANGUAGE!, visit www.sopriswest.com/language.

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Photos courtesy of The Greeley Tribune/Jim Rydbom.

"My seventh grade ELL [English language learner] LANGUAGE!™ students were having trouble with the 'Scoop It' activity. They seemed uninterested in this very important skill—understanding phrasing when reading sentences—so I knew I had to grab their attention. I had them all stand up, and together we physically scooped the sentences with our hands while moving to the right. I scooped and moved to the right first as I said the phrase, and they followed me while repeating the phrase. Then we sat down, and to my delight, they eagerly scooped the sentences again, this time using their pencils.

"Soon, we turned the scooping activity into a hula dance (since that is what it resembled), and I even brought in my ukulele. While one of the students led the hula scooping, I played along. Now, whenever they are reading independently or in partners and I ask them to scoop the sentences with their pencils, they do so without complaint. In fact, I see some of them smiling—perhaps they are remembering how much fun they had hula dancing!"

Are you using a Sopris West intervention in a creative and effective way? Please share your success stories, ideas, or teaching tips with the Connections community by e-mailing e-newsletter@sopriswest.com.

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