THE PRACTICE OF READING IN AN INQUIRY-ORIENTED MATHEMATICS CLASS

THE DOMINANCE of knowledge transmission and display in content area cl assrooms has limited research on content area reading to strategies fo r learning from text. In mathematics classrooms, these strategies usua lly focus on learning the vocabulary necessary to successfully compreh end and solve ready-made problems. Recent scholarship on learning and knowing mathematics, however, has prompted a shift toward inquiry-orie nted instruction, which raises new questions about reading in mathemat ics classes. This study drew on scholarship in both mathematics and re ading education to explore the nature and use of reading in a secondar y mathematics class which sought to demystify mathematics through inqu iry. Working collaboratively, the teacher and university-based researc hers documented and analyzed a semester-long course on mathematical co nnections. They found that there were multiple ways of reading and tha t these reading practices constituted ways to learn and do mathematics in the classroom studied. These findings suggest that students learn with and through as well as from text in content area classrooms and t hat ''instrumental'' reading has a more significant role to play than previously thought.