How to Improve Students’ Math Ability by Teaching Reading Skills

TL;DR

(transcript, prompts, and instructional advice below)

Low reading proficiency often hinders students’ math performance, especially in subjects like algebra where understanding language is key.

Reading and math should not be taught in isolation. Strong reading skills directly enhance students’ mathematical reasoning, vocabulary comprehension, and ability to interpret problems. Integrating explicit reading instruction within math lessons can help students become better learners overall.

Part 1: Reading Skills Affect Math Proficiency

Yes: low reading skills can absolutely cause math difficulties. Reading comprehension affects

Understanding and decoding word problems
Grasping mathematical vocabulary (e.g., “slope,” “intercept,” “variable”)
Following multi-step directions
Logical reasoning through language

When reading skills improve, students show

Better interpretation of problems
More accurate computation and reasoning
Stronger conceptual understanding and persistence

Part 2: Top Four Research-Based Reading Strategies

(Aligned with the National Reading Panel, 2000; Shanahan et al., 2010)

Explicit Phonics Instruction: Teach letter-sound relationships systematically to improve decoding and fluency.
Vocabulary Instruction: Use direct teaching of math-specific terms and word analysis (morphology).
Comprehension Strategies: Apply summarizing, questioning, predicting, and clarifying techniques.
Reciprocal Teaching / Think-Alouds: Encourage metacognitive awareness by verbalizing problem-solving processes.

Part 3: Embedding Reading in Algebra Instruction (example math subject)

Decode the Language of Math: Break down and annotate word problems, identifying verbs, nouns, and operations.
Reading focus: Phonics and decoding complex terms.
Math Vocabulary Mapping – Create graphic organizers linking words, symbols, and meanings (e.g., slope = rate of change).
Reading focus: Vocabulary development.
Reciprocal Teaching for Word Problems: Students summarize, question, and predict problem steps in small groups.
Reading focus: Comprehension through discussion.
Think-Aloud Problem Solving: Model reading and reasoning through problems aloud.
Reading focus: Metacognition and comprehension.
Math Journaling: Students write daily reflections describing how they solved problems.
Reading focus: Fluency and comprehension through written expression.

Part 4: 3-Day Lesson Plan: Algebra – Graphing and Analyzing Linear Functions

Ask the AI to include the math instructional activities when it creates your lesson plan.

Conclusion

Integrating reading strategies into math lessons enhances students’ comprehension, persistence, and conceptual understanding. By treating reading as an essential part of math instruction, teachers can strengthen both domains simultaneously.

Integrating Reading Strategies into Mathematics Instruction: Digging Deeper

Part A: Pedagogical and Strategic Implications of Integrating Reading into Mathematics Instruction

Mathematical proficiency depends as much on language understanding as on numerical reasoning. Students often struggle with algebra and other math concepts not because they lack computational ability but because they cannot effectively read and interpret mathematical language. Integrating reading instruction into math lessons strengthens students’ comprehension, persistence, and conceptual understanding.

Core Pedagogical Principle

Reading and mathematics should not be taught in isolation. Teachers can, and should, embed reading instruction within math lessons to help students interpret word problems, understand specialized vocabulary, and reason through complex instructions. When students’ reading skills improve, they show measurable gains in mathematical reasoning, accuracy, and problem-solving.

The Teacher’s Role

Every math teacher is also a reading teacher. Effective mathematics instruction explicitly addresses literacy by helping students:

Decode the language of mathematics.
Comprehend and apply key vocabulary.
Follow multi-step written directions.
Use language to reason, explain, and justify solutions.

Research-Based Strategies for Integration

Four research-supported approaches can be readily incorporated into math classrooms (National Reading Panel, 2000; Shanahan et al., 2010):

Explicit Phonics Instruction: Strengthen decoding to help students read mathematical symbols and terms accurately.
Vocabulary Development: Teach and revisit math-specific terminology such as slope, variable, or intercept through mapping and contextual examples.
Comprehension Strategies: Use summarizing, questioning, predicting, and clarifying techniques when students read or discuss math tasks.
Reciprocal Teaching and Think-Alouds: Model and encourage verbal reasoning and metacognitive awareness during problem solving.

Instructional Applications

Practical classroom methods include:

Annotating Word Problems to identify operations and key information.
Math Vocabulary Mapping that visually links symbols and meanings.
Reciprocal Discussions where students summarize and question problem steps in pairs or small groups.
Think-Aloud Modeling to demonstrate cognitive processes for interpreting problems.
Math Journaling to build fluency through written reflection on problem-solving approaches.

Instructional Design Framework

Use a gradual-release model: “I do, we do, group do, you do.” Each stage integrates reading strategies into math learning, fostering independence and metacognition.

End lessons with short written reflections or exit tickets to reinforce comprehension and self-assessment.

Align all activities with relevant math content standards to ensure instructional coherence.

Instructional Outcomes

Embedding literacy within mathematics instruction cultivates both mathematical and language fluency. Students become more adept at interpreting, reasoning, and communicating about mathematical ideas. This dual-literacy approach supports long-term academic growth and deeper conceptual understanding across disciplines.

Part B: AI Support for Integrating Reading into Mathematics Instruction

AI can help teachers design, differentiate, and reflect on lessons that connect reading and mathematics, making instruction more language-rich and conceptually deep.

Practical AI Applications

Analyze Word Problems: Use AI to rewrite or scaffold math word problems at varying reading levels, focusing on clarity and vocabulary.
Develop Vocabulary Supports: Ask AI to generate definitions, examples, and visual representations for math-specific terms like slope or variable.
Model Comprehension Strategies: Prompt AI to produce sample “think-alouds” that demonstrate how to read and reason through a math problem step by step.
Design Reciprocal Teaching Prompts: Have AI generate student discussion questions for predicting, summarizing, and clarifying during group problem solving.
Create Math Journaling Starters: Use AI to propose daily reflection prompts that guide students to explain their reasoning in writing.
Plan Differentiated Lessons: Ask AI to organize “I do, we do, group do, you do” lesson sequences that embed reading strategies across varying skill levels.
Build Exit Tickets and Assessments: Use AI to create short comprehension checks that link mathematical reasoning to written understanding.

Implementation Tips

Begin by identifying which reading skills (e.g., phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, or metacognition) align with your current math unit.
Use AI as a collaborative planning assistant to generate ideas and then adapt them for your students’ needs and context.
Review all AI outputs for accuracy, alignment with standards, and appropriate reading levels before classroom use.

Expected Outcomes

Teachers gain efficiency in lesson design and support student growth in both literacy and numeracy. Students learn to read, reason, and communicate mathematically with greater confidence and comprehension.

Full Transcript and Prompts

Let’s face it, math scores are not very good. And one of the main reasons, quite honestly, is not because kids can’t do math. It’s because they can’t read well. And we also know that reading skills are not so good.

Part 1: Reading Skills Affect Math Proficiency

There is a very strong effect of reading skills on the ability to comprehend and demonstrate mathematical skills. So we need to talk about reading, and we need to talk about reading in the context of math instruction.

I will tell you, if you’re a math teacher and your kids aren’t getting it, think about their reading skills because it’s quite possible you also need to be a reading teacher. But we don’t have to separate them. We can incorporate those reading skills inside of your math instruction.

And we’re going to look at some ways to make that possible using AI.

But let’s first take a look at the issue, which is “How does reading affect mathematics?”

So, we’ve got: I teach algebra to 9th grade students. I have some context: difficulty understanding. Could it be their reading skills, if it’s possible? And how does reading affect mathematics?

Prompt 1:

I teach algebra to 9th grade students. Many of the students are having difficulty with understanding the concepts and math processes. I wonder whether their low reading skills are causing difficulty with learning math. Is this possible? If so, how might improved reading skills help raise math ability?

The reason why I’m putting this in there, although I kind of just told you the answer, is because in many cases, especially as you look start looking at upper grades, upper elementary, mid school, high school, the folks teaching math aren’t teaching reading.

So what is that connection? Let’s just take just very briefly a moment to look at it.

Yes, the answer is “Yes”. It’s very possible low reading skills are contributing to students’ difficulties. And here I’m choosing algebra.

And how are some ways that they’re connected?

Comprehending word problems,
Understanding vocabulary (and there’s a lot of vocabulary in mathematics),
Following directions,
Reasoning with language (because language is also not just how we communicate but how we think, so we have to have the language skills)

If we improve reading skills, [we get] better problem interpretation, accuracy, persistence, conceptual learning, which is increasingly important as we start looking at higher and higher levels of mathematics.

So the point is “Yes”. If we want kids to learn mathematics and demonstrate mathematics, we also have to teach reading.

And then there’s some things we can do: annotate word problems in math, etc.

If you’re thinking about this, run the prompt yourself and spend a bit of time exploring and digging in a bit deeper and look at how do we, as math teachers, help kids to become better math students by helping them become better readers.

Let’s look at some ways we can do that. Let’s get some help with that process.

Part 2: Key Reading Strategies for Math

We’ll turn ourselves to prompt two, which first let’s look at reading.

What we’re going to do is we’re going to look at some reading skills. We’re going to look at some instruction and we’re going to bring it together in an into an instructional unit or an instructional plan. So, let’s start with the reading.

If reading is a challenge, what are the top four research-based instructional strategies for helping students improve phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension? Because we’re going to see those direct ties over to mathematics in these areas here. So, let’s find out what they are.

Prompt 2

What are the top 4 research-based instructional strategies for helping students improve phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension?

Now, every time we run this, we’re going to get pretty much the same information, but there’s a reason why we’re doing the different pieces, and that is eventually we’re going to say, “Okay, look up in the chat and use this information to create me an instructional plan.”

So top things for phonics: Explicit (being kind of a reading specialist myself, Yes, this is what it is). Decoding words fluently and accurately, letter sound, spelling, and so forth. Systematic instruction. We’re not going to spend much time talking about the reading. We’re here to talk about math, but we need that in the discussion. So, we’ve got our vocabulary instruction, some top strategies for that, comprehension, top strategies for that, and so forth.

If you want to dig more deeply into the reading, run the prompt, spend some time, and review it. And word study.

But here, we’re just going to be feeding that instructional plan. Now, having got the reading strategies, let’s next then turn to helping students improve reading within instruction on algebra.

Part 3: Embedding Reading Strategies in Math Instruction

Give me some activities that are going to embed the reading skills within the mathematics instruction. And for you, what you’re going to put in is what is your specific topic. What is your grade? What are your concepts, mathematical concepts, and processes that you want the students to learn? So, you’re going to modify it with that. I’m just using this is my example.

Prompt

I want to help students improve reading within instruction on algebra. Provide 5 math instructional activities that apply those reading strategies. Explain how the reading skills are being addressed in each activity.

Then, so we want activities, and then so I know what I’m doing as the teacher, explain how those skills are being addressed in the activities.

It’s kind of like if you’re cooking something. You do your prep work, right? You get your ingredients, and you got a little pile of garlic here, and you got a little pile of onions over there, and you got some chopped up meat. That’s what we’re doing here.

And then we’re going to assemble in case you’re wondering “If we know all this stuff, why do we keep doing it?” That’s why. We’re getting our ingredients together.

All right. So let’s drop in some activities that apply those reading strategies, the ones we just referred to within algebra and…go.

“Excellent focus. Integrating reading development directly into algebra is one of the most effective ways to strengthen both literacy and mathematical reasoning. Here are some strategies.”

Decoding the language. Good. And here’s how the reading’s in there.
Math vocabulary mapping. Good.
Reciprocal teaching for word problems. Good.
And the skills and thinking aloud problem solving. Good, comprehension strategy
And math journaling.

All right, so we’ve got our activities. Now, let’s put them together. Let’s assemble this meal called our lesson plan.

Part 4: Creating a Math Lesson Plan with Reading Strategies

And now, this is a bit of a long one. So, here is the lesson plan prompt, and it follows all of the same components and basically the same template that I’ve used in other videos. So what do we have?

Prompt

Students: 9th grade

Subject: algebra, graphing and analyzing linear functions

Purpose: Students should be able to demonstrate their understanding of the math concepts independently and apply them to everyday life.

Approach: I-do, we-do, group-do, you-do.

Other: I want students to improve their phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension while studying the math topics.

Task:

1. create a 3-day math lesson plan, 45 minutes each day

2. Incorporate the 4 reading strategies in the math lesson through the math activities above.

3. Specifically indicate how the reading skills are being developed and utilized in the math lesson.

4. End each day with an individual exit ticket

5. List the specific math content standards above the lesson, and then indicate standards being addressed throughout the lesson steps.

Students ninth grade. Subject algebra, graphing and analyzing linear functions. I want them to be able to demonstrate understanding apply them. My pedagogical approach: I want I do, we do, group do, you do. And I want them to improve phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension while studying the math because we’re teaching math. Create a three-day lesson plan, 45 minutes each.

So, all the basic stuff that we put into a lesson plan prompt. We’re assembling, incorporating, the four reading strategies in the math lesson through the math activities above.

Remember, we created the math activities on the basis of the reading strategies. Now, we’re going to create the lesson plan on the basis of those activities.

We’ve built all the pieces.

And tell me a little more about that. Exit tickets, give me standards, and so forth.

And finally, we’ve got all of our pieces. And now, we’re going to have a nice robust plan to help kids to develop their mathematical skills, but at the same time build up their reading skills so they can begin to master both.

And very briefly, how does it look? We’ve got our content standards. We’ve got day one, we do, group do, you do, and so on.

Conclusion

And this is going to go on for a while, but basically that’s the strategy for helping kids learn math by incorporating effective reading instruction at the same time.

I hope you found this useful. Take care.