A curious history of mathematics

Since the release of the Common Core State Standards, a move to find nonfiction materials to read across the subject areas began. Reading in math has always been a challenge. Math textbooks are remarkably challenging to read. Many students are turned off by the mere mention of math- mathphobia being the most common content area avoidance in schools. The reliance on symbology stymies some students. The requirement to learn from worked problems demands dramatic slowing of the reading process in a way many are uncomfortable. Vocabulary that is rarely used outside of math classes confounds many. Sidebars are common, but students often skip over these text features. Concept density is a huge upward battle. For more about reading math texts and their challenge see this passage from chapter 2 of  Literacy Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction by Joan M. Kenney, Euthecia Hancewicz, Loretta Heuer, Diana Metsisto and Cynthia L. Tuttle. Finding accessible and interesting math readings remains a challenge.

Joel Levy's book, A Curious History of Mathematics: Big Ideas from Primitive Numbers to Chaos Theory, is a readable tome about math. He has 2-4 page sections about key mathematician and concepts. It is written as a narrative as opposed to a expository text which makes it easier for students to digest. While it contains outlines of mathematical concepts, it focuses on the key players in math, an approach that may make it more interesting to students as well. This book could be used to introduce concepts. For example, in the section titled "The Life of Pi," estimates for pi from different cultures, notably Egyptian, Indian, Greece, China and Italy, highlights the contributions from around the world to math, something rarely seen in our Eurocentric math curriculum. It also presents challenges like how many decimal places do we need for pi? While generally not appropriate for the average student to read through cover-to-cover, the book is approachable by middle school students as excerpts related to content being studied. Mr. Levy takes a somewhat humorous view and presents many remarkable facts which had me talking with my family:

• Euler was the most prolific mathematics author of record. How many books did he publish? (If compiled, between his books and papers, his 856 pieces would fill between 60 and 80 volumes.)
• What US president devised a unique proof of the Pythagorean Theorem? (Garfield)
• Cicadas breed in prime-number intervals.

A fun book that recommend, even for the non-mathy folks out there.