In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Karen Tzanetopoulos, a trained speech and language pathologist. Karen tells us about how she started working out of an office that was like a janitor’s closet to quietly do her own structured literacy with students and how her interest in math began while working in the public schools, as she observed that many of her students with language disorders also struggled to learn math and then she made a connection between the two.
In this conversation, Karen goes through everything from the fundamentals that students need automaticity in, common misconceptions, the importance of language to maths, how to approach word problems and much, much more.
Resources mentioned:
- How Children Learn Math: The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice (Nancy Krasa, Karen Tzanetopoulos, Colleen Maas)
- sternmath.com
- Götze, D., & Baiker, A. (2023). Enhancing language-responsive meaning-making processes as an epistemic catalyst for developing multiplicative reasoning in young children. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 70, 101034.
Reviews
You can connect with Karen:
Website: mathandlanguage.com
Email: Karen@mathandlanguage.com
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net
About Karen Tzanetopoulos
Karen Tzanetopoulos, is a co-author of the book How Children Learn Math: The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice (2023) which is meant to make accessible the international research in the science of math learning to educators to improve math instruction. Karen is an expert in the science of math learning and the science of reading and provides instruction to children with dyslexia and math difficulty. Trained as a speech and language pathologist, her interest in math began while working in the public schools as she observed that many of her students with language disorders also struggled to learn math and made a connection between the two. The National Science Foundation and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago awarded Karen an Innovation Corps grant in 2016 to study the problems of teaching math across the United States and to discover possible solutions. Currently, she owns a private practice in the Chicago area, provides professional development to teachers and school districts, and presents at a variety of conferences. Her brain-based approach to learning began while working at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Institute for Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch. She has helped many children learn math and to read and works with students in person and online.