Language Demands Tool: Attuning Prospective Teachers’ Vision to the Role of Language in Mathematics Education

Mathematics standards and practices highlight the vital role that language plays in mathematics education. However, there remains a common misconception
that mathematics is somehow language- free or less linguistically demanding than other content areas. This qualitative study describes an intervention implemented in six elementary mathematics methods courses. The intervention was designed to attune prospective teachers’ noticing to the language modalities and supports in mathematics teaching and learning. The intervention began with an observation tool that prospective teachers completed in their field placement classrooms. This article classifies prospective teachers’ noticings and explicates how these noticing became a pedagogical catalyst for further learning and discussion in subsequent mathematics methods classes.