I've been teaching adult basic education in a variety of settings for over 20 years, and though I had taught some math here and there, I had never seen myself primarily as a math teacher. In the old days, I remember saying that I liked teaching a few math classes a week because it was so neat and concrete, the progress was so clear, and it provided a nice contrast to the complexities of teaching ESOL. However, in my current work with parents in a Family Literacy Program at the David Ellis School (a public school in Boston), I have fallen in love with the new ways that math is being taught and learned in elementary school classrooms and have found it thrilling to share these new approaches with my adult students.

Until I started teaching parents at the Ellis, I'd never worked with adults who were so focused on really understanding what they were learning (with no interfering agendas like preparing to take a standardized test or obtain a credential). The Ellis parents come to the class initially because they want to be able to help their kids, but somewhere along the way, they get so excited about math making sense to them for the first time it's clear they are also learning for themselves.

Once the parents believe that there isn't just one right way to solve a problem, they are really motivated to share their math strategies and to articulate their mathematical thinking with each other. Because they want to be able to explain what they've learned in class to their children, they have a natural interest in the communicative aspects of math learning.

Responding to Needs Assessment
When we started the Family Literacy Program at the Ellis, Spanish-speaking parents clearly wanted ESOL classes; it was not so clear how we could serve the English-speaking population at the school. After getting no significant response to a flyer about ABE-type classes, we put out a survey. We asked parents what they'd like to see in parent classes, and we purposely included items that emphasized how they could help their kids as well as ones that focused more on the adults' own skills. One of the most frequently checked items was "Understanding How Children Are Learning Math Now: Why Does It Look So Different from When We Were in School?" Based on this clear interest, we started a six-week pilot math class for parents in May 1998. The response of the parents who participated was so positive that we ran the class throughout the school year for the next three years. During the 2000-2001 school year, we added a second section of the class taught in Spanish.

Classes meet just once a week. They are purposely scheduled during the day while the children are in school. Although I always bring in interesting math problems, the direction of the class takes unexpected turns as parents ask questions, bring in sample problems, and share their own ideas. Our class sessions usually involve one or more of the following activities:

• Trying out sample problems from the 4th grade MCAS test and then discussing what kinds of math activities students need in lower grades to prepare them for the kind of mathematical thinking on the test;
• Working through problems from children's homework that parents bring in to class (or that I get from K-5 teachers at the school);
• Experimenting with the same manipulatives the children use in class;
• Adding to our running list of Parent Math Vocabulary. Parents note that math terminology has changed from when they were in school. For example, they know what "borrowing" is, but wonder about the meaning of "regrouping" or "trading;"
• Doing lots of collaborative work and talking about different ways of solving problems;
• Generating ideas for things parents can do at home with house hold materials, through daily activities, and through games, to help their kids develop important math concepts and to develop a confidence in and enjoyment of math.

As parents become enthusiastic about math and start seeing math problems as positive challenges, they convey their new feelings about math to their children. Parents have told me that helping their children with math homework is no longer drudgery; it has become something they look forward to. Many of the mothers and grandmothers who attend the class talk about creative ways they have found to engage their children in mathematical thinking -- on the playground, in the kitchen, or as they plan graduation parties, barbecues, or family reunions.

Math Ambassadors
The Parent Math Class has created a core of parents who feel comfortable in the school and who begin to take on leadership roles there. As their confidence about math increases, they become less intimidated about engaging in dialogue with the K-5 teachers about issues of curriculum and instruction. They start to spread the word to other parents-and the school begins to get the reputation of being a more welcoming, accessible place. We have a group of informal "math ambassadors" who spread positive feelings about math and math reform-to their children, to other parents in the school, and to people in their communities.

Parents in the math class naturally progress from thinking about their own children to thinking about the performance of students in the school as a whole. They begin to want to help other Ellis parents understand the new math standards and approaches. Thus, our initial strategy-of providing intensive math classes to small groups of parents-has expanded; we now reach out to larger numbers of families without losing our emphasis on helping parents gain a deeper understanding of the elementary school math curriculum.

Family Math Nights
For two consecutive years, we have run Family Math Nights at the school, where 200-250 parents and children have engaged in inter-generational, hands-on math activities. It's wonderful to see the confidence of my students as they staff the math stations -- alongside Ellis teachers or alone -- sharing their own understanding of math with other Ellis parents and children.

Teaching math is no longer just a break from the complexities of teaching ESOL. Now, I'd prefer to teach math all day long. And parent participants who used to hate math now tell me that they see math everywhere and seek out opportunities to learn more. For all of us, math has become something much different from the old-style rote learning; math, at its best moments, has become a thrill.

Alice Levine is a family literacy coordinator for Boston Excels, a program of The Home for Little Wanderers. If anyone is doing similar work with parents, or is interested in knowing more, Alice would be pleased to communicate with him or her. She can be reached by e-mail at: a.levine@att.net