We noticed when students were doing the FSA sections in Numeracy that many students were struggling to understanding the meaning behind the word problems and what was being asked of them.  Specifically, there were many challenges with the vocabulary used and language based questions that had many steps. 

When we saw the result in Numeracy it confirmed our hunch.   We surveys the students to get some more feedback about how they felt while completing the Numeracy questions.

"I wasn't sure what it was asking, but when it was explained to me a different way I then got it" - Grade 7

"Why can't they just say it with numbers, words are confusing" - Grade 4

"It was just too hard for me to understand so I didn't answer" - Grade 7

This realization has let us to consider adapting our focus next year to not only look at Language Arts literacy, but how can we support literacy in other subject areas and in a cross curricular way.  Starting by considering the ways in which we teach language in mathematics we are hoping with help our students feel more confident when understanding and answering questions in math.