Using words like ‘factors,’ ‘denominators’ and ‘multiples’ may be part of a constellation of good math teaching practices.

Students often struggle to connect math with the real world. Word problems—a combination of words, numbers, and mathematical operations—can be a perfect vehicle to take abstract numbers off the page.

Math is, by definition, a subject about numbers. But at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics this week, math educators said the subject has its own language, too—and knowing how to speak it ...