What the original article says about this other article by Draper bears quoting:
Draper (2002) believes that, as in science, students cannot be fully prepared in mathematics unless they are skilled in understanding the text. She contends that literacy activities can engage students and teachers in conversations around mathematical texts. To keep mathematics within the reach of all students, teachers must help their students make meaning from the text.
As it stands, this quote is pretty much just an assertion without a supporting argument. However, I was very interested to see Draper's further argument on the subject since it pertains directly to my teaching field, so I looked it up on one of the CSUS library databases and was able to read an html copy of the article.
The Draper article makes an interesting argument for replacing what
she calls "school mathematics" with more of a constructivist approach -
including reading math textbooks using the typical prereading, during
reading, and post reading scaffolding that has been discussed often in
our class. In particular, her argument is that students should be
taught how to think about mathematics and study mathematics, not just
learn a bunch of specific rules for particular math concepts. I
agree with this assertion, but alas given the current emphasis on
meeting standards over acquiring deeper understanding I don't see how
most secondary school teachers are going to fit this into their
curriculums.
I'm glad the assigned article led me to Draper's article; and even though Draper's article is a little long, I strongly recommend including it in the content specific list for math teachers in the next session of this class.