One of the major goals in deaf education is to teach deaf and hard of hearing students the tools and strategies to solve mathematical word problems. A mathematical word problem curriculum was designed and implemented based on telling, reading and writing number tales in American Sign Language (ASL) and English. The learning experiences helped develop ASL and English academic language in deaf students across two domains: Literacy and Mathematics. The results suggested that the deaf students (1) acquired and maintained word problem solving strategies and tools that are critical for reading and solving math word problems, (2) used prior knowledge and daily experiences to connect with number tales, (3) increased their metalinguistic awareness of ASL and English, (4) developed mathematical academic language (or "math talk") in both ASL and English, and (5) gained confidence in their ability to read and solve mathematical word problems. The following are appended: (1) Curriculum Lesson Plans; (2) Curriculum Forms; and (3) Curriculum Rubrics. (Contains 34 figures and 28 tables.) [M. A. Thesis, University of California.]