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Writing in Math Class

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Writing in Math Class Peg Brooks CGI Teacher Leader Sioux Falls, SD Marilyn Burns-Writing in Math Class Why writing in math class is important. Examples of writing ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Writing in Math Class


1
Writing in Math Class
  • Peg Brooks
  • CGI Teacher Leader
  • Sioux Falls, SD

2
Marilyn Burns-Writing in Math Class
  • Why writing in math class is important.
  • Examples of writing assignments in math class
  • Suggestions for how to add writing as a component
    of math instruction

3
I. Why Writing is important
  • Students explain and give examples of their
    understanding of concepts
  • Students make connections to real-life
    applications of the math they are learning
  • Requires students to
  • organize,
  • clarify,
  • reflect on,
  • explore, and
  • extend their ideas

4
II. Four examples of writing assignments in math
class
  • 1. Journal-chronological record of what is being
    covered in math
  • 2. Aid to solving math problems by writing what
    they were thinking as they arrived at a solution
  • 3. Write about specific math concepts before
    formal lessons
  • 4. Creative Writing

5
III. Suggestions for how to add writing as a
component of math instruction
  • Teach how to write about what you think.
    (metacognition)
  • Encourage students and give prompts that they can
    choose from. (on wiki)
  • Have students write solution strategies to share
    with the class. Check attitudes (Reflection)

6
1. Math Journals
  • When writing in your math journal, use words,
    pictures, numbers and manipulatives.
  • Through math journals, verbal knowledge,
    mathematical knowledge, personal experience, and
    visual ideas merge as you make mathematical ideas
    your own.

7
Purpose of Journals
  • Increases confidence
  • Increases participation
  • Encourages independence
  • Decentralizes authority
  • Replaces quizzes and tests as means of assessment
  • Monitors progress
  • Enhances communication between student and
    teacher
  • Records growth

8
2. Metacognition
  • When writing, thoughts become cleareryou
    discover exactly what you are thinking.
  • Encourage your students to use drawings and
    graphs to explain their thinking.
  • Although were used to just being concerned about
    the results or the answers, if we pay more
    attention to how we think, it would help us to
    think more clearly, and improve the quality of
    our results.
  • There are no wrong answers in writing about
    thinking.
  • Use drawings or graphs to explain thinking

9
Writing to Think
  • Writing in mathematics helps students
    think....allows students time to wonder and to
    process. Written explanations in mathematics
    are about what is being done and why it works.
    The type of thinking involved in justifying a
    strategy or explaining an answer is quite
    different from that needed to merely solve an
    equation. The process of writing about a
    mathematics problem will itself often lead to a
    solution. Joan Kenney

10
When children have regular invitations to write
and talk about mathematics in open-ended ways,
they soon recognize they can discover new ideas
in the process
11
Write about Mathematical ideas
  • Explain in your own words what subtraction means.
    (familiar first)
  • Explain what is most important to understand
    about fractions
  • What do you know about angles?
  • What does measurement mean to you?

12
3. Reflection
  • What you did in class today.
  • What did you learn?
  • What are you unsure about, confused by, or
    wondering about?
  • Describe what was easy and what was difficult for
    you when you were a math student?

13
Reflection starters
  • Reflect on your participation in class today and
    complete the following statements
  • I learned that I..
  • I was surprised that I .
  • I noticed that I
  • I discovered that I
  • I was pleased that I

14
4. Creative Writing
  • Literature based example problems
  • One day the Little Red Hen baked a cake for
    her 8 chicks. She sliced the cake into 8 pieces.
    Her chicks each got a piece. Draw what this
    looked like.

15
Creative Writing
  • Examples of story problems based on literature
  • Kids can write these!
  • One of Jacks beanstalks was 17 feet tall.
    Another was 8 feet tall. Which beanstalk was
    taller. Tell how you know?

16
Creative Writing
  • The Greedy Triangle

17
Book Titles
  • Counting on Frank-Clement
  • Annos Mysterious Multiplying JarAnno
  • Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School-Sachar
  • G is for Googol-Schwartz
  • One Grain of Rice-Demi
  • The Grapes of Math-Tang
  • Spaghetti and Meatballs for All-Burns
  • A Remainder of One-Pinczes
  • Marvelous Math Hopkins
  • Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday-Viorst
  • How Much is a Million-Schwartz
  • If You Made a Million-Schwartz
  • The GreedyTriangle-Burns

18
Assessment
  • Provides teachers with alternative assessment
    opportunities to note students abilities in
    explaining and applying concepts
  • When reading through written explanations,
    instructors can determine if further guidance or
    additional learning opportunities are needed.
  • Teachers can monitor each students attitude
    toward learning mathematics

19
If a child cannot learn the way we teach maybe
we should teach the way they learn.
Using writing is one way to help students make
the connection between school and real life.
Exploration and extension activities allow
students to apply math skills in ways that are
meaningful and rooted in every day experiences
instead of relying on the teacher to provide
problems and solutions. Students take ownership
of their learning and are better able to find
ways to use it outside of the classroom.
(Brandenburg)
20
Why not just talk it out?
  • Writing shares many of the qualities of talking,
    but it has some unique characteristics of its
    own, such as creating a record of our thinking
    that we can analyze and reflect upon.
  • (Math is Language Too
    Whitin and Whitin)
  • While talking one does not usually have a chance
    to reflect and analyze-Writing may give students
    a safe place to think.

21
Websites
  • http//math.about.com/library/weekly/aa123001a.htm
    (journaling)
  • http//www.literacyconnections.com/Tang.php
    (poems and math)
  • http//www.mathwire.com/writing/writing1.html
    (writing in mathematics)

22
Bibliography
  • Brandenburg, M.L. (2002).
  • Advanced math? Write! Educational Leadership, 60
    (3), 67-68.
  • Burns, M. (1995).
  • Writing in math class? Absolutely! Instructor,
    104 (7), 40-47.
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