Wrapping Up Writing in Math

Those who write, do better in Math

With this school year quickly coming to an end, my year long study on using procedural writing in mathematics is wrapping up as well. I wanted to know if using a specific writing template to write out mathematical processes could help students understand and learn mathematics better. Throughout the year I had students write the steps to solving problems and why they did each step.

My template was as follows:

First I _____________________, because _____________________________.

Then I _____________________, because_____________________________.

Finally, I ____________________, because ____________________________.

Starting this journey, I did not know what to expect, but I saw some interesting results.

At the beginning of the year students were unsure about writing helping them to learn math. As shown by these results from my fall attitude survey.

By the end of the year, more students were sure that it does help them, and less said that it did not.

Is this a huge attitude change? No, but a small change for even one student is a success. The students, begrudgingly or not, did do the writing. Over the course of the year, they did improve. My data showed one trend all year, those that did the writing, did better. They had assignments that they had to write and also they had to write on their unit plans. Based on the average test scores and writing on the unit plans, this trend can be seen.

Those students who wrote, did better on the exams.

Looking to the future, I will continue to use procedurally writing in my Algebra 1 classroom. I would like to extend it and improve upon the technique so that it leads to students writing thoughtful responses to application problems where they have to defend their answer and whether or not it makes sense. Next year, my school is focusing on writing as an initiative, so I planning on using that as motivation to continuing to use this process. I am not convinced that using this only one year in one class is enough to show success for students. I think it has shown enough success to be convinced that this is important. Having students demonstrate their knowledge of the why and how of mathematics, does make them better mathematicians.

I feel lucky to have the opportunity to be in the Writing Project. I have enjoyed having the opportunity to explore using more writing in my classroom in a systematic fashion. I feel that I have grown as a teacher. I also feel I have helped my students develop a skill that goes beyond mathematics and can be applied in any field that they go into. Any job requires procedures. I will take what I have learned this year and use it to continue help students to not only do mathematics, but understand the processes they are using.