Integrating Writing into the Mathematics Classroom

Integrating writing into your mathematics classroom can be easy for you and beneficial for your
students. Communicating about mathematics helps strengthen student learning, which can build
deeper understanding. It provides students an opportunity to organize their thoughts related to the
math topic, which helps clarify their thinking.

Student writing can also provide valuable insight for you into their mastery of math concepts.
Teachers can use writing assignments as either an informal or formal assessment tool. Writing often
reveals gaps in learning and misconceptions, which can help inform your instructional planning and
intervention strategy.

First Steps
Writing activities in math class can take several forms, ranging from frequent, quick, and informal
activities, to creative writing assignments, to more involved, long term assignments involving
research, expository writing, and/or cooperative projects. You can use writing activities in math class
to diagnose learning difficulties, assess student mastery of concepts, and to enable students to
express their thoughts and feelings about math in reflective or creative ways. Writing also provides an
interesting and varied instructional activity for your students.

Guidelines for Assigning Writing

• Let your students know ahead of time whether or not the writing activity will be evaluated.
• Adhere to the same expectations for composition, written expression, and usage and
mechanics that are expected for traditional English class assignments. Even though it's math
class, students should still be expected to utilize grade-level expectations for writing skills.
Remember, writing clearly and precisely—an important benefit of writing in math class—should
always be expected of your students.
• Determine the timeframe for the written assignment. This can range from fast and frequent—
five minutes, everyday—to week-long assignments, given several times a semester, to longer
assignments, given once a semester.
• You may want to use study groups or cooperative learning groups for some assignments,
which can further strengthen the learning.

Tip:
If your students are struggling with a writing activity, don't hesitate to model desirable strategies for completing the
assignment and a sample high quality final product. Present a sample final product for a written assignment to your
class. Discuss with your students the thought processes you went through to complete the assignment. Point out the
critical elements of your final product and describe how they met the expectations for the assignment.

Ideas for Mathematics Writing Activities

Integrating writing can be quick and easy. Here are several activities that are a snap to incorporate,
and can kick-start writing in your math class. As you feel more comfortable, try incorporating a few
longer, more involved writing activities.

• Math Journals. Math journals are a great way to begin class. Display a writing prompt on an
overhead projector or white board for your students to read as they enter the classroom.
Students should spend five to ten minutes writing on the daily topic. Math journals can also be
used to assess background knowledge when beginning a unit, and then used as a means of
assessing acquired learning at the end of the unit. Make sure your students know ahead of
time if their journal assignment will be read by you and/or evaluated. If so, determine when
and how often you will collect and read your students' journals. You will also need to decide if
 you will devote class time to permit students to share their journal writing—which many love
to do!

Math Journal Topics

• Explain a formula.

• Write an explanation of a recently-learned concept, as if you were explaining it to a younger sibling or

friend.

• Write about a time that you were really confused in math class. What did you do? Who did you get help
from? How did you explain what was confusing you?

• Write about a time that you helped explain something to a classmate. What was your classmate having
difficulty with? How did you help your classmate?

• Write everything you know about probability. (A great way to start a chapter! Have your students write a
similar entry at the end of the chapter, and then have them compare this with their initial entry.)

• Present a graph from a newspaper or magazine and have your students write a paragraph about the graph.

• Write as many examples of a ratio that you can think of in five minutes.
• Creative/Expressive Writing Activities. These activities can be short or long-term
assignments. Either way, they'll be quite fun and insightful for your students (and for you).

o Write a Vocabulary Paragraph—Assign a list of math vocabulary words to your

students, then have them write a paragraph that incorporates all of the words on the
list. Your students will have fun generating some clever ideas for their paragraphs!

o Create Missing Numbers Stories—Similar to the vocabulary paragraph activity, have

your students write a creative story that incorporates a variety of numbers. After your
students have written the paragraph, have them turn their paragraph into a puzzle by
writing a new version of the paragraph with blanks where each number appears. Have
the students include a table with the numbers used at the top of the paragraph, then
exchange paragraphs with partners, and try to place each number in its correct place
in the paragraph. This can be a beneficial activity when your students are studying or
reviewing rational numbers or the set of real numbers. If desired, you can tell your
students that they must include an integer, a fraction, a decimal, a percent, and an
irrational number in their story.

o Word Puzzles—Have your students create a word puzzle with vocabulary words for
their current chapter (this can be a great summary activity for the end of a chapter).
Students should create word puzzles such as crosswords or word jumbles that require
them to write clues. This will ensure that students are applying their knowledge of the
math terms, such as definitions and examples.

o Poetry—Writing and sharing poems is a popular way for middle school and high school
students to share ideas and feelings. The creative process involved in writing poetry
requires students to apply their understanding of math concepts to the task. Your
students may enjoy presenting their poetry in a "Math Poetry Slam" event for other
classes. A fun and easy poetry assignment is to have your students write haiku poems
for geometric solids. (Haiku, and its three line, five syllable, seven syllable, five
syllable format is quite appropriate for a math activity!) Take this haiku, for example:
 Triangular Prism

Five faces, all flat

Your straight edges count to nine

Triangles—a must!

o Advice Columns—Have students write fictitious advice columns, as one might find in a
newspaper, except these are math advice columns. Have your students think of math-
related names to use for their advice column, for example "Dear Algy" (short for
algorithm), or "Dear Doctor Pi." You can either assign a topic for the advice column, or
try having your students think up possible math situations when someone might need
advice, such as "I keep getting my cosine confused with my tangent. Please help me
straighten this out," or "I can't remember how to find the slope of a line."

o Research Activities—Can be longer-term assignments, usually lasting a week or two,

and can be completed individually, or in small groups. For a research activity, prepare
an assignment handout that lists the required elements, how the assignment will be
evaluated, and when it is due. You may want to include a rough draft milestone,
especially if it is an initial written assignment.

Research Activities Ideas

 Biographies of Famous Mathematicians—Newton, Fermi, Pascal,

Galileo, Euclid, and of course, Albert Einstein, are just a few of the mathematicians
your students can research and write reports about. These reports can be assigned as
traditional biographies, or for a more creative assignment, have your students write
an obituary as it might appear in a newspaper.

 Careers That Require the Use of Mathematics—Have small

groups research various careers and write a report that they will present to class.
Have students include specific examples of mathematics used in the career they
research. Possible careers include: architect, chemist, physicist, engineer, statistician,
chef, engineer, landscape designer, fashion designer, graphic designer, and football
coach. Have students conduct interviews, research college courses required for
applicable degrees, read magazine and newspaper articles, and read traditional
reference books on each career.

 Conduct a Survey—The math strands of data, statistics, and

probability lend themselves to interesting research and writing activities. One
example is to have small groups design and conduct a survey. You may want to
begin this activity by sharing a few examples of published surveys with your
students and discussing the survey questions. Have your students discuss whether or
not the survey questions were clearly written and easy to answer. Your students will
need to determine a survey topic, decide on an appropriate sampling technique, write
the survey questions, and finally, assure there is no bias in their survey or sample
population before conducting their survey. Along with appropriate statistical
measures, have your students write a detailed summary of the process they
undertook, as well as a summary of their findings. Make sure your students include
at least one graph in their summary.
Teacher Tip

If your students are struggling with a writing activity, don't hesitate to model desirable strategies for completing the
assignment and a sample high quality final product. Present a sample final product for a written assignment to your
class. Discuss with your students the thought processes you went through to complete the assignment. Point out the
critical elements of your final product and describe how they met the expectations for the assignment.

This article was written by Heidi Janzen, a former classroom teacher and mathematics specialist. She
now works as an educational consultant in the areas of professional development, curriculum,
standards, and assessment.
Journaling in the Math Classroom

Sample Prompts for Journals/Blogs

• Reflect on your participation in class today and complete the following statements:
o I learned that I...
o I was surprised that I...
o I noticed that I...
o I discovered that I...
o I was pleased that I...
• Describe how you feel about solving _________ problem.
• Explain in your own words what subtraction means.
• Explain what is most important to understand about fractions.

How and When to Use Journal Writing

1. When new material has been introduced.

Ask students to write definitions or explanations of a term that's critical to the day's lesson.

Sample Direction: "Explain in your own words the meaning of the term
____________."

2. When the class looks disengaged or confused.

Ask students to write an explanation of something you were doing or a term you used. Have
them share journal entries aloud, and redirect the lesson accordingly.

Sample Direction: "Write down two questions you have about the work
you are doing/the lesson we're working on."

3. When collaboration with fellow students is appropriate.

Have students form small groups and work together to solve a problem on paper. This will
get them to talk to each other-to ask questions and give explanations-all with the common
goal of solving the problem.

4. When teaching the value of revising their work.

Occasionally ask students to pick a journal entry and revise it. This helps emphasize that
journal writing is an initial effort that can be rethought and improved upon-the end product is
less important than the process.

Sample Direction: "Review the last three entries in your journal. Select
one to revise." Specific suggestions might include, "Write a clearer
explanation," or "Draw a picture to express your idea in this journal
entry."

Sample Journal Questions/Writing Prompts

Writing prompts can take many different forms. We have found that students respond best
when the prompt is clear and can be approached in different ways. We recommend prompts
that do the following:

1. Pinpoint a confusing or easily misunderstood mathematical idea

For Example: "Do 0.2 and 0.020 equal the same fraction? Explain your
answer."

Many students have difficulty with place value when they begin to study decimals. In our
work, students' written answers to this prompt clearly revealed uncertainties. As one student
responded: "The zeroes don't matter, so .2 equals .2." This student does not appear to have a
good understanding of place value, having over generalized the "hint" to ignore certain
zeroes. Another student drew two grids in response to this prompt. In one grid she colored in
two rows of tenths and in the other grid she colored in two hundredths. She concluded that
0.2 was "way more" than 0.020. Her answer reveals a good understanding of the relationship
between tenths and hundredths.

2. Can be solved using different strategies

For Example: "Allison's team won 8 out of 10 games. Jennifer's team

won 15 out of 18 games. Whose team won a greater fraction of its
games? Explain your answer."

Students used different strategies to approach this problem . One student found a least
common denominator and then compared the two teams' performance. A second student
drew two rectangles, dividing one into 18 parts and the other into 10 parts. He then colored in
15 and 8 parts, respectively, of each rectangle. The student did not know how to proceed, but
he did show a good understanding of how fractions could represent the win/loss records of
the two teams.

3. Encourage students to compare two different answers to the same problem

For Example:

"Who is correct? The problem: Which fraction is biggest? 1/3 or

2/5?"

Jamar's solution: 2/5 is bigger because 15 is the LCD and 1/3

equals 5/15. 2/5 equals 6/15. So 2/5 is biggest.

Bill's solution: I used the calculator. I made them decimals and

then compared the decimals. For 1.3, I divided 1 into 3 and got
3.0. Then I divided 2 into 5 to get 2.2. 3.0 is bigger than 2.2, so
1/3 is biggest.

This prompt encourages students to consider two very different approaches to the same
problem: the least common denominator (LCD) method taught in the text and a calculator.
The two offered solutions also model fairly clear explanations. In this case a correct and an
incorrect solution are offered. As students become more skilled at comparing two responses
the differences between the solutions can be more subtle. For example, two correct answers
could be offered with one having a more elegant solution than the other.

Encourage your students to use drawings and graphs to explain their thinking.

Research shows that using simple visual aids (diagrams, graphs, etc.) improves mathematical
problem-solving ability, especially in female students.

As student writing progresses, ask students to write about their small group work.

Ask the group to write a summary of how they reached a solution, including any "false
starts" or "dead ends."

Ask each individual to write an explanation of the group's work on a problem. Have the small
groups discuss the individual explanations.

After a small group assignment, have students "explain and illustrate two different
approaches to solving a problem."
Managing Math Journals: Helpful Tips

1. Provide students with thin, inexpensive journals. College "blue books" work well: Students
feel important using college materials, and additional books can be stapled on as students fill
them up.

2. Keep journals in class. Collect math journals each day so as not to lose them.

3. Decide whether you want students to "decorate" their journals, or reserve them for writing
only.

4. Decide on a system for identifying journal entries. Rather than having students take time to
copy the writing prompt, have them number or date the entries.

5. Develop system for distributing and collecting journals each day. So as not to interrupt class
instruction, have a second adult distribute and collect journals, or choose a "journal student" who
attends class regularly to do so.

6. Use a timer for some journal assignments. This will help keep students writing. Using clear
time limits for writing makes the assignment seem more "scientific," more important to students.

Encouraging Students as They Write

1. Be patient. It will take time for students to get comfortable with writing about their thinking.

2. Tell students you understand how new and different this is for them. Remind them that there
are no "wrong" answers in writing about thinking.

3. If students indicate they have no more to say:

• Read over what they've written. Ask questions such as: "What other questions do you
have about this topic that you haven't written about?" or "What's another way this could
have been said?"

• Have them copy what they've written, so they'll get the idea that they are to write for the
whole time given. (Often, they'll get bored with copying and begin writing something
new.)

4. Ask students to choose a journal entry to revise.

 • Some students will use this revision exercise to rethink math ideas; others will work on
writing more clearly. Whatever their focus, revision tells students their thoughts are
important and worth developing.

5. Provide feedback.

• Let students know you took time to read their journals.

• You won't have time for in-depth comments on each journal for every assignment, so try
other kinds of feedback, too:

Stars

Stickers

Smiley Faces

• Put stars by sentences that helped you see their thinking.

6. Clearly communicate to students the purpose of writing in math class.

• Explain how their writing helps teachers to understand how students think.

• Other purposes of writing: Writing is a concrete way to show students' thinking that they
can look at and think about. Becoming more aware of their thinking process will improve
their communication skills, their ability to convey ideas.

7. Use students' writing samples to help them refine their writing.

• Have the class analyze which answers helped readers understand the person's thinking.