Writing in Mathematics

Teaching students to communicate mathematically is essential if you wish to raise any standardized test scores. The last few years I have tried to include more justify your response questions into my classroom. Why? When a student can communicate their mathematical ideas clearly many positive things occur - it deepens the meaning of the concepts they are learning, it helps students retain information, and it strengthens their use of proper mathematical vocabulary and proper notation. Of course, students struggle with writing their mathematical explanations. It is important that the classroom teacher not give up on this endeavor. To help the students, model the written communication on a regular basis. I have found studying and analyzing responses to released state test questions and released AP questions have assisted me and my students greatly.

Reading in Mathematics

The opening of another school year is coming fast! Time to contemplate various goals. What area or areas do I want to focus on? Our students take so many important standardized tests, how can I help them be more successful? I believe if our math students did a better job of reading the test questions, they would have a greater chance of answering the question correctly. Many times I hear students say they just didn't understand what the question was asking.

Consequently, we need to help our students develop solid reading skills within the context of mathematics. Active reading strategies of underlining text and circling key words help, but is there more we can do? I recently came across a K-N-W-S strategy / template. Tom Stull, a high school math teacher from Ludlow High School, has developed this guide. Students use the guide to assist them when analyzing word problems.

K - What facts students KNOW
N - What information is NOT NEEDED
W - WHAT the problem is asking them to find
S - What STRATEGY they will use

Tom has quite a few reading strategies that he shares which can be found on the More Reading Strategies in Action - Mathematics High School. For those of you interested in other levels or other areas, the More Reading Strategies in Action website has some great resources available.