Writing to Learn in Math
Learning mathematics is much more complex than memorizing sets of facts and examples. In order to develop new and/or improved conceptual frameworks, students must be given the opportunity to process their ideas before, during, and after new learning takes place. This can be done orally, mentally, or in writing. This document will describe for teachers a number of writing strategies that students can use to surface their currently-held ideas and then process them in relation to new mathematical information.
Writing Across Curriculum: Writing-to-Learn in Math | |
File Size: | 469 kb |
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Cornell Notes
Cornell
Notes are a proven focused note-taking method. When used
appropriately, students are guaranteed to increase their knowledge and
raise their grades in any given class!
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HOW TO CORNELL
Thorough explanation of how to take Cornell Notes taught by a Biology teacher and directed to her students.
Thorough explanation of how to take Cornell Notes taught by a Biology teacher and directed to her students.
Learning Logs
The Learning Log is a technique to help students focus on what they are learning in their classes by writing their thoughts, reactions, and responses to class lectures, labs, partner/group work, videos, activities or discussions. A Learning Log is a written reflection of the students' perceptions of what is being learned and how they are learning. It also provides a record of students' growth over time. Writing a learning log is an excellent way to help use writing as a process of discovery and to clarify ideas. The use of the Learning Log in AVID is part of the philosophy of using writing as a tool of learning. View six different examples of learning logs used in AVID and sample questions/prompts for your students below.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
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OPEN-ENDED PROMPTS
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RAFT
The RAFT
strategy (Santa, 1988) employs writing-to-learn activities to enhance
understanding of informational essay explaining a concept learned, students
demonstrate their understanding in a nontraditional format. This technique
encourages creative thinking and motivates students to reflect in unusual ways
about concepts they have read.
RAFT is an acronym that stands for
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The RAFT strategy forces students to process information, rather than merely write out answers to questions. Students are more motivated to undertake the writing assignment because it involves them personally and allows for more creative responses to learning the material.
RESOURCE: Using the RAFT Writing Strategy |
Write Something
This strategy can be used to break information into small chunks for more effective processing. The directions explain the strategy using printed texts, but these same steps can be used with any type of information delivery (i.e., lecture, video tape, experiment). Model the strategy several times, gradually releasing control until students can assume full responsibility for its use.
DIRECTIONS
DIRECTIONS
- Partners take turns reading a portion of text aloud. The teacher or the students determine where to pause to “write something” about the reading. Students who have nothing to write need to reread! They may write tosu mmarize, give an opinion, ask a question, notice something, or make a connection to previous learning/experiences
- After both partners have written comments, they take turns sharing and briefly discussing what they wrote.
- Then they return to their reading. When they reach the next designated stopping point, they repeat steps 1 and 2
Carousel Writing
While Carousel Writing, students will rotate topics in a small group, for a designated amount of time. With each topic, students will activate their prior knowledge of different topics or different aspects of a single topic through jotting down ideas, until eventually the original topic is back to the original owner, who will summarize the thinking into 1-2 sentences. Prior knowledge will be activated, providing scaffolding for new information to be learned in the proceeding lesson activity.
Carousel Writing is a great launch for a Socratic Seminar, Philosophical Chairs or an informal class discussion. It is also a great pre-assessment (since it activates prior knowledge) or formative assessment, depending on how it is structured.
- Students will be arranged into groups of 3-5.
- Each student will receive a handout to read, reflect, and respond over. They can either have identical handouts, or different handouts on the same topic, depending on the overall learning objective. For a broader overview of a topic, different handouts can each focus on one aspect. This will require students to think critically over multiple facets of a topic in one strategy.
- The student reads over the prompt on their individual paper (this can be a provocative statement, a reflective question, an overarching topic, etc.).
- The student then responds by activating prior knowledge, brainstorming, reflective writing, etc. based on what is required in the prompt.
- When time is up for the first round, students rotate papers in a clockwise fashion. Time is given to read the prompt and the prior student’s critical thinking and then additional time is given to respond.
- The students will continue the process until the original paper is back to its original owner. Time is given to read all responses and then the original owner summarizes the thinking in 1-3 sentences.
Carousel Writing is a great launch for a Socratic Seminar, Philosophical Chairs or an informal class discussion. It is also a great pre-assessment (since it activates prior knowledge) or formative assessment, depending on how it is structured.
Peer Evaluation / Peer Review
Exchanging work with peers to receive feedback is common practice in the workplace, and is used increasingly in schools. Teachers use peer review in their classrooms most often to increase the amount of feedback students receive on writing. The short-term goal of peer review is to help students compose their best final draft of a paper. The long-term benefit is to help student writers give and receive constructive criticism in an environment of active learning. It can be used in virtually any content area to promote good writing practices. This week, we offer a series of tips on enhancing students’ writing experiences by integrating peer review into the classroom. (Glencoe: Teaching Today)
PEER REVIEWS OF NON-WRITTEN ACTIVITIES
Peer Evaluation can be done as a written critique on non-writing activities, such as multimedia projects, performances, etc. Students evaluate the activity in paragraph form using appropriate course vocabulary and proper grammar/spelling to support accountable language between students. For example, advanced students critique first year student work as the teacher would have done. This supports Costa's highest Level of Thinking (evaluate).
RESOURCE: Using Peer Review to Help Students Improve Writing
PEER REVIEWS OF NON-WRITTEN ACTIVITIES
Peer Evaluation can be done as a written critique on non-writing activities, such as multimedia projects, performances, etc. Students evaluate the activity in paragraph form using appropriate course vocabulary and proper grammar/spelling to support accountable language between students. For example, advanced students critique first year student work as the teacher would have done. This supports Costa's highest Level of Thinking (evaluate).
RESOURCE: Using Peer Review to Help Students Improve Writing
Other Reading Strategies
- 10-2-2 Note-taking
- Shared Writing
- Authentic Writing - Writing for real purposes and real audiences.
- Process Writing - Rough draft, peer editing/revising, final copy, and using a rubric as evaluation
- Timed Writing - Completed in class within a set amount of time.
- QuickWrites
- Summaries
- Lab Reports
- Letters
- Journals
- Reflections