Maths+Articles


 * Maths Articles:**

[|Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low-Achieving Students]. Baxter, Juliet A., Woodward, John , Olson, Deborah This article was one giant case study. The premise of this study was to see the effects on lower level students that writing in a maths classroom would have. The observer chose four low-level students and observed them for an academic year. Each of the four students had their own reasons for being at their level, which gave a greater diversity to the study. This study also showed how important your prompts are when giving a writing assignment in a maths classroom. At the beginning of the school year the teacher began with opinion based writing to see how the students felt about certain topics and procedures. However, after a short time the teacher switched to more in depth questions in regard to mathematics. The author went about measuring the main focus, writing in mathematics, by observing these journaling activities that were posed by the teacher. The four students that were being observed showed very little contribution in the classroom but when it came to writing about certain topics, the students were able to share their thoughts in a more in depth manner. The results of this study showed that writing is an essential part of communication in the mathematics discipline. The article was hard to read because it was all observations that would relate to note taking in a classroom. That is not to say however that this article was not useful. I found that this was a highly effective manner to assess your student's progress. The author was very precise in explaining the approaches used to evaluate the students through the use of the different ability levels of each student. These journaling exercises allow students to express their understanding on a personal level that can be measured by the classroom teacher. This way you can make better connections with students in a one-on-one setting. I have learned in my college experience that "Teaching is not about transferring information, it is about transferring the ownership of that information." I fell that this article shows that very effectively.
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Experiencing the Power of Learning Mathematics through Writing McCormick, Kelly This article focused on helping pre-service teachers with integrating writing into a mathematics classroom. McCormick tells of how she accomplishes this through building a foundation, providing meaningful feedback, emphasizing the NCTM Process Standards, and challenges and meeting those challenges. She explains that the best way to understand something is to experience it. Her students are given increasingly difficult problems that focus on engaging students in explaining in writing the thought process they took to find the solution. A main focus of this article was the idea that "written explanations in mathematics are more about //what// is being done and //why// it works." I found this article to be extremely useful for secondary mathematics teachers. Although the article did not have a lot of examples of what to do and how to do it, it was more of a tool for finding reasoning. This article speaks to me as a future educator because it lays out the fundamentals of how writing can be incorporated into a maths classroom, when many of us fail to see where it applies. I feel as if the experience McCormick is giving would be an exceptional tool/experience for maths education students. Allowing students to work in small groups like this allows them to work on problem solving, reasoning, and communication skills through practicing complex problems to determine logical explanations. ​ Promoting Appropriate Uses of Technology in Mathematics Teacher Preparation Garofalo, Joe, Drier, Hollylynne Stohl , Harper, Suzanne , Timmerman, Maria A. , Shockey, Tod **Summary:** The article had its focus devoted to using technology in a mathematics classroom. Technology is becoming an extremely big part in our everyday lives, so it is safe to say that it should work its way into the maths classroom. The article talks about the three main ways in which you can categorize these implementation approaches. First being who is the primary user of the technology (teacher educator, teacher, student), second being the usage of subject specific software, and third being the integration of technologies for future student investigation. The article focuses on means in which preservice secondary teachers can integrate technology into the classroom effectively. It also is filled with example problems with thoughts and actions on how using different technologies can enhance the content you are trying to teach. **Response:** When it comes to technology in maths I am on the fence as I can see the positives and negatives of using it and not using it. This article however was centered around the push for a full integration of technology into the maths classroom. This semester alone I have began to take a turn towards using technology because of that fact that it is so prevalent and readily available. The use of these technologies (Geometers Sketchpad, Maple, TI software, etc.) provides for a representation and manipulation of information that some feel cannot be rivaled. I was able to attend the 2012 AMTNYS conference and to see some of the technology that is out there was mind blowing. Overall I think that this article paints a good picture of how technology can be used for preservice secondary teachers.
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Mathematical Literacy: A new literacy or a new mathematics? Vithal, Renuka, Bishop, Alan J. **Summary:** ​This article provides a perspective on the way that maths education is being taught world wide. Teachers need to become aware of all of these new perspectives from the use of practical examples, how the information relates to other content, and the use of new materials. The article talks mainly about the changes in mathematical literacy from the South African perspective, but at the same time I feel can be applied to any nation that is going through these changes. These new changes to the standard way of teaching are more heavily focused on working collaboratively with your peers to discover and generalize about a topic. This way, students will be engaged more in their own learning and ideally will have a greater feeling of responsibility towards their own learning. **Response:** This article is something every future maths educator should read. It basically lays out all of the new changes that will be taking affect (if they have not already) in our classrooms in the near future. The article has a section which lays out what these new developments are proposed to do ("to enable learners to:..."). These twelve bullet points, although from the South African context, are essentially saying the same things that the new NCTM standards for mathematics are hoping to do. Engaging students in group work is ideal because it allows them to explore and reason with their peers, which in the long run aims to give the students a better understanding of the material.