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Integrating Writing and MathematicsAuthors: Brad Wilcox and Eula Ewing Monroe In this article it talked about six different writing ideas math teachers could do with their students. Some of them where meant for the younger grades but I think with some work they could be altered for the secondary level. There was a section for each of the six examples that the authors gave, and in those examples it had some things that teachers did in the classroom with those writing ideas, it also gives little drawing examples that the students did. There were different age groups that each of the different writing ideas were used one but all of the outcomes were that they were all successful. I think that each of the writing ideas would have to be used at the end of each section or even at the end of the year. It would be like a big project if it has to happen at the end of the year. I did like that it incorporated other grades. Like one of them talked about doing the project and making it into a book that they gave to a grade below them so it could be added to that class’s library. The only thing that I would be concerned about for these writing ideas is getting them to the high school level. This article focused on third to fifth but no higher grades. I think that the higher grades are where more writing needs to be incorporated. What I would ask the authors would be exactly that, how do you make these writing ideas for the higher grades and not just for third to fifth graders? Well I know that it would be a lot of work trying to make it so that ninth through twelfth graders could use these writing ideas. What I was thinking though was that after each section instead of a test they could do a page of a book and have to have great detail about that section and then at the end of the year they could “dumb” it down and give it to a student that will taking that math class next year. This way the older student can use it as a study guide and the younger student could use is as a preview of the year ahead.

Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low-Achieving Students Authors: Juliet A. Baxter University of Oregon, John Woodward University of Puget Sound, and Deborah Olson University of Oregon This article was about having students keeping math journals so the teacher could see if they needed help or not. In the regular math class there is 4 students that have IEPs that mention math, and how they are either a year or two below grade level. These were the journals that the teacher focused on along with researchers. They had those four and then they picked out the top three and looked at their journals to see the difference in their thinking. They had ways of scoring the students so they would not have to go into deep detail about what the student wrote. In this study they also looked at how the students behave during class. I did not understand how writing could be combined with math but reading this I see that having students write out side of the class about the class is the best way to combine the two. I do like the thought of having students answer open ended questions about the lesson that we are on that way I can see how they are doing. I just don’t understand why Ms. Carter didn’t just jump into writing and then when the authors explain it I understood, because not very many math classes have writing involved so this way the students would get used to it. A question that I would ask would be how can there be more writing that can get students talking during class, for example not just doing an example and putting them into groups to talk about it. I would consider using an idea like this in my classroom for student’s feedback. I think that it is a nice way to see how they are doing without my giving them test or quizzes every week. I still like the exit slips more but if it’s a day before a review class then I can have them write about what they think we should go over during the review class that way I can see what they think they had difficulty on and what I think they had difficulty on based on the homework that they turned in.

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