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**Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low- Achieving Students**  ** **By: Juliet A. Baxter, John Woodward, and Deborah Olson** **

** **Baxter, Juliet A., John Woodward, and Deborah Olson. "Writing In Mathematics: An Alternative Form Of Communication For Academically Low-Achieving Students."** ** // ** **Learning Disabilities Research And Practice** ** // ** **20.2 (2005): 119-135.** ** // ** **ERIC** ** // ** **. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.** ** This article was based on a study that was done with the main focus being writing in the mathematics classroom. This study was performed on 28 students in a seventh grade math class. Out of those 28th students, four were picked who were considered special education. The purpose of this study was to examine what writing reveals about low achieving mathematical proficiency. The researchers used three questions that guided their work. These three questions were. (1) What does writing revel about the students' conceptual understanding? (2) What does writing reveal about the students' strategic competence? (3) What does writing reveal about students' adaptive reasoning? This questions were answered based on the journal assignments that were assigned to each students throughout the year. These journals were very beneficial to the classroom. They helped students explain their mathematical reasoning, revealing their conceptual understanding. ability to explain and skill at representing a problems. These journals were used as a way of classroom communication.

I personally love the idea of journals in mathematics classroom. It is a great way to incorporate writing into the classroom and it also gives the students a "break" from math in a way.. I believe that these journals will reflect the grade these students end up receiving on a test or assignment. These journals are a way from students to thoroughly understand the topic being talked about. The journals are also a good way for the students to communicate with their teacher and it is a good way for the teacher to communicate back with their students. These journals are a great form of communication. Although this may be a lot of work for the teacher, I believe it will definitely pay off in the long run. This is allow the teachers to spend a lot less time explaining something to everyone when only one students needs the help. With the journals, the teacher can explain through the journal entry. I think this is very important method of communication for those students who are shy and timid in class. This is a wonderful way for them to express their feelings or concerns.

When it comes to using journals in small groups, I think that is a great way for the students to combine their ideas and make a very strong argument in a mathematical way. Writing in these journals will strengthen their skills on some many levels without them even realizing it. I wish that when I was in school we had more of the writing in math. When I had to write my first math paper for college, it wasn't at all an easy task but I didn't have the practice. These journals are a great for mathematics classroom as long as there is enough participation and interest from the students.



** Mathematics and Poetry: The Right Connection ** ** By: David Whitin **

** Whitin, David, and Michelle Piwko. "Mathematics And Poetry: The Right Connection. **
 * " ** // ** Young Children ** // ** 63.2 (2008): 34-39. ** // ** ERIC ** // ** . Web. 9 Dec. . **

In this article, the importance of reading, writing, and mathematics is stressed through meaningful integrated experiences. A rich engaging curriculum encourages students to collaborate with peers and to use various modes of representation to express their understandings. In the article, it states that such an approach does several things. For example, it strengthens concepts and skills in more than one subject are, it demonstrates the wide applicability of mathematics in numerous context and provides meaningful and authentic learning. In this article, the teacher allows the students to play with different shapes while having them write down everything they are seeing and feeling. After explaining to them what each three dimensional shape is, she has then use their prior knowledge and their new knowledge to construct a poem on one three dimensional shape. She gave her students a great deal of freedom and let them make the poem about anything they wanted as long as it had to do with their shape. I greatly enjoyed this article for several reasons. In the article, the teacher who happened to be one of the writers attached each poem that the student did. It was nice to see how the lesson actually turned out and how they each were creative in a different way. I believe this is a great lesson for students to see how their other common core class connect with what they are doing in math. This project that is described is clearly for a young age group as the topic is very simple. However, this could certainly be used for the middle school and even high school level just with a more complex topic. I think that it is important to stress math and the relation it has with other topics at a young age. Most students are unaware of how important math is so starting them young will help increase the interest in math.

I would certainly use this project in high school math classrooms. However, I think it would be interesting for students to write a poem in order to solve the answer to a problem. For example, stating the problem in the poem and by the end of the poem state the answer. In between those two steps would be all the "work" leading up to the answer. This way instead of continuously solving problems the ordinary way, they will be allowed to do something more creative. This method will not only be fun and creative but it will help them understand the steps they are taking by putting it into words on paper.

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