Math Journals/Notebooks

I don't know about all of you, but I am back to school and the hustle and bustle is REAL! I'm now working with teachers at 4 different schools and I have so many asking me how to make writing in math meaningful for them and their students. I believe that writing is an important component in math, as it helps students solidify their thinking, practice metacognition, and express their ideas about math in a private way. The most common type of writing is solution writing. While there are many benefits for this type of writing, it is also important to incorporate affective writing; writing about ones feelings toward math. Asking kids to share why math is important, why they want to get better at math, or just how they felt about math after a lesson, we are able to find out so much about their attitudes toward math that can change from day to day and topic to topic. The third type of writing is concept writing, where you ask students to write about a general topic, like prime numbers, or the relationship between addition and subtraction. This type of writing is often overlooked, but can give you a sense of what students know about a topic in a broad sense. It is also low stress for the students as there is no right or wrong answer and they can share anything they know, which leads to a feeling of accomplishment.

No matter how often you incorporate writing, the most important things in my mind are modeling strong writing, and providing descriptive feedback. If you have students write on a daily basis, but don't look at, read, or help extend their thinking with descriptive feedback, what do you think will happen to the quality of the writing? I know teachers are busy and it is unrealistic to respond to student writing ever day, but it is an essential piece of writing in math. If you are not going to provide feedback, you might as well not have them write! Also think about the feedback you provide. Warm and fuzzy comments like great job really do nothing to help a student advance toward a mathematical goal. You may encounter superb writing and all you can think to say is "Wow!" Dig a little deeper and see if there is some aspect of the writing that could have been more clear, or point out the great connections made between math concepts. There must be something worth pointing out in even the best of papers.

Remember that writing in math is difficult for many students! Using clear, precise language in the classroom is important. If students can't say it, how can they write it? Provide opportunities for students to share their thinking before writing. Finally, we want these opportunities for journaling to be as low stress as possible for students. Conventions are not what this is all about. It's about math, and while it can support your writing instruction, it is not the main focus of this type of writing.

Notebooks work great for math journals or notebooks! In case you're wondering, the difference between a journal and a notebook is just what goes into it. If you are using it solely for writing about math, it is a journal. If you are including notes and other resources for students, it is a notebook.

If you are looking for a printable notebook template, I have one on TPT. It includes a cute cover page, table of contents page, and blank lined paper.

 

Link to TPT

Have a great start to the year!
~Marni