Math Workshop Series- Written Communication

Math Workshop Series- Part 1

Math Workshop Series- Part 2

Math Workshop Series- Part 3

Math Workshop Series- Part 4a

Math Workshop Series- Part 4b

Math Workshop Series- Part 5

As I've been working on this series of posts I've also been taking an  Additional Qualifications course on teaching math to primary and junior students (I think I mentioned it before). For this current unit I have been researching using writing in the math class and I am LOVING what I am learning. Not to mention that I am getting all sorts of ideas for products and freebies I plan to create!

These are a few of the resources I've been looking at:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct04/vol62/num02/Writing-in-Math.aspx

http://www.mathwire.com/writing/writing1.html

http://mathsolutions.com/documents/1995_Writing_in_Elem_Grades.pdf

Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, K-8 by Marian Small

And here's what I've learned:

Written Communication 

There are 6 types of written communication in math:

• personal writing
• descriptive writing
• process writing
• creation of word problems
• creative writing
• explanatory writing

When can you use writing in math?

• before studying a concept to see what students already know 
• during the unit to add to their previous writing
• at the end of a unit to revisit what they learned
• use writing when a student is confused as the task of writing can often clarify thinking
• in journals or logs
• ask students to write about a classmate’s solution or a discussion that took place in class
• to explain their thinking after solving a math problem
• after solving an open-ended math question, ask students why there could be so many possible answers and why it is important to look at things from a variety of perspectives
• to explain a mathematical concept
• to write about their learning process (metacognition)

Criteria for Written Communication

• should be co-created with the students and hung where students can access it
• create a checklist of criteria

Strategies to Help Incorporate Writing in the Math Classroom

• discuss the purpose for the writing
• discuss who the audience for their writing may be
• model how to use details and how to explain their thinking
• give students time to discuss their ideas before starting to write
• have a math word wall of useful vocabulary
• give students a prompt to help them get started
• scaffold and support as needed
• share in small groups or pairs
• keep writing in a portfolio to assess growth over time

Do you use writing in your math workshop or math class? I'd love to know more about it and how you incorporate this important skill into your planning. 

Leave a comment below!
The series continues...
What topics are you most interested in reading about?
POSSIBLE OTHER POSTS - Planning for Guided Math Lessons - Problem Solving - Math Games and Independent Activities - Math Journals/Notebooks - Math Vocabulary - Math Calendar - Interactive Math Notebook Ideas - Using Manipulatives - Anchor Charts

Chapter 4 and 5... And so, so, so late to the party

I vow I will never again move on the last day of school while pregnant! Even now, a full week later I can hardly believe I survived. It's been a long crazy week full of boxes, boxes, and more boxes. Attempting to unpack and move things while being yelled at for unpacking and moving things while pregnant. A sick 2 year-old daughter- fever spike, lukewarm baths, Tylenol, coughing fits. Then to top everything off... I got sick myself. Two full days in bed. 13+ hours of sleep each night. Barely able to hold a book, let alone read....and that, my friends is the story of how I am a full 2 chapters behind in the very book study I helped to organize. I apologize profusely but as many of you know, life is what it is. We roll with good and the not so good.

<div class="Primary Inspired" style="margin: 0 auto; width: 200px;"> <a href="http://primaryinspired.blogspot.com/p/guided-math-book-study.html"> <img src="http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/primaryinspired/9bcea6c1-e4bb-4cd5-9b02-8e175843492e.jpg" /> </a> </div> </a>

The better news is that I have caught up on reading Chapter 4 and Chapter 5  and I am ready to post. I am working on getting through and hope to be caught up with Chapter 6 ASAP. Fingers crossed, of course. 

Here are the other wonderful posts written about these 2 chapters.

Chapter 4


Chapter 5

These are the fabulous blogs that hosted Chapter 5 over the past few days.



And now...finally, my post.

As many of you have written, each of these chapters is yet another " why didn't I think of that before" moment and Chapter 4 was no different for me. Questions! In math! Of course!! 

Increasing Comprehension by Asking Questions

Here are some things that struck out for me as I read:

- Sammons writes that "students become more engaged and learning is more rigorous" (page 116) when we teach them to ask questions

- I love the idea that the root of questions is quest!

- it is our job to encourage students to become mathematical text critics...how fun is that?

- I am interested in designing a lesson around the the 5 things students need to know about asking questions for mathematical comprehension (page 120)
- How fun would it be to track our spontaneous questions and the ones that result from reflection during a unit of study...hmmm, T-chart perhaps?
- I am excited to brainstorm with my class all the reasons that mathematicians ask questions
- On page 126 Sammons writes about valuing the questions posed by others in the math class and the importance of respecting each other's questions, I think this would be an important lesson and anchor chart to have in the classroom
- I have done a lot of work with students one the types of questions in literacy and science/social studies but again I never thought of doing the same in Math...duh!
- I wonder what a Math specific q-chart would look like? Would it look different?

My biggest "aha" from this chapter was the idea of a strategy lesson that is outside of a math concept lesson. What a great idea to incorporate into your guided math rotations....and a great way to assess your students based on the 4 categories of achievement.  This is definitely something I want to come back to and spend more time thinking about. 

Lastly, I can see so many ways of incorporating this strategy into my math journals. From having an ongoing page of thinking stems for questions, taking ideas from their math journal and sharing them on a Wonder Wall, to recording question webs in their math journals. So exciting!!!

The Importance of Visualizing Mathematical Ideas

My "aha" moments while reading:

- on page 152-153 Sammons talk about encouraging students to represent their math ideas in a way that makes sense to them, even if it is not conventional (I've done an activity that is similar to this called talking pictures, check it out here)
- I love the steps that will help students build their ability to create mental images, I think this will be a page I refer to again and again (page 154-155)
- it's always good to have a refresher on how to guide students through the steps of gradual release of responsibility and I appreciate that Sammons included it in this chapter on visualization, I especially like the last step of conducting a think-aloud individually with a student as part of a conference for assessment! What an "aha" moment! Why have I never done this?
- the Visualize, Draw and Share learning task described on page 162 sounds like a lot of fun for guided math groups, especially for those who may be struggling with a concept or conversely, students who are ready to be pushed a little farther

Lastly, I was very disappointed that I didn't do more poetry with my students this year and vowed to remedy that in the future. I really like the week-long plan set up by Sammons on page 167 and this I could adapt it so that it works within my Book of the Week lessons or even guided reading as well. Gotta love integration!

Whew.

I made it....just barely.

Organizing Calendar and Your Math Block

Do you follow Janaye over at Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes? 

Because if you don't, then you really should.

I mean, WOW!!

I started off this year organizing my math journals according to the setup she described on her blog here and now I love doing them. People are so impressed when they visit my class and I so wish I could take credit, but alas it is the impressive Janaye!

Now, she has posted about her morning math meeting time...and in such detail. I am in heaven and will be starting to integrate some her ideas into my morning math meeting as well. Can't wait.

Go here to check it all out.

Math Class Routines- Whole Class Lesson

We are still working on getting Math Workshop up and running....slowly, slowly...sooooooo slowly!

In the meantime we are working on in Math. Here are some highlights of what I've been doing. 

Place Value lesson board- big ideas and sample problem

Number line math stretch

Skip counting beans!

So many different ways to count!

This is my math lesson board. We start with a minds on or simple problem that we complete together and discuss. 

Here's what we came up with for our skip counting lesson. 

Then we look at the lesson problem and break it down. What is it asking us? What are the key words and what tools can we use to solve this problem. 

And then they work!! Once the class has completed the problem all of the solutions are posted and debriefed as a class. This was our first time posting the student work so I modelled the type of math talk I expect and wrote anecdotes one the board to show patterns in our counting. 

Close-up of student work.

UPDATE!!! Here is the picture of the Big Ideas/Highlights we brainstormed as a class.

And then the sample lesson is posted. For this lesson the student completed a question independently in their Math Journals. It was:

How many ways can you count to 200? 363? 

It was interesting to see what they came up with- counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 40s, 25s etc. And what they didn't... three students told me it was impossible to count to 363...hmmm?

I guess more practice is still needed!!

How do you organize your whole class math lessons?

Math Routines and Settling In

Things are finally starting to feel normal...my class is settling in and we are getting down to the business of curriculum. Things are feeling good in Grade 3. I was very nervous (and still am a little) about teaching such young friends but I must say that apart from a few moments of frustration I am really enjoying being a primary teacher. Now, I will fully admit that things are slooooooooow going. How can it take that long to write one journal entry?? I mean, really? But I am getting used to it. On the flip side, my former teaching partner moved from Grade 4 to 8 this year and he is shocked by how fast his students complete their work and how much he has to have ready for them to do!

Anyway...

Math!! I am loving it. Who knew that I would ever love teaching math? Not me. But in the past year or so I have learned so much from other blogs and professional reading that it has become one of my favourite parts of the day.

I have fulfilled a few of the goals I created for myself after reading Guided Math as part of this summer's book study already. We have been doing Math Stretches every morning when my students enter the portable. I have a dry erase easel that I have been using for this and planned to take pictures of the different stretches we did each day this week but, unfortunately, I kept forgetting and erased it at the end of the school day in order to get ready for the next day! So sorry! I am going to try to remember all next week to take a picture each day and post it for you. Here is the last one we did this week.

My students were struggling with the concept of "place value"- the idea that the location of a digit determined its value, or how much it was worth. This Math Stretch and the following discussion really seemed to help cement the idea for my students.

The discussion that follows each of the Math Stretches is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole exercise. So far at least one student has made a small mistake each day but that seems to really be a good thing as it gives us a chance to talk about how to correct mistakes and re-clarify our thinking. I have also been able to see which students are hesitant about math and or are struggling with certain concepts. Isn't amazing how much information can be gathered from such a simple exercise? 

We have also been doing our Number of the Day exercises each day. I am not loving this. 

It takes a long time unless I pick a pretty simple number. I can't even imagine how long it would take if I asked my students to write down anything during this time! Here's a picture of what it looks like so far. It's my own adaption of other Calendar Boards and Number of the Day's I've seen posted in a variety of places. This will definitely be a work in progress and something that will probably change relatively frequently in my classroom as I try out new ideas and bring in new concepts. I welcome any and ALL suggestions people may have for things they are doing in their class that's working for them. 

We have also got our Math Journal up and running. I used the amazing posts from Janaye over at Frogs and Cupcakes to set up and organize my journals this year. I loved all the organizing tips and ideas she has shared.

This is inside the front cover- the rules of our math journals and the start of the Table of Contents.
I also saw a great post awhile back about creating a web of numbers that related to each student as the cover of their Math Journal and I loved the idea....unfortunately I can't remember where it came from. If you know, please leave me a comment so I can give credit where credit is due. Here are some pics of how ours turned out.

Our first two entries include an anchor chart and a short check in question so I can assess how they are doing so far with place value.

 And that's it so far!! On Monday I am going to try a mini-workshop type class. I will be having different groups of students playing some math games while I call others over for a lesson on number lines. It's a little warm up for me before I dive in full force with a math workshop structure. Wish me luck!