Jennifer Klein

SPED 783
Writing to Learn
Ideas for Writing in Math (All ideas either adapted from or quoted directly from Marilyn
Burns personal Website or her book Writing in Math Class.)
Writing in math class best extends from children's talking. When partner talk, smallgroup interaction, or a whole-class discussion precedes a writing assignment, students
have a chance to formulate their ideas before they're expected to write.
1. At the end of a lesson, students can write in their math journals or logs about what
they learned and what questions they have.
2. Ask them to write about a particular math idea-"what I know about multiplication so
far," or "what happens to the sums and products when adding even and odd numbers."
3. When solving a problem, encourage students to record how they reasoned. Writing
prompts on the board can help students get started writing. For example: Today I
learned ..., I am still not sure about ..., I think the answer is ..., I think this because....
4. Use math journals: How you use math journals will depend on your purposes,
preferences, and the particular age and needs of your students. In some classes,
children do all of their work in their journals. Or, teachers might ask children to write
entries at the end of math class, describing what they did and what they learned,
including things they're not sure about, or questions.
Process Prompts in Math Class (From Marilyn Burns)
To help students begin, you might have them reflect daily on their processes. Uppergrade teachers asked students to elaborate in their journals on the following prompts:
What I know about _________ so far is _____________ .
What I'm still not sure about is _____________________.
What I'd like to know more about is _________________.
Class Discussion
You also might try giving all students the same assignment and then using it for a class
discussion. Ask them to describe what they did in an activity, rather than having them
describe how they thought about a problem. For students, writing about what they think

can be more difficult than describing a concrete action.

For example, ask students to describe what they had done as if they were telling their
parents. Choose a few entries to read aloud, without using names, ask the students to
listen carefully and determine whether they can "see" what the writer had done. If not
ask:
%

Was the explanation clear?

What made it clear?

What more do you need to know?

%
After the discussion, the students can revise their entries, with a better sense of the
thoroughness expected.
Writing prompts to use for problem solving (assessing process)
The most important part of solving a problem is____________.
Describe the process you undertook to solve this problem. (Problem
needs to be provided.)
I knew I was right when____________.
Tips I would give a friend to solve this problem
are____________.____________.____________.
Could you have found the answer by doing something different?
What?
What strategy did you use to solve this problem and why?
Was this problem difficult or easy? Why?
Were you frustrated with this problem? Why or why not?
Where else could you use this type of problem solving?
What would happen if you missed a step? Why?
What other strategies could you use to solve this problem?