Written Communication in Math

The baseline score of their written math communication was given to students before the study began and the end score for their written math communication was given to students at the end of the study. Students had to respond in writing about a question they had knowledge on for the baseline and ending unit question. The baseline writing question was: Explain how multiplication and division are related. The ending unit writing question was: Describe the relationship between multiplication and division. Give examples to support your reasoning.

​

According to the baseline writing entries, there were a few different themes presented. Zero students scored a four based on the response given the the question. Six students scored a three showing a solid understanding of the concept. Nine students scored a two with showing some understanding of the concept. Seven students received a score of one with showing little or no understanding of the concept. This communicated over half of my class could not describe or explain their answer with deep understanding. As the study progressed, I collected data on students writing entries in their math journals. Based on these entries, I selected three entries to be checkpoints to check where students were at in the writing process. For these three entries, I read through students' math journal entries and assigned them a score based on the same set of criteria that their baseline and final entries were scored on. As you can see based on the graph, as the study progressed several students moves from scoring a one or a two on their writing entries to scoring a three and even a four. This collection of data and information allowed me to see that students were making gradual progress in their abilities to write about math. From date one to date three on the graph, I can see that several students improved their writing by moving from a score of a one to a high scores such as a two or three. 

 

During the study I was able to observe how often students were using math vocabulary. For example, in the third math journal entry, students were explaining how multiplication and division were related. I had four students use the word inverse operations and the rest of the students used “opposite” when explaining their answer. This gave me information on what misconceptions or vocabulary to go over in the next lesson. The math journals also gave me information on when to adjust instruction. For example, I was able to adjust instruction by teaching the distributive property if students could not accurately explain how or why you use the distributive property. The math journals allowed me to adjust how to group students on a day by day basis. After reading students' writing entries, I was able to identify what students were still having trouble mastering concepts or skills and I would put them in a small group so I could support them. I used journal entries to adjust my teaching and create small groups during the entirety of my study. 

 

Sometimes when students were answering a question in their math journal, they would be writing down words or ideas to connect themselves or the teacher to their thinking. Some students would be honest in their answer and respond with “I do not know” or “I’m not sure.” These math journals allowed students to become more honest with their level of understanding. A conclusion I came to as reading students’ math journal entries was that students were writing down more about the answer than they would feel comfortable saying out loud in class. For example, one of my students who was reluctant to share her thinking out loud for fear or being wrong would not participate in class discussions, but would write down paragraphs in response to questions in her math journal. These math journals held each student accountable for their own learning and answers. 

 

There could be multiple reasons that could factor into why six students did not grow which include attendance, amount of support given, and the length of the study. I had outlined in my action plan the support I was going to give would be to students who were significantly below grade level. I did not account for students who are on grade level. The six students who did not grow in their level of understanding might have needed more support such as more teaching of how to write in math or verbally explaining their answer instead of writing.