1. inspiration
I remember having to slow down
and show my thought process.
Sometimes it was a chore and took
more time than I allotted for it,
however there was a sense that I
was going beyond a typical
experience with math. Writing about
math made it more approachable. It
was one of the first times that I
found myself loving math.
“Instead of cycling through math assignments, I feel the
journal gave deeper meaning to my studies. I was never left
with that all-too-common feeling of "I will never use this in real
life" because I WAS using it in real life! ..and in combination
with all of the other skills I was learning in school! Amazing,
really. I struggled a lot with English and writing in high school,
and I believe keeping a math journal helped me to be more
confident when tackling writing assignments in general. It
really helped to further my writing skills more than other
methods, which is pretty outstanding for a math class.”
“I honestly wish I could track
down this journal and re-read
my thought process and
compare it to my current self.
I think I might be surprised.”
“I remember at the time I found it to be a stressful task.
Which is interesting because I definitely excelled in my
humanities classes more than math/science, so in
hindsight I feel like I would a have appreciated the
opportunity to use my language skills, but I think it was
such a leap from anything I had been asked to do in
math before that point that I found it foreign and
intimidating.”
“My math journal was something I really took pride in.
To this day, I still have them. Keeping a math journal
gave me the opportunity to exercise my skills in
writing, math, and art/design all in one place. I will
forever be grateful for your math classes and teaching
methods. I never tested well as a student, but the first
and only time I took the ACT I scored in the 99th
percentile in Geometry..! It got me a scholarship for
college. There really isn't much I remember from other
classes or teaching methods throughout my time as a
student, except for my math journals. The impact it
made on my life is beyond words.”
“I remember my improvement in the
class. The first few entries were
reminiscent of what I learned in math
before. As someone who struggled
with math but excelled with writing, I
was soon able to write out my
reasoning which strengthened both my
understanding of and in interest in Carmel Schettino, 2018
“I am just about to enter graduate school for Art
History. Writing in math class began the trend of
deliberate, methodical, and passionate thinking to
an extent. Of course other classes … aided with
this. However, there is something to be said about
writing about what would otherwise be considered a
mechanical process. I feel as if I am a more careful
curator now. I methodically work through my process
with bursts of creativity and inspiration.”
Alumni Journal Survey Responses
2. Metacognitive journaling in
math: lessons from 20 years
of student writing
CARMEL SCHETTINO, PH.D.
AVENUES: THE WORLD SCHOOL
NCTM ANNUAL CONFERENCE APRIL 2018
6. What I do - PBL
An approach to curriculum and pedagogy where student
learning and content material are (co)-constructed by
students and teachers through mostly contextually-based
problems in a discussion-based classroom where student
voice, experience, and prior knowledge are valued in a non-
hierarchical environment.
(Schettino, 2010, 2013)
10. empowering students to see themselves as capable of
participating in and being doers of mathematics
Showing Evidence of students engaging in active participation in
reasoning and sense making
Showing Evidence of students striving to make Their own
mathematical thinking Visible and intelligible to others
Using Multiple forms of discourse
implementing equitable instructional practices :
develop Positive Mathematical Identity
NCTM, Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics
11. implementing equitable instructional practices :
Develop Mathematical Agency
Telling others through words and actions who they are and what
their purpose is
Showing Evidence of taking risks and engaging in productive
struggle
Understanding that learning results when they successfully
leverage an approach that works for THEM
NCTM, Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics
13. inspiration
Find 2 lattice points that are sqrt(13) units apart.
So you have to find two perfect squares that add
up to 13
1 12
2 11
3 10
4 9. [two perfect squares]
5 8
3^2 + 2^2 = 9 + 4 = 13
Your two numbers are 2 and 3
Up 2 over 3
Up 3 over 2
Is it possible to find lattice points that are sqrt(15)
units apart.
No there are no perfect squares that add up to
sqrt(15)
25. inspiration
When I originally looked at
this question, I did not
understand anything about
how the question was
related. I understood the
individual parts. I knew
that I had to use the
distance formula because
that is how you find points
that are equidistant. The
distance formula is….
As we went over it in class,
my partner explained to me
the process to find the
answers.
26. “
”
I remember in class when we were going over this
one, how Pete said, ‘but how were we supposed to
know how to plot the points?’ I totally felt the same
way because we were both thinking about it
specifically. We were waiting for the book to spoon-
feed us the answer.
~Student #20 about a problem deriving the distance formula with general points (a,b) and
(c,d)
29. By focusing on personal pronouns
and modality, the researchers were
able to see who the text recognizes
as the people associated with the
mathematics
30. “Voice” of Mathematics Textbook
.
Herbel-Eisenman and Wagner (2007)
First person pronouns, like I and we, indicate an author’s personal
involvement with the mathematics. The use of the second person pronoun
you, also connects the reader to the mathematics because the textbook
author is speaking to the reader directly.
One way the pronoun you was used suggests an “absolutist image” of
mathematics, portraying mathematical activity as something that can
occur on its own, without humans.
31. “
”
First-person pronouns indicate the author’s “personal
involvement with the activity portrayed in the text” . For
example, the use of “we” could indicate that an author is
speaking with the authority of the mathematical community; it
may also be used in an inclusive way so as to involve the
reader in the mathematics.
HERBEL-EISENMANN (2007)
Textbook analysis of first person plural – does it translate to student writing?
32. Advice on writing a math paper
Unacceptable to use the plural pronoun “their” to refer to the singular “reader” or
“you.”
use the pronoun “we” to refer to the mathematical community in General
“we” should not be used as a formal equivalent of “I,” and “I” should be used
rarely, if at all.
Kleiman (2004) http://www1.mat.uniroma1.it/people/manetti/tec2.pdf
33. Research study – Did journaling increase
agency, ownership for students?
31 journals from 3 different schools – my students
Page length, number of appearances of I, we, you
Used average page length
Calculated slope of regression line for each student for I, we, you over the course
of their journal
Looked for trend in growth or decline
Difficult to see patterns
39. One-Way ANOVA Test on 3 (I, We, You)
different pronoun differences
p = 8.585 𝑥 10−5
Hypothesis test says that The results that I had could not have happened by
chance
44. inspiration
Since we had done a lot of problems using the
pythagorean theorem in the past I thought that I
could use it in this problem. As my shows this
method did not help me get any closer to t
finding the height of the street lamp. I decided
to wait until we discussed this problem in class
to earn a more effective way to solve this
problem. After our discussion in class, I now
know two different way to find the solution to
this problem.
Will presented the first method. This method
involves putting the entire diagram on a
coordinate grid and using the equation of a line
to find the lampost’s height. Here was the
illustration of this method :
[See handout]
47. Alumni survey on
journals
Question Average
Response
Helpful for knowledge of content
matter
3.875
Helpful at improving your written
communication skills in mathematics
3.875
Helpful for sorting through your
thought processes & problem
solving skills
4.25
Helpful for allowing to show a
strength in alternate form of
assessment
4.75
Helpful at organizing your thoughts
in a PBL Classroom
3.125
As you remember it,
how helpful was
keeping a journal
for…
48. Anonymous Alum, on writing
Instead of cycling through math assignments, I feel the journal
gave deeper meaning to my studies. I was never left with that all-
too-common feeling of "I will never use this in real life" because I
WAS using it in real life! ..and in combination with all of the other
skills I was learning in school! Amazing, really. I struggled a lot
with English and writing in high school, and I believe keeping a
math journal helped me to be more confident when tackling writing
assignments in general. It really helped to further my writing skills
more than other methods, which is pretty outstanding for a math
class.
“
“
thank you all for coming – I’m assuming that you are here because somehow you are interested in writing in math class
How many people have tried using journals?
How many would like to try?
Interest in writing, curiosity,
Intro of myself
started teaching in 1992
using journals in 1995
live in western massachusetts, travel to school, especially in new york city to do consulting in the secondary math classroom speciically with respect to PBL
I’m assuming that you are here because somehow you are interested in writing in math class
How many people have tried using journals?
How many would like to try?
Interest in writing, curiosity,
How did I start?
1995 Klingenstein Summer Institute for New Teachers Columbia University
We did a lot of journaling in our math cohort, can’t remember who the actual speakers was that said that writing in mathematics was a good thing, but as I wanted to learn and change one thing about my teaching I decided it would be that. Bought Joan Countryman book “Writing to Learn Mathematics”
Started doing something that resembled journaling.
I knew reflection was a huge part of learning process
I was also teaching at a school that used PBL and I found students resistant to PBL without a textbook or resource, but I had also read some Dewey during this institute for the first time
I new that in order to have truly curious, engaged and self-motivated students I needed to create a learning community where reflection was a regular part of the classroom practice.
I tried other things – like responses to rubric, self- assessments, written feedback, etc. but found that their own writing was so personal and expressive that I could not find something that created the reflection the way journals did.
In my research on the PBL Classroom and what students appreciated/stood out about their experience . The attributes of the PBL classroom that also fostered empowerment, agency, interest and enjoyment were also these four pillars. the most interesting thing about the use of journals is that they are interconnected in all four of these pillars.
So where did my journey go from having the idea and the inspiration?
Voluntary for all students
Two entries a week
Pick a problem
Difficult to grade
Could use on assessments
Required for all students
Twice a week
Told them to work more on explaining their thought process
Got easier to grade tried to make a rubric
Could use on assessments
All students required
One entry every two weeks
Focus was more on what did you not understand, how did you overcome it, do the problem, explain any moment of clarity
Used rubric consistently, made more edits, easier to help students
So through all this, I learned many lessons from my students that I would like to share with you all - as time went by I realized improvements that could be made to the way that I described the assignments and what I asked of them
Created the explanation info sheet
Could use on assessments
LESSON #! Next slide: grading writing is hard but: gets easier the more you do it
My realizations
Read this out loud. - S rewrote problem
wrote out some tries
showed how the sum of the 2 square =13
describe direction drawing
then described next question
very little complete sentences, no connection of why something was done, what's the point, why are they looking for 2 perfect squares?
Again, I'll read it for you. Notice this is all one sentence, it basically a run on sentence of stream of consciousness. Not very good writing but the ideas are there - which takes priority? how do you discuss this with students? What did I do?
Look on handout
Talk about the ones one the hand-out, Sample 3, Sample 4 – have them discuss the differences – what do you notice and wonder?
Notice this is all one sentence, it basically a run on sentence of stream of consciousness. Not very good writing but the ideas are there
Look on handout
Talk about the ones on the hand-out, Sample 3, Sample 4 – have them discuss the differences – what do you notice and wonder?
some kids like puns
some kids make mistakes that are kind of cute
they can be creative this was a problem that was about where the altitude of parallelograms were and how to visualize the altitude if it was 18 inches long - seeing the difference between the side length and the height (altitude)
click -Next slide is Mathematical writing - intro
so one of the hardest things for students to do is to figure out what to write about. For a long time I was just looking for the problem, explanation, etc.
the concept of mathematical writing is foreign to most students – they don’t necessarily understand what they are supposed to do, write, think about and discuss, their experience with mathematical text is mostly reading – text books, or listening to teachers
When posed a question they sometime don’t even know where to start:
Sample 5 – what they are used to doing – explaining their understanding not what they learned, just method
Sample 6 – Explanation of methods – sin and tan entry
Sample 7 & 8 – found a way to reflect but in an organized way
Second lesson
And it doesn’t necessarily come out the way you and I might want to undersatnd it.
Leads me to my next lesson -
Finding the distance formula
lesson#4
Kids who voluntarily signed up to do their journals did not always do a good job – eventually made it required – evened the playing field.
Part of my goal was to increase ownership, authorship, agency, not just create a place for them to take notes, cheat sheet
Even towards the end of the year some kids were still just writing how to do the problems
In the beginning I didn’t have a rubric so it wasn’t good – kids did not have a way of knowing how to get closer to what I wanted (actually I don’t think I knew what I wanted)
By 2012 I had read a lot about writing - Candia Morgan, Writing Mathematically. read a lot of research on Textbooks
what are kids used to "reading" or "seeing as text" in math? first person pronouns were entirely absent in textbooks
includes such phrases as 'you find', 'you know' and 'you think',
Depersonalization
In the second-person pronouns, the authors obscured agency by having inanimate objects apparently perform animate activities. “
The only research that is out there right now is on pronoun use and voice in textbook writing. Very little on student writing and agency with pronoun use. So if we want to see how the student recognizes themselves as the people associated with the mathematics it would make sense to look at the pronouns in their own writing.
Depersonalization with "you"
“textbook is devoid of first person pronouns, indicating that the authorial presence of human beings is concealed. In the second-person pronouns, the authors obscured agency by having inanimate objects apparently perform animate activities. “
The second-person pronoun, “you,” were also examined to understand the construction of roles and relationships between reader and author. In one text researched the word you occurred 263 times.
So the question posed is really "does this type of analysis translate to student writing about mathematics?"
What are students told about mathematical writing -
Does not foster ownership of the material – general math knowledge for the community
If this is what they are told about mathematical writing – how can we get them to grow in their own ownership, authorship and agency of the mathematics they are learning? Froget the students of color or those who are disenfranchised.
So this led me to want to do a study of all of the journals that students have left with me.
So how could I answer that question that I wanted answered?
I noticed that so many students’ data were different
another student
So instead I thought, OK if I can’t look at each kid individually or them as a whole, I wonder if I could look at my effect on the group of students over time.
I decided to take the average amount of use of I, we and you in their very first entry in their journal and the average in their very last entry in their journal.
Difference between average # of I per page for first entry (for all students) vs. Difference between average # of I per page for last entry (for all students)
If d>0, pronoun use increased
If d<0, pronoun use decreased
This might give insight about the way that I was giving feedback on their work and helping them to grow in their ownership and agency in their writing because it was about ALL students.
Difference between average # of I per page for first entry (for all students) vs. Difference between average # of I per page for last entry (for all students)
If d>0, pronoun use increased
If d<0, pronoun use decreased
This might give insight about the way that I was giving feedback on their work and helping them to grow in their ownership and agency in their writing because it was about ALL students.
Difference between average # of I per page for first entry (for all students) vs. Difference between average # of I per page for last entry (for all students)
If d>0, pronoun use increased
If d<0, pronoun use decreased
This might give insight about the way that I was giving feedback on their work and helping them to grow in their ownership and agency in their writing because it was about ALL students.
PBL is collaborative spirit – come in with independent view of math, spirit of learning in isolation, as the year progresses, they identify the knowledge more and more of the collaborative nature of PBL – what the teacher is subliminally trying to help them towards – they sense that it’s really working and they loose the sense that “I learned” this but that “we Learned “
There are so many theories about reflection in learning – about it’s such an important part of the learning process.
But when kids are just writing and not really reflecting is it helping? Is it making them
physical representations of reflection
verbal
exlanation of their ideas, decisions, prior and after class discussion
came to the conclusion lesson #6
asked alumni to reflect on using journals
This has all brought me to the larger goal of getting students to be aware of their learning process through writing, owning their part in that process and becoming stronger mathematicians because of it. Metacognition is the process of thinking and learning about your own thinking and learning.
On Wednesday night, The two lifetime achievement award winners both mentioned writing and being aware of your learning as skills that they thought were most important in mathematics learning -
If a student even practices this just a little bit and can improve just a little bit, they are learning in ways they could not imagine.
Which leads me to my next and last lesson.