Thread: High School Math

I am just wondering what kinds of things are you expected to write about? If you're expected to write about your experiences teaching math in the past and what you would like to know about regarding teaching math, I can understand writing a paper. But I can understand a 2-3 page paper, not 7-10 pages!
Your course is designed to teach you methods to go about teaching math to students. I would not suggest having your students write a paper unless you're somehow supposed to incorporate language arts. There is so much for them to get through in the year, it may be a better idea to stick to problem solving and direct instruction when you get your own class.
As for your assignment, I suppose you never know what university courses will spring on you! How much is this paper worth towards the course?

Research has shown that writing about a topic helps to deepen the knowledge about the topic, therefore if you want to get a deeper understanding about a math topic, then writing about it should help. As a former math major in college, I had a professor (actually two different professors) that required a term paper on a relevant math topic in their class. I found that I learned a lot about the topics I wrote (one was on probablity theory, the other on different graphing techniques). Later, as a high school math teacher, I would ask my students to write a paper on some historical aspect of mathematics (either an important event or biography of a mathematician) in order to develop an appreciation of the importance of math from an historical perspective. Most (not all) of my students seemed to look at "doing" math in a different light after this assignment. So I see several benefits to a writing assignment in a math course.

To answer your question Kelly about ahow much this paper is worth: 15% of our final grade. :?

I begin each year by having students write about their experiences in math class. These short essays help me understand my students better.--One student described a math teacher that would teach in slippers, eating a doughnut, and drinking coffee!
I have also found that Students do not learn how to write a technical paper in their English classes. I have them write technical papers on "how to recognize and factor a perfect square polynomial", They write papers describing each step of a process, and yes, I check for spelling errors etc. Before I require writing, I have a rubric so that it doesn't take very long to grade.
Writin in math class is one of the standards of NCTM. I believe it really helps!

Please please please have your students "write math." I teach AP Statistics and a huge portion of our curriculum is based on justification. Several of the AP questions are essay style without a lick of math. My biggest issue is that kids do not know how to write sensibly. My students turn in several lab reports, essay questions, etc throughout the year to get them used to writing. If I could change one thing about how math is taught prior to 12th grade, it would be to WRITE!!!

I don't do reports, but I have my kids keep a math portfolio.

Weekly, they have to choose a problem and analyze it. They can discuss what they did or didn't do. They can talk about some realization or connection they had/made. The best ones are the ones where they discuss some faulty thinking they had and what they did to correct it.

We collect these every week for about 3.5 quarters, then I have the students begin to analyze what they've analyzed. They can choose an earlier piece and a later piece and this time discuss what they've learned mathematically over the year AND how they've learned to express themselves mathematically. A couple of years ago, I got permission to have these placed in their cum folders in place of one of the writing pieces that are regularly kept. Great plus for the math department!

Bitsy