JOURNALS. Students are required to write in a journal on a regular basis.

Journals can be open ended allowing students the freedom to write as they wish. Give students some questions to stimulate their thinking, such as: What confused you? What challenged you? What did you like? What did you not like?

Journals can be used to ask students to respond to specific questions such as: What makes the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus so important? Describe a derivative in your own words. Explain what a group is so that a sixth grader could understand.

Journals must be collected, read and responded to on a regular basis in order to be effective.

ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM. Students are required to post to an discussion forum on a regular basis.

An online discussion forum can serve a similar purpose as journals.  The added advantage is that students can then interact with each others writing and ideas to help create a community of learners.

MATH AUTOBIOGRAPHIES. Students are asked to write an autobiography of their experiences with mathematics.

Math autobiographies are helpful in developmental courses for both instructors and students.

Math autobiographies can be read by the instructor only or can be shared among students.

A short math autobiography can be used as an initial journal assignment.

INFORMAL WRITING. Student writing that is non-graded and free from formal rules of writing.

Free writing is informal writing where the focus is writing rapidly for a short, usually fixed, period of time. This is usually done in response to a question or situation. The point is to get students thinking and to get their thoughts on paper.

Exploratory writing is the type of writing done in developing a proof or working out a solution to a problem.

The divided page technique is a method for combining free writing and exploratory writing that is useful for students with math anxiety. Students are told to draw a line down the middle of a page and are given a problem to solve. They are told to work on their solution on the left side of the page. If they get stuck, they are to use the right side of the page to write down how they feel and all the thoughts that are going through their minds.

SEMIFORMAL WRITING. This writing is characterized by fairly formal rules of writing. This is the type of writing that is typically graded in mathematics classes.

Solution writing is the write-up of solutions for problems. Formality requirements vary. For example, home work solutions may require a more formal write-up than an in-class testing situation.

Proof writing requires the use of a formal set of rules which varies in rigorousness from situation to situation.

FORMAL WRITING

Written reports or papers require students to write in a formal way, both in terms of mathematical rigor but also in terms of language and paper structure.

Presentations require students to prepare writing for oral, and possibly visual, presentation.

ASSESSMENT WRITING. Quick writing assignments can be collected or discussed in class. These are designed to get instructors an assessment of how well the students are learning and what they are thinking.

Writing at the beginning of a class where students respond to such questions as: Describe what we did in class yesterday. Discuss the most difficult homework problem.

End of class assessment uses such questions as: What is the most important thing you learned in class today? What is the main question you still have?

REFERENCES

• Countryman, J. (1992). Writing to Learn Mathematics, Portsmouth, NH: Heineman, 1992
• Kellermeier, J. (1996). Feminist Pedagogy in Teaching General Education Mathematics: Creating the Riskable Classroom. Feminist Teacher, 10(1), 8-11.
• Tobias, S. (1988). Insiders and Outsiders, Academic Connections, p.1-5.