Writing

As someone who wants to teach math, I can say that I haven’t given a lot of thought as to how I writing to play a role in the classroom. There are many opportunities for such activities in English and History classes, but with math you rarely see this. However, it is important to remember that writing is a critical part of students’ learning and therefore should be implemented in all areas of their study. Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction addresses the concept of “writers attending to their own thinking (p. 155).” This idea provided me with my own.

I plan to emphasize the importance of critical thinking and problem solving within my future classroom because I believe that is what students will take-away from the course and apply to their lives. Because each student thinks differently and goes about solving a problem differently, it would be interesting to have them “attend to their thinking” by writing out a process of how they came to a certain conclusion. When they share these with their classmates, they might pick up new insights from others that will help them to better understand the topic.

When considering multiple texts, it is important to remember that, although the majority of mathematics does not change over time, the way it should be presented does. Unlike history, which is constantly growing and changing, mathematics generally remains unchanged throughout time. It is very important to make the material relevant to the students though and that is why it does matter which books you decide to use for your class.

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.