Book Description

In my mathematics teaching experiences, I have found students encountering difficulties in successfully remembering and demonstrating all of the major concepts they have learned during the school year. Whether or not the students actually learn and remember the content is a problem numerous teachers experience. As a result, I decided to implement writing into a lower-level seventh grade math classroom to determine if writing would affect student learning. The study was implemented with sixteen lower-level seventh grade math students during the first ten weeks of the 2008-2009 school year at Northwest Junior High in the Iowa City Community School District. Pre-surveys and post-surveys were given to students to determine their attitudes toward mathematics and writing. A pretest and posttest was also administered to assess the effects writing ad on students' growth and achievement over the en week study. Students used their writing skills to explain their reasoning behind their answers. Students also wrote in a journal an average of two times per week. Results from the study showed a minimal increase in the number of students having a positive attitude towards math along with a minimal increase in student achievement. These results may be due to implementation of writing in the mathematics curriculum.