By Brad Wilcox, Eula Ewing Monroe
Writing is a way to think our way into mathematics and make it our own. (Zinsser, 1988, paraphrased)
The 2002 and 2007 reports of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing assessment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008), administered to 8th and 12th graders, show an increase in writing scores. Applebee and Langer's (2006) analysis of NAEP data as well as other sources published during the decade preceding their review revealed that the more frequently students reported writing one or more paragraphs in science and social studies, the higher their writing achievement.
The results, however, were lower in mathematics. "It may be that at the classroom level, the role of writing in mathematics instruction has not been well conceptualized" (Applebee & Langer, 2006, p. 14). Indeed, many teachers find it more natural to integrate writing and science (e.g., Varelas, Pappas, Kokkino, & Ortiz, 2008) or writing and social studies (e.g., Jones & Thomas, 2006). Wolsey (2010) examined the complexity of student writing and vocabulary learning in a cross-disciplinary writing project involving English, science, and social studies. Where was mathematics?
***Click here to download this article or read it in its entirety.
No comments:
Post a Comment