Re-Writing Across the Curriculum

Some years ago, a policy called “Writing across the Curriculum” was instituted in secondary schools. The way this affected math teachers, or at least one of the ways, was that it mandated them having their students write math journals. Math journals are notebooks in which students are required to write a paragraph or two at the end of every class. The topic of their journal entries would be either what they had learned that day or what their feelings were toward the lesson or other similar topics.
The effect of these journals was that, along with knowing beyond any doubt that a frightening number of students despised math, math teachers felt as though they were losing instructional time so that they could, according to a math teacher friend of mine, “do the writing teacher’s jobs for them.”
I was a math teacher and I cannot help but agree that having students spend ten minutes writing lines such as: “Today I learned to do proofs. I don’t like them,” “Math sucks, I hate math,” “This has nothing to do with my life” does not help me as a math teacher, it does not help the students, and I cannot imagine it does a whole lot to help writing teachers.
That said, I think, with some modifications, math journals can be a valuable resource to both math and writing teachers. It is not the job of a math teacher to teach writing nor should it be. Therefore, the question then is “Why should a math teacher include writing as part of their class at all?” One answer to that question is statisticians and mathematicians write reports that express complex ideas. The reports and ideas are most often written in the language in which mathematicians communicate, this language is not always understood by laypeople. Therefore, it is essential that, along with being able to do the math itself, mathematicians must know how to write in a way that is accessible to others.
Could compositions that call for these skills be assigned as part of a writing curriculum? Certainly and they should be. However, it is unfair that a writing teacher should be expected to not only grade the flow, grammar, and punctuation in the composition but also assess whether the concepts explained are mathematically sound. Indeed, the ability to write these essays is a skill, which is equally important in both fields, and therefore, should be assigned and graded as part of both classes.
I believe that if students are required to write step-by-step breakdowns of what they have learned in math many students who are struggling with math may be able to better grasp the concepts, students will have a skill essential to continuing in a field that requires mathematics. I believe that if math teachers and writing teachers work together then math journals can be used as a valuable tool for the teachers and for the students.
© 2008 BRIAN M. FELDER

When Writing Meets Math

The basic idea to this site, and the research I am doing, which have resulted in one paper and will lead to many more, is that, there is a great deal of overlap between the logic used in writing compositions and the logic used in solving mathematical equations.

Gardner is a name many, both in the field of education and outside of it, are familiar with, for developing the theory of different learning styles. Another theory, which Garner developed /is developing, is the theory of multiple intelligences. Two of the intelligences he talks about are, linguistic and mathematical-logical. Many people, including many educators, believe that there is little overlap between these two intelligences. I believe that, not only is their overlap but if we, as educators, start recognizing the overlap we can reach a great many more students then we currently are.

Again, this a very brief description of the theory I am developing, stay tuned for more.

-Brian M. Felder
© 2008 BRIAN M. FELDER