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Strategies to Support Math Recording
There are many strategies that teachers can use to support the development of math recording skills. Listed below are some examples:
- Develop a math recording criteria chart, or rubric, with students. Before students can produce competent work they need to have a clear vision of what ‘competent work’ looks like. The teacher’s role is to guide students in discovering the criteria for competent work at any grade level. Model the criteria and provide exemplars for students. The specifics will vary from grade to grade depending on the concepts and skills already learned and in the process of being developed. Encourage students to refer to the criteria chart, or rubric, whenever they check or revise their work to make sure it is complete and fulfills the criteria. Below is an example of a math recording criteria chart used in a 3rd grade classroom, and two examples of class rubrics:
What Good Math Writers Do:
- Use math language and symbols
- Give examples
- Use drawings, diagrams or charts
- Describe any patterns they discover
- Show/explain the steps taken to solve a problem
- Explain their findings clearly
- Check that what they have written makes sense
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2nd Grade Rubric Example
4th Grade Rubric Example
- Model and display different ways of representing math information and findings (e.g. in words, pictures, diagrams, numbers, charts, graphs, tables,etc.)
- Allow students to decide how to record their understandings and findings
- Model appropriate terminology in context, both verbally and visually (e.g. through questioning, math charts, Math Word Wall, math dictionaries, sentence starters, etc.) Encourage students to consult these resources for vocabulary and spelling.
- Display possible sentence starters for math writing as a scaffold for those who need them. Examples include:
Today in Math I learned ....
Today in Math I found out ....
Today in math I discovered ....
The easiest/most difficult part of today’s math lesson was...
One thing I learned in math today that I did not know before was...
The most important thing I learned in Math this week was...
I would explain to an absent student what I did/learned in Math today like this ...
I think the answer is .... because ....
The steps I took in solving this problem were ....
The strategy I used to find a solution to the problem was ...
To check my answer I ...
I still don’t understand ...
Another strategy I could use to solve this problem would be to ...
My Math goal for tomorrow is ...
- Encourage discussion, debate and clarification throughout the Math Workshop. Provide opportunities for students to share ideas with partners, in small groups, and in whole-class discussions. Students need to use and understand the language of math before they can use it effectively in writing.
- Encourage ESL students to use their first language to discuss or clarify information with others
- Emphasize self-achievement rather than competition and ensure that all students work is chosen at various times for class display
- Set questions/tasks that offer students the opportunity to explore a variety of solutions and discover generalizations or patterns at their own level of thinking, rather than limited questions which allow for one answer only. For example:
| CLOSED QUESTION | GOOD QUESTION | 6x20=? | A school has 120 students. They all come to school by bus and each bus carries the same number of students. How many students might there be on each bus? |
- Encourage students to use math talk by asking questions to help students develop appropriate vocabulary for talking and writing in mathematics. Conference/question students as they work on set tasks to help them make sense of the task, build self-confidence, and encourage mathematical thinking and communication. Possible questions might include:
Where can you begin?
Have you solved similar problems that would help?
Can you make a prediction?
How can you organize the information?
Can you make a drawing to explain your thinking?
What would happen if ...?
Can you describe a strategy you can use to solve this?
What do you need to do next?
Do you see any patterns in your work?
How do you know your solution is reasonable?
How did you arrive at your answer?
How can you convince me that your answer makes sense?
Did you try anything that did not work?
How could your explanation be made clearer?
- Use students' math recordings as springboards for discussions during the Share component of the math workshop to reinforce the idea that their math recordings are valued and to provide students with ideas of different ways to approach problems.
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