Math in My World Essays
Educators at my school are fond of reminding each other that everyone is a literacy teacher, regardless of subject area. As a former English teacher, this has always resonated strongly with me, and I work hard to incorporate writing activities into my math classroom. My students periodically encounter writing-based problems. For example, my exit tickets often ask them to look at an incorrect solution to a problem and explain (in writing) where it goes wrong and how to fix it.
Examples of student responses on an exit ticket writing task based on the incorrect number line model (above, right). I expect my students to explain their answers fully and encourage them to imagine that they are trying to justify their reasoning to a younger scholar who needs help following their thinking.
Everyone is a literacy teacher (above). Here, 10 of our staff members perform a dramatic reading of a children's story at Family Literacy Night during Read Across America Week. (I am at the far right in the Cat in the Hat hat and Giving Tree shirt.)
However, I also want my students to connect both writing and math to the practice of advocacy. As such, one of my favorite assignments each year is an essay that I call "Math in My World." Students are asked to do two things in these essays. First, they must explain how math relates to their daily lives. This is a very open-ended task when considering the middle-school curriculum, which includes most of the math that people encounter on a daily basis. My students can choose to focus on anything from the coordinate grid of Washington's streets to the use of percentages in calculating taxes and tips when eating at a restaurant. Many students are quick to think of real-world math examples on their own, and I facilitate a group brainstorming session to share some of these ideas. In a stark departure from most of the brainstorming activities I lead, I am careful not to capture (or even prompt students for) details during this conversation. After all, I want my scholars working to construct their own written explanations rather than copying those of their classmates. For students who still have difficulty thinking of connections that interest them, I show the video below. I really like the fact that it has almost no words; my goal with it is to spark thinking that students will then have to translate into clear, expressive writing.
Brainstorming video for the first part of the Math in My World essay. Students who process information visually tend to find this very helpful as they choose where to focus for the first part of the assignment.
Second, students are asked to identify a problem that matters to them and explain how math can play a role in solving it. This is a significantly more abstract task, and, as such, it often presents a greater challenge. Students can choose a problem at any scale, from an interpersonal issue like sharing space with siblings to a social ill like gun violence to a systemic injustice like policy brutality. I intentionally leave this part of the prompt vague and do not run any sort of group brainstorming session about it, although I do offer simple examples of math being used to solve problems in history. For example, maps of the world used to be too imprecise to be used safely for traveling. Math was instrumental in improving mapping capabilities. Today, we take for granted the ability to find any place in the world on a map, but early explorers had no such luxury until math was applied to their navigational challenges.
Regardless of the topic that students select, they must use their writing to describe the math connections in a clear and cogent way. When reading the samples of Math in My World essays below, note the diversity of problems that students identify. Note also the personal reflection that this assignment prompts for many scholars. I find that these essays, especially when coupled with the "math autobiographies" that I ask students to write at the beginning of the school year, generate fascinating conversations with and realizations about my scholars. Frequently, they help scholars draw more meaningful connections between what they study in school and what they care about outside of it. And, by providing me with a written explanation of those connections, they help me to identify even more ways to generate passion for math in the classroom. After all, learning about tools for fixing social injustices in the world is a lot more appealing to most students than learning about formulas for solving exercises in a textbook.
Sample Math in My World Essays. I am always interested to see what problems students choose to highlight. Some pick large social issues like violence against black men (page 1), while others select more localized problems (like cell phone reception on page 2) or more individual challenges (like getting correct change on page 3).