Reading and Writing Assignments
for the Mathematics Classroom
I.
II.
Contact information:
John Reynolds
Liberty High School
P.O. Box 265
Glen Daniel, WV 25844-0265
304-934-5306
[email protected]
Grade level/course name: Mathematics classes, 7–12.
III.
Class setup: Reading and writing assignments are given to the entire class.
IV.
Teacher’s role: The teacher will give the writing assignment each Monday. It is
due at the beginning of class each Friday. Very little class time is used for the
assignments.
V.
Textbook and other resources: The pool of assignments that I use involves the
use of the Internet, newspapers, magazines, and students’ personal experience.
VI.
Content/topic/theme: Many mathematics teachers find it difficult to incorporate
reading and writing assignments into their classroom. My handouts will help.
VII.
Real-world experience: All writing assignments relate to the students’ real-world
experiences. Many mathematics teachers feel that reading and writing must relate
to mathematics. While most of my assignments do relate to mathematics, some of
them are on topics that I feel the students will relate to, current events, career
clusters, or topics that I like.
VIII.
Why do students need to know this? All of our students need to develop better
reading and writing skills in order to be successful in their future careers.
IX.
What is the connection to prior learning experience? These reading and
writing assignments build on each student’s prior reading and writing ability.
X.
Discipline-specific standards: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
recommends reading and writing assignments across the mathematics curriculum.
West Virginia state law requires reading and writing assignments across the
curriculum.
XI.
Activities: The students are given a wide variety of reading and writing activities.
These include critiques of newspaper and magazine articles, Internet activities,
creating mathematics crossword puzzles, mathematics word searches, and original
writing assignments on teacher-assigned and student-selected topics.
XII.
Strategy: The students have one writing assignment each week. It is to be
completed outside of class, so that it doesn’t interfere with our regular
mathematics assignments. The assignment is given and explained each Monday,
and it is due at the beginning of class on Friday.
XIII.
Assessment strategies: All papers are read, and they are graded according to my
easy grading rubric. If papers are not turned in at the beginning of class on Friday,
students lose ten points. If an assignment is not turned in by the end of class on
Monday, it is a zero.
XIV. Warm-up or closure strategy: All students keep their writing assignments in
folders, so that they can monitor their progress in improving their writing skills. I
have seen a huge improvement in their writing ability over the course of the term.
I have also learned a lot more about my students through their writing than I ever
did before. Students will open up a lot more in writing than they will otherwise.
Writing Assignment
Three Newspaper Articles
You are writing a one-page review of three different newspaper articles that
involve mathematics. The three articles should be on three different subjects. In
the one-page report you should tell me how mathematics was involved in the
articles, what mathematics was involved in the articles, and why it was important.
You should attach the three articles to the report. This is due on Friday at the
beginning of class.
You cannot use the following for your articles:
Sports stories
Weather reports
Stock market reports
Lottery results
Obituaries
The classified section
Advertisements
Recipes
Movie reviews
News briefs (what’s happening, on this date, etc.)
Writing Assignment—Famous Mathematicians
We are going to the computer lab today to do research on a famous mathematician. I will
assign you one of the sixty mathematicians from the attached list to research. Try to find
as much of the following information as you can in the time allotted. You should start
your research on www.britannica.com.
1.
Date of birth (exact or approximate)
2.
Place of birth
3.
Where they grew up
4.
Where they went to school
5.
Where they worked
6.
What they wrote
7.
What they discovered
8.
Why they are famous mathematically
9.
How they died
10.
Where they died
11.
Date of death (exact or approximate)
12.
Anything that you find interesting
Your writing assignment is to take the information that you get and turn it into a one-page
report, in your own words, on the mathematician assigned to you. This is due on Friday
at the beginning of class.
Name____________________________ Date________________ Section________
1–1 A Crossword Puzzle
of the Language of Geometry
Crossword puzzles can be fun and challenging. Create a crossword puzzle of geometric
terms. The following suggestions will help you to create your puzzle.
1.
Use the geometric terms below for the answers to your puzzle. Arrange them in
the boxes on your paper so that there is one letter per box. Be sure to place the
answers down and across, trying to have a roughly equal number of down and
across answers.
2.
Write lightly in pencil so that it is easier to erase any mistakes you might make.
Keep revising the structure of the puzzle until you find a form you like.
3.
Make sure that you spell all words correctly.
4.
After you are satisfied with the appearance of your puzzle, write a small number
in the first box of each answer. Number the answers consecutively, one set of
numbers for the down answers and another set for the across answers.
5.
On a separate sheet of paper, write clues for your answers. Be sure that your facts
are correct. If necessary, check the glossary of your math text or a dictionary to be
sure of the accuracy of your clues.
6.
Double-check your work, and create a final copy of your puzzle on a new piece of
paper. Draw heavy lines on the boxes of your answers to make your answers
stand out. Write the clues below the puzzle or on a separate sheet of paper.
Use the following words for the answers in your puzzle:
point
ray
perpendicular lines
protractor
intersecting lines
line
angle
straight angle
segment
parallel lines
degree
plane
ruler
vertex
right angle
midpoint
In Bill Gates’ new book (Business @ the Speed of Thought), he lays out >11 rules that
students do not learn in high school or college but should. He argues that our feel-good,
politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality
who are set up for failure in the real world. You might be interested in his list:
> RULE 1—Life is not fair; get used to it.
> RULE 2—The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to
accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
> RULE 3—You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school.
You won’t be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.
> RULE 4—If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have
tenure.
> RULE 5—Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a
different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.
> RULE 6—If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your
mistakes, learn from them.
> RULE 7—Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They
got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about
how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’
generation, try “delousing” the closet in your own room.
> RULE 8—Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not.
In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many times as
you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to
ANYTHING in real life.
> RULE 9—Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few
employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
> RULE 10—Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the
coffee shop and go to jobs.
> RULE 11—Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
How You are Graded on Writing Assignments
One page hand written—on college ruled paper or
1½ pages hand written—on regular paper
Paragraphs—two to four paragraphs
Too short—too few words or not enough content
Punctuation—poor use of punctuation
Hard to read—writer bigger, slower, or neater, or print
Run-on sentence—two or more sentences run together
Not a sentence—need a subject and a verb
Spelling—circle or corrected
Don’t split words—go past margin or use next line
Like—don’t overuse
and, but, so, also, because, well—don’t start a sentence
________________________________________________________________________
Writing, not writting
Because, not cause
A lot, not a lot
Could have, not could of
Would have, not would of
________________________________________________________________________
there—their—they’re
was—were
to—too—two
here—hear
done—did
them—those
is—are
nothing—anything
Math Vocabulary Puzzle
Mad-Ma-Tics No. 13
Bill of No Rights
I really got cheated