More on Writing in Math.

I found this book called "Write on! Math" by Rovert Gerver.  It is subtitled "Taking Better Notes in Math Class"  I am always on the lookout for ways to increase literacy in my math classroom so when I stumbled across this on Amazon, I ordered it.  I managed to get it for way less than the listed price.

The book comes in at around 90 pages with four chapters focused on the topic of taking better notes in math class.  The first chapter discusses communication in general, using pictures etc.  The second chapter focuses on the notes students take in class.

It is the third chapter that really catches my interest as it is titled "Writing Techniques.  It has three dozen strategies to use in the class for writing mathematics.  Imagine, three dozen writing strategies!  The final chapter is on writing research papers in Math.  That is such an awesome idea and it would scaffold skills learned in the English class.

One tip I like is simply that all figures must have a figure number and a descriptive, one sentence caption, just like you find in a regular text book.  The example he gives is the Eiffel Tower and he even gives three examples for effective captions because he says identifying it as the Eiffel Tower is not enough.

I will post information over the next school year as I work my way through the tips to let you know how the tips work in my classroom.