Math Routines
Primary objectives of the activity:
- build meta-cognition skills
- develop a growth mindset
Secondary objectives of the activity:
- build confidence as a student
Sample work
Here are 3 student responses to this prompt:
You might be wondering why we keep talking about our mindset...We want to understand how we feel about math so we can build a mindset that will help us learn new skills more successfully.
For example, have you ever said, “I hate math” or “I’m just not a math person?
Saying things like this can actually make it harder for us to learn math. So we want to hear from you… what has been your experience in math class?
Directions >> For example, think about a time when you made a mistake? How did you feel? And how did you respond to that mistake?
- “I feel like i’m making a mistake now because i do not know how to do math at all and its stressful. I feel bad and sad because its harder for me and probably my teachers because i probably won’t know what i’m doing.”
- “I loved math while in school. It was hard for me to learn but I enjoyed it. If I made a mistake I would ask my teacher or another student to help me.”
- “When i make a mistake in math I try different ways to redo it and now I use google and different apps.”
As you can see, we get a range of responses on what our students experienced in math class. We believe it’s important to provide space for students to share these experiences, both the positive and negative, and reflect on them as they work to embrace a new way of thinking about math teaching and learning. Just the act of writing and thinking about these experiences can help students process the negative and learn to embrace the challenge; it also gives teachers a data point to understand which students may be managing anxiety alongside trying to learn new math concepts.
Student Testimonials
- “I learned better ways to manage my time and get things done.”
- “Failure is apart of learning.”
- “The most important thing i learned was to embrace my flaws and overcome them.”
Tips and Tricks
- Be consistent. Ensure the journaling is integrated into the lesson and encourage students to write as a daily or weekly routine.
- Share trends. As you read through student reflections, identify the common themes and share these with the group for discussion (anonymously). This can help students realize that we share many of the same anxieties and can work through them as a community. As an extension, encourage students to share their journals out loud (not required, just for those that want to) and have the group discuss what common trends they identify on their own.
How to implement
- Face to Face
- Include the 5-10 minute journaling as a warm up or warm down. Encourage students to organize their journals in something they will save so you can return to them later in the semester to have students reflect about how their thoughts have evolved through the class.
- Blended
- Apps like Poll Everywhere can be great for short group reflections (with journals that are meant to be shared with others). Asking questions like, “When you hear ‘Algebra’, what do you think? Share 1 word in response.” Then project the responses on screen in real-time and have students discuss any themes/patterns they see in the collective responses.
- Distance
- Google Docs is a great way for students to organize all math journals in a single place; students can then choose who to share with (and teachers can use the Comments feature to share probing/advancing questions to help extend the reflections).