About the Project

Why "Profiles in Mathematics"?

In an attempt to answer the question, "What does it mean to communicate well in mathematics?" a group of Macomb County educators came together to take a closer look at students' written responses. Our purpose was to identify attributes of well-written responses to open-ended questions in mathematics. We were looking for clear evidence of mathematically correct responses that showed a logical progression of thought that was communicated clearly to the reader. Our goal was to have model examples and guidelines for teachers and students to use to improve students' written communication in mathematics throughout Macomb County and Michigan. Our work to date is published in this booklet. Our work is modeled after a similar writing project, "Celebrating a Decade of Growth: Profiles in Writing 2002" edited by Elaine Weber, Barbara Reed Nelson and Ray Woods.

The Process

The group started by collecting examples of student work, individually ranking the papers and sharing individual results with the group. Through group dialog to determine the ranking of each student's response, attributes of quality responses became clear. A list of these attributes was compiled on chart paper as the group discussed each example. Additional examples were collected, ranked and discussed to add to the list of attributes. After studying the list of attributes it became apparent that several attributes could be grouped into a larger category. The decision was made to group attributes into four categories; strategy, organization, focus and mathematics content. The next step was to identify examples of students' work that portrayed the desirable attributes of a well-thought out and accurate response. A list of desirable attributes and examples of students' work are included in this publication. This booklet is a collection of our work to date and an invitation for you to contribute to this project.

Group Insights

• The process is a worthwhile and valuable professional development activity. 
• The way a question is written affects the quality of the student response. 
• Although many teachers have students respond to open-ended questions and score items based on a rubric, little time is spent instructionally on how to improve the quality of the response.