Profiles in Mathematics
Taking a Closer Look at Students' Written Responses
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.
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