FAQ: Playful Math Journaling

Ever since the school year started, I’ve been getting questions about how to use my new Math Journaling Adventures logbooks.

[SIDE NOTE: These logbooks are included in this month’s Thanksgiving Sale! You’ll get an automatic 10% discount off all print books, applied at checkout, no special code required.]

“I love the way your math books get my children thinking.

“Finally, they are having fun with math!

“But sometimes I have no idea what the journaling prompt is all about or how to teach it. Where can I buy a solutions manual?”

Um, that’s not how math journals work.

The cool thing about journaling prompts is that they have no “right” answer. They are explorations into different parts of the world of math, nature walks in the land of numbers, shapes, and patterns. Springboards into whatever our children want to investigate, whatever sparks their interest.

A few of the problem-solving prompts may have specific answers, but it really doesn’t matter if our kids find the exact solution a math professional might give. If they write what makes sense to them, they’ve accomplished the goal.

If later, they think of something they hadn’t noticed, or they want to change their answer — well, that is mathematical thinking, too.

For Example…

Consider the famous problem of Fermat’s Last Theorem. Mathematicians wrestled with it for more than 350 years without finding a satisfying answer, though they discovered partial answers along the way. Even more important, in the process of trying to solve it, they discovered whole new areas of math that they hadn’t considered before.

Then, when Andrew Wiles did finally come up with a solution and demonstrated it at a conference, other mathematicians found a mistake in his work. He had to go back to the drawing board and work for another year before he found a proof that could stand the test of peer review.

Our children aren’t discovering totally new mathematics, but it is new to them. And just like Andrew Wiles, they may need to revisit from time to time ideas they thought they had mastered.

But the main thing is to be making sense of your work along the way. If our students are doing that, then they will automatically learn and grow as mathematicians.

So Where Do We Find the Answers?

There is no solutions manual for my Math Journaling Adventures logbooks because these are thinking prompts. They are designed to launch an investigation of math, to get the students considering, noticing, wondering, and writing down what they discover.

(Including, if applicable, the frustration of not knowing what to do. Because sometimes, even the most experienced mathematicians can’t figure out what to do with a problem, and we just have to let it stew for a while.)

Here are some resources to help you teach math journaling:

• Ever Wonder What They’d Notice? by Annie Fetter
• Math Journals Boost Real Learning by Marilyn Burns and Robyn Silbey
• How to Use Math Journals in Class by Deb Russell
• Using Writing In Mathematics, with a focus on metacognition
• How To Respond to Your Child’s Math Writing, from my blog
• Podcast: Using Math Journals and Games

Math Journaling Prompts

Journaling is a great way to deepen your child’s experience of math.

You don’t need to buy my Math Journaling Adventures logbooks to enjoy the benefits of writing math. (But if you want them, they should be available now in paperback and hardcover at all the regular online bookstores. Or check out the deluxe spiral-bound edition with extra-heavy paper at my Playful Math Store.)

Here are some resources you can try:

• Daily Treasure Logic Puzzle, explain your reasoning
• “Would You Rather?” Math
• Estimation 180
• Visual Patterns
• Thinking Thursday, weekly prompts on my blog

For middle school and older students:

• Don Steward’s Median
• Think Puzzles by James Tanton

Have fun writing math with your kids!

Perhaps I can best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of a journey through a dark, unexplored mansion. You enter the first room of the mansion, and it’s completely dark.

You stumble around bumping into the furniture, but gradually you learn where each piece of furniture is.

Finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch. You turn it on, and suddenly it’s all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were.

Then you move into the next room and spend another six months in the dark.

—Andrew Wiles