Writing mathematics.

Two years ago I found myself teaching a seventh-grade mathematics class. Many of the students were two or more years behind the rest of the seventh grade in this subject, and most lacked either self-discipline or motivation to learn in any class, especially a mathematics class. I was challenged to find any way to interest these students in participating. I attempted to create unusual instructional activities to involve this group of students. The following describes a successful unit used with this class.

During the unit on addition, I asked the students to write an original addition problem. Each student made up a problem involving only addition of whole numbers or amounts of money then made up a story problem that matched the numerical problem. Students traded papers, and …