Using Analytic Rubrics to Assess Mathematical Writing Organization & Cohesion in Third Grade Students

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Kylie Greenelsh

Abstract or Description

Mathematics writing (MW) is one way that educators can assess student’s understanding and reasoning about a certain topic in math. Rubrics are another way in which educators can analyze students MW. Specifically, analytical rubrics are a useful evaluation tool in MW to aid in analyzing a student's work across multiple unique criteria. There is limited research on MW, especially looking at student’s mathematics writing quality. Studies conducted have shown that students enjoy MW as a way to increase understanding, but teachers rarely use MW in their classrooms for a variety of reasons. The goal of this project is to create a rubric that would analyze 3rd grade students MW from a summer math intervention. The rubric was created specifically to assess sentence structure & grammar, punctuation, use of mathematics vocabulary, and overall evidence & correctness. These criteria were assessed on a scale of 1 (not evident) to 3 (proficient). After scoring each student’s work across four different MW prompts, a peer scored the samples. The differences in scores allowed for re-clarification of criteria in the rubric. Following, there was a final scoring based on these changes. Results showed that students best performed in sentence structure, and struggled the most in their use of math vocabulary. This project may encourage future educators and researchers to utilize rubrics as a method to assess mathematics writing and to gain understanding in students' application of math content knowledge.

Mentor

Madelyn Williams-Colonnese