What Fifth Graders Learn When They Write Their Own Math Problems.

Abstract

American students consistently compare poorly with their international counterparts on assessments of math knowledge and problem-solving abilities (Stevenson etal. 1986). While common sense does not always lead to common practice, I believe that many of the problems associated with mathe matics education could be solved with some everyday commonsense solutions. In September 1989. Donna Strohauer, a Sth grade teacher, and I developed an alternative approach to mathematics problem-solving instruc tion. We had students write and solve their own original math story prob lems and then share these problems with peers in small cooperative groups. The math problem-writing activity is qssentially an adaptation of recent child-centered and holistic approaches to writing instruction (Graves 1983. Calkins 1986). Graves (1983), for example, encouraged students to select and develop topics for writing that reflected their personal experiences and interests. As students engaged in meaningful writing activities, they learned formal language arts skills. As an extension of Graves' approach to teaching writing, I examined the possibilities of having students reflect upon the mathematics in their everyday lives, write about this experience, and then raise related questions. While many teachers use studentgenerated story problems as an enrich ment experience after a page of text book problems, we conceptualized these exercises as a regular and core component of the mathematics curriculum. 1