Thinking Mathematically: Pages 1-25

Fictional “Case Study” relating to Mason’s Strategies

Seth is a young man in my Principles of Math 10 class. He is a nice boy, but he is sure having a great deal of problems understanding the topics that are discussed in class. Seth attentively listens and writes down notes during class. Furthermore, he works hard during the class on his homework; however, he cannot solve any of the problems. I help him as much as I can during class and he is constantly coming in at lunch and breaks for help. He understands the problems when I go through them with him, but he cannot do them by himself. Recently, I have read a book by John Mason with Leone Burton and Kaye Stacey called Thinking Mathematically. I got a lot of ideas from the first chapter of this book and I think by using some of Mason’s ideas I can help Seth improve in his math. I like Mason’s idea of RUBRIC writing. I think that this will really help Seth in math because by writing “STUCK,” “AHA,” “CHECK,” and “REFLECT” in the margins of his notebook he will be able to see what exactly is causing him problems, what he understands, and what he should revisit. I think by being able to categorize where he is having problems and what he understands, both Seth and I will know what areas in math he needs to spend more time on and what areas of math he comprehends. In addition to RUBRIC writing, I think Mason’s strategy of specialization and generalization will also help Seth improve his math skills. With the specialization strategy Seth will be able to randomly choose examples to get a feel for the problem that he is working on. I think by “playing” around with these different examples Seth will develop an understanding for the problem that he is working on. Additionally, I think that the generalization strategy, which involves detecting patterns, will also help Seth improve his math skills. Once students see patterns many of them start understanding what is going on – hopefully, Seth finds that patterns help him. Moreover I will have Seth constantly write himself notes because by doing this I think that he will not forget any of the ideas that he is thinking about and this will help him solve his problems. I think this will help Seth because many times Seth can verbally say what some of the latter steps in the solution are but when trying to think of the steps that come before these ones, he forgets the latter steps. Overall, I cannot wait to have Seth try some of Mason’s strategies because I think that they will really help him in his math. Seth is a bright young man and I think these strategies will help him express his mathematics better; therefore, improving his success in math.