I have mentioned many times in blogs that maths anxiety can be reduced by journaling, but I have never really got into the nitty gritty of what a maths journal is. For me the whole process starts by choosing a book. I love my slate grey journal, with dotty paper. The pages are off white, the dots mean I can follow lines or create my own designs and the front cover has a little elephant…what more do I need?
What Next?
Once the important stationary decision has been made, you are pretty much ready to start. Journaling is about expressing yourself, so your child’s maths journal can be as creative or as plain as they choose. I like to doodle in mine, so some pages have full themes…dinosaurs were the best.
To journal your maths you can focus on the lesson you have had, your feelings or how to approach a particular type of question. You can even do all of these things. I always get my students to start off by drawing what they think maths looks like. We colour it, give it a personality, make maths a character, then we are able to name it. By naming it, we take the word maths out of the problem, students tell me that the named character is causing them trouble today rather than maths. This starts to break down the negative connotations.
Creating a feelings page can also help pinpoint where the maths anxiety is coming from. The words and phrases your child uses on this page can help you build positive maths phrases. It can identify what the true cause of the anxiety is, it is often getting it wrong, rather than the actual maths or numbers themselves.
Now the real fun can start, take maths back to basics. Ask your child to set a goal, this should be very precise, then break it down into 5 things to do to get themselves there. Now you have a plan. This can become a page in the journal, it can be creative and expressive. This is showing your child that maths can be broken down into bite size chunks, it also shows maths can be colourful and creative.
I have my goals…now what?
Now we are ready to go. Start with Step 1 of goal 1! Encourage your child to track how they feel before learning, record it with a sentence, emoji or colour. Then slowly approach the maths, plenty of resources to show your point, explain what is happening. Then ask your child to write their experience of the lesson and how they feel. Eventually this builds into explaining vocabulary they need to use, writing down how they completed a question, describing how to approach a word problem and much much more.
By expressing their maths, your child has a reference book, they can go to their journal as an extra resource, their very own how to guide. Full of hints, tips, strategies and discoveries they have made, recorded in their own way. This becomes a powerful tool in realising they are holding maths in their hand, they are in control.
What can I ask them to write?
Here are some maths journaling starters.
Today maths makes me feel…because…
Today I learned about…
One problem I solved was…
I did it by…
The golden rules of … are…
If an alien landed I would teach them how to… by…
These simple steps will help me to…
This is by no means an extensive list, but is enough to get you and your child started. If you find this is too much as your child attends school, apply these approaches to Maths Homework. Goals can be based on homework completion and feelings, this can be trickier to explore, but, I am happy to give personal pointers via email: ceri@engageeducation.org