To help students communicate their mathematical thinking, many teachers have created classrooms where math talk has become a successful and joyful instructional practice. Building on that success, this thoughtful book uses writing to help students construct, explore, represent, refine, connect, and reflect on mathematical ideas.

Focusing on five types of writing (exploratory, explanatory, argumentative, creative, and reflective), Why Write in Math Class? offers a variety of ways to integrate writing into math class.  It gives practical advice on supporting writing in math, as well as many specific examples of writing prompts and tasks that require high-cognitive demand. Extensive stories and samples of student work from real classrooms give a vision of how writing in math class can successfully unfold, and transform your daily instruction.