“I know it
when you do
it, but…”
Two AP Statistics
Writing Projects:
Balloon Help Tutorials
The Math Annotation Project
Robert Gerver, Ph.D.
North Shore High School
Glen Head, NY
gerverr@northshoreschools.org
What Are These Projects?
•They are writing projects designed to
get the students comfortable with the
frequent, specific, writing requirements
kids are not used to in math classes.
•They require students to explain
selected (or all) aspects of a solution
to a problem or topic development;
enhancing it with anything they feel
helps explain the material.
How Do These Projects Differ?
• The Balloon Help Tutorials are poster projects.
They will involve some arts and crafts as well as
writing. They summarize a particular problem’s
solution. They can be completed in groups or
individually.
• The Math Annotation Project is done totally on
a computer, and is a writing project designed to
summarized one day’s worth of class notes and
homework. It is best done individually.
The Math Annotation Project:
Balloon Help in an 8 ½ by 11 Format
• Rotate students throughout the year, on a
daily basis, to annotate one day of notes.
• Pick students randomly at end of period.
• Drafts can be required.
• Create a binder of every day’s notes.
• Binder is great if students are absent or
missing notes, or to review.
• An alternative form of assessment.
Benefits of the Writing Projects
•Develops habit of writing original, complete sentences.
•“If you can’t say it, you don’t know it.”
•Gets the writing practice frequent, consistent, and
spaced throughout the year.
•Writing practice translates to better free response
answers, since students get used to the required precision.
•An alternative form of assessment.
•The projects can be required assignments or used for
extra credit options, or both.
•The topics can focus on specific student trouble areas.
•By-product of trying to teach them the writing skills is
they learn the math they are working on.
•Makes for a great showcase or bulletin board, raising
the profile of the AP Stat class.
Modeling Writing and the Creation of
Well-Written Sentences
•If teachers model the writing process when creating class
notes, kids learn about sentence construction—better than by
viewing already-scripted, slick PowerPoint bullets.
•Kids need to see you alter and revise a sentence to make the
thought clearer. Invite students to offer clauses to improve the
sentence. Most kids don’t have full sentences in their notes.
•“Real time” creation of full sentences allows them to focus
and copy. Often, bulleted PowerPoint sentences are clicked on
without enough time for students to digest and copy.
•Show best examples from previous years to “raise the bar.”
•Be a “naïve proofreader.”
Technical Writing Sources
• Writing Math Research Papers
R. Gerver
Key Curriculum Press
Search online for used books
1997
• Write On! Math
R. Gerver
Global Learning or
MathSoft (old publisher)
Math Complete/ StudyWorks CD
2004
2001
Has samples of completed Math Annotation Projects, and
the notes they came from.
You can demonstrate some technical writing points
students can include in their projects.
Students Learn to Use Equation Editor
( x1  x 2 )  t c
s1
2
n1

s2
2
n2
 xi  p ( xi )
You Might Even Have to Refer to
Some Parts of Speech!
A write-up about instructional videos made for a
reform school:
“The students behaved since they
were mesmerized by the DVDs. We
could not believe they were so
good.”
How many times can you not tell
what ‘it’ refers to in kids’ work??!!
Excerpts from Sample
Annotations Written By Students
“Once you have finished constructing a 95%
confidence interval, there is not a 95%
“chance” that it captured the mean. It
either did or it didn’t; the chance you
captured the mean is 0% or 100%. The fact
that you don’t know if you caught it
doesn’t mean you have a “chance”, since
the event already happened. But you can
have a degree of confidence in your
interval.”
Excerpts from Sample
Annotations Written By Students
“If you do reject a null hypothesis, you
could not have made a Type II error. A
Type II error occurs when you do NOT
reject a null hypothesis that is, in fact,
false.”
“When you describe a distribution of
univariate data, comment on its shape,
center and spread. When you describe a
set of bivariate data, comment on its
direction, form and strength.”
Students’ Writing Tells Us When
They Don’t Fully Understand
“We don’t know if the population
is normally distributed, but n =
200, which is greater than 15,
so t is robust.”
“The interval (73.5, 83.5)
captured 95% of all possible
sample means.”
Bulletin
Board
Possibilities:
Add
statistics
quotes
found
online!
Creating Balloon Sentences
Requires Knowledge and
Expression of That Knowledge
Critiques and
revisions help
improve the
product.
The best way to
improve writing is
to write, watch
writing in action,
and critique
writing!
WRITING PROJECTS GRADING SHEET:
1 – 5 in each category
1._____The mathematics is correct.
2._____The full-sentence explanations are correct.
3._____The topic/problem is addressed comprehensively and completely.
4._____All crucial points are addressed verbally.
5._____Color is used with discretion to improve the explanation.
6._____Statistical notation and terminology are used correctly.
7._____Captions for figures are descriptive and formatted correctly.
8._____Table headings are descriptive and formatted correctly.
9._____The physical layout of the project--text, diagrams, tables—is high
quality.
10._____Appropriate and sufficient examples are given.
11._____Diagrams and/or tables are graduated where necessary.
12._____ Warnings and classic errors are addressed.
13._____The project does a clearer job of explaining the topic than the original
notes do.
14. _____A draft was handed in for critiquing in advance of the due date.
15._____The depth and quality of the project are commensurate with the
student’s ability.
Suggestions
• Try Balloon Help Tutorials for assorted
problems on one topic.
• Try Math Annotation Projects for one
topic.
• Tweak, revise, and see if you want to use
them on other topics.
• Questions? Contact Rob at
gerverr@northshoreschools.org