Intervention

The toolkit item we have created and collectively implemented is an anticipation guide geared toward supporting students in engaging with a piece of mathematical text. This item is a document consisting of statements which highlight big ideas, common misconceptions, and specific examples of a mathematical concept. Each of these statements are written in such a way that they can be classified as being sometimes, always, or never true. Students begin by taking a guess (first intuition) at which classification (sometimes, always, or never true) each statement falls under. Then, students are asked to engage with a piece of mathematical text to support or refute their claims citing definitions, examples, or counterexamples in their reasoning. Using the text, they then revisit their classification of each statement and decide on a final answer citing the definitions, examples, or counterexamples they found in their text as the reasoning for their final determination. The “Annotation Questions” document is a support to the overall tool knowing that, particularly for younger mathematicians, questions to guide them as they read a math text are potentially necessary to support them in their early stages of acquiring this skill.