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Math 7-9 > Strategies > Expressive Writing

Expressive Writing

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Overview

Writing freely about one's emotions about a specific activity, such as taking a test, can help students cope with negative Emotion, such as math anxiety. Expressive writing helps learners identify and understand the emotions they are experiencing, creating a distance between them and their feelings and making them more open to change the meaning of a stressful situation. This, in turn, frees up their Working Memory and thus can enhance their performance.

Use It in the Classroom

  • Teachers can have journals for students to write in regularly to reflect on their thoughts and feelings on what and how they are learning, enhancing students' Metacognition. Teachers can read the journals to get a better sense of where students are, occasionally commenting encouragingly with growth mindset feedback.

    • Design It into Your Product

    Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

    Learn how Explain Everything allows students to share their thinking and reflect on what they have learned in a visual, interactive manner. By providing open-ended drawing tools and recording capabilities, learners can create video reflections that not only showcase their learning but also facilitate the reflection process.

  • Products can include expressive writing prompts at regular intervals or during specific events, such as when the learner is unable to understand something or before assessments, to help students with their emotional Self-Regulation.
    • View References

    Resources

    Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
    Examples

    Addressing Math Anxiety

    Research-based ideas, including expressive writing, to support students

    Examples

    Managing Academic Anxiety

    Guide for implementing expressive writing

    Research

    How to Ease Test Anxiety

    Video explaining the positive effects of expressive writing

    Research

    Metacognition & Self-Regulated Learning

    Subtopic that includes research on metacognitive processes that help learners plan what and how to learn on Digital Promise's Research Map

    Research

    Self-Efficacy

    Subtopic that includes research on the factors that lead people to develop self-efficacy on Digital Promise's Research Map

    Research

    The Power of the Pen

    Summary of the research on how expressive writing boosts academic performance

    Factors Supported by this Strategy

    Student Background
    Adverse Experiences
    Physical Well-being
    Safety
    Sleep
    Socioeconomic Status
    Social and Emotional Learning
    Emotion
    Self-regulation
    Stereotype Threat
    Cognition
    Inhibition
    Metacognition
    Mathematics

    More Metacognitive Supports Strategies

    Goal Setting & Monitoring

    Setting overall goals, as well as smaller goals as steps to reaching them, encourages consistent, achievable progress and helps students feel confident in their skills and abilities.

    Reflect on Learning

    Providing space and time for students to reflect is critical for moving what they have learned into Long-term Memory.

    Self-instructions

    When students engage in a dialogue with themselves, they are able to orient, organize, and focus their thinking.

    Self-monitoring

    When students monitor their comprehension, behavior, or use of strategies, they build their Metacognition.

    Positive Self-talk

    When students reframe negative thoughts and tell themselves kind self-statements, they practice positive self-talk.

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