• Content prompts will reflect the students understanding of a concept or skill. By writing in a journal, students must think about what they did in such a way that they can communicate their ideas to others. This in turn helps reinforce the new concept that is being learned. The teacher can ask questions to prompt the student's writing and can often gain information about the student's thinking and about what was learned. The teacher can decide if students are grasping the concepts being presented or if more review might be needed.
• Attitudinal prompts will show students' beliefs. By using these kinds of prompts the teacher can detect changes in beliefs or feelings about mathematics. If these prompts are used more than once the teacher might be able to see a change in students' attitudes about math.
• Process prompts give students the opportunity to show how they did a mathematical process or algorithm. By using process prompts the teacher can gain insight into how students interpreted data or used alternate procedures.

Teachers taking part in this EdTech grant have had the resource, The "Write" Way Mathematics Journal Prompts. This series is a publication of the University of Hawai'. The books list actual prompts that can be used in the classroom and are grouped according to math concepts. Visit their website for more information on these books.

The math journal can serve to extend the lesson by having students utilize the newly acquired concept to solve an additional problem. The journal can also be used as an assessment tool by having students explain how they arrived at a solution to a given problem.

Each lesson on the EdTech Lesson Page contains a journal prompt. These journal entries will help extend the lesson and also help students solidify newly acquired math concepts.