This course will include writing assignments which are intended to help you understand how you are doing in the course and reacting to it. They will also help me to understand how you are doing in the course. This may be new to you so I would ask your patience and perhaps your indulgence.

To start I would like you to write your math autobiography using the following questions as a guideline. You do not have to answer them in order but please do include all the topics. Also write in narrative form, not single sentence responses. Please type using double spaces. I will collect them the first day and return them by the next class.

WHY ARE YOU TAKING THIS COURSE?

HAVE YOU TAKEN MATH AT 4C'S BEFORE, WHEN?

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU TOOK MATH? HOW DID YOU DO THEN? WHY?

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MATH? ANY IDEA WHY YOU FEEL THAT WAY?(please be candid with this question, I am never offended by an honest answer)

WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR AND HOW WILL THIS COURSE FIT INTO IT?

WHAT TYPE OF EXPERIENCES HAVE YOU HAD IN MATH BEFORE?

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF THAT I DIDN'T ASK?

The writing part of this course is very important and will be new to you in a math course. I take it very seriously and will collect the assignments and return them to you. They are not graded but help top provide a different way of communicating about the course and math.

The key to understanding math is reading and writing, not algebra or arithmetic. Thus I want us to work on writing as a means of reinforcing our reading applied to math.

When you are finished add a headline to your autobiography as though it were a newspaper article. Use your imagination.

IF YOU CAN EXPRESS YOURSELF IN WRITING THEN YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING. A famous quote by author and scholar--Ted Panitz.