Children\'s Mathematics

Figure 2.6a Matt’s marks Figure 2.6b Matt

• several ‘drawings’ (Matt’s term) in which he explored marks made with circular
  actions


• a ‘song’


• a reference to spelling


• two pieces that he labelled as a string of numbers and a favourite number


• one piece of persuasive, or perhaps we might use the term ‘assertive’, writing in
  the last comment


• several personal messages including his use of the heart symbol


• something he had heard adults say in the day-care centre.

Wider social perspective

• People talk about what marks on paper ‘say’: some marks say something but they
  do not all have to.


• Different marks can say different things.


• We can make marks to tell someone something: some marks are like talking, but
  on paper.

Cultural context of this family

• In this family, people read and make marks for many different purposes.


• Making marks is a valid activity – ‘my aunt does it as well as my mum, dad and
  brother’.


• ‘The grown-ups in my family like my marks – they listen when I talk about what
  I’ve done and sometimes put them on the wall or the fridge’.


• Making marks on paper is important: ‘my mum writes for work and writes letters
  to people, my dad works at home a lot on the computer and they both type emails
  to people’.

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