Week 7 (Mathematics and Poetry)

 Reading Reflection

Radakovic, Jagger & Zhao: Writing and reading multiplicity in the uni-verse

This paper starts with  the analysis of two poems ( A Love Letter by Nanao Sakaki ) and the poetic response by one of the authors of this paper ( My Universe by Nenad Radakovic). The second author Susan Jagger then brings poetry to her elementary mathematics teaching methods course and invites students to write poems about their place and connect it to explorations of place. The focus of the paper is on analysis of the various poems written by students.

STOP

The poem A Love Letter by Nanao Sakaki is a beautifully written example of how mathematical themes of scale, measurements, distance, geometry, concentric shapes and imagery have been interweaved and threaded along with the personal emotions that are vividly expressed throughout the verses. The authors of this paper have described this poem as a disciplinary interplay between mathematics and poetry. This poem is a great example that  I can foresee using in my own classrooms that will help students make real life connections between mathematical measurements and their lived experiences.

STOP

The meaning of a poem is not a fixed characteristic in the process of it reading but rather it is created by the reader using a repertoire of interpretive strategies including cuesand schemata provided by external resources to construct their own textual understandings (pg.4)

Embracing Multiplicity - One of the key takeaways from this paper was that any given poem can be interpreted by readers differently. It is very important to acknowledge that the meaning of the poem not only lies in the structure of the poem but is also influenced by the reader. There can be multiple meanings and interpretations of the same poem by different readers. 

Video

Luisa A. Igloria - Infinity is not a number  - This poem depicts that even though infinity for most part is useless and holds no value, it reflects the vastness of the universe which goes beyond the countable numbers.

Lawrence Mark Lesser - E(X) - Creative representation of the expected value, E(X), is the mean of all possible outcomes of a statistical experiment where each outcome is weighted by its probability. The poem explores expected values in the context of social media.

Dan May - Eight Minutes - Poem written as a cadae. It is structured by the mathematical constant π in two distinct ways: it possesses five stanzas of 3, 1, 4, 1 and 5 lines (in that order), and the poem’s 14 lines consist of 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 7 syllables (in that order). 

Pedro Poitevin  - The author first started writing poetry as mathematical palindromes. Eventually he moved to writing free verse.  “I write poetry because doing so helps me exercise a form of attention, one that benefits from varying degrees of freedom and constraint.” (Pedro Poitevin)

Kate Jones - Climate Extinction  - A strong piece of statement on climate change:

It would be a pity, don’t you think, For humans to vanish in a blink 

Activity

For the activity this week, I wrote PH4 poems . My first poem draws inspiration from the significance of the month of February for me - Valentine Day, Family Date, Anti-bullying - Spread kindness - My heart is so full of love.

The Second poem reflects my learning experience in throughout this MEd program