{"id":237793,"date":"2025-11-14T07:30:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=237793"},"modified":"2025-11-14T08:12:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T13:12:36","slug":"neag-school-faculty-member-and-alumni-earn-national-publication-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/11\/neag-school-faculty-member-and-alumni-earn-national-publication-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Neag School Faculty Member and Alumni Earn National Publication Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neag School of Education associate professor Tutita M. Casa and former students Alexa E. Freitas \u201922 (ED), \u201923 MA; Riki Fujioka \u201922 (ED), \u201923 MA; and Haley M. Zmijewski \u201922 (ED), \u201923 MA, recently received the Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) for their article “Developing the Write Reasoning in Kindergarten Mathematics.”<\/a>\u00a0The honor was presented during NCTM\u2019s 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition, held Oct. 15\u201318 in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

NCTM is the world\u2019s largest mathematics education organization, advocating for high-quality teaching and learning for all students. The four-day conference invited math educators to connect, collaborate, and exchange ideas for advancing instruction.<\/p>\n

Casa, who accepted the award on behalf of herself and her former students, says, \u201cIt\u2019s really validating for them to get recognized for the hard work they’ve completed for almost a year. This is an international publication, and so many people can benefit from what was accomplished in their classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s really validating for them to get recognized for the hard work they\u2019ve been doing for about a year. This is an international publication, and so many people can benefit from what was accomplished in their classrooms. — Tutita Casa<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As part of Casa\u2019s yearlong master’s seminar in the Neag School\u2019s Integrated Bachelor\u2019s\/Master\u2019s teacher education program, students read a selection of research literature, including pieces she co-published with former students in her area of expertise. Drawing inspiration from those readings, Freitas, Fujioka, and Zmijewski designed their inquiry project around one of Casa\u2019s ongoing research models, the Comprehensive Mathematical Discourse Framework. This framework explores how to engage elementary students in meaningful mathematical conversations \u2013 extending beyond verbal exchanges to get them to engage as mathematical writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a team, we wanted to learn more about mathematical writing in primary classrooms,\u201d says Freitas, who is a fifth-grade teacher at Charter Oak International Academy in West Hartford, Connecticut. \u201cSince students in these grades are still developing foundational literacy skills, we wondered how we could support those skills through mathematical writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
The master\u2019s students adapted the Mathematical Writing Cycle (MWC), developed by Tutita Casa; Fabiana Cardetti, a UConn professor of mathematics; Madelyn Williams-Colonnese \u201909 (ED), \u201910 MA, \u201917 Ph.D.; and Janine Firmender \u201907 MA, \u201911 Ph.D., to grow their kindergartners\u2019 abilities to write mathematically. (Courtesy of Tutita Casa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building on this idea, the preservice teachers adapted the implementation of the Mathematical Writing Cycle, where students typically begin with an activity, often a game, that encourages reasoning about key mathematical concepts. The teacher then facilitates a class discussion about a writing prompt connected to that experience while recording students’ contributions to guide their development as mathematical thinkers and writers. Students then respond on their own to the prompt, before reflecting on one another’s writing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI hope that this article will really drive home the point that students of all ages are capable of amazing and hard things,\u201d says Zmijewski, a fifth-grade math and science teacher at Mansfield Middle School. \u201cWhen we started exploring a topic and age group to work with, I thought that asking kindergarten students to engage in the mathematical writing process might be too challenging. However, from day one, the young students we worked with surprised me in the best way possible. This project inspired me to hold all students to the highest standard because they will rise to achieve it. I hope it inspires other educators in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt my core, I 100% believe that students as young as those in the primary grades are capable of reasoning and communicating their mathematical ideas,\u201d Casa says. \u201cI was pleased to see that my students could recognize that they could have their kindergarteners write.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group began by researching strategies for integrating writing into mathematics instruction, then applied what they learned through action research in the classroom. In two different school settings, students participated in a writing task centered on \u201cgeometrical cookies,\u201d combining mathematical reasoning with creative expression.<\/p>\n

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I hope that this article will really drive home the point that students of all ages are capable of amazing and hard things. — Haley M. Zmijewski \u201922 (ED), \u201923 MA<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen writing the article, we divided the work into sections and began by summarizing our research,\u201d Freitas says. \u201cThe writing process was very collaborative \u2014 we worked together in real time, sharing ideas and discussing phrasing as we went. Dr. Casa provided ongoing feedback, which we incorporated along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

They observed significant growth in their kindergarteners\u2019 mathematical writing when they explicitly modeled specific writing skills. They focused on strategies, such as using phonetic spelling and incorporating sight words to help students express their mathematical reasoning more clearly. Through class discussions, these young students also had the chance to review one another\u2019s reasoning, support their peers\u2019 writing, and engage as both writers and readers.<\/p>\n

\"Image
The kindergartners analyzed triangles to determine their attributes, shared their observations using precise mathematical language, and cut out examples to contribute to the creation of this poster that was added to the class word wall. (Courtesy of Tutita Casa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cCommunicating mathematically is foundational to being a mathematician, and we certainly don\u2019t want to keep young students out of that \u2018club,\u2019 so to speak,\u201d Casa says. \u201cI was pleased to hear that other math educators share the same belief in the young students as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they continued their work, the Neag School preservice teachers reflected on how the Mathematical Writing Cycle could be adapted for different classroom needs. They recognized that some classes might benefit from spending more time in certain phases of the cycle, such as engaging in shared experiences to build a stronger foundation before writing. They also noted the importance of giving students multiple opportunities to provide and receive feedback, allowing them to develop both their mathematical thinking and writing skills in tandem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to give all credit to Dr. Casa for getting us involved in this project,\u201d Zmijewski says. \u201cThrough her seminar, we were encouraged to summarize our internship year project into an article that could be submitted for publication. I have always had a love for math and a passion for helping students grow on their journey with math, so working with these young students to get them excited about math and being able to share all that I learned through this article felt like the perfect way to wrap up my clinical experience through UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

All three students expressed excitement over the article being published, let alone receiving an award. They say that writing this article was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, with the research process influencing their everyday teaching habits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest takeaway for me is the value of action research in teaching,\u201d Freitas says. \u201cAs educators, we constantly learn about new instructional strategies, implement them, analyze what\u2019s working, and adjust. It\u2019s an ongoing cycle of improving student learning. This experience also prepared me well for the teacher evaluation process, which really mirrors that same cycle of reflection and growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tutita M. Casa\u00a0and three former students received the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics\u2019 2025 Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":237804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,2426,1855,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-237793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-curriculum-instruction","category-neag","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 14:28:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237793"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238015,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237793\/revisions\/238015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/237804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237793"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=237793"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=237793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}