Illing Math Students Take On Book Editing

Imagine being a student and having a hand in editing a book future classes will use for study. That's exactly what happened for students in two eighth grade math classes at Illing Middle School.

The book, the Third Edition of "High School Math Made Simple" was published this month by TutaPoint, a New York-based publisher of supplemental education textbooks and materials which also offers on-line tutoring.

"We arranged to work with the classes by sending out some information on the project to math teachers we have corresponded with in the past," said TutaPoint co-founder Ryan Duques. "The feedback was amazing and over 20 classes signed on to the project."

Kate Dias, a math teacher at Manchester High School who also teaches two accellerated geometry classes at Illing Middle School, said the chance for her students to participate in the process couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

 "We happened to have been discussing editing in class after a couple of students found some errors in their geometry textbook," Dias said. "This was a wonderful opportunity for [my students] to have a front row seat in the editing process," she said.

Dias said she found it was a very manageable project for her classes, which she made easier by taking the draft of the Algebra I textbook, dividing it into sections, and then assigning groups of students to edit their portions of the book for both readability and for accuracy. 

"I made opportunities to provide feedback in class and then compiled their edits and sent them on to [Duques]," said Dias. "I think they gained an appreciation for textbook editing. It's not always an easy thing to do."

"I remember that there was a part that would have been confusing to the readers, so I tried to make it more understandable," said Nouran Ghonaim, one of 36 students who worked on the project. "It was a good idea to get us, the students who use the books, involved so that the books will be better suited to our level of understanding."

Eighth grader Sara Karr said Dias gave the class worksheets to check their understanding of the problems and to see if they made sense to them. 

"I was proud to help in the making of a book that will later help students out in the long run," Karr said.

"The process wasn't bad at all. All math publishers should do this!" said Kobe Nielsen, another participant.

Melissa Hill said she benefited from the editing process by knowing that she helped people.

"I not only helped the students using it, but the people who wrote it and are making it. We actually got a say in what went in [the book]," said Hill.

Another student, Cameron Dias, said there was a benefit in getting to critique the work of others, something students don't often get the opportunity to do. "How often are you going to get the chance to edit a book and have your name published? Not very often for most people," she said.

 The finished product includes an acknowledgement inside of the students who participated in the editing process.

"[My students] were really proud, which they should be," said Kate Dias. "They went from being an end user to a contributor."

Duques said that while the process of inviting students to help in the editing process did add a couple of months to the project's timeline, it was well worth the effort and something TutaPoint plans to do again in the future.

"The book and readers all benefited by having student editors. As end users of the book, they provided insight our authors and editors couldn't have thought of," said Duques. "It was like a focus group on steroids."

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