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Re: teaching math vocab
Posted by Message To DSF/NJ on 7/04/08
You consistently have some of the best ideas on this board. Thank
you for sharing. You have helped make my classroom a better place
and I sincerely thank you once again.
On 7/03/08, DSF/NJ wrote:
> First of all, these names are not really deliberately long and
> obtuse. These words all have meaning and they make sense -
> however, we no longer speak the english language the way they
> did hundreds of years ago; we no longer study latin and other
> languages to understand the roots of some of these words.
>
> Whenever I can, I try to break these words down into parts and
> define them for the kids. If they understand what it means, it
> makes it easier to remember.
>
> Also, a colleague of mine used this word wall technique and I
> liked it, so I adopted it. (Thanks, Delia.):
>
> She (and I) bought mini-sentence strips from Lakeshore (easier
> than cutting card stock and larger than index cards) and when a
> new term was introduced, in addition to writing it on the board
> and having the kids copy it into their notes with a definition,
> she would hand off a sentence strip and a fat marker to a
> student and tell him to write the word legibly on the card and
> staple (that's how we were told to put things up)it to the wall.
> The kids liked angling the cards.
>
> In later years, I used a 'wall pocket' system of the type that
> elementary teachers use for vocabulary words. I tacked it to
> the wall and simply swapped out the words when they became too
> old to leave up and I needed room for new topic words.
>
> One of my teachers uses 6x8 index cards and has them stapled to
> a bulletin board starting from the bottom up. She does it
> systematically, row by row, until the entire board is full by
> the end of the year.
>
>
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> On 7/03/08, Sara wrote:
>> On 7/02/08, Math Mommy wrote:
>>> How do you teach math vocabulary? My district is insistent
>>> on teaching vocabulary each six weeks. I want to do
>>> something more creative then just looking up the
>>> definition in the book. Are there any good creative ways
>>> to teach vocabulary that will really help my students
>>> understand the meaning of the words? (this would be for
>>> 8th grade math and Algebra)
>>
>> Yes. Have them invent new words and phrases for those words
>> and phrases. Math words and phrases are too long, too heavy
>> and too obtuse.
>> What else could we call 'decimilization of fractions'? My
>> kids shut down at the very name.
>>
>> And why do we call algebra algebra? Where did the word come
>> from and why? And what better could we call it? What's
>> another phrase for 'quadratic equations'? What if you HAD to
>> rename all those things?
>>
>> I find it gets kids thinking, really thinking and they love
>> the task - they feel like they're getting back somehow at
>> whoever gave these things such long and obtuse names.
>>
>>
Posts on this thread, including this one
- teaching math vocab, 7/02/08, by Math Mommy.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/02/08, by Terrence.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/03/08, by dm.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/03/08, by Joy.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/03/08, by Florida.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/03/08, by Sara.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/03/08, by DSF/NJ.
- Re: teaching math vocab, 7/04/08, by Message To DSF/NJ.
- Re: Message to DSF/NJ, 7/04/08, by DSF/NJ.
- Re: Message to DSF/NJ, 7/07/08, by Math Mommy.
- Re: Word Wall, 7/08/08, by middle school math teacher.
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