Time.
The stand alone vocabulary lesson is a waste of precious time that your students need to explore new ideas. Why have students reading and writing -or listening and writing- or cutting and glueing and writing about new ideas not yet explored?? There will be more time to discover the distributive property if we didn’t waste time writing about it completely out of context.
Lack of Engagement. Lack of Effect.
Introducing a new chapter with vocabulary terms, is perhaps the most boring lesson we could dream up. If it’s not effective, why would we put our students through that? Because it exists in a text book?? There are more effective punishments.
Don’t Interfere with Exploration!
Save that time for actual math, and introduce math terms AS THEY ARE USED! There is not a kid (or adult) on the planet who thinks, “WOW! This associative property thing sounds AWESOME! I can’t wait to use it!” The beginning of a new unit in math should always begin with exploration! There is a three-act task just waiting for your new topic! Search it out with this search engine!
1 Week is 1 Month in Kid Time
Too much time will pass between the forced introduction of the word, and the actual introduction of the concept. By the time you get to really learning about those vocabulary words you introduced 15 days ago… we may as well have read the dictionary to them in the womb and expected results.
The only way students are ever going to truly understand and apply new vocabulary terms, is if WE use the vocabulary unfailingly; and if it is demanded of them. We must hold them accountable for using the most specific terms ALL THE TIME! Sound hard? I think it’s even harder than it sounds. Tomorrow, count how many times you say the word “answer”…. when sum, difference, product or quotient would have been more specific. Now count how many times you say the word “difference” when referring to subtraction. This word should be overheard millions of times in elementary school, yet it is not. It is a first grade vocabulary word that most fifth graders don’t truly understand. Now think of how many times you use the terms digit and value. If we don’t use them, how will students ever be comfortable with them?
We lose new words faster than we learn them… if we go too long without using them. For children, a few weeks is a VERY long time.
Have you ever said “the bottom number” when talking about a fraction? Not only can we not let students say it… we DEFINITELY cannot say it. Ever. Not only does this faux pas make it harder to learn the correct terms, it also makes it seem as if a fraction is two different “numbers”.
“Are you saying I don’t have to do a vocabulary lesson … at all?” I am saying that I don’t. I am saying you don’t have to. But I am also saying that using specific math vocabulary appropriately is essential for your students’ success. I am saying that the number of times per day… per week.. and per year WE as teachers use appropriate vocabulary will make a far greater impact than gluing the unfamiliar words into a notebook. I am saying that holding students accountable is what works!
Give your students daily opportunities to apply their understanding … in more authentic ways than matching words to their meanings. Math vocabulary is so decontextualized … we must make it part of daily context in math class… because they’re not going to hear it at home, on the bus or in a novel they are reading. If we only use the term “factors” during the multiplication/division unit… learners will not keep that word permanently. Period.
In addition to always using the most specific mathematics vocabulary possible, we must provide daily activities where students see and use important math terms in more authentic ways. One of my favorite ways to do this, is with daily mystery number games. This is an engaging way to infuse a daily dose of math vocabulary!
The mystery number has two digits. The difference of the digits is zero. The sum of the digits is 16.
The mystery number has three consecutive digits. The greatest odd digit in the world lives in the ones place.
The mystery number has three digits. Their product is 45. The ones and the hundreds share the same digit!
The mystery number has a numerator that is 2 less than the denominator. It is located exactly halfway between one half and one whole on a number line.
The mystery number has three digits. The total value is >1 but <2. The digit in the hundredths place = the number of tires on a tricycle. The digit in the tenths place is three times that.
The mystery number has three digits. They are 1, 5 and 9. The mystery number rounds to 10.
After your students have regular experiences with sophisticated mystery numbers like these… have them create their own! This can be one of the simplest, lowest prep and most worthwhile center/extension activity you can implement! You can find more about these in these number of the day templates. There is lots of scaffolding to get them there. All teachers need to do is write a choice of two numbers on the board, and students can choose one that is most comfortable for them to complete a spiraling range of activities … that incorporates important concepts AND vocabulary.
What do you think? Would you feel comfortable making up a mystery number of the day each morning for your students? Or does that fall into the … sure I could do it, but my attendance will be late and I’ll get “that call” from the office AGAIN… ((sigh)) Would you prefer to have year’s worth of vocabulary boosting mystery numbers laid out for you? What other some other ways of getting your students to use precise mathematics vocabulary?
