Thinking about Vocabulary

March 8 or 9, 2010

Don’t forgetlanguage barriers other than vocabulary

Sentence complexity, active vs. passive• “What you have is half of what you need…”

• ½ cup sugar, 1 and ½ cups of flour, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon baking soda were placed in a bowl. If the bowl holds a quart of dry ingredients, how much room is left?

Restating in the Think Aloud has real potential here!

From homework – Benefits of focus on vocabulary through Think Aloud or similar process

Two of the students I had noticed “shutting down” after Step 1 were suddenly more engaged

More engagement during this math lesson as a result of providing more vocabulary support

This was much more helpful than giving a word, definition, and sheet to label what was happening. I saw a higher level of engagement among the students also.

We ended up spending approximately 25 minutes on the vocabulary and context step. This finally seemed to engage the small group.

From homework – Benefits of focus on vocabulary through Think Aloud or similar process

Their motivation to want to solve the problem really kept their interest enough to want to understand all of the vocabulary used and they asked many questions within their group to help each other process

As students became more confident in their vocabulary, they began to take risks and try to figure out the solution

Selecting vocabulary

As in Think Aloud, students can tell you a lot as they identify important vocabulary.

Also important for you to consider and identify vocabulary challenges…

From literacy: Considering the challenges

Challenge Example

Knows word but has difficulty decoding it

guarantee

Has concept but not label

anguish

Does not have concept or label

photosynthesis

From literacy: Thinking about vocabulary

Is the word really critical to understanding the text?• (Math: Critical to figuring out the problem?)

Is the word likely to be needed again?• (Math: Needed in other problems?)

Can the students figure the word out on their own?• (Math: Can they develop the concept and then add

the label without initially having the label?)

Framework from the article Supporting Math Vocabulary Acquisition

Context- related

Mathematics-related

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From homework – Thinking about time and timing for focusing on vocabulary

One of the dilemmas presented in the article is that spending time on clarifying vocabulary takes time away from the problem solving itself and in general takes up more time in the class period.

To do this approach will be time consuming and much more difficult than lecture and worksheet approach

From homework – Thinking about time and timing for focusing on vocabulary

Time and presentation of when I did this within a lesson is essential

I focused on when to introduce/review the vocabulary

The work my students did demonstrates their knowledge of multiples. I think this is a great opportunity to introduce the word multiples.

From homework: Challenges in focusing on vocabulary

Sometimes I feel I provide too much support in the area of math vocabulary

Struggles included the fact that there were so many words and new words that it was hard to pull out the basic math.

I think this strategy can be a very useful tool, but don’t know how it would work for them with all new vocabulary.

From homework – Insights and thoughts

I was also thinking about that I wanted to be sure not to do that may interfere with their mathematical experiences.

Holding students accountable for the learning of vocabulary might be equally as important as the “math skill” that is the focus of the lesson.

Finding out that the math vocabulary was easier for them to understand than the content vocabulary forced me to think of things I needed to do when giving out problems to solve, mathematical or otherwise

Efforts were made to avoid removing language from the task as an accommodation

From homework – Insights and thoughts

Is it a cure-all? Of course not, but connecting a vocabulary term to a real –life situation at the outset of a problem using a strategy like Marzano is another way to give a student a fighting chance to find success

More on Vocabulary: Math for All

Grades 3-5 pp.111-118

Grades 6-8: pp. 124-134

Group 1 – 8th Grade Toni’s net pay last week was $128.35. Her

paycheck also said that her gross pay was $168.88. What percent of her pay was taken out for taxes?

Context- related Mathematics-related

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Group 2 – 3rd Grade The third graders at Lincoln School wanted to

have a popcorn treat. They have 5 popcorn kits for their popcorn supply. Each kit will make enough servings for 15 people. How many people can they serve?

Context- related Mathematics-related

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Group 3 – 9th Grade The Daily closing prices of a company’s stock for one week are shown

below. Find the percent change in closing price from day to day. Monday 44.0Tuesday 35.6 % Change ______Wednesday 38.9 % Change ______Thursday 30.7 % Change ______Friday 30.5 % Change ______

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Group 4 – 7th Grade Jill and 3 friends ate dinner at a restaurant.

The bill was $67. In addition, they left a $13 tip. Approximately what percent of the bill did they leave as a tip?

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Group 5 – 8th Grade Three brothers, Bob, Dan and Mark, receive an

inheritance of $45,000 from their father. The money is shared among the brothers in proportion to the number of children each one has. Bob has two children. Dan has 3 children, and Mark has 4 children. How much money does Mark get?

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Group 6 – 5th Grade Janis saved the allowance she received each week.

She saved $93.50 in 17 weeks. Lois also saved the allowance she received each week. She saved $75.00 in 12 weeks. Who earns more allowance each week? Justify your answer.

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Group 7 – 4th Grade A fourth grade class is planning a trip to the

planetarium. There are 20 students in the class. Tickets to the planetarium cost $3.75. Estimate the total amount of money the teacher will need to collect for the tickets.

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Group 8 – 6th Grade The Makit-Bumpy road crew was working on

the freeway. The road crew could pave 1/4 of a mile a day. How many days would it take the crew to pave the 25 1/2 mile road?

Context-related Mathematics-related

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