A teaching tool that can be used regularly throughout the year is a vocabulary knowledge survey. When you start teaching a topic, create a list of the new words that will be used and ask students to complete a chart showing their understanding of those words. Repeat the activity later to see the improvement in understanding - I've not tried this myself yet but I think it would generate some useful questions as well as boosting pupil confidence.
In my post on Area and Volume I suggested these maths vocabulary exercises which make for nice 'end of term' lessons. Here's an example of an activity from this pack:
Here's some more links that you might find useful:
- The Maths Magpie has created these great Maths Vocabulary Activities
- A list of key words for Key Stage 3
- Another vocabulary activity - perhaps an alternative to the knowledge survey described above
- Exercises with a Mathematics Dictionary
- Background reading 'Building Mathematical Vocabulary' by Dr Madeline Kovarik
I was recently talking to a highly intelligent and articulate Year 13 pupil who said that she hated it when her teacher asked her to 'speak maths'. I asked her to elaborate. She said that when questioning the class, the teacher expected answers that used appropriate maths vocabulary - and even this pupil (who'll be off to Oxbridge in September) found this daunting. We need to address this issue from a young age. One tip is to always require pupils to answer questions in full sentences instead of just numbers or words - from primary school onwards. A very simple example - in response to the question 'what do we call a polygon with 8 sides?', don't accept the answer 'octagon' - ask for a full sentence such as 'An 8-sided polygon is called an octagon' to get pupils used to 'speaking maths' from an early age (source).
Edit: 11/11/15
Since writing this post last year I've seen lots of great resources for developing vocabulary. I particularly like the Literacy Assessments featured in Gems 43. I also found the activity below worked well with my Year 7s.
***************************************************
Edit: 11/11/15
Since writing this post last year I've seen lots of great resources for developing vocabulary. I particularly like the Literacy Assessments featured in Gems 43. I also found the activity below worked well with my Year 7s.
Here's my guide to literacy in maths lessons:
Additional vocabulary ideas from subsequent posts:
ReplyDeleteGems 10: Literacy board
Gems 6: Calligrams
Gems 8: Concept wall