Thinking about Vocabulary

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Thinking about Vocabulary

• March 8 or 9, 2010

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Dont 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!

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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.

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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

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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

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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
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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?)

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Framework from the article Supporting Math
Vocabulary Acquisition
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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

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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.

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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 dont know how it would work for them with
  all new vocabulary.

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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

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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

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More on Vocabulary Math for All

• Grades 3-5 pp.111-118
• Grades 6-8 pp. 124-134

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Group 1 8th Grade

• Tonis 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?

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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?

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Group 3 9th Grade

• The Daily closing prices of a companys stock for
  one week are shown below. Find the percent
  change in closing price from day to day.
• Monday 44.0
• Tuesday 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?

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