The Six Steps of Vocabulary Development: Math Terms

Age

9-12

Materials

Students need math notebooks & a pencil. If you have a Smartboard, or an LCD projector, you can show students how to create wordles. See "Presentation" and "Links" below for the procedure for creating a Wordle.

Preparation

The student needs only to take a pretest and a post-test on ten math vocabulary terms: (or any ten vocabulary words you choose). Results of the pre-test determine what words to practice. The teacher needs to know the six steps of vocabulary development. Step 1: Present a description, explanation or example of a new word. Step 2: Present students with a graphic organizer representation of the new term or phrase. Step 3: Ask students to generate their own explanation or description and to draw the word or phrase. Step 4: Ask students to create their own graphic or nonlinguistic representations and engage in strategies to deepen their understanding of the word or phrase. Step 5: Students review and discuss the accuracy of their explanation s and representations with each other. Places they can review eachother's work: notebook entries, graphic organizers, and art work. Step 6: Engage students in vocabulary games they create for themselves.