Authors Aleta Kandle,
Sandy High School
Title: The Project of Learning Vocabulary
Grades: 4-12
“Miss Kandle, a pentagon has 7 sides right?” my students inquire. Vocabulary is critical in math class. Without a solid understand of mathematical terminology students miss questions simply because they cannot decode the directions. Is there a way to make the learning of terms fun and engaging for students.
One successful tactic I use is the unit one geometry project. (Most geometry texts outlining foundational terminology within the first unit.) Students use the terms to create a children's story, drawing, comic strip, board game dictionary, design plans or joke book.
The element of choice, simply choosing their favorite form of the assignment inspires the students to complete quality work. The most commonly chosen project is the dictionary. Some of my students like to add terms in their first language to their dictionaries. Several students have written fun stories and others enjoyed labeling schematics for boats, planes and houses with geometry terms. Two students have selected to write jokes. My teacher ears were delighted to hear student joking about geometry terms! They gained a deeper understanding of the terms as they used them in humorous lines. My artistic student have drawn beautiful images and then labeled each term illustrated on an overlay or a basic outline of the drawing. (They usually prefer not to mar their art with the terms.) They completely enjoyed the opportunity to use their artistic skill in geometry class.
A couple students have made board games with cards that practice the terms. Others have enjoyed finding pictures of nature or city scapes on the internet (or in magazines) and label the terms inherently used in all shapes.
Not only will students review the terms in their own project, but will discuss with classmates other projects thereby reviewing more terms. What more could a math teacher want then to have students happily discussing terminology. So, pull out the colored pencils and let creativity take over the vocabulary lesson for the day.