Monday, October 21, 2013

Reflection 7: Oops, Vocabulary Again

The BBR Chapter 5 had some strategies that transfer really well to the content area of math, finally!  Math is all about content-specific vocabulary and 'common' vocabulary that has a specific meaning in the context of a mathematics classroom.  

I really like the Contextual Redefinition strategy because it explicitly acknowledges the difference between vocabulary as seen in 'common' circumstances and as seen in academic mathematics.  In addition (zing!), I find that it is the strategy that employs the most 'think-aloud' elements.  I think that think-aloud strategies are really important in mathematics because oftentimes people view a math problem as one giant insurmountable whole written in what might as well be a foreign language.  They need to see that good mathematicians read things in chunks and frequently call up definitions and characteristics of elements of a problem as they read it.  

I also really like the Etymologia and Morphologia strategies because they add a narrative element to understanding new vocabulary and they draw in the human element through history.  However, I think I might combine the two into one assignment/strategy in my classroom.  Why did the person who named this particular thing choose the words or morphemes that they did? 

Feature Analysis also struck me as being particularly useful in mathematics because we are constantly comparing concepts or things that share many characteristics but differ in a few minute but crucial ways.  Feature Analysis charts are a nice way of keeping track of the nitty gritty that sometimes gets lost in the concise mathematical definitions.  

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