Balanced Literacy Philosophy:
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Taboo Math Words: A Gaming Approach to Learning Vocabulary
Math is a touchy subject for a lot of my learners in my classes. If I try to incorporate any activities that are out of their comfort zone they completely shut down and learn nothing, although they do come up with several reasons on how stupid the activities are. How do I know this? Well let’s see, I’ve tried journaling, Think-Aloud writing, investigating group work, and Frayer Model vocabulary sheets, all of which ended up mostly blank in a disheveled pile on my desk after class, not to mention the learners were not shy in expressing how they felt. In fact, one learner stood up and shouted, “Why are you making us do this?” In reality, I can totally feel for him. My job as a math teacher is a bit troubling; I am trying to teach learners to how to understand math instead of memorizing it but I learned mathematics using the rules without reason and skill drill methods I am steering them away from. But, after rethinking my literacy inclusion approach in a constructivist, developmental classroom, I decided that I was approaching the learners all wrong. Mainly, they have been taught black and white, there is no grey area and they rarely have to think on their own. In fact, they are factory model American students ready for the ACT and MEAP. With that in mind I had to find something fun that wouldn’t appear as math or literacy to get them engaged and I had to provide more structure. Previously, I was rushing this new concept of literacy in math class in ways that were not appealing and were therefore not effective. After a little research I decided to lay out a Math Taboo game, and since vocabulary is so strongly stressed, it was easy for me to get my teacher on board. Now if you aren’t familiar with the real game, the main idea is to get your partner to guess a word by describing it without using any of the five taboo words, which are usually the first words that anyone would use in a description. The obvious math equivalent uses vocabulary terms from a chapter or unit and has learners describe them without using their go-to math descriptors. My goals for playing this game are to help students expand their text-book definitions to actual understandings and applications of the concepts.
One reason I chose to focus on vocabulary, aside from the fact that it is strongly encouraged at Caledonia High School, is because being able to do and understand mathematics relies heavily on the ability to understand, use and apply vocabulary in a number of contexts. The learners in my class know how to match definitions to words, but when I go around and help them individually, they have no idea how to apply their understanding. If I say things like, “what does slope really tell us anyways?” they respond with accepting definitions that aren’t necessarily textbook definitions but don’t signify deep understanding or critical thinking. Most answers are informal definitions that use words they have internalized about the concept, like rise over run. I have found this to be problematic because math builds upon itself and the definitions reoccur in new concepts yet the learners have no idea how to use them. So, this modified Taboo game serves a two-fold purpose: [1] having students use literacy in their learning to promote deep thinking about mathematics concepts by trading in math jargon for conceptual understanding and by listening to classmates describe concepts in more understandable vernacular AND [2] informal assessment for the teacher by seeing and listening to how well they actually understand concepts and then by reflecting on their word and language choice within their mathematical discussions so that future teaching lingo and mathematical conversation reflects the language they use and understand.
Moreover, putting this activity into play was actually very easy because they are working on their final exam review, so I was able to pool a few chapters worth of vocabulary words that they were already familiar with. I began this activity by playing a Taboo card with a student and explaining how the game works and then by doing the same thing with a math Taboo card. Going into this activity was much more exciting than the others and the learners were enthusiastic about the task. I explained the importance of listening to their partner and clearly verbalizing the definition without using the taboo words. By laying out the objectives, the learners were not just playing the game to play the game, they were actually aware of why they were doing it and many of them took notes on their growing understanding of the vocabulary. Essentially, it was a wild success. Although, like all good teachers do, I reflected on how I may change this activity in the future. A few ideas I had were to have all students keep track of the describing words they used so they could refer back to them and also to have learners create the Taboo cards, in situations where time would allow it. Further, I know literacy needs to be gradually implemented so I didn’t require them to journal about this event, but in the future I would have them journal how they thought the activity went-- the positives, negatives, what they learned, etc. The journal entries will help summarize and solidify their learning and will help me make future accommodations based on their suggestions. Writing in math is a struggle, but it is a growing need and is essential for conceptual understanding, so I hope that journals will be a way I can slowly implement mathematical writing and guide the students towards more in-depth writing activities like a think-aloud or metacognitive memoir. Overall, this was a fun interactive approach to learning vocabulary while encouraging learners to put their literacy skills to use in the math classroom.