Literacy within Mathematics
Connect the Picture
Place several images on the board. Students have to attempt to connect the pictures together and compose their own meaning of what the lesson might be about. This gets the students discussing several mathematical topics and allows the students a chance to make there own connections.
See the pictures above for an example of fractions, decimals and percentages.
Comments students have made before:
- You can use fraction pyramids and walls to find equivalent fractions. This in turn helps to convert fractions to percentages.
- Percentage is out of 100 and a centurion is 100 soldiers.
- Two halves are equal to one whole, this is the same as 100%.
Frayer Model
'Defining Mats' come from the Frayer Model and are split into the following four categories;
- Definition
- Facts/ Characteristics
- Examples
- Non Examples/ Misconceptions
You can use 'Defining Mats' in two ways. Firstly give a word to a student and allow them to discuss and derive their own understanding of that word. Secondly give the students a completed mat without a key word. This is great for getting students to discuss the mathematics and misconceptions. This also provides opportunities for students to write about the mathematics.
Word Scrabble
Students have to identify and total key words from the lesson using scrabble blocks. To enhance this you could give students a point score they have to get to with three or more words, or be selective of the letters placed on the board. This is then getting the students to think about which words to choose and practising their basic addition skills.
You could also ask the students to find averages of the tiles.
VCOP Support
VCOP is particularly useful within mathematics when asking students to explain a process or when comparing two graphs or sets of data. This was originally introduced to me by Miss Monaghan a science teacher at Northfield School.
The purpose behind it is to help students learn to structure their responses by providing a non exhaustive list of;
- Vocabulary
- Connectives
- Openers
- Puctuation
TIer Word Display
#Literacy4All whole school language
Tier 1 - Common everyday words
Tier 2 - Cross Curricula Academic Words
Tier 3 - Specific Technical Words