The task of leadership is not to put greatness in to humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” -John Buchanan
Team Names and Freeze Words are two of my most successful strategies for incorporating vocabulary instruction into a classroom. They’re simple to use and don’t cost you a dime to implement.
Team Names
Let’s talk about Team Names first. Most teachers have their students select team names from what is most popular. Instead of selecting a sports team name, color, or number. Have your students select a team name from a list of all the terms they will need on the state test or end-of-course exam.
Team Names are changed once a month, so you ask teams to select their name from the Math Vocabulary Term Bank. This bank includes the term and the working definition they will use in mastering a concept.
Now each team creates a team banner. (This can be done as part of their Phase 3 Choice Board in the Tabor Rotation Framework.) On their team banner they briefly define the term and create an icon that helps other visually understand their team name.
The questions the teacher asks a few times each class period will be key to the term being placed into long-term memory and used with automaticity. Teachers pull a team number stick and ask questions such as:
*Can you and your team give an example of how your team’s name is used in a word problem?
*Can you and your team find a real-world example of your team name?
*Can you and your team tell the class what ANOTHER TEAM’S NAME MEANS?
If team names change once a month, for at least 7 months of school, then that’s 28 terms the students will know with automaticity—meaning they don’t even have to think about the word—they just use it in a meaningful way!
Freeze Words
One of the ways teachers make the most of their mathematical minutes is by incorporating classroom management into instruction. Freeze words are an example of this seamless integration of content and cultivation of a community of learners.
Remember that list of terms your students need to know to pass the state test? We’re about to use it again!
A month before you begin a unit of instruction, select 4 of the words students might not typically use in their own daily conversations. One of those words becomes the freeze word for the week.
Here is an example of how a Freeze Word is used effectively:
1. The unit you’re studying is geometry. One of the key terms the students need to master and place into long-term memory is parallel.
2. Before the week begins, place several larger pictures of parallel lines around the room. You also place arrows pointing toward pairs of parallel lines that exist in the classroom such as ceiling tiles.
3. The definition, in student language and large enough for students to read from anywhere in the room, is placed beside one of the pictures/icons.
4. The students know where the Freeze Word is posted along with its icon and definition and have already read the definition because their team receives extra points if they automatically say the definition when you say the Freeze Word and ask them to tell their partner what “parallel” means.
5. Teachers use TPR (Total Physical Response) whenever possible with a math vocabulary term because TPR helps embed it into long-term memory. With the word “parallel” you show the students how to form parallel lines with their hands, with their arms, with their feet, etc.
6. If you need your students attention, you put your hands on your shoulders and say, “PARALLEL.”
7. When approximately 3/4 of the class is frozen with hands on shoulders you use one of your 10-15 second response cues. These could be:
*Make a pair of parallel lines with your hands and show this to your partner.
*Show your partner a pair of parallel lines in the classroom and tell them how you can prove they are parallel.
*Show your partner a pair of lines that ARE NOT parallel and tell them how you know they are not parallel.
*Tell your partner what parallel means in your own words.
*Give your partner one reason why parallel lines are important.
8. Pull an equity stick if you’d like to have one student share what their partner said or highlight one of the things you overheard as you were being a process observer.Team Names are changed once a month, so you ask teams to select their name from the Math Vocabulary Term Bank. This bank includes the term and the working definition they will use in mastering a concept.Then the team creates a team banner. (This can be done as part of their Phase 3 Choice Board.) On their team banner they briefly define the term and create an icon that helps other visually understand their team name.
Use Effective Questioning
Again, the questions you ask a few times each class period will be key to the term being place into long-term memory and used with automaticity. You pull a team number stick and ask questions such as:
*Can you and your team give an example of how your team’s name is used in a word problem?
*Can you and your team find a real-world example of your team name?
*Can you and your team tell the class what ANOTHER TEAM’S NAME MEANS?
The last thing you should do, after all your students have left and you are thinking about your day? Pat yourself on the back as a teacher who is using these strategies. Students ALWAYS remember the Freeze Word, the Team Names, and use them meaningfully with automaticity. |
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Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” — Stephen R. Covey
