VOCABULARY STORIES - Albion Central School District

SELF-EXPRESSIVE 147

VOCABULARY STORIES Formative Assessment
Connection: Through
Purpose creative writing, students
demonstrate their
Mathematics is a discipline filled with theorems, laws, knowledge of key
proofs, and calculations, but rarely do teachers or students vocabulary and their
tell good mathematics stories. This is unfortunate, since understanding of
our brains are hardwired to receive and make up stories. mathematics concepts.
The Vocabulary Stories tool is a way for students to explore
and make mathematics content their own by creating short
stories that use and explain mathematical vocabulary and
concepts.

Overview

Vocabulary Stories is an excellent way for students to Technology Connection:
demonstrate their understanding of the specific meanings Students can use a variety
and appropriate uses of mathematical terms. Through of software programs to
writing, students are given the opportunity to be creative draft, polish, and present
and use their imaginations to take greater control over their work, as well as the
what they are learning in mathematics. Internet to "publish" their
final written work online.
Before writing, the teacher generates a list of mathe-

matical terms that students will incorporate during the ————^—^——-

Vocabulary Stories activity. The teacher models the process

by choosing a few words from the list and spinning them into the beginnings of a

story. Students then work either on their own or in small storytelling groups to cre-

ate their own mathematics tales. Students' stories can be fiction or nonfiction, and

can be written as drama, comedy, tragedy, science fiction, or in any genre they

choose. (It is always a good idea to expose students to various text structures and

story formats to help them organize their writing.) The key requirement, however, is

that the words that students use are in proper mathematical context and are not

simply mentioned.

Building Common Core Thinking

Vocabulary Stories personalizes students' learning by having them communicate
their mathematical reasoning creatively and use vocabulary meaningfully in devel-
oping a written product. Vocabulary Stories supports the following Standards for
Mathematical Practice (MP):

«» (MP 1) Sense: making sense of a problem and explaining the correspondences
between equations and the problem itself

«* (MP 2) Reason: reasoning abstractly
•I (MP 6) Precision: communicating creatively, yet precisely
«* (MP 7) Structure: looking for structures and making use of them

ELA Note: Vocabulary Stories can also help support the Common Core Anchor
Standards for Writing and Language related to informative/explanatory writing
(W.CCR.2), on-task writing (W.CCR.4), conventions of standard written English
(L.CCR.1, L.CCR.2), and use of vocabulary (L.CCR.6).

148 MATH TOOLS, GRADES 3-12

Steps

1. Generate a list of mathematical terms for students to use when writing.

2. Model a sample story or an excerpt that demonstrates how mathematical
terms are used in a narrative.

3. Encourage students to be creative and choose a genre or topic that is meaning-
ful to them. Explain to students that their stories can be wacky or serious, but
their stories need to be coherent and use school-appropriate language.

4. Remind students that stories can be of any length (from one paragraph to two
pages), as long as all of the vocabularywords are used correctlyand in proper
context.

Examples

In each of the following samples of student writing, the mathematics vocabulary
terms for the unit are listed as a table:

How I See Shapes

quadrilateral triangle rectangle square rhombus
parallelogram pentagon isosceles triangle octagon trapezoid
equilateral hexagon right triangle circle triangle

v\mj w\0w\s w\ to school I lite to loot, out the window and Find diFFerent Shapes.

On w\ corner \ a. red STOP Siqn, whiCh is an octagon. On the neV,t Street there is a. trap-
i U •* Iu

FiC lipght w\ade up\ OJFiTa).—rectangle with 5one redoN. onje qreen, Unj ix one- uellow circle. The white
speed livwit 5>iqv\s, are a]s,o reC-tdnale^. There is, a_ re<L triangle S,iqn where we qo FfOw\e

w\ain road ay\ a_ brown ^gua_re 5,\gn that tell us, that the naiwe of the -^ayx iS> brooLS,i<Le Pan..

Outride school is, OL Bellow ^enta_^on that $.how& oeooole where the s>c.v\ool c_r05>s,walt. i?,. Our

a. red odta_on ?>T)P ss,,iiqqn,j too.

besides the w\av\jj ^uadfilateral 5.ignS in Uore windows O.nd tra.FFiC_ Sian^-j I also see ywanij

other ShQoeS while I ride to school each day. There iS a. house beinq built on our Street^

av\ the oa.FterS have right triangles and isosceles triangles in thew\ There a.re equilateral

—tria^ngl—es an" d t-fO^pcezoids i-n--the Sup\ports |OFthe railroad bfidque Over the river. Ylhen I w. en-
tioned this a_SSiqnw\ent to WMJ ywOvw^ 1 said I was vwiSSing a. Few Shapes^ which She heloed ywe

Find, ohe pointed out a. fhQwbuS in the Sign on the -tewelrq store that advertised their dia-
w\ondI sale. OOihe also helpedI w\ See how the dcI awinqS OF Cubes in the tind!erqarten class

windows Ore he^a.gOns iF ijou loot at the lines OF the cubes, /^nd,, Finally She helped w\ See

the oafalleloQfaviAS that are also hidden in the suoport structure OFthe railroad bridge.

SELF-EXPRESSIVE 149

Math Versus Social Studies

sequence finite infinite nth term set Cauchy
common ratio Sequence
Fibonacci arithmetic geometric common
Sequence sequence sequence difference

Tkere ase a, lot of Sequences in Sckool. Tkere ase Sequences of- dates to remember in Social

r. Sequences in Social studies ase finite Since tked stast aJt one time, or plaxe ajnd, end. in

ajiotker. Xn maj-kemaj-ics) tkere Co*, be finite Sequences like all of tke

inteaerS between Q ajnd. \Q "J^d. infinite Sequences like all of tke inteaerS areajter tkajn Q. Klken

workina witk Sequences', it is important fa know kow fa find, a, certain farm, of tke Sequence. TkiS

Specific farm, is called, tke ntk term.. Tkere ase also Special Sequences like tke "Fibonacci Sequence

ajnd, CoMjckC^T Seqr uence. Tke Serquence~ o'fUifeasS for Hjorld. f(Jar XX would, be

iy^/,2) 1943) l*?4*l) l'?//^> witk tkeSe tfearS tnajkina uf a. Set of numbers. Xf rfou. ase ajked. w.
(_x Lx (_/

is tke ntk farm, of tkis Sequence tkaJ- denotes tke i/eas tke United, StaJreS entered, tke conflict)

(four ajtSwer skould. be tke tkird. farm.. Anali/7-ina tke farmj asid, lookina for paJtternS in tke

Sequence of a. Set of numbers Cajn aive uou, a, clear ajnSwer or skow ifou, wkere a. Sequence is aoina.

Since consecutive terms of tkis Sequence of- was i/eass kaure a, common difference, tke Sequence

is ajn aritkmetic Sequence (aj opposed, to a, geometric sequence, in wkick consecutive terms would,

a, common