Making Math Visual

In thinking about our new math adoption next year, I have been reading the book titled Putting Practices Into Action.

It has a ton of great ideas on how our math practices need to shift.   As we encourage our students to "internalize the language of math," they need repeated and meaningful opportunities to explore math words.  Here are just a few ideas:

Word Webs
One idea is to pose a word to your students and have them turn to a partner and share some related words.  As you create a web together, it allows for further exploration of a particular topic and encourages a continued discussion of other key vocab.

Word Boxes
These allow the students to share their understanding of particular topic through definitions, examples, pictures, and related words.  Check out how Sappington 5th grade students used toothpicks to represent their math terms.