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Woodrow Wilson Junior High

Math Literacy

Determining importance is a great strategy to use when reading a math textbook or even those ever fun word problems. There are several ways to approach the importance of what you are reading.

OVERVIEW

This is a type of skimming or scanning the text before you actually read it in depth. This can help you in the following ways:

1. It can help you make connections.

2. It can help you determine the type of operation you need to use to solve the problem or to determine what the lesson is about.

3. It can help you to determine what you need to pay careful attention to.

4. It can help you determine what to ignore (some text can get windy with their examples or there could be extra information you don’t need in word problems).

5. It can help you determine to quit reading if the text has no relevancy to what you are learning.

6. It can help you determine if the text is worth reading or if skimming will to the job.

HIGHLIGHTING

To effectively highlight the text, you need to read the text, think about it, and make a conscious decision on what you need to remember and learn.

1. Carefully look at the first and last line of each paragraph (especially in word problems).

2. Highlight only the words and phrases that are necessary.

3. Make notes in the margins (or on a separate piece of paper!) to emphasize the words or phrases that are important.

4. Pay attention to surprising information — it means you might have learned something new!

5. Visualize what the text is actually saying and what it means.

6. Look to see that you did not highlight the entire paragraph. About only one-third of the text should be highlighted.

ORGANIZATION OF TEXTBOOKS

Math textbooks are all formatted pretty much the same way with an opening paragraph; sample problems; drawings, graphs, or diagrams; and practice exercises.

OPENING PARAGRAPH

1. Has the explanation of what you are going to learn about, vocabulary, and rules.

2. This is the material that needs to be understood but you may not use right away.

3. It gives some general information on how to complete the task.

4. It may include information that will help with making connections, questioning, and visualization.

SAMPLE PROBLEMS

1. It shows how to do computations in simple problems or more complex ones.

2. You may have to practice the idea as it is introduced or apply it to solve some other task.

DRAWINGS, GRAPHS, AND DIAGRAMS

1. These help with the visualization of the problem.

2. They aid in solving the actual problem.

EXERCISES

1. These are problems that relate to the work done in the sample problems.

All publishes of textbooks have certain signals —- fonts, graphics, aids, textboxes — that help you through the page. There are headings, subheadings, bullets, arrows, and such that you should be aware of when reading any math textbook.

NOTE TAKING

Following the above strategies will help you become an effective note taker. When working with math vocabulary it is EXTREMELY important you understand what the word means because math build upon what you already know. Many times these words will be used over and over again. Sometimes they may be used several times in one year and then not heard of again for awhile. Then a few years down the road you will have to know what it means again.

Math vocabulary can be tricky. There are three categories or types or words used in math. There are words that are used in everyday real life and math, words that only mean something in math class, and then there are words that have different meanings in everyday real life and math.

1. Words that have the same meaning in math as they do in everyday life.

EXAMPLES: dollars, cents, because, driving, apple

2. Words that have meaning only in math.

EXAMPLES: hypotenuse, numerator, coefficient, mixed number, cosine

3. Words that have different meaning in math and everyday life.

EXAMPLES: difference, multiple, factor, average, similar

To help you remember these words you may want to make FLASHCARDS, keep a VOCABULARY JOURNAL, or DRAW A SIMPLE SKETCH of what the word means. Sometimes writing the definition in you own words can help you remember what it means.

Here is a great strategy to help you with the ever important vocabulary words in math. Divide a piece of notebook paper in half. You can label the left-hand side “KEY TERMS” and make the right-hand side “EXAMPLES.” Make sure that when you put down your examples you try to make up your own examples rather than using ones from the book.

Let’s look at how you can set up your own math vocabulary journal:

DETERMINING IMPORTANCE NOTE TAKING STRATEGY