5 reasons to learn maths words with games
In Education Support 4 Parents, we had some fun playing a game of hangman with maths words. I wonder, do you play games to make sure your teenager learns maths words? Did you only do that when they were in primary school? Here I explain why it is still important to do so.
1. The average reading age of a GCSE paper is 15 years and 7 months.
This article explains that at age 15 only 53% of girls have a reading age of 15 and so do 47% of boys. This immediately raises a cause for concern that only half of young people can thoroughly read a GCSE paper. Shockingly students reading levels predicted their maths result, more than that of history or English literature.
By ensuring your teen knows the maths words and their meanings you can help them to read and understand the paper.
2. Not knowing knocks their confidence
If a question has unfamiliar words in it, fear will stop your teen from answering the question. They will also get ‘the fear’ if they are worried about spelling a word in an exam. Take this fear away by ensuring they have confidence with the meaning and spelling of maths words.
3. Fun learning doesn’t feel like learning
Learning is so much better when it is fun. Games could be hangman, scrabble, charades, wordsearches, pictionary, amongst others. They don’t need to be dedicated learning time, but do have fun, play games and get them to catch you out with difficult words. Give bonus points for knowing the meaning. It then doesn’t feel like a chore and you can have a competition at home for the games! It could be fun to see who can find the most obscure maths word?
4.Little and often minimises forgetting
Regular learning is the best way to learn, and short sharp bursts will keep things in their memory. In my recent GCSE curriculum webinar I discussed the ‘Forgetting Curve’ and how to forget less by short bursts after learning, which get further apart over time (that’s for another blog post!)
I once made the school mymaths password isosceles because I knew I couldn’t spell it correctly let alone the students being able to. To start with everyone cursed me! But after a month everyone had learnt that spelling and never forgot it. Having to use the word regularly worked.
5. Keep a vocab book
I recommend that every child has a book, or record cards tagged together, where they write down maths words and their meanings. There are maths dictionaries online that can help you if you need to look up words. Then when they are working on their homework or revision they can look them up themselves.
I recommend you find ways to get maths words into the life of your teen, without it being a chore. Find ways that they enjoy and help them see the importance. What one thing can you action over the holidays?