5 C's
The 5 C's is a vocabulary planning strategy. It is very helpful when planning what vocabulary words to teach in a math classroom.
The 5 C’s are: concepts, content, clarify, cut, and construct. Concepts refer to what vocabulary words are crucial to understand the lesson. These words are the mathematical words. The students may know what the words mean but they do not deeply understand the word. Content refers to recognizing the subject-matter words in the lesson. These words are not mathematical but are unfamiliar to the students. Clarify means selecting words already chosen by the first two C’s that are not necessary to the main idea of the lesson. These words should only be mentioned in class, not spending additional time on these words. Cut refers to reducing complexity by cutting out words from the first two C’s in order to make the lesson and materials more accessible. Construct means deciding exactly which words from the first two C’s to actually teach in the lesson. The total number of vocabulary words should be small in the end. * After the planning is over, it is time to instruct. There is a worksheet to the right to help go through the process of choosing words to teach. |
“Why Are There So Many Words in Math?”: Planning for Content-Area Vocabulary Instruction