Letts Maths Dictionary 7-11 by Paul Broadbent
I often get asked about mathematics dictionaries and have always been loathed to favour one in particular. Selecting the appropriate book is so dependent on students prior learning and their current needs. This one is appealing for a number of reasons, the most important being that the students I showed it to liked it! They thought it was quite ‘grown up’ in appearance and had helpful hints and examples to help them understand complex vocabulary.
It’s handy A5 sizing makes it user friendly for smaller hands and the alphabet indexing on the right hand side meant all students in KS 2 were able to navigate the book with ease. It passed all my usual vocabulary testing which involves checking how well ‘mean. median and mode are explained’! It even has ‘torus’ which always amuses the children?
Identifying parts of speech helps with literacy links. In fact this dictionary can be used to support many referencing skills that need to be developed with this age group.
The book has real photographs, some useful added mathematical points of interest to encourage further referencing and related vocabulary listed and highlighted in another colour.
Most children missed the little picture that denotes the strand of mathematics the vocabulary is related to (number, measures etc) but that is a minor point.
I shared the book with some Learning Support Assistants and they found the book helpful in supporting some of the children they worked with. Some children were keen to read this book during ‘free reading’ times. What more could you ask for!
A useful investment for KS 2 classrooms.
Ann Morgan
ISBN 1-84085-936-9
