7. Teaching Verbal Chains
Verbal chains are a succession of related facts. They include the days of the week, the months of the year, the alphabet and skip counting, among others. Skip counting is particularly important to the development of mathematical knowledge and skills. Some time should be set aside each day to teach students to recite these verbal chains to a level of automaticity. This means being able to say the entire verbal chain at the rate of about one item per second, or faster. The following format is presented as an example for teaching verbal chains. When teaching verbal associations, identify one "chunk" of the sequence (e.g., the first three months) to be learned first:
- Listen. I'll say all the months of the year. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, Au-gust, September, October, November,
December. - Now I'll say the first three months of the year. Signal (raise one finger for each month). “January, February, March.”
- My turn again . Signal. January, February, March
- Your turn. Get ready. Signal. January, February, March. Good saying the months.
- Repeat until firm. To correct, if the student hesitates or makes an error:
a. That's January, February, March. Let's do it together. Get ready.” Signal. “January, February, March.
b. Your turn. Get ready. Signal. January, February, March. Good - Introduce the next three months (April, May, June) using the same procedure.
- Now let's say all the months from the beginning. What month will we say first? January. Yes, January. Get ready. Signal. January, February, March, April, May, June,July, August, September, October, November, December. Good saying the months.
The same process may be used with other verbal chains, including skip counting (e.g., counting by tens, fives, twos, etc.). The signal for skip counting can be a finger snap or a clap, and the teacher should aim to have students count comfortably at a rate of about one number per second. There should not be time to count the intervals.
