Vocabulary Instruction

Core vocabulary concepts were taught to me in grades K-12 differently than current research-based instruction. I remember writing lists of words and definitions by copying them from a text, handouts with word lists that required drawing a line from a word to its corresponding definition, crossword puzzles, and word searches. In the case of word searches, definitions were not provided. My math experience up through high school was that it was not necessary to understand the “why” of something as long as you could find the right answer on a test. Independent learning strategies required for text-based learning were not taught me prior to college.
It is interesting to note that puns and word play can result in higher level thinking. I attended a theatrical performance about puns; it was a play on words. There I learned that dragon milk comes from cows with short legs and a cow without legs is known as ground beef. Beef wasn't what's for dinner though, we ate venison instead. Oh deer!
In addition to incorporating the recommended dose of dry humor, I want to teach math differently.
I don’t think I really began to understand numbers and mathematics until I learned some of its history.  We aren’t allowed to divide by zero but why? None of something is nothing and you can’t have some of nothing yet the sum of nothing is nothing which sounds like something but is it? History gives context to answers and even paradox. This statement is unprovable.

(http://www.radiolab.org/story/161744-loops/)