November 11 Blog Post: Vocabulary

Vocabulary is one of the most vital resources in reading. The learning and teaching of words is important to every reader and writer's life. Looking back on when I was in school we always had a new vocabulary list each week. The vocabulary words were to be taken home, and then we would have to look up their definitions and learn the spelling of the words to later be tested that end of the week. At the time, I hated this activity. I would spend countless hours on looking up definitions of twenty words and I remember just looking at it as pointless, busy work, but looking back on it I realize how important it really was to me in helping me progress in my reading and writing. Most of the time teachers teach new words through recognition and repetition. All of the words I would have to learn came from either the reading or some other subject- lead lesson from that week. I liked the idea of the STAR model attributed by Blachowicz and Fisher stated in their article, "Vocabulary Lessons." I believe the STAR model is important and an easy way of helping students to learn and expose them to new words. It's an exercise that is easy to remember as well. I also love the example of Ms. Barker's classroom in Lane and Allen's article, "The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom:Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth" was so intriguing and fun. I loved how she actively made her students seem important and it amazes me how such basic words can expand a students vocabulary. How else might you actively include your students in learning vocabulary? I thought it was so intriguing how the students successfully mastered and moved on through the more enhanced words just by practicing and learning synonyms of basic words. It's crazy to think that something as simple as moving through the tiers of basics words to moving to words that are seen in a variety of student's subjects help them and impact them to be. The education of words is so simple it can make it so complex. It's amazing how many words there are in the world and the ability that one achieves with the help of learning simple to more extensive words. I thought it was so interesting how just by having a classroom full of words could enhance a child's vocabulary. A big vocabulary helps readers to comprehend and want to read, because the words won't look like gibberish on the page. I like Blachowicz and Fisher's representation of the "word walls." It gives students the chance to learn the words that they want to learn, and use self learning to remember not only their words but their fellow students words as well; which, I believe can have a bigger impact on learning compared to listening to the teacher all the time.

I have always thought that word walls are important and I think that the fact the children find the words on their own and share them to their fellow students help them to comprehend the words better and remember them in their minds.



Here is a link with some other boosting vocabulary tips:
http://www.teaching-with-style.com/2012/04/boosting-vocabulary.html

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber