In order for students to comprehend text and move beyond the reading level that they are at, the need to build their vocabulary. Chapter 7 discusses four major issues: how to naturally expand vocabulary, how to assess struggling readers' vocabulary, how English learners' vocabulary develops, and how to build a struggling readers' vocabulary. The question that I had about the reading is how to help English language learners understand the concept of words that are said the same way but spelled differently and mean different things. After reading this chapter, I will not use the vocabulary of my niece to talk to her. I realized that it is much better for her if I expose her to a larger vocabulary and try to help her understand the things that I am saying instead of making it easy for her. Vocabulary is something that I have never had an issue with because my parents would talk around us kids like we were adults. They never used baby talk and if they used a big word that we didn't know, they made us look it up in the dictionary. I honestly think that this helped to expand my vocabulary.
I really liked the scenario in chapter seven. I liked how Mrs. Lopez had the teachers read passages that they didn’t understand just like they are having their students read. A lot of the time teachers do not think of vocabulary when they realize that their students are having problems reading and understanding the materials that they are supposed to read. I found this chapter very interesting. I didn’t realize that a child’s socioeconomic status would affect their vocabulary. I really liked how they broke down the 3 ways that children learn vocabulary. I didn’t know that children learned vocabulary in so many ways. I thought that the section over vocabulary needs of English learners was important. A lot of people new to the English language have problems with it because they vocabulary that they need to use is so different from the vocabulary in their native language. I also liked the section over increasing students’ limited vocabulary because it gave several ways that you can help increase a student’s vocabulary. As teachers we all need to be aware of student’s vocabularies and to help students learn and use new vocabulary. My 4th grade teacher would have Stump the Word every week. She had a picture of a stump and would put a word on the stump that we needed to learn. We would go to the dictionary, find the definition for the word, copy the definition down, and then write a sentence that uses that word. Every so often we would a vocabulary test over the words that she put on Stump the Word. Teachers need to think up of creative ways to implement new vocabulary into their students’ lives.
I agree with you about your question. Those types of words are hard enough for native English speakers to remember and understand. when I was in school I had trouble with there and their. Think of how confusing such words are for those who are trying to learn our language.
My parents also talked to my siblings and I like we were adults. It also helped that my parents and grandparents loved to read because they helped me learn to love to read and that has given me a huge vocabulary.
Building students’ reading vocabulary will help them in reading, as well as in many other content areas. In my internships and tutoring I have noticed that there is a very wide range of vocabulary knowledge among students. For this reason, I think it is very important to try to create time during class to have centers where students are able to work on skills like vocabulary. Many of the students who need extra help are lower income or English Language Learners. They oftentimes have simply not had the previous experiences needed to build a wide repertoire of words. Teachers can bring in visuals, take students on virtual and physical field trips, take them outside to show them different words in nature, and provide a wide variety of literature with pictures to help students build their vocabulary knowledge. In my tutoring group I am working with two English Language Learners. They have an average vocabulary, but this week I am going to introduce antonym and synonym dominoes. I am still completing assessments, but I already know that vocabulary building will be important for both of them after working with them the past week. I tried to find a few items that I will be able to bring in to show the students visuals of a few of the words that they may not know. I am very excited to try these out to see how they will help the students. Dictionaries and Thesaurus’s can be very useful tools for students. We have also started creating personal dictionaries and “word wall” journals where students can write down words, synonyms, antonyms, draw pictures, write sentences, etc. to help them build vocabulary knowledge. They enjoy doing it and I know they are able to create their own reference books to build their understanding. The assessments in this chapter were very helpful. I feel that formative and diagnostic assessments are very important because they help teachers to analyze and reflect on the things they need to change in their teaching and lessons. The textbook included another checklist in this book and I think it would be very helpful. Keeping anecdotal notes and simple records will help me to remember where students are at so that I can track their progress over the course of the school year. I also think they are helpful because teachers have written information regarding student progress that they can go to if asked to by administrators.
Brandy, After reading this chapter I will be much more conscious about the words I use with my young children. I will use more colorful and technical vocabulary to help them develop a larger vocabulary. We read a lot of books and my daughter has learned many vocabulary words because of it. The other day she started talking about the government (We read a book about a boy who wanted to become president) and it felt really good to hear her using some of the technical words because of what we had read. I am trying to slowly build up my own personal children's library so I will be able to expose my students to many different levels of books and content topics.
Janna, I agree that the section over teaching ELL students vocabulary was very important. There are more students in the classroom whose first language is not English. We read in a previous chapter that English Language Learners who are not fluent readers by grade 3 or 4 are at a much higher risk of dropping out before graduation. Vocabulary is a vital component when learning to read and it will be very important to build these students' skills.
In response to Janna: I also had no idea how much a student's SES could affect their vocabulary. When you think about it, it makes sense that those students are not exposed to a large range of vocabulary. When you are around a group of people who have a large vocabulary, you will learn a wider variety of words.
This is a great chapter but it was not one of my favorites. I did enjoy the activities that this chapter provided. I just recently had a conversation regarding Word-O, I had never heard of this activity until another colleague of mine was telling me about this activity and then here it was in this chapter! After reading more about Word-O, I have been thinking about how I could reuse it to fit my needs of the kindergarten students that I am tutoring. I have been playing around with this activity on various Kindergarten phonic skills but have not planned an exact activity yet. On page 163, there are a couple activities that I like and have used in the past. Cloud Formations after reading It looked like spilt milk, is a fun activity to do with a variety of grade levels. The listening walk is also a great one to do and I always like to do a couple in each of the seasons that school is in session to compare the different sounds that we hear.
Brandy – My nephew who is eleven has a large vocabulary and I think a lot of that is that his parents did not speak baby talk. I always found that weird when he was younger that they did not change the way they spoke to him. It was almost like he was a mini adult at age 2! As my children are getting older, I have found myself to use larger vocabulary words, that they may or may not understand, but to use that time to explain to them what those words mean.
Chapter 7 discusses the importance of building student’s vocabulary. Out textbook suggests that students learn vocabulary through life experiences, vicarious experiences, and direct instruction. It also stresses the importance of immersing children in language and print-rich environments both at home and at school. The difference of children’s vocabulary in higher SES families when compared to lower SES families amazes me. Higher SES children know 15,000 more words than lower SES children by the time they are three years old. This is because the children with higher SES families often time can afford to have a parent stay home with the child or they can afford to send them to a high-quality daycare and pre-school. In these situations, children are read to and talked to more often and by an adult with a larger vocabulary. It is important for teachers to stress vocabulary because not all children are provided with the same experiences during their time at home. Teachers need to do all they can to introduce new words and help students to understand them.
Yesterday during my tutoring session, I read aloud a diary entry from the book “Puzzle Island.” In each diary entry of the book, there are four clues that help students find four hidden animals in the picture that goes along with the diary entry. At the end of the book, the clues from each entry are used to solve the puzzle. Two of the students in my tutoring group had found the four animals for the day, and the third student was struggling to find the last animal. One of the students was trying to assist this student in finding the animal by playing the “hot and cold” game. He would say you are getting warmer, hot, or colder as the other student looked for the animal. The other student who had finished finding the clues is ELL and asked me why the other student was saying things like “hot” and “cold.” He thought they were talking about the temperature of the scene in the picture. Although the ELL student was familiar with the terms “hot” and “cold,” he didn’t understand what they meant in the context of looking for an object. The “Vocabulary Needs of English Learners” section of chapter 7 on page 156 reminded me that knowing a word is much more complex then being able to recognize or use a word in a sentence. It involves knowing the literal and figurative meaning of the word, synonyms and antonyms, multiple meanings, how the word is used in oral and written expressions, and other forms of the word. After finding all the clues in our book, I had my tutoring students play a quick game of “hot and cold” so my English learner could better understand the figurative use of the words.
In response to Brooke W… I got some good activities from this chapter as well. I think I will try Word-O and Scattergory with my tutoring groups in a couple weeks. After we score the tutoring assessments and determine the focus of our lesson plans, it will be easy to choose appropriate activities since each chapter discusses a Big 5 skill. I am looking forward to getting ideas about activities in the narrative and informational comprehension chapters we will do in the next two weeks. I think this is an area that we will focus on in my tutoring groups.
I really liked the introduction scenario to chapter 7. I think it is important to remember how specialized language can be for different subject areas. Students may have developed vocabulary that will help them in one area but not in another. It is important to assess background knowledge in new topics to determine how much instruction is needed, but also as a way to determine the vocabulary understanding of the students. I found the three word tiers on page 152 to be a great guide to follow and think that it is important to use words that students may not be familiar with. I have a friend whose boys have a vocabulary that far exceeds their grade level simply because their father introduces them to these terms. They are able to follow much more complex ideas and topics than many of their friends at these ages (7 and 9) due to this. When choosing poems and books for the classroom the content of them should be important but also for the word usage. Introducing new terms to students through the use of interesting stories is a great way to teach students. They often are excited to learn new vocabulary terms in this way because it feels less like instruction. I have been working to introduce terms to my tutoring students in this way by finding books that interest them, but also have vocabulary terms that they are not familiar with. This is not to say that direct instruction of vocabulary terms should not be used but not in the rote memorization method that I remember from my education. I found many of the activities in the chapter to be great ideas for increasing vocabulary and hope to incorporate them in my tutoring and my classroom.
Response to Hannah B: It is amazing that children from higher SES backgrounds have such a higher vocabulary base than those from lower SES backgrounds. The resources available are vastly different but I think one of the most important aspects is parental involvement, regardless of SES. When I was young we did not have a lot of money and my parents both worked (remember latch-key kid days). Despite this we frequented the public library and my parents made sure that my sister and I were read to on a regular basis. This not only helped me discover the love of reading but helped me develop a better vocabulary. It is important for teachers to introduce new words and use many different methods to involve all students in vocabulary activities.
The book says it takes to know a word, pronunciation, appropriate use in conversation and writing, multiple meanings, and its morphology. This makes sense why my teachers made us do vocabulary like we did. We had to write the meaning, use it in a sentence etc. I plan to teach in SW KS, hopefully in a small town, it will be very important for me to use vicarious experiences to help my students learn because being in rural America, and far from any big city, they will not have anything to associate many vocabulary words with. I think that the budget crunches make us more likely to teach children vicariously also. We cannot afford to go on big field trips or bring presenters and speakers to the students near as often, so using books and videos will help children still experience or see these things. I have witnessed the effects of how we talk to young children affects their vocabulary. My nieces just turned 3 and 4, but when talking to them you would think they were already in school. Their parents (and other adults that are always around) do not use baby talk or encourage it around them. There for the girls have large vocabularies and amaze me with the words they use! I have also seen children who were babied and used baby talk with. They struggled as they got older and were not as well spoken or as comfortable speaking as other children. It’s amazing how the simplest thing of just speaking well around children can make such a difference in their learning and vocabulary. I agree that we cannot tell a child to look up words and memorize them. They need to learn it in meaningful context, with the aid of past knowledge, be fully understood, used and presented repeatedly, and learn from a teacher who is excited about it and fun. The last part is very important, being excited and fun. Even if you don’t like it, students will be excited and more willing to learn when you show expression and do your best to make learning fun. Vocabulary was not my favorite part of school, and I found it very boring. But when my teachers would change up how we learned it I liked it a lot better. Encouraging students to figure out new words and being excited when they master an area is very important too because it motivates the child to keep trying and learning. What would be the best way to provide struggling students extra help in vocabulary without overloading them with it? Sometimes it seems we try to catch them up by giving them more words, and it ends up just making matters worse for them. Having a good vocabulary is important in all areas of our lives and education.
In response to Janna, I agree it would be very difficult to learn vocabulary as an ELL student but it so essential! Teaching them words that are not subject specific and are used widely across the curriculum will be one of the most beneficial things we can teach them. I really like the Stump the Word activity your teacher did with you. I think that would be a great idea to add to my tutoring session
Chapter seven was over vocabulary building. This chapter was pretty easy to read as well as informative about ways to help students build their vocabulary. I really liked the idea for ESL students to write a word on one side of a note card and then on the other write the word in their native language and have them draw a picture of what the word means. I could see this as a very helpful tool in the classroom for everyday words as well as words that deal with new concepts. I also liked how the book explained direct instruction as well as ways to help students expand their own vocabularies. I always forget the importance of teaching students how to use dictionaries, thesauruses, etc. This skill is really important especially if the students use them regularly to look up words in the classroom! The activities in this chapter were also very interesting. I thought the categorizing activity in figure 7.7 was a great activity to use as well as the crossword puzzle idea. After reading through the chapter and knowing how important vocabularies are to children, I am glad that I didn’t talk to my children with baby talk. I have heard relatives comment on how my son knows such interesting words (they even surprise me sometimes!) and how much he talks like a grown up (in an appropriate way of course!). I can only attribute this to the fact that my husband and I always talked to our children as if they were old enough to understand exactly what we were saying! My son constantly asks me what words mean and I have to constantly remind myself that he is just building up his vocabulary!
In response to Hannah B…I agree that knowing a word can be much harder than being able to recognize or use it in a sentence! Being a teacher has such a HUGE responsibility inside and out of the classrooms! Although it can be overwhelming, the rewards are so much greater than other occupations because what could be better than starting children on their educational journey and helping them understand new concepts and subjects! What grade are you tutoring? I have the “Puzzle Island” book from when I was little and think it is such a neat book!
The three tiers (everyday conversation, conversation of mature speakers and in literature, and words that are used in particular content) were great to learn about. I think it is great that the book encourages students to use words in the tier two because, as it states, students will model what they see. If students model the mature speaker’s word, their vocabulary is sure to grow. Also, the three ways discussed that students learn the meaning of words (life experience, vicarious experience, and direct instruction) were interesting as well. I had never thought of using videos to teach students about vocabulary, words, yes, but not videos. So, the section on learning through various experiences was interesting to me. I am eager to try many of the activities shared in the back of the book. During each guided reading activity, I share with the students many vocabulary words, so I am always looking for new ways to help the students learn these words. One activity that really caught my attention was “Schoolyard Safari” on page 163. This game is directed towards first through fourth, but I am thinking about doing this with my fifth graders because I believe it would really encourage them to participate in the activity. The students really enjoy sharing their input, so I think mixing this desire with learning vocabulary would be a sneaky way for them to learn while having fun! Other activities I liked were Wordo, Hink Pinks, and Dictionary: Guide Words.
Also, I tried the website (www.languageguide.org/English) mentioned on page 173 and thought it was neat for beginning students. The third grade class I am currently interning in is learning about the digestive system. I think they would enjoy being allowed to look at the body and hear the system’s parts.
In response to Brooke W., Word-O was one of my top favorite activities from this chapter as well. The other was the Schoolyard Safari, I think older students really seem to enjoy an assignment more when they get to add their own flare to the assignment, and in this activity it would be the adjectives. Students can get pretty creative, so I think it’d be fun to hear what they come up with! I could list lots of activities from this chapter that I look forward to doing, I feel like I’m going to run out of ideas by the time we’re done because I’ve tried to do vocabulary activities with each of my guided reading activities so far, so this chapter was a real idea booster for me. I am excited to try many of the activities.
I liked how you mentioned that you are throwing around ideas on how to manipulate the Word-O game to fit your students’ needs. I enjoy reading all the activities at the end of the chapters, but sometimes when I read the grade levels they are geared towards, I’m not so thrilled. Many times this semester I’ve altered an activity to fit my students’ age group, it’s almost more exciting to manipulate an activity, use it, and see it succeed than simply using another’s idea and seeing it succeed. Good luck coming up with a way to incorporate the Word-O activity!! :)
I thought chapter seven was incredibly helpful and I found I could definitely relate it to my internships. My tutoring students have quite a bit of trouble with vocabulary so I will take these ideas back to my sessions and apply them. I thought the section that talked about students' background knowledge of vocabulary was very interesting and it made a lot of sense to me. I never really thought about what a huge effect parents had on the vocabulary of their children. It makes sense that children learn the majority of their vocabulary by listening to their parents or other adults speak in everyday life. This chapter also talked about the media and how it increases children's vocabularies. I"m not quite sure if i agree with this or not. I think a lot of what children watch on tv nowadays teaches bad vocabulary instead of increasing it. I paid close attention to the section talking about the vocabulary needs of English learners because I can relate a lot of this to my tutoring. I think building their vocabulary by looking at words that relate to words in their language is a great idea because if the spelling is close they'll be able to connect the meanings. I really enjoyed reading this chapter and I think all sections were equally important when teaching children vocabulary skills. I liked the interventions especially in this chapter. I found that I could modify each activity to all ranges of students, from students with struggling vocabularies to students with exceptional vocabularies. I know I will be referring back to these intervention ideas in my classroom and even for my tutoring sessions.
In response to Emily, I also loved reading about the tiers, and I think it's great for teachers to pay close attention to all three. I think a lot more emphasis needs to be placed on tier two vocabulary words because I think the majority of students solely pay attention and use everyday words that are familiar to them.
This chapter was beneficial because it gave us several ideas in teaching vocabulary. It also reinforces how important it is. I have seen many students who are extremely low in vocabulary. Most I believe is just from lack of experiences. I don't work with a lot of ESOL students but I'm sure that it is difficult for them as well. I liked the part of the reading where the principal gives the teachers text they cannot read. I think that that experience would truly hit home. Sometimes we don't realize how students may struggle because we find the material somewhat easy. I have never seen the total physical response used. I would like to see that used to see how effective it is.
In response to Jaclyn C: After reading your post I remembered how surprised I was by the amount of dictionary work that the book said students need. Some students I see know very little about the dictionary. I think some believe it is not necessary because of the internet. It was nice to read that it is still a needed skill. I also believe anecdotal notes are important. They can help you remember key information regarding the students.
I was an only child and I was always talked to as an adult. My mother had a beauty shop attached to our house, so from the time I was two I was surrounded by adults and had lots of opportunity for interaction. I think that was very beneficial to me in becoming an early reader and having an appreciation of all types of reading materials.
Vocabulary is discussed in Chapter 7, and I found the introduction to be comical. The principal used a very good strategy by having the teachers realize how it feels when the content of the passage is not understood. There have been many instances when I have seen teachers exasperated because children just didn't seem to get it. Little did they realize the children more than likely have not been exposed to the terms given. If the teachers uses common terms and then links it to the new vocabulary it would make more sense to the student. I think the one neat book that I found this semester for my library is "Max's Words". The boy has two brothers that collects stamps and coins and Max decides to collect words. After he has collected so many words, he decides to make up a story. I hope when I get into a classroom, I can begin the year with this story and each student will have a word jar. The children can then put the new vocabulary words into the jar.
I don't feel that I grew up with affluence either. My parents both had jobs, although my mom worked inside of the home. I agree though that it boils down to more parental involvement than how much money you have. My mom always took me to the public library and in turn I have done the same with my children. The local library offers many activities for children that are free of charge and they just have to register for it. Unfortunately, the numbers of participants are low compared to the size of the town.
In response to Janel...I think you are absolutely right about the budget crisis driving the need for providing more vicarious experiences for our students. In our district, field trips have been completely eliminated except in a few exceptional cases. Nice examples with your nieces of how we can expose children at young ages to broad vocabularies successfully. Thanks for sharing! Julie
Chapter 7 provides a good, real-life scenario with Mrs. Lopez...wow, hope I could pass the test! Vocabulary knowledge is so crucial for comprehension - I think the scenario illustrated that perfectly. I can relate to the section on providing vicarious experiences to young students. As "real-life" experiences become more difficult to share with our students (example: no field trips due to budgets being slashed), we will be responsible for meaningful vicarious experiences for our students. I copied down a few titles from figure 7.2, the book list featuring vocabulary, homonyms, puns, and idioms. As a past Enrichment/Gifted program aide, I have heard of and used some of these with great success in small groups. Of course, who couldn't love the queen of idioms, Amelia Bedelia? I have also found that doing analogies with students as young as 1st and 2nd grade seems quite successful in vocab building. By far,the most useful section to me regarding vocabulary was the Intervention section with fantastic ideas for helping those with limited vocabularies to expand. I appreciate all of the very specific activities listed in this chapter and look forward to using many of them.
I enjoyed the scenario for Chapter7. Mrs. Lopez had a great idea of showing through example. Vocabulary is very important for children. I enjoy the statement “Knowing a word, however, is more than merely understanding it when someone says it.” Understanding the pronunciation, knowing the multiple meanings, using it in writing, using it in conversation, and knowing its morphology are all parts to knowing a word. I hadn’t ever put much thought into how a child develops vocabulary but it makes sense that their community would have an impact. I can remember when I was younger a tour bus came through our town and stopped. They spoke a lot differently and I didn’t know what they talked about because I had never been to a huge city before. I also learned the 5 essential ingredients for effective vocabulary instruction. The idea shown in figure 7.4 was great! Making a word web to demonstrate word relationships is awesome! That could be adapted so many ways to help all the students learn new vocabulary. I also hadn’t put much thought into assessing a child’s vocabulary so I learned a lot about different ways to do that. Chapter 7 had a lot of great activities I hope to use with my students.
In response to Royce: I LOVED Max's Words! A teacher I helped when I was in Garden City did a unit on that book and had each of the students start their own word collection in a little notebook. They were asked to find words they liked, didn't know, or thought looked funny etc. Towards the end of the unit the students were asked to share a couple of their words including one they had to look up. That's a great book for a vocabulary lesson!!!
Chapter seven covered vocabulary. This is actually something I could relate to this week. To begin with, children definitely have to have some background with the words for them to know and understand, or as the chapter said, "vicarious experiences". This week while reading an ABC book of animals in the rain forest, some words can up that left the class clueless. The word I remember standing out that was unknown was "school" as in school of fish. The students knew school meant where they were at, but didn't understand why it was being used with fish. I explained to them that when fish swim in groups, whether small or large, this is called a school. When using reference books, antonyms, synonyms, and other techniques, students, including ELL students, can better understand their vocabulary if they are struggling. The graphic organizer on page 159 is a great example of a way to classify and define words.
Vocabulary building is an essential part of the reading process. Vocabulary can affect a student’s comprehension if the words they are reading are unknown to them. One of the most impactful sentences that I read in this chapter can be found on pg. 156 under the title heading “Vocabualry Needs of English Learners”. The research found between ELL and SES indicates that socioeconomic status affects student’s vocabulary and, “thus, their success in school more than being an English Learner.” This was very interesting to me. Children by the age of 3 in a high SES know 5 times as many words than a 3 year old from a low SES. Knowing your students and where they come from is essential for meeting students’ vocabulary needs. In the school that I am doing my internship in vocabulary building is essential. This school is a Title 1 school that has a very high ELL population as well. Word walls can be found everywhere, everyday objects are labeled in Espanola and English and the school has adopted a school wide vocabulary plan that has the students, in older grades, whole class, in younger grades develop vocabulary cards where they identify the word, draw a picture, write the formal definition and then put the definition in their own words. This is a form of Marzano vocabulary instruction. I think that this chapter has provided many great instructional strategies that will aid in the development of vocabulary instruction but I think that first and foremost the classroom needs to be both rich in literacy and vocabulary. Identifying words before a story is read in guided reading groups or discussing unknown words while reading read alouds is a great way to build vocabulary. I think that it would be a great idea to have note cards handy while doing a read aloud so you can write the words on the card and use the Marzano vocab instruction to elaborate on the word. These words can be added to the word wall. My teacher does a lot her vocab instruction through prezi.com. This is an easy to make PowerPoint website that is free and fun! The kids really enjoy this! As a teacher you cannot control the life experiences that a student comes in with but you can definitely fill in the gaps through vicarious experiences, classroom experiences, and direct instruction. This will greatly increase a students’ comprehension! In response to Shaina G: In my previous classes it has been taught how important assessment is to understand the needs of your students. This class has made this very clear. Living the assessment process and understanding how I need to use the assessments to drive my instruction has been a very crystal clear process for me. I need to know where my students are in the learning process so I can plan for their individual needs. I too agree that this chapter has provided great assessment tools. This part of the chapters has been my favorite part of the reading, 2nd to the skill building activities.
Vocabulary is an area I have been focusing on with my tutoring students. The chapter mentions the differences in reading ability of students who have been exposed to a rich variety of words, and those who haven’t. I have been surprised at the number of words my two students have not heard of before, in the 4th grade! They have also not had the experiences others may have had that would build their vocabulary, so much of the reading material I am choosing helps to build their experiences vicariously, a suggestion in the chapter.
The information I found most interesting mentioned the effect of socio-economic status (SES) on a child’s vocabulary. In fact, the most surprising to me was the study that showed even ELL students who had a higher SES often did the same or better than non-ELL students with a lower SES. Because, as teachers, we have no ability to change a student’s SES, we must focus our efforts on expanding vocabulary through other means. The text gives many, many great examples of activities.
Although the activities have grade level suggestions, I have decided to sometimes use those with a lower grade level than my 4th graders, as their vocabulary and decoding skills are so much lower than they should be. I’ve found that some of the activities geared towards the upper grades are too complex or require a greater level of ability than students at low levels express.
In response to Holly D. I agree with your assessment of the media not always teaching better grammar and vocabulary. When reading comments on YouTube or blogging, it seems that young teens are the worst at writing effectively and understandably.
Chapter 7 dealt a lot with building vocabulary by using general background knowledge, or life experiences and vicarious experiences. The text says that poems are a great way for students to vocabulary because of their rich language. The text also talks about the vocabulary needs of English learners. I have had to include ESOL accommodations in my internship (social studies and science). Vocabulary cards and picture cards are a good tool for helping ESOL students learn certain words from the lesson. These students also need to be able to ask frequent questions to clarify what is expected. I also repeated what other students said when they answered questions and reworded their questions so that the ESOL students had another opportunity to follow the conversation. The activities in this chapter are pretty good again. I have seen a lot of teachers use crosswords, but until now I was unsure of how helpful they actually were. I understand better now the use of them, if used correctly they can help progress student’s vocabulary. Scatagory is one of my favorite games so I thought it was neat to see it in the activities listed in this chapter, I hadn’t thought about doing this with my students but I think it would be a lot of fun!
I bet that was confusing for them! There are a lot of words in the English language that have double meanings and kids find that very confusing. I can only imagine being an ESOL student and having to learn 2 meaning for 1 word.
In response to Sara C. I was also surprised that ELL students with higher SES had better vocabulary than lower SES students that were not ELL. I have seen evidence of this in the my internships and when I worked as a para. I guess I just didn't make the connection.
I found this chapter a little harder to read. It contained a lot of information; but much of it was the same, or I felt like it repeated from other chapters,
I don’t have any questions about the chapter, but I do finally realize why my eldest daughter always talked so grown up. I never talked to her like a baby. She grew up in the presence of my grandparents and we just talked to her like normal. As she got into school, she talked and acted more mature than her fellow students.
On page 175, the book talks about Hink Pinks. Just this past week in my Interning in Social Studies she used these as her Bell Work. I had never heard of them before but I am definitely going to use them often in my classroom. I love them and they class had a great time!!!
I totally agree with you on linking vocabulary to the what the children are learning. AND I loved ‘Max’s Words’. Your idea of a word jar for the students is stupendous!!! What a great idea!
Chapter 7 talks about Vocabulary Building. I am on a research team, and we are working with ELL students. I cannot stress enough how important it is to stress vocabulary building. My partner and I made a booklet for the students to use throughout the chapter they are studying. I talked to the ESL instructor, and she said that the students do poorly on the assessments due to the fact they don’t understand some of the terminology. One item that really stood out to me was how the words can be broken up into tiers. Tier one words are common words used in everyday conversation, tier two words consists of less frequent words that appear in the conversation of mature speakers and in literature, and tier three words are rare words that are used in particular content. Another point that was made focused on knowing a word. Sometimes I think students appear to know certain things about the word but not necessarily its true meaning. As a teacher, how do you make sure a student knows every word? Knowing a word and knowing its multiple meanings I think is tough for ELL students. Students who are struggling with reading tend to have a limited vocabulary. That statement really makes a lot of sense to me, and it made me realize even more how important expanding a child’s vocabulary can be. In the book it said that you can increase a child’s vocabulary by making them “roar.” What they mean by roar is, let the students act out the words. Demonstrating different verbs would be a fun activity for the students to do.
I think this chapter is repetitive because it just wants to stress how important building vocabulary is for students. Since classrooms are becoming more diverse I think that is why vocabulary has become an even bigger issue. It is neat to read things in the text and see it in action in the classroom! Kudos to you for not talking to your child in baby talk!
Chapter 7 was all about vocabulary and teaching it so that students are increasing their everyday vocabulary. I think that the section that really stood out for me was the section on direct instruction. The text stated that direct instruction need not mean giving the students a list of words to look up in the dictionary and memorize. (pg. 154) I agree with this, in order for a student to truly learn new vocabulary, they need to use the word repeatedly and in different situations. In fact the text lists 5 essential ingredients for effective direct instruction of vocabulary, these are: 1) new words must be learned in meaningful context; 2) the new word must be related to previous knowledge; 3) the new word or concept must be fully understood so that the word can be used in new situations; 4) students must use, hear, and see the new word repeatedly; and 5) teachers should enjoy learning new words with their students. These I think are all important for students to succeed with vocabulary. I found the activities in the chapter to be interesting. There were several that I thought would be great to use in my classroom and even with my tutoring students.
In response to Kim D.... I agree that poems can be a great source of vocabulary, especially the poems by Shel Silverstein. I agree with you that picture and vocab cards are great for ESOL learners. I use these a lot in my adaptations on my lesson plans. I found the activities to good in this chapter as well. My daughter is in junior high and is always working on a crossword puzzle for English to help with learning her vocabulary or spelling words. I think that these would be a great tool to use in the classroom.
This chapter really opened my eyes to the importance of building students’ vocabulary. I also found this chapter incredibly helpful because it relates to my students in my tutoring group. Our textbook stresses the importance of immersing children in a language and print-rich environment. During my internships I have noticed that my mentor teachers try to make their classrooms print-rich my labeling items around the classroom and constructing a word wall, for example. Vocabulary development is also important because it directly relates to reading comprehension. One student in my tutoring group is an English language learner and although she can read fine, she cannot comprehend text. I think the cause of this is vocabulary knowledge. I hope to implement several activities suggested in our textbook to help all my students expand their vocabulary.
In response to Brandy, As you mentioned, Brandy, I think it so important that we don’t use baby talk when talking to younger children. It’s great that you’re parents encourage you to look up unknown words in the dictionary – I’m sure this helped your vocabulary development! I would also like to know more about the question you posed. I can see how the concept of such words would be difficult for an ELL student to understand. I hope to find some strategies for this as well.
The scenario given at the beginning of the chapter would be an eye opener for teachers as well as it was for me. It is crucial for someone to understand what is being read or what they are reading to know the vocabulary. The chapter did a great job of summing up how a child knows a word, they need to see, hear, say and use it in many different settings. I liked this compared to several of the other ideas given because it is short and sweet and I can remember this as I am teaching. I have always been a fan of learning through vicarious experiences. The children like being able to see something even if they may never experience it first hand. Like the previous chapters I enjoyed the activities in the back and I can see how they would be beneficial.
I agree the activities are fantastic however, sometimes it is better to do the ones just a step below their grade level. I am glad this chapter is so useful to you right now especially with your tutoring. What I loved most about this chapter was that children need to see, hear, say and use the word. It gave it to me plain and simple and sometimes just those few key words can remind us how to implement new vocabulary to our students. I am anxious to hear if you tried any of the activities with your students and what the outcomes are.
Chapter 7 was all about vocabulary building. I really liked where the book listed what it means to know a word. There were five steps to understanding words. They are knowing how to pronounce it correctly, knowing how to use it in conversation, knowing how to use it when writing, knowing its multiple meanings, and knowing its morphology. I thought these were really important to focus on. Some students may know a few of these steps but not all of them so technically they do not truly “know” the word. As teachers we need to be able to identify which step students are missing and fill in the gaps to each word. This seems like a huge task as there are so many words and quite a few students. But the book provided excellent activities to help build vocabulary in the classroom. One of the activities I really liked was the schoolyard safari. It has the student use descriptive word for the playgound. I also liked the categorizing activity. There are many ways you could use this in your classroom. You can categorize your entire classroom and every subject area. The game Wordo I thought was a great game for students to learn while also having fun.
I really liked the 5 essential ingredients as well. It is a great list for teachers to look back at and refer to when teaching vocabulary. They will lead us to help all the students as they discover new vocabulary.
I also will no longer talk to my nieces how they talk tome. I will make sure I talk to them using the right language, and proper grown up language that they will be taught in schools.
In the beginning of the chapter reading, it was connecting to me because of the vocabulary building and the life experience with children. When working with my nieces and nephews on homework sometimes or working with my religion class on words, it is interesting to hear their vocabulary. It also reflects on the children’s surroundings such as at home and friends. Such as the “vicarious experience” , when I was a case manager the students that I worked with only talked about legos and video games; Lugei (not sure if I spelled it right) and Mario. They enjoy those activities and then I would discuss with them activities such as sports or outside activities like fishing. They were not sure about that activity but rather be inside than outside. With this chapter reading it discussed about vocabulary and different resources we can use to expand the vocabulary of children. In the reading it discussed wordless books which I worked on with my niece. She decided to write with words and draw. My niece is 5 years old and will be attending pre-school next year so I feel that this will be good practice for her. One of the activities that I would use is the cross word puzzle. With my group of students they seem they would enjoy this activity because it isn’t boring work.
This chapter was interesting to me because it made me aware of how important it is to talk to children the way that they should be talking to other adults. It's important that they hear the way they are supposed to be talking, no baby talking. I am very guilty at this because my nieces say the cutest things and I tend to repeat what they say. I need to make sure that I repeat what they say, but in the correct proper way. I also learned how important it is to get our students involved with vocabulary at a young age. A lot of parents don't understand how important it is to read to your children and to start working with your children at a very young age. This helps them exceed in the long run. I liked that it gave us examples of how to increase students limited vocabulary. These are great activities we could give to parents so they can start working with their children at an early age.
Response to Melinda S. I agree on the "Wordo" game being a great activity for the students. On the activity on missing letters, I substituted for a first grade class and we worked on missing letter worksheet and the students did very well.
Vocabulary is all around us everyday; we see words on road signs, businesses, in books, and even in the bathroom stalls. I think it is important for all children to be exposed to new vocabulary during the school year; however, I think it needs to be fun and exciting for them. When I was in elementary school, I remember having a vocabulary test every single week and we would do the same routine over and over. After a while, it got very boring and I can honestly say that I couldn’t remember one word from the dozens of lists we used each week. In my tutoring group right now, I have incorporated Spanish into my vocabulary flashcards because one of my kiddos cannot speak English very well; I’ve also had to include pictures. As I was reading through the book, I noticed a lot of different vocabulary activities that would be fun for the children to do during our time in the afternoon. I really liked the schoolyard safari activity; this would be great for the students because it would give them a chance to be outside instead of in the classroom. I also liked the origin of words activity also; I felt like this one would get them really interested in each of their vocabulary words because they have a chance of picking one they are interested in; not ones that we pick out and give to them. On the FCRR website, I found other ideas that I will be using for my students later on during this semester; I think it will be lots of fun!
In response to Melinda: I completely agree! These steps seemed to be very effective and when I was younger, I never remember covering any of these or even hearing them at all. I do believe that if we figure out what steps are students are missing, then we will be able to help them be more successful at learning vocabulary.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter because I currently have two ESOL students in my tutoring group and I feel that vocabulary is such a strong area that needs attention paid to for foreign students who are learning English. As it states on page 152, “Research indicates a strong connection between readers’ vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension.” I also liked that the chapter pointed out the need for students to have vicarious experiences in order to increase their vocabulary banks. Using dictionaries and thesaurus’s can also be good tools for students to use in learning new vocabulary words. In my tutoring group we have a word wall that introduces new words that the students may not previously know. By going on virtual field trips, using visuals, or technology, students can be exposed to an immense amount of vocabulary. I thought that this chapter included a lot of fun activities that could definitely be incorporated into my tutoring sessions. I found this chapter to include a lot of useful information that I can apply currently in my tutoring group and when I become a teacher in the future!
In response to Brandy—I really liked that you were able to relate this chapter to the way that you talk to your niece and how your parents talked to you when you were a child. I don’t ever remember my parents talking to me as though I was a baby and vocabulary was never a problem for me. However, my boyfriend’s younger step-sister was always talked to like a baby and today she talks like a baby and is 12 years old. She talks very quietly and child-like and her mom still uses words that are very baby-ish. It is sad to see this happen. This chapter gave me great activity ideas that I will definitely incorporate into my tutoring group since I have two ESOL students.
I too am glad that I do not talk to my children in baby talk. It is very frustrating when I hear someone talk to their child as if they were a baby. I know someone who still does this with their first grader. This is very damaging to their development. It effects the way that they pronounce and spell words.
Reading this chapter reminded me of an assignment in my reading and language arts methods class. It was over the six trait writing model and one of the categories students are graded over using this model is word choice. Children need to constantly build upon their vocabulary to create sentences that correspond with their grade and age. My children are always asking us all the time what a word or a phrase means. One idea presented in the book for ESL students was that they write the word one side and then write the word again on the other side in their native language as well as draw a picture of the word. This could even be modified for non ESL students. Students could draw a picture and write different words on the back that all describe the picture they drew. One thing I don't think I see in schools is students using thesaurus and dictionaries. They rely more on computers to do the work for them which weakens their ability to recognize these errors on their own.
The opening scenario in Chapter 7 really brings into focus how important it is to teach vocabulary words the students will be reading about in their lessons. From the passages Mrs. Lopez gave her teachers, all I could get from them were they were about music. Last year, in my Reading internship, I pre-read a story that I was going to share with my class. One phrase in the story had me baffled. I thought, “If I can’t figure this out, how are my student’s going to understand.” The phrase was “above the salt,” and it referred to the seating arrangement at the dinner table and where the salt cellars were placed. If you were a guest of importance, you would sit above the salt closest to the host. If you were a child at the dinner table, then you sat below the salt, away from the host. I brought in my crystal salt cellars from home to show my students what a salt cellar looks like. Most of them thought that a salt cellar was a basement with salt. By bringing in the salt cellars and talking about the phrase the students were able to connect with the story because I brought in background information. I used the Wordo/Bingo activity in the book last week in my social studies class. My mentor teacher asked if I would do an activity with the students to help with their vocabulary. So, I made blank bingo cards and typed up definitions. The students chose 24 out of 30 vocabulary words that I projected onto the screen and placed them anywhere on the bingo card. I then randomly pulled the definitions (on slips of paper) and the students marked the matching vocabulary word on their card. The sixth graders actually loved it! I’m trying it with my tutoring students this week. I hope they like it too. Of course, I will have Smarties for them too!
You are absolutely right, we have vocabulary words around us where ever we go. I never quite looked at it that way. Vocabulary can be fun. We have several activities in the DeVries book and the Shanker book that are fun. Sometimes teachers seem to do the same vocabulary sheets over and over again. I used the Wordo/Bingo game this week from the DeVries book and it was fun! I also found a book at the 1/2 price book store that uses word ladders. You start with a word at the bottom and then have terms going up the ladder that started with the first word. Bottom word Friend. Next step is vocabulary word Finish and it says to take away three letters from friend and you have End, then the next word is “to cause someone or something to go somewhere – add one letter to End – SEND. It’s pretty neat – kind of reminds me of Mad Libs.
I really like learning new words to use in my own vocabulary. I think by having conversations with my sister throughout our lives, it is possible to say that I have learned more new words from her than almost any other source! Not too long ago we were talking on the phone and she said something about someone being facetious and I said....huh??? What is that? She laughed and told me to look it up. So I did and now I try to use it sometimes when we talk just to get a laugh out of her and to prove that I now know how to use it. I think! The text makes a really good point in this chapter when it points out that children learn the words that are used in their homes and communities. I imagine if you had a conversation with a child from New York and one from south Texas, their word use and general vocabulary would be varied. Therefore, it is important for educators to introduce students to a wide array of words and to also teach them proper meaning of and how to effectively use those words in written and spoken language. One thing I have really noticed with the students in my tutor group is how limited their vocabulary is. When we are reading, if we run across any word that is not extremely commonly used they have NO idea what it is and they're 5th graders. I often wonder how they haven't picked up on some of these words in simple conversation with people. But, if they don't converse with adults very often or people that use these words there's not much chance they would know them. I have begun to really focus on vocabulary in my lessons. We have LOTS of vocab. cards and we go over new words before the day's reading, during, and again after. Then they get to use the new words in a sentence. It's a little bit of overkill I'm sure but I'm determined to broaden their vocabulary. They seem to enjoy learning new words though and if I see them around town one of them always throws a vocab. word or two at me! I like the object description activity and think I might try it with the boys!
Lol, you're right about even seeing words in bathroom stalls! Most of them though are things I don't think I'd want my students repeating! I do agree with you that teaching methods need to be varied to avoid boredom. Things that are extremely routine begin to get lost in the jumble. It sounds like you are coming up with good ideas to help your non-English speaking students!
Children need to build a vocabulary before they will be able to comprehend any test they read. Saying the words correctly will help them understand the words better. It is kind of like when your child learns to talk, you say the word like they do. Well this is just telling them that the word is being said correctly. We should teach them the correct way to say the word so they catch on quicker. This chapter broke it down into 3 ways children learn their vocabulary. I think as a teacher we need to look into this problem a little more in depth. I think we just assume that when a word is written and then read by the child, they understand what the word is, how it is said correctly and what it means. I think we need to make sure the child understands all three parts. They will feel better about reading and will be able to enjoy it better. I think we need to push the idea of the child using a dictionary to look up words they don’t understand instead of telling them. The social studies internship I am in this semester has them read the chapter. If there is a word the students don’t understand she has a student look it up in the dictionary and give the definition for the rest of the class. She has them take turns so they all figure out how to look words up in the dictionary and are able to read aloud to the rest of the class.
In response to Shylah Clark-Jarvis– I like to hear new words to add to my vocabulary as well. I know some of the words we hear nowadays are considered slang, but it is always interesting to hear other words come out. I enjoy looking up words that I have never heard to see if it something that I would find myself saying. I think this is a great attribute to teach children as well. They always hear a new word and want to repeat it but they usually have no clue what they are reading or saying.
Vocabulary is a very important part of reading and comprehension. I was having my student read aloud and I asked him if he knew the definition of a word and he did not however he read over it as if he new it and never asked what the word meant. Now I have the child stop reading when he comes to a word that he does not know the meaning of so that we can discus the meaning, this is also giving me a chance to work on reading skill such as context clues. The child I have gets nervous to guess what a word means or how it is pronounced, so it has been a challenge to pull the child out of he comfort zone. This chapter gave good ideas how to work with vocabulary. I think that it is very important to work with vocabulary that the child is going to encounter in the text they are reading. It is important because the child might not now the meaning and not want to ask.
According to page 154 in the text, I learned in this chapter that direct instruction of vocabulary is not having students define their vocabulary words the old fashion way like writing definitions. When I was in school, my teachers used to make us go home for homework and write definitions. After reading this chapter I have discovered that this type of assignment may not have been as meaningful because certain elements where missing in the instruction. These elements and or features that are included in direct instruction can enforce an assignment as such but without these elements direct instruction and vocabulary assignments as such as are meaningless. There are five powerful features of direction instruction that the chapter gives readers and teachers should take note of. Those features include new words being learned in meaningful context (this does not included the simply writing definitions out of a dictionary), the new word being related to previous knowledge, the new concept being fully understood so that the word can be used in other situations, students being able to use, hear, and see the new word repeatedly and lastly; teachers should enjoy learning new words with their students. All in all, I think the problem with teaching vocabulary comes in with the content and the assessment – many teachers don’t ask the questions, “is it developmentally appropriate for my class?” and “is it meaningful? – what purpose will it serve?” No questions for this chapter – only exposure to useful information.
For those who have not taken the Praxis 2 - Vocabulary is on the test under the Reading/LA part. More than I thought! I just took the test not long ago and was amazed with the amount of vocab questions on the test!
To shyalh You make such a great point on how children need a large range of vocabulary because they will encounter people from different areas that may have a different vocabulary. I had never really thought about the difference in vocabularies in the different regions in the united states.
In response to April B - I agree vocabulary is a very important part of comprehension. I think this goes for any subject. Students cannot successfully pass a test of any kind without having a knowledge and understanding of the words on the test. Vocab is important - across the board! Good post!
Chapter 7 was fun because I love vocabulary and new words! I also think that children love to learn new, bigger words as well. I think that meshing life experiences with new vocabulary is a very powerful tool. With all of the technology available in classrooms it is also possible to bring virtual field trips into the classroom. My son’s third grade class, last year ,actually Skyped with Jacque Cousteau’s grandson. He came home from school so excited and told me about what he had learned.
I love how the text gives us books to use in our classrooms. I am sure that my group of boys that I tutor would love Trevor Harvey’s poem, “The Curse of the Foul-Smelling Armpit.” I also think that I would enjoy Ruth Heller’s books that introduce new vocabulary. The book list on page 156 is a great resource that I will most likely use this year in tutoring.
I also appreciate the section about increasing vocabulary for English Learners. It is so nice when our textbooks specifically help modify lessons for us. I have little experience with teaching English Learners so I value any information regarding making their classroom experience the best it can be.
I love, love, love the strategies and activities at the end of each chapter. My favorite activities given are found on page 163, Listening Walk and Schoolyard Safari.
I apologize for my late blog entry. Someone broke into my car as I was out to eat with my three children on Sunday so it has been kind of chaotic. Funny thing is that they stole my 3 year old daughter’s purse which only contained some chapstick, a miniature brush, a few kids bracelets and maybe 28 cents!
I remember having to look up tons of definitions as assignments! No, it did not help me retain information at all!!! I think it is much for enjoyable and beneficial for the student to relate new content (not just vocabulary) to the real world! Thanks for sharing!
In order for students to comprehend text and move beyond the reading level that they are at, the need to build their vocabulary. Chapter 7 discusses four major issues: how to naturally expand vocabulary, how to assess struggling readers' vocabulary, how English learners' vocabulary develops, and how to build a struggling readers' vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteThe question that I had about the reading is how to help English language learners understand the concept of words that are said the same way but spelled differently and mean different things.
After reading this chapter, I will not use the vocabulary of my niece to talk to her. I realized that it is much better for her if I expose her to a larger vocabulary and try to help her understand the things that I am saying instead of making it easy for her.
Vocabulary is something that I have never had an issue with because my parents would talk around us kids like we were adults. They never used baby talk and if they used a big word that we didn't know, they made us look it up in the dictionary. I honestly think that this helped to expand my vocabulary.
I really liked the scenario in chapter seven. I liked how Mrs. Lopez had the teachers read passages that they didn’t understand just like they are having their students read. A lot of the time teachers do not think of vocabulary when they realize that their students are having problems reading and understanding the materials that they are supposed to read. I found this chapter very interesting. I didn’t realize that a child’s socioeconomic status would affect their vocabulary. I really liked how they broke down the 3 ways that children learn vocabulary. I didn’t know that children learned vocabulary in so many ways. I thought that the section over vocabulary needs of English learners was important. A lot of people new to the English language have problems with it because they vocabulary that they need to use is so different from the vocabulary in their native language. I also liked the section over increasing students’ limited vocabulary because it gave several ways that you can help increase a student’s vocabulary. As teachers we all need to be aware of student’s vocabularies and to help students learn and use new vocabulary. My 4th grade teacher would have Stump the Word every week. She had a picture of a stump and would put a word on the stump that we needed to learn. We would go to the dictionary, find the definition for the word, copy the definition down, and then write a sentence that uses that word. Every so often we would a vocabulary test over the words that she put on Stump the Word. Teachers need to think up of creative ways to implement new vocabulary into their students’ lives.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brandy:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about your question. Those types of words are hard enough for native English speakers to remember and understand. when I was in school I had trouble with there and their. Think of how confusing such words are for those who are trying to learn our language.
My parents also talked to my siblings and I like we were adults. It also helped that my parents and grandparents loved to read because they helped me learn to love to read and that has given me a huge vocabulary.
Building students’ reading vocabulary will help them in reading, as well as in many other content areas. In my internships and tutoring I have noticed that there is a very wide range of vocabulary knowledge among students. For this reason, I think it is very important to try to create time during class to have centers where students are able to work on skills like vocabulary. Many of the students who need extra help are lower income or English Language Learners. They oftentimes have simply not had the previous experiences needed to build a wide repertoire of words. Teachers can bring in visuals, take students on virtual and physical field trips, take them outside to show them different words in nature, and provide a wide variety of literature with pictures to help students build their vocabulary knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIn my tutoring group I am working with two English Language Learners. They have an average vocabulary, but this week I am going to introduce antonym and synonym dominoes. I am still completing assessments, but I already know that vocabulary building will be important for both of them after working with them the past week. I tried to find a few items that I will be able to bring in to show the students visuals of a few of the words that they may not know. I am very excited to try these out to see how they will help the students.
Dictionaries and Thesaurus’s can be very useful tools for students. We have also started creating personal dictionaries and “word wall” journals where students can write down words, synonyms, antonyms, draw pictures, write sentences, etc. to help them build vocabulary knowledge. They enjoy doing it and I know they are able to create their own reference books to build their understanding.
The assessments in this chapter were very helpful. I feel that formative and diagnostic assessments are very important because they help teachers to analyze and reflect on the things they need to change in their teaching and lessons. The textbook included another checklist in this book and I think it would be very helpful. Keeping anecdotal notes and simple records will help me to remember where students are at so that I can track their progress over the course of the school year. I also think they are helpful because teachers have written information regarding student progress that they can go to if asked to by administrators.
Brandy,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this chapter I will be much more conscious about the words I use with my young children. I will use more colorful and technical vocabulary to help them develop a larger vocabulary. We read a lot of books and my daughter has learned many vocabulary words because of it. The other day she started talking about the government (We read a book about a boy who wanted to become president) and it felt really good to hear her using some of the technical words because of what we had read. I am trying to slowly build up my own personal children's library so I will be able to expose my students to many different levels of books and content topics.
Janna,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the section over teaching ELL students vocabulary was very important. There are more students in the classroom whose first language is not English. We read in a previous chapter that English Language Learners who are not fluent readers by grade 3 or 4 are at a much higher risk of dropping out before graduation. Vocabulary is a vital component when learning to read and it will be very important to build these students' skills.
In response to Janna:
ReplyDeleteI also had no idea how much a student's SES could affect their vocabulary. When you think about it, it makes sense that those students are not exposed to a large range of vocabulary. When you are around a group of people who have a large vocabulary, you will learn a wider variety of words.
This is a great chapter but it was not one of my favorites. I did enjoy the activities that this chapter provided. I just recently had a conversation regarding Word-O, I had never heard of this activity until another colleague of mine was telling me about this activity and then here it was in this chapter! After reading more about Word-O, I have been thinking about how I could reuse it to fit my needs of the kindergarten students that I am tutoring. I have been playing around with this activity on various Kindergarten phonic skills but have not planned an exact activity yet. On page 163, there are a couple activities that I like and have used in the past. Cloud Formations after reading It looked like spilt milk, is a fun activity to do with a variety of grade levels. The listening walk is also a great one to do and I always like to do a couple in each of the seasons that school is in session to compare the different sounds that we hear.
ReplyDeleteBrandy – My nephew who is eleven has a large vocabulary and I think a lot of that is that his parents did not speak baby talk. I always found that weird when he was younger that they did not change the way they spoke to him. It was almost like he was a mini adult at age 2! As my children are getting older, I have found myself to use larger vocabulary words, that they may or may not understand, but to use that time to explain to them what those words mean.
Chapter 7 discusses the importance of building student’s vocabulary. Out textbook suggests that students learn vocabulary through life experiences, vicarious experiences, and direct instruction. It also stresses the importance of immersing children in language and print-rich environments both at home and at school. The difference of children’s vocabulary in higher SES families when compared to lower SES families amazes me. Higher SES children know 15,000 more words than lower SES children by the time they are three years old. This is because the children with higher SES families often time can afford to have a parent stay home with the child or they can afford to send them to a high-quality daycare and pre-school. In these situations, children are read to and talked to more often and by an adult with a larger vocabulary. It is important for teachers to stress vocabulary because not all children are provided with the same experiences during their time at home. Teachers need to do all they can to introduce new words and help students to understand them.
ReplyDeleteYesterday during my tutoring session, I read aloud a diary entry from the book “Puzzle Island.” In each diary entry of the book, there are four clues that help students find four hidden animals in the picture that goes along with the diary entry. At the end of the book, the clues from each entry are used to solve the puzzle. Two of the students in my tutoring group had found the four animals for the day, and the third student was struggling to find the last animal. One of the students was trying to assist this student in finding the animal by playing the “hot and cold” game. He would say you are getting warmer, hot, or colder as the other student looked for the animal. The other student who had finished finding the clues is ELL and asked me why the other student was saying things like “hot” and “cold.” He thought they were talking about the temperature of the scene in the picture. Although the ELL student was familiar with the terms “hot” and “cold,” he didn’t understand what they meant in the context of looking for an object. The “Vocabulary Needs of English Learners” section of chapter 7 on page 156 reminded me that knowing a word is much more complex then being able to recognize or use a word in a sentence. It involves knowing the literal and figurative meaning of the word, synonyms and antonyms, multiple meanings, how the word is used in oral and written expressions, and other forms of the word. After finding all the clues in our book, I had my tutoring students play a quick game of “hot and cold” so my English learner could better understand the figurative use of the words.
In response to Brooke W…
ReplyDeleteI got some good activities from this chapter as well. I think I will try Word-O and Scattergory with my tutoring groups in a couple weeks. After we score the tutoring assessments and determine the focus of our lesson plans, it will be easy to choose appropriate activities since each chapter discusses a Big 5 skill. I am looking forward to getting ideas about activities in the narrative and informational comprehension chapters we will do in the next two weeks. I think this is an area that we will focus on in my tutoring groups.
I really liked the introduction scenario to chapter 7. I think it is important to remember how specialized language can be for different subject areas. Students may have developed vocabulary that will help them in one area but not in another. It is important to assess background knowledge in new topics to determine how much instruction is needed, but also as a way to determine the vocabulary understanding of the students. I found the three word tiers on page 152 to be a great guide to follow and think that it is important to use words that students may not be familiar with. I have a friend whose boys have a vocabulary that far exceeds their grade level simply because their father introduces them to these terms. They are able to follow much more complex ideas and topics than many of their friends at these ages (7 and 9) due to this.
ReplyDeleteWhen choosing poems and books for the classroom the content of them should be important but also for the word usage. Introducing new terms to students through the use of interesting stories is a great way to teach students. They often are excited to learn new vocabulary terms in this way because it feels less like instruction. I have been working to introduce terms to my tutoring students in this way by finding books that interest them, but also have vocabulary terms that they are not familiar with. This is not to say that direct instruction of vocabulary terms should not be used but not in the rote memorization method that I remember from my education. I found many of the activities in the chapter to be great ideas for increasing vocabulary and hope to incorporate them in my tutoring and my classroom.
Response to Hannah B:
It is amazing that children from higher SES backgrounds have such a higher vocabulary base than those from lower SES backgrounds. The resources available are vastly different but I think one of the most important aspects is parental involvement, regardless of SES. When I was young we did not have a lot of money and my parents both worked (remember latch-key kid days). Despite this we frequented the public library and my parents made sure that my sister and I were read to on a regular basis. This not only helped me discover the love of reading but helped me develop a better vocabulary. It is important for teachers to introduce new words and use many different methods to involve all students in vocabulary activities.
The book says it takes to know a word, pronunciation, appropriate use in conversation and writing, multiple meanings, and its morphology. This makes sense why my teachers made us do vocabulary like we did. We had to write the meaning, use it in a sentence etc. I plan to teach in SW KS, hopefully in a small town, it will be very important for me to use vicarious experiences to help my students learn because being in rural America, and far from any big city, they will not have anything to associate many vocabulary words with. I think that the budget crunches make us more likely to teach children vicariously also. We cannot afford to go on big field trips or bring presenters and speakers to the students near as often, so using books and videos will help children still experience or see these things.
ReplyDeleteI have witnessed the effects of how we talk to young children affects their vocabulary. My nieces just turned 3 and 4, but when talking to them you would think they were already in school. Their parents (and other adults that are always around) do not use baby talk or encourage it around them. There for the girls have large vocabularies and amaze me with the words they use! I have also seen children who were babied and used baby talk with. They struggled as they got older and were not as well spoken or as comfortable speaking as other children. It’s amazing how the simplest thing of just speaking well around children can make such a difference in their learning and vocabulary.
I agree that we cannot tell a child to look up words and memorize them. They need to learn it in meaningful context, with the aid of past knowledge, be fully understood, used and presented repeatedly, and learn from a teacher who is excited about it and fun. The last part is very important, being excited and fun. Even if you don’t like it, students will be excited and more willing to learn when you show expression and do your best to make learning fun. Vocabulary was not my favorite part of school, and I found it very boring. But when my teachers would change up how we learned it I liked it a lot better. Encouraging students to figure out new words and being excited when they master an area is very important too because it motivates the child to keep trying and learning. What would be the best way to provide struggling students extra help in vocabulary without overloading them with it? Sometimes it seems we try to catch them up by giving them more words, and it ends up just making matters worse for them. Having a good vocabulary is important in all areas of our lives and education.
In response to Janna,
ReplyDeleteI agree it would be very difficult to learn vocabulary as an ELL student but it so essential! Teaching them words that are not subject specific and are used widely across the curriculum will be one of the most beneficial things we can teach them. I really like the Stump the Word activity your teacher did with you. I think that would be a great idea to add to my tutoring session
Chapter seven was over vocabulary building. This chapter was pretty easy to read as well as informative about ways to help students build their vocabulary. I really liked the idea for ESL students to write a word on one side of a note card and then on the other write the word in their native language and have them draw a picture of what the word means. I could see this as a very helpful tool in the classroom for everyday words as well as words that deal with new concepts. I also liked how the book explained direct instruction as well as ways to help students expand their own vocabularies. I always forget the importance of teaching students how to use dictionaries, thesauruses, etc. This skill is really important especially if the students use them regularly to look up words in the classroom! The activities in this chapter were also very interesting. I thought the categorizing activity in figure 7.7 was a great activity to use as well as the crossword puzzle idea.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through the chapter and knowing how important vocabularies are to children, I am glad that I didn’t talk to my children with baby talk. I have heard relatives comment on how my son knows such interesting words (they even surprise me sometimes!) and how much he talks like a grown up (in an appropriate way of course!). I can only attribute this to the fact that my husband and I always talked to our children as if they were old enough to understand exactly what we were saying! My son constantly asks me what words mean and I have to constantly remind myself that he is just building up his vocabulary!
In response to Hannah B…I agree that knowing a word can be much harder than being able to recognize or use it in a sentence! Being a teacher has such a HUGE responsibility inside and out of the classrooms! Although it can be overwhelming, the rewards are so much greater than other occupations because what could be better than starting children on their educational journey and helping them understand new concepts and subjects! What grade are you tutoring? I have the “Puzzle Island” book from when I was little and think it is such a neat book!
ReplyDeleteThe three tiers (everyday conversation, conversation of mature speakers and in literature, and words that are used in particular content) were great to learn about. I think it is great that the book encourages students to use words in the tier two because, as it states, students will model what they see. If students model the mature speaker’s word, their vocabulary is sure to grow. Also, the three ways discussed that students learn the meaning of words (life experience, vicarious experience, and direct instruction) were interesting as well. I had never thought of using videos to teach students about vocabulary, words, yes, but not videos. So, the section on learning through various experiences was interesting to me. I am eager to try many of the activities shared in the back of the book. During each guided reading activity, I share with the students many vocabulary words, so I am always looking for new ways to help the students learn these words. One activity that really caught my attention was “Schoolyard Safari” on page 163. This game is directed towards first through fourth, but I am thinking about doing this with my fifth graders because I believe it would really encourage them to participate in the activity. The students really enjoy sharing their input, so I think mixing this desire with learning vocabulary would be a sneaky way for them to learn while having fun! Other activities I liked were Wordo, Hink Pinks, and Dictionary: Guide Words.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I tried the website (www.languageguide.org/English) mentioned on page 173 and thought it was neat for beginning students. The third grade class I am currently interning in is learning about the digestive system. I think they would enjoy being allowed to look at the body and hear the system’s parts.
In response to Brooke W., Word-O was one of my top favorite activities from this chapter as well. The other was the Schoolyard Safari, I think older students really seem to enjoy an assignment more when they get to add their own flare to the assignment, and in this activity it would be the adjectives. Students can get pretty creative, so I think it’d be fun to hear what they come up with! I could list lots of activities from this chapter that I look forward to doing, I feel like I’m going to run out of ideas by the time we’re done because I’ve tried to do vocabulary activities with each of my guided reading activities so far, so this chapter was a real idea booster for me. I am excited to try many of the activities.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you mentioned that you are throwing around ideas on how to manipulate the Word-O game to fit your students’ needs. I enjoy reading all the activities at the end of the chapters, but sometimes when I read the grade levels they are geared towards, I’m not so thrilled. Many times this semester I’ve altered an activity to fit my students’ age group, it’s almost more exciting to manipulate an activity, use it, and see it succeed than simply using another’s idea and seeing it succeed. Good luck coming up with a way to incorporate the Word-O activity!! :)
I thought chapter seven was incredibly helpful and I found I could definitely relate it to my internships. My tutoring students have quite a bit of trouble with vocabulary so I will take these ideas back to my sessions and apply them. I thought the section that talked about students' background knowledge of vocabulary was very interesting and it made a lot of sense to me. I never really thought about what a huge effect parents had on the vocabulary of their children. It makes sense that children learn the majority of their vocabulary by listening to their parents or other adults speak in everyday life. This chapter also talked about the media and how it increases children's vocabularies. I"m not quite sure if i agree with this or not. I think a lot of what children watch on tv nowadays teaches bad vocabulary instead of increasing it. I paid close attention to the section talking about the vocabulary needs of English learners because I can relate a lot of this to my tutoring. I think building their vocabulary by looking at words that relate to words in their language is a great idea because if the spelling is close they'll be able to connect the meanings. I really enjoyed reading this chapter and I think all sections were equally important when teaching children vocabulary skills. I liked the interventions especially in this chapter. I found that I could modify each activity to all ranges of students, from students with struggling vocabularies to students with exceptional vocabularies. I know I will be referring back to these intervention ideas in my classroom and even for my tutoring sessions.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Emily, I also loved reading about the tiers, and I think it's great for teachers to pay close attention to all three. I think a lot more emphasis needs to be placed on tier two vocabulary words because I think the majority of students solely pay attention and use everyday words that are familiar to them.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was beneficial because it gave us several ideas in teaching vocabulary. It also reinforces how important it is. I have seen many students who are extremely low in vocabulary. Most I believe is just from lack of experiences. I don't work with a lot of ESOL students but I'm sure that it is difficult for them as well. I liked the part of the reading where the principal gives the teachers text they cannot read. I think that that experience would truly hit home. Sometimes we don't realize how students may struggle because we find the material somewhat easy. I have never seen the total physical response used. I would like to see that used to see how effective it is.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jaclyn C: After reading your post I remembered how surprised I was by the amount of dictionary work that the book said students need. Some students I see know very little about the dictionary. I think some believe it is not necessary because of the internet. It was nice to read that it is still a needed skill. I also believe anecdotal notes are important. They can help you remember key information regarding the students.
ReplyDeleteBrandy:
ReplyDeleteI was an only child and I was always talked to as an adult. My mother had a beauty shop attached to our house, so from the time I was two I was surrounded by adults and had lots of opportunity for interaction. I think that was very beneficial to me in becoming an early reader and having an appreciation of all types of reading materials.
Vocabulary is discussed in Chapter 7, and I found the introduction to be comical. The principal used a very good strategy by having the teachers realize how it feels when the content of the passage is not understood. There have been many instances when I have seen teachers exasperated because children just didn't seem to get it. Little did they realize the children more than likely have not been exposed to the terms given. If the teachers uses common terms and then links it to the new vocabulary it would make more sense to the student.
ReplyDeleteI think the one neat book that I found this semester for my library is "Max's Words". The boy has two brothers that collects stamps and coins and Max decides to collect words. After he has collected so many words, he decides to make up a story. I hope when I get into a classroom, I can begin the year with this story and each student will have a word jar. The children can then put the new vocabulary words into the jar.
In response to Tyler:
ReplyDeleteI don't feel that I grew up with affluence either. My parents both had jobs, although my mom worked inside of the home. I agree though that it boils down to more parental involvement than how much money you have. My mom always took me to the public library and in turn I have done the same with my children. The local library offers many activities for children that are free of charge and they just have to register for it. Unfortunately, the numbers of participants are low compared to the size of the town.
In response to Janel...I think you are absolutely right about the budget crisis driving the need for providing more vicarious experiences for our students. In our district, field trips have been completely eliminated except in a few exceptional cases. Nice examples with your nieces of how we can expose children at young ages to broad vocabularies successfully. Thanks for sharing! Julie
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 provides a good, real-life scenario with Mrs. Lopez...wow, hope I could pass the test! Vocabulary knowledge is so crucial for comprehension - I think the scenario illustrated that perfectly. I can relate to the section on providing vicarious experiences to young students. As "real-life" experiences become more difficult to share with our students (example: no field trips due to budgets being slashed), we will be responsible for meaningful vicarious experiences for our students. I copied down a few titles from figure 7.2, the book list featuring vocabulary, homonyms, puns, and idioms. As a past Enrichment/Gifted program aide, I have heard of and used some of these with great success in small groups. Of course, who couldn't love the queen of idioms, Amelia Bedelia? I have also found that doing analogies with students as young as 1st and 2nd grade seems quite successful in vocab building. By far,the most useful section to me regarding vocabulary was the Intervention section with fantastic ideas for helping those with limited vocabularies to expand. I appreciate all of the very specific activities listed in this chapter and look forward to using many of them.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the scenario for Chapter7. Mrs. Lopez had a great idea of showing through example. Vocabulary is very important for children. I enjoy the statement “Knowing a word, however, is more than merely understanding it when someone says it.” Understanding the pronunciation, knowing the multiple meanings, using it in writing, using it in conversation, and knowing its morphology are all parts to knowing a word. I hadn’t ever put much thought into how a child develops vocabulary but it makes sense that their community would have an impact. I can remember when I was younger a tour bus came through our town and stopped. They spoke a lot differently and I didn’t know what they talked about because I had never been to a huge city before. I also learned the 5 essential ingredients for effective vocabulary instruction. The idea shown in figure 7.4 was great! Making a word web to demonstrate word relationships is awesome! That could be adapted so many ways to help all the students learn new vocabulary. I also hadn’t put much thought into assessing a child’s vocabulary so I learned a lot about different ways to do that. Chapter 7 had a lot of great activities I hope to use with my students.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Royce:
ReplyDeleteI LOVED Max's Words! A teacher I helped when I was in Garden City did a unit on that book and had each of the students start their own word collection in a little notebook. They were asked to find words they liked, didn't know, or thought looked funny etc. Towards the end of the unit the students were asked to share a couple of their words including one they had to look up. That's a great book for a vocabulary lesson!!!
Chapter seven covered vocabulary. This is actually something I could relate to this week. To begin with, children definitely have to have some background with the words for them to know and understand, or as the chapter said, "vicarious experiences". This week while reading an ABC book of animals in the rain forest, some words can up that left the class clueless. The word I remember standing out that was unknown was "school" as in school of fish. The students knew school meant where they were at, but didn't understand why it was being used with fish. I explained to them that when fish swim in groups, whether small or large, this is called a school. When using reference books, antonyms, synonyms, and other techniques, students, including ELL students, can better understand their vocabulary if they are struggling. The graphic organizer on page 159 is a great example of a way to classify and define words.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shaina G.: Where did you grow up? And where were the people on the tour from?
ReplyDeleteVocabulary building is an essential part of the reading process. Vocabulary can affect a student’s comprehension if the words they are reading are unknown to them. One of the most impactful sentences that I read in this chapter can be found on pg. 156 under the title heading “Vocabualry Needs of English Learners”. The research found between ELL and SES indicates that socioeconomic status affects student’s vocabulary and, “thus, their success in school more than being an English Learner.” This was very interesting to me. Children by the age of 3 in a high SES know 5 times as many words than a 3 year old from a low SES. Knowing your students and where they come from is essential for meeting students’ vocabulary needs. In the school that I am doing my internship in vocabulary building is essential. This school is a Title 1 school that has a very high ELL population as well. Word walls can be found everywhere, everyday objects are labeled in Espanola and English and the school has adopted a school wide vocabulary plan that has the students, in older grades, whole class, in younger grades develop vocabulary cards where they identify the word, draw a picture, write the formal definition and then put the definition in their own words. This is a form of Marzano vocabulary instruction. I think that this chapter has provided many great instructional strategies that will aid in the development of vocabulary instruction but I think that first and foremost the classroom needs to be both rich in literacy and vocabulary. Identifying words before a story is read in guided reading groups or discussing unknown words while reading read alouds is a great way to build vocabulary. I think that it would be a great idea to have note cards handy while doing a read aloud so you can write the words on the card and use the Marzano vocab instruction to elaborate on the word. These words can be added to the word wall. My teacher does a lot her vocab instruction through prezi.com. This is an easy to make PowerPoint website that is free and fun! The kids really enjoy this! As a teacher you cannot control the life experiences that a student comes in with but you can definitely fill in the gaps through vicarious experiences, classroom experiences, and direct instruction. This will greatly increase a students’ comprehension!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shaina G:
In my previous classes it has been taught how important assessment is to understand the needs of your students. This class has made this very clear. Living the assessment process and understanding how I need to use the assessments to drive my instruction has been a very crystal clear process for me. I need to know where my students are in the learning process so I can plan for their individual needs. I too agree that this chapter has provided great assessment tools. This part of the chapters has been my favorite part of the reading, 2nd to the skill building activities.
Vocabulary is an area I have been focusing on with my tutoring students. The chapter mentions the differences in reading ability of students who have been exposed to a rich variety of words, and those who haven’t. I have been surprised at the number of words my two students have not heard of before, in the 4th grade! They have also not had the experiences others may have had that would build their vocabulary, so much of the reading material I am choosing helps to build their experiences vicariously, a suggestion in the chapter.
ReplyDeleteThe information I found most interesting mentioned the effect of socio-economic status (SES) on a child’s vocabulary. In fact, the most surprising to me was the study that showed even ELL students who had a higher SES often did the same or better than non-ELL students with a lower SES. Because, as teachers, we have no ability to change a student’s SES, we must focus our efforts on expanding vocabulary through other means. The text gives many, many great examples of activities.
Although the activities have grade level suggestions, I have decided to sometimes use those with a lower grade level than my 4th graders, as their vocabulary and decoding skills are so much lower than they should be. I’ve found that some of the activities geared towards the upper grades are too complex or require a greater level of ability than students at low levels express.
In response to Holly D.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment of the media not always teaching better grammar and vocabulary. When reading comments on YouTube or blogging, it seems that young teens are the worst at writing effectively and understandably.
Chapter 7 dealt a lot with building vocabulary by using general background knowledge, or life experiences and vicarious experiences. The text says that poems are a great way for students to vocabulary because of their rich language. The text also talks about the vocabulary needs of English learners. I have had to include ESOL accommodations in my internship (social studies and science). Vocabulary cards and picture cards are a good tool for helping ESOL students learn certain words from the lesson. These students also need to be able to ask frequent questions to clarify what is expected. I also repeated what other students said when they answered questions and reworded their questions so that the ESOL students had another opportunity to follow the conversation. The activities in this chapter are pretty good again. I have seen a lot of teachers use crosswords, but until now I was unsure of how helpful they actually were. I understand better now the use of them, if used correctly they can help progress student’s vocabulary. Scatagory is one of my favorite games so I thought it was neat to see it in the activities listed in this chapter, I hadn’t thought about doing this with my students but I think it would be a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Lori:
ReplyDeleteI bet that was confusing for them! There are a lot of words in the English language that have double meanings and kids find that very confusing. I can only imagine being an ESOL student and having to learn 2 meaning for 1 word.
In response to Sara C.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised that ELL students with higher SES had better vocabulary than lower SES students that were not ELL. I have seen evidence of this in the my internships and when I worked as a para. I guess I just didn't make the connection.
I found this chapter a little harder to read. It contained a lot of information; but much of it was the same, or I felt like it repeated from other chapters,
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any questions about the chapter, but I do finally realize why my eldest daughter always talked so grown up. I never talked to her like a baby. She grew up in the presence of my grandparents and we just talked to her like normal. As she got into school, she talked and acted more mature than her fellow students.
On page 175, the book talks about Hink Pinks. Just this past week in my Interning in Social Studies she used these as her Bell Work. I had never heard of them before but I am definitely going to use them often in my classroom. I love them and they class had a great time!!!
In response to Royce….
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on linking vocabulary to the what the children are learning. AND I loved ‘Max’s Words’. Your idea of a word jar for the students is stupendous!!! What a great idea!
Chapter 7 talks about Vocabulary Building. I am on a research team, and we are working with ELL students. I cannot stress enough how important it is to stress vocabulary building. My partner and I made a booklet for the students to use throughout the chapter they are studying. I talked to the ESL instructor, and she said that the students do poorly on the assessments due to the fact they don’t understand some of the terminology. One item that really stood out to me was how the words can be broken up into tiers. Tier one words are common words used in everyday conversation, tier two words consists of less frequent words that appear in the conversation of mature speakers and in literature, and tier three words are rare words that are used in particular content. Another point that was made focused on knowing a word. Sometimes I think students appear to know certain things about the word but not necessarily its true meaning. As a teacher, how do you make sure a student knows every word? Knowing a word and knowing its multiple meanings I think is tough for ELL students. Students who are struggling with reading tend to have a limited vocabulary. That statement really makes a lot of sense to me, and it made me realize even more how important expanding a child’s vocabulary can be. In the book it said that you can increase a child’s vocabulary by making them “roar.” What they mean by roar is, let the students act out the words. Demonstrating different verbs would be a fun activity for the students to do.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Debbie M:
ReplyDeleteI think this chapter is repetitive because it just wants to stress how important building vocabulary is for students. Since classrooms are becoming more diverse I think that is why vocabulary has become an even bigger issue. It is neat to read things in the text and see it in action in the classroom! Kudos to you for not talking to your child in baby talk!
Chapter 7 was all about vocabulary and teaching it so that students are increasing their everyday vocabulary. I think that the section that really stood out for me was the section on direct instruction. The text stated that direct instruction need not mean giving the students a list of words to look up in the dictionary and memorize. (pg. 154) I agree with this, in order for a student to truly learn new vocabulary, they need to use the word repeatedly and in different situations. In fact the text lists 5 essential ingredients for effective direct instruction of vocabulary, these are: 1) new words must be learned in meaningful context; 2) the new word must be related to previous knowledge; 3) the new word or concept must be fully understood so that the word can be used in new situations; 4) students must use, hear, and see the new word repeatedly; and 5) teachers should enjoy learning new words with their students. These I think are all important for students to succeed with vocabulary. I found the activities in the chapter to be interesting. There were several that I thought would be great to use in my classroom and even with my tutoring students.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Kim D.... I agree that poems can be a great source of vocabulary, especially the poems by Shel Silverstein. I agree with you that picture and vocab cards are great for ESOL learners. I use these a lot in my adaptations on my lesson plans. I found the activities to good in this chapter as well. My daughter is in junior high and is always working on a crossword puzzle for English to help with learning her vocabulary or spelling words. I think that these would be a great tool to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter really opened my eyes to the importance of building students’ vocabulary. I also found this chapter incredibly helpful because it relates to my students in my tutoring group. Our textbook stresses the importance of immersing children in a language and print-rich environment. During my internships I have noticed that my mentor teachers try to make their classrooms print-rich my labeling items around the classroom and constructing a word wall, for example. Vocabulary development is also important because it directly relates to reading comprehension. One student in my tutoring group is an English language learner and although she can read fine, she cannot comprehend text. I think the cause of this is vocabulary knowledge. I hope to implement several activities suggested in our textbook to help all my students expand their vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brandy,
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, Brandy, I think it so important that we don’t use baby talk when talking to younger children. It’s great that you’re parents encourage you to look up unknown words in the dictionary – I’m sure this helped your vocabulary development! I would also like to know more about the question you posed. I can see how the concept of such words would be difficult for an ELL student to understand. I hope to find some strategies for this as well.
The scenario given at the beginning of the chapter would be an eye opener for teachers as well as it was for me. It is crucial for someone to understand what is being read or what they are reading to know the vocabulary. The chapter did a great job of summing up how a child knows a word, they need to see, hear, say and use it in many different settings. I liked this compared to several of the other ideas given because it is short and sweet and I can remember this as I am teaching. I have always been a fan of learning through vicarious experiences. The children like being able to see something even if they may never experience it first hand. Like the previous chapters I enjoyed the activities in the back and I can see how they would be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Sara,
ReplyDeleteI agree the activities are fantastic however, sometimes it is better to do the ones just a step below their grade level. I am glad this chapter is so useful to you right now especially with your tutoring. What I loved most about this chapter was that children need to see, hear, say and use the word. It gave it to me plain and simple and sometimes just those few key words can remind us how to implement new vocabulary to our students.
I am anxious to hear if you tried any of the activities with your students and what the outcomes are.
Melinda S.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 was all about vocabulary building. I really liked where the book listed what it means to know a word. There were five steps to understanding words. They are knowing how to pronounce it correctly, knowing how to use it in conversation, knowing how to use it when writing, knowing its multiple meanings, and knowing its morphology. I thought these were really important to focus on. Some students may know a few of these steps but not all of them so technically they do not truly “know” the word. As teachers we need to be able to identify which step students are missing and fill in the gaps to each word. This seems like a huge task as there are so many words and quite a few students. But the book provided excellent activities to help build vocabulary in the classroom. One of the activities I really liked was the schoolyard safari. It has the student use descriptive word for the playgound. I also liked the categorizing activity. There are many ways you could use this in your classroom. You can categorize your entire classroom and every subject area. The game Wordo I thought was a great game for students to learn while also having fun.
In response to Margaret W.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the 5 essential ingredients as well. It is a great list for teachers to look back at and refer to when teaching vocabulary. They will lead us to help all the students as they discover new vocabulary.
Brandy:
ReplyDeleteI also will no longer talk to my nieces how they talk tome. I will make sure I talk to them using the right language, and proper grown up language that they will be taught in schools.
In the beginning of the chapter reading, it was connecting to me because of the vocabulary building and the life experience with children. When working with my nieces and nephews on homework sometimes or working with my religion class on words, it is interesting to hear their vocabulary. It also reflects on the children’s surroundings such as at home and friends. Such as the “vicarious experience” , when I was a case manager the students that I worked with only talked about legos and video games; Lugei (not sure if I spelled it right) and Mario. They enjoy those activities and then I would discuss with them activities such as sports or outside activities like fishing. They were not sure about that activity but rather be inside than outside. With this chapter reading it discussed about vocabulary and different resources we can use to expand the vocabulary of children. In the reading it discussed wordless books which I worked on with my niece. She decided to write with words and draw. My niece is 5 years old and will be attending pre-school next year so I feel that this will be good practice for her. One of the activities that I would use is the cross word puzzle. With my group of students they seem they would enjoy this activity because it isn’t boring work.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was interesting to me because it made me aware of how important it is to talk to children the way that they should be talking to other adults. It's important that they hear the way they are supposed to be talking, no baby talking.
ReplyDeleteI am very guilty at this because my nieces say the cutest things and I tend to repeat what they say. I need to make sure that I repeat what they say, but in the correct proper way.
I also learned how important it is to get our students involved with vocabulary at a young age. A lot of parents don't understand how important it is to read to your children and to start working with your children at a very young age. This helps them exceed in the long run.
I liked that it gave us examples of how to increase students limited vocabulary. These are great activities we could give to parents so they can start working with their children at an early age.
Response to Melinda S.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the "Wordo" game being a great activity for the students. On the activity on missing letters, I substituted for a first grade class and we worked on missing letter worksheet and the students did very well.
Vocabulary is all around us everyday; we see words on road signs, businesses, in books, and even in the bathroom stalls. I think it is important for all children to be exposed to new vocabulary during the school year; however, I think it needs to be fun and exciting for them. When I was in elementary school, I remember having a vocabulary test every single week and we would do the same routine over and over. After a while, it got very boring and I can honestly say that I couldn’t remember one word from the dozens of lists we used each week. In my tutoring group right now, I have incorporated Spanish into my vocabulary flashcards because one of my kiddos cannot speak English very well; I’ve also had to include pictures. As I was reading through the book, I noticed a lot of different vocabulary activities that would be fun for the children to do during our time in the afternoon. I really liked the schoolyard safari activity; this would be great for the students because it would give them a chance to be outside instead of in the classroom. I also liked the origin of words activity also; I felt like this one would get them really interested in each of their vocabulary words because they have a chance of picking one they are interested in; not ones that we pick out and give to them. On the FCRR website, I found other ideas that I will be using for my students later on during this semester; I think it will be lots of fun!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Melinda:
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! These steps seemed to be very effective and when I was younger, I never remember covering any of these or even hearing them at all. I do believe that if we figure out what steps are students are missing, then we will be able to help them be more successful at learning vocabulary.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter because I currently have two ESOL students in my tutoring group and I feel that vocabulary is such a strong area that needs attention paid to for foreign students who are learning English. As it states on page 152, “Research indicates a strong connection between readers’ vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension.” I also liked that the chapter pointed out the need for students to have vicarious experiences in order to increase their vocabulary banks. Using dictionaries and thesaurus’s can also be good tools for students to use in learning new vocabulary words. In my tutoring group we have a word wall that introduces new words that the students may not previously know. By going on virtual field trips, using visuals, or technology, students can be exposed to an immense amount of vocabulary. I thought that this chapter included a lot of fun activities that could definitely be incorporated into my tutoring sessions. I found this chapter to include a lot of useful information that I can apply currently in my tutoring group and when I become a teacher in the future!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Brandy—I really liked that you were able to relate this chapter to the way that you talk to your niece and how your parents talked to you when you were a child. I don’t ever remember my parents talking to me as though I was a baby and vocabulary was never a problem for me. However, my boyfriend’s younger step-sister was always talked to like a baby and today she talks like a baby and is 12 years old. She talks very quietly and child-like and her mom still uses words that are very baby-ish. It is sad to see this happen. This chapter gave me great activity ideas that I will definitely incorporate into my tutoring group since I have two ESOL students.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Becky H...
ReplyDeleteI too am glad that I do not talk to my children in baby talk. It is very frustrating when I hear someone talk to their child as if they were a baby. I know someone who still does this with their first grader. This is very damaging to their development. It effects the way that they pronounce and spell words.
Reading this chapter reminded me of an assignment in my reading and language arts methods class. It was over the six trait writing model and one of the categories students are graded over using this model is word choice. Children need to constantly build upon their vocabulary to create sentences that correspond with their grade and age. My children are always asking us all the time what a word or a phrase means.
ReplyDeleteOne idea presented in the book for ESL students was that they write the word one side and then write the word again on the other side in their native language as well as draw a picture of the word. This could even be modified for non ESL students. Students could draw a picture and write different words on the back that all describe the picture they drew.
One thing I don't think I see in schools is students using thesaurus and dictionaries. They rely more on computers to do the work for them which weakens their ability to recognize these errors on their own.
The opening scenario in Chapter 7 really brings into focus how important it is to teach vocabulary words the students will be reading about in their lessons. From the passages Mrs. Lopez gave her teachers, all I could get from them were they were about music.
ReplyDeleteLast year, in my Reading internship, I pre-read a story that I was going to share with my class. One phrase in the story had me baffled. I thought, “If I can’t figure this out, how are my student’s going to understand.” The phrase was “above the salt,” and it referred to the seating arrangement at the dinner table and where the salt cellars were placed. If you were a guest of importance, you would sit above the salt closest to the host. If you were a child at the dinner table, then you sat below the salt, away from the host. I brought in my crystal salt cellars from home to show my students what a salt cellar looks like. Most of them thought that a salt cellar was a basement with salt. By bringing in the salt cellars and talking about the phrase the students were able to connect with the story because I brought in background information.
I used the Wordo/Bingo activity in the book last week in my social studies class. My mentor teacher asked if I would do an activity with the students to help with their vocabulary. So, I made blank bingo cards and typed up definitions. The students chose 24 out of 30 vocabulary words that I projected onto the screen and placed them anywhere on the bingo card. I then randomly pulled the definitions (on slips of paper) and the students marked the matching vocabulary word on their card. The sixth graders actually loved it! I’m trying it with my tutoring students this week. I hope they like it too. Of course, I will have Smarties for them too!
In response to Lacey,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right, we have vocabulary words around us where ever we go. I never quite looked at it that way. Vocabulary can be fun. We have several activities in the DeVries book and the Shanker book that are fun. Sometimes teachers seem to do the same vocabulary sheets over and over again. I used the Wordo/Bingo game this week from the DeVries book and it was fun! I also found a book at the 1/2 price book store that uses word ladders. You start with a word at the bottom and then have terms going up the ladder that started with the first word. Bottom word Friend. Next step is vocabulary word Finish and it says to take away three letters from friend and you have End, then the next word is “to cause someone or something to go somewhere – add one letter to End – SEND. It’s pretty neat – kind of reminds me of Mad Libs.
I really like learning new words to use in my own vocabulary. I think by having conversations with my sister throughout our lives, it is possible to say that I have learned more new words from her than almost any other source! Not too long ago we were talking on the phone and she said something about someone being facetious and I said....huh??? What is that? She laughed and told me to look it up. So I did and now I try to use it sometimes when we talk just to get a laugh out of her and to prove that I now know how to use it. I think! The text makes a really good point in this chapter when it points out that children learn the words that are used in their homes and communities. I imagine if you had a conversation with a child from New York and one from south Texas, their word use and general vocabulary would be varied. Therefore, it is important for educators to introduce students to a wide array of words and to also teach them proper meaning of and how to effectively use those words in written and spoken language. One thing I have really noticed with the students in my tutor group is how limited their vocabulary is. When we are reading, if we run across any word that is not extremely commonly used they have NO idea what it is and they're 5th graders. I often wonder how they haven't picked up on some of these words in simple conversation with people. But, if they don't converse with adults very often or people that use these words there's not much chance they would know them. I have begun to really focus on vocabulary in my lessons. We have LOTS of vocab. cards and we go over new words before the day's reading, during, and again after. Then they get to use the new words in a sentence. It's a little bit of overkill I'm sure but I'm determined to broaden their vocabulary. They seem to enjoy learning new words though and if I see them around town one of them always throws a vocab. word or two at me! I like the object description activity and think I might try it with the boys!
ReplyDeleteLaceykaye,
ReplyDeleteLol, you're right about even seeing words in bathroom stalls! Most of them though are things I don't think I'd want my students repeating! I do agree with you that teaching methods need to be varied to avoid boredom. Things that are extremely routine begin to get lost in the jumble. It sounds like you are coming up with good ideas to help your non-English speaking students!
Children need to build a vocabulary before they will be able to comprehend any test they read. Saying the words correctly will help them understand the words better. It is kind of like when your child learns to talk, you say the word like they do. Well this is just telling them that the word is being said correctly. We should teach them the correct way to say the word so they catch on quicker. This chapter broke it down into 3 ways children learn their vocabulary. I think as a teacher we need to look into this problem a little more in depth. I think we just assume that when a word is written and then read by the child, they understand what the word is, how it is said correctly and what it means. I think we need to make sure the child understands all three parts. They will feel better about reading and will be able to enjoy it better. I think we need to push the idea of the child using a dictionary to look up words they don’t understand instead of telling them. The social studies internship I am in this semester has them read the chapter. If there is a word the students don’t understand she has a student look it up in the dictionary and give the definition for the rest of the class. She has them take turns so they all figure out how to look words up in the dictionary and are able to read aloud to the rest of the class.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shylah Clark-Jarvis–
ReplyDeleteI like to hear new words to add to my vocabulary as well. I know some of the words we hear nowadays are considered slang, but it is always interesting to hear other words come out. I enjoy looking up words that I have never heard to see if it something that I would find myself saying. I think this is a great attribute to teach children as well. They always hear a new word and want to repeat it but they usually have no clue what they are reading or saying.
Vocabulary is a very important part of reading and comprehension. I was having my student read aloud and I asked him if he knew the definition of a word and he did not however he read over it as if he new it and never asked what the word meant. Now I have the child stop reading when he comes to a word that he does not know the meaning of so that we can discus the meaning, this is also giving me a chance to work on reading skill such as context clues. The child I have gets nervous to guess what a word means or how it is pronounced, so it has been a challenge to pull the child out of he comfort zone. This chapter gave good ideas how to work with vocabulary. I think that it is very important to work with vocabulary that the child is going to encounter in the text they are reading. It is important because the child might not now the meaning and not want to ask.
ReplyDeleteAccording to page 154 in the text, I learned in this chapter that direct instruction of vocabulary is not having students define their vocabulary words the old fashion way like writing definitions. When I was in school, my teachers used to make us go home for homework and write definitions. After reading this chapter I have discovered that this type of assignment may not have been as meaningful because certain elements where missing in the instruction. These elements and or features that are included in direct instruction can enforce an assignment as such but without these elements direct instruction and vocabulary assignments as such as are meaningless. There are five powerful features of direction instruction that the chapter gives readers and teachers should take note of. Those features include new words being learned in meaningful context (this does not included the simply writing definitions out of a dictionary), the new word being related to previous knowledge, the new concept being fully understood so that the word can be used in other situations, students being able to use, hear, and see the new word repeatedly and lastly; teachers should enjoy learning new words with their students. All in all, I think the problem with teaching vocabulary comes in with the content and the assessment – many teachers don’t ask the questions, “is it developmentally appropriate for my class?” and “is it meaningful? – what purpose will it serve?” No questions for this chapter – only exposure to useful information.
ReplyDeleteFor those who have not taken the Praxis 2 - Vocabulary is on the test under the Reading/LA part. More than I thought! I just took the test not long ago and was amazed with the amount of vocab questions on the test!
ReplyDeleteTo shyalh
ReplyDeleteYou make such a great point on how children need a large range of vocabulary because they will encounter people from different areas that may have a different vocabulary. I had never really thought about the difference in vocabularies in the different regions in the united states.
In response to April B - I agree vocabulary is a very important part of comprehension. I think this goes for any subject. Students cannot successfully pass a test of any kind without having a knowledge and understanding of the words on the test. Vocab is important - across the board! Good post!
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 was fun because I love vocabulary and new words! I also think that children love to learn new, bigger words as well. I think that meshing life experiences with new vocabulary is a very powerful tool. With all of the technology available in classrooms it is also possible to bring virtual field trips into the classroom. My son’s third grade class, last year ,actually Skyped with Jacque Cousteau’s grandson. He came home from school so excited and told me about what he had learned.
ReplyDeleteI love how the text gives us books to use in our classrooms. I am sure that my group of boys that I tutor would love Trevor Harvey’s poem, “The Curse of the Foul-Smelling Armpit.” I also think that I would enjoy Ruth Heller’s books that introduce new vocabulary. The book list on page 156 is a great resource that I will most likely use this year in tutoring.
I also appreciate the section about increasing vocabulary for English Learners. It is so nice when our textbooks specifically help modify lessons for us. I have little experience with teaching English Learners so I value any information regarding making their classroom experience the best it can be.
I love, love, love the strategies and activities at the end of each chapter. My favorite activities given are found on page 163, Listening Walk and Schoolyard Safari.
I apologize for my late blog entry. Someone broke into my car as I was out to eat with my three children on Sunday so it has been kind of chaotic. Funny thing is that they stole my 3 year old daughter’s purse which only contained some chapstick, a miniature brush, a few kids bracelets and maybe 28 cents!
In response to Irv:
ReplyDeleteI remember having to look up tons of definitions as assignments! No, it did not help me retain information at all!!! I think it is much for enjoyable and beneficial for the student to relate new content (not just vocabulary) to the real world! Thanks for sharing!