I always expeirenced vocabulary in the "look it up" strategy as I would call it. We would have our list of vocabulary and throughout the week we would be responsible for looking the words up in a dictionary and their would be a test on them on Friday. This is probably the one thing that I dreaded most about literature in general. However, it is refreshing to see that in today's classroom there is a much greater focus on vocabulary and teachers have gotten very creative in helping students learn these terms. For instance, in a 2nd grade classroom that I have observed in they had a word wall that literally was an entire wall. It was so colorful and informative. Each week the class would post seven new words to the wall. Throughout the week they would define these words in their own terms and act them out each day. They would also add illustrations to the wall throughout the week. I thought this was just stellar.
We went to a professional development seminar Friday and they spoke about how it is great to incorporate movement into the classroom and I think that with vocabulary there is a great need for movement since students retain 90% of what they do.
I am so excited to use some of the vocabulary strategies in my classroom. There are some things that I am unsure about such as, how much time would be sufficient for teaching vocabulary each day? Also, what would be some was to scaffold the students learning of the vocabulary each week?
Hey Jordon! I agree with you about this chapter being interesting, especially because I worry about teaching vocabulary to my future students. I really like how you observed a class that acted out words on their word wall! That’s a really creative way to get students involved in learning new vocabulary. One of my questions after reading this chapter was how do I get students to want to learn new vocabulary? You definitely helped with your observation of a colorful word wall. I think it is important to get students excited about learning new words and color, illustrations, and acting out words is definitely a great way to start! Acting out the vocabulary words kind of reminded me of charades; it also reminded me of the games we played in class on Tuesday. I think using games is another great way to teach students new vocabulary in a fun and exciting way. I also wonder how much time should be sent on teaching vocabulary each day. Your response to the chapter also had me wondering how often is it appropriate to have students look up a vocabulary word themselves, rather than telling them what the word means. I don’t want to spend too much of my instructional time looking in the dictionary for vocabulary words. Great blog post, it really made me think!
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