Chapter 8 lists four kinds of vocabulary:
1. Speaking (words we use in conversation).
2.Listening (words we understand through hearing).
3.Reading (words we read and comprehend).
4. Writing (words we can write to convey messages).
There are different levels of knowing words, so possessing a large oral vocabulary can help the students to better understand what they are reading. Their word knowledge combined with their knowledge of the topic helps comprehension. The four levels of knowing words include the following.
1. I've never seen the word before.
2. I've heard of it, but I don't know what it means.
3. I recognize it in context and I can tell you what it means.
4. I know the word well.
Our goal should be for the students to move through these levels of knowing by teaching lessons that include the following aspects of vocabulary learning.
Word Consciousness/Being Interested in Words and Word Learning.
We can help our students develop an awareness and love of new words through daily read-alouds of high quality children's literature (fiction and nonfiction), reading and speaking with rich language in meaningful contexts.
Learning Through Direct Teaching of New Words
Forget the old school method of copying dictionary definitions or having students memorize words for a test. The author's suggestion is to connect new words to contex and encourage the students to use them in their oral and print vocabularies.
Word Learning Strategies (for Indirect Learning)
Many students have not learned to pay attention to new words because they have not been exposed to rich vocabulary. The students should be taught word-learning strategies so they can add to their repertoire of vocabulary words more rapidly. Strategies to teach the students to try to determine the meaning of a new word or phrase include:
1. Using the pictures.
2. Looking at other words/context clues located before and after the new word.
3. Substituting another word that makes sense in place of the the new word.
4. Asking someone its meaning.
5. Using a dictionary or glossary.
Once the students have learned about a new word, they need to be encouraged and given opportunities to use it in a variety of ways before, during and after the reading.
Small Group Instruction
Focusing on vocabulary in small groups will give students additional guided practice in learning to stop and notice new words as they read, so they can learn how to learn new words. Small group lesson possibilities include teaching the students strategies 1-5 as well as:
1. Using word parts to determine meanings so they will be on the lookout for old words with new meanings or multiple meaning words.
2. Thinking about book language(figurative language) and idioms.
3. Using text features like bold and italicized words in informational text.
Choosing Materials
Think about the word-learning strategies you want your students to use in the lesson to be sure those kinds of opportunities exists in the book, story or passage you select.
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FROM: D. SKAGGS
ReplyDeleteVocabulary is an important part of mathematics instruction. Some of the lesson strategies used in reading can be used in math as well. Students can use pictures to learn math vocabulary as well as using number sentences. Other words such as sum or product can be taught in context. Finally, many mathematical words can be taught using content specific strategies.
To evaluate the students vocabulary I often use informaly questions as students leave my room or line up to come in. Formal assessments of vocabulary are difficult because the vocabulary is often second to a specific SE and it is difficult to diagnose through testing whether the child does not know the voacabulry word on the mathematical objective.
Posted by 5th Grade Math-Mr.Le
ReplyDeleteReflection: I reflected on my use of small groups in math as it pertains to this chapter. This chapter details the reading process of context clues and appreciation of learning new vocabulary.
Implementation: I plan to introduce new vocabulary and opportunities to learn new words.
FROM: K.MEADOR/SIMPSON
ReplyDeleteDeveloping a rich vocabulary takes an incredible amount of work.I try to get the students to visualize what is happening around the word. Using this strategy, along with context clues, genre and tone of the story, often gives the student a fighting chance to understand new vocabulary.
From: Mrs. P. Williams
ReplyDeleteMy students have a limited vocabulary. I believe it is mainly because there is one language spoken in the home and another spoken in school. We are, however, learning new words every week. In doing so we also use them in written language. Another method to incorporate new vocabulary is to choose a word of the week.
Post by Gary S. Lopez
ReplyDeleteChapter 8
This interesting chapter presented to me the importance of each level in learning and knowing words. Teaching words in meaningful contexts and not by the old method of memorizing and defining words might be a challenge for many of us. My goal is to expose the students to as many new words as possible so that their writing horizon might be broadened. I will encourage the learning of new words by having daily read aloud, playing word substitution games, and use of dictionary resources when needed.
I want to thank Mrs. Skaggs for coming up with this great idea of blogging about our subject material. I feel like I am in touch with the rest of the internet world because this old school cat is actually blogging.