If there is one thing I have learned in class this week, it is that learning vocabulary is an ACTIVE process. And it can be fun!
The English language is incredible when it comes to its ability to adapt and mold to the things and ideas it needs to describe. Have you ever wanted to clearly get a thought across, but you just could not think of the right word to use? For example, for the past two weeks I have been dancing around the word "finesse." Every day in soccer practice, it's at the tip of my tongue and I just wanted to shout out "Finesse! You need finesse on your touch!" But for the life of me, I could not find that word. So my instruction went a little like "softer! smoother! no...just tap it through nicely!" When the word finally came to me, it snapped my mind into sharper focus. I had a word to accurately describe my thoughts. Middle schoolers, in a world of chaotic change and self-discovery, can find peace at least when it comes to being able to voice their thoughts and opinions. Vocabulary plays a major role in this ability - it separates the mature, successful student from the struggling student. The need for vocabulary knowledge comes into play across the curriculum...so play with vocabulary and set your students up to be successful!
Learning vocabulary is an active process. You cannot just hand your student a list of words and a dictionary and say "write the definition for each words 3 times, and I expect you to begin using them on a regular basis." This is especially true when it comes to the definitions that contain the word you are trying to define (courageous: having or possessing courage). The teacher must talk the students through the definition and engage their minds in finding concrete examples of the word. A funny thing about the English language is that there are so many nuances to different words that cannot be explained by a single, written definition. For example, what is the difference between "to question" and "to inquire"? If you look at a dictionay, "to question" means to inquire and "to inquire" means to question. So why are there two words? Yes, English is a funny language and your students can have a blast playing with words and definitions!
Every time I read I come across words I do not know. I have learned to recognize this and take appropriate measures to find out for myself. I believe that we need to teach our students to do this as well. I love the idea of providing each student with a bookmark that they can write new words on when they come across them in a text. Then, in class, we can discuss some of these stumpers. What are some other ways we can excite our students about words and teach them new vocabulary in an active, fun way?
Dear Olivia,
ReplyDeleteThank you for another wonderful post. With your writing you created a beautiful picture of how fun words can be. It was well-written and well thought out and I wanted to keep reading to discover what you were going to say next.
What I appreciate most about your most recent post is that it reminded me of why I love to read. I had always known that I love to read and your insights reminded me of the reasons behind this love. I love to play with words and manipulate them into unique or witty phrases that have never been thought of before and I love to read words that are fun to say out loud. The process of reading and writing is most definitely a discovery process and it is fun to delve deep into it. Simply put, I love words; I love how they can be creatively put together to communicate a message. If I share this love with my students and help them love words as well, they will become passionate about literacy and become lifelong readers and writers.
Now the question remains of how to get your students to fall in love with words. I loved your idea of having students write down words they do not know or want to explore further on a blank bookmark as they read in order for them to be discussed later in class. It is an easy-to-implement and effective practice. Going along with this idea of student choice, another potential strategy to help students with vocabulary is to allow them to create their own vocabulary lists. If they choose five to ten words that they want to learn a particular week, this will increase motivation and learning as they are able to choose words that apply to their lives and are meaningful to them. This strategy can also help accommodate the diversity of learners in the classroom as the words they choose themselves will fit their individual academic levels and personal interests.
Thank you again for an insightful post!
Courtney B.
Olivia-
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post and could not agree with you more! Vocabulary instruction must be a fun and interactive process. Throughout middle school and high school, we were given twenty new words a week, we had to complete an activity workbook and then were tested at the end of the week.. Boring! After out stations class on Monday, I came up with tons of new ideas that I would like to incorporate in my own classroom as far as vocabulary instruction, such as the websites Terry and Rachel gave us, unfortunately I did not write them down, but I will certainly be asking for them and hopefully using them one day. I agree that the most important part of vocabulary instruction is having students be activily involved in the learning process; but my question is how do we come up with new and exciting ways to get students interested and involved on their quest to expand their vocabulary?
Thanks again for a great post!