Week 7-- PRE-READING: Write about the importance of vocabulary in your content area
What's in a word? Share your initial ideas of how knowing the vocabulary of a specific content area can help students learn. How will you approach vocabulary with your students? How much time will you devote to this? What are your thoughts regarding this topic?
posted by Susan A. Garr at 4:40 PM
4 Comments:
VOCABULARY SCHMOCABULARY
I must admit a deep bias against studying vocabulary in Language Arts classrooms. I realize this seems incredibly contrary to instinct, but studies have shown that studying vocabulary in isolation (study vocabulary for its own sake) just doesn't work. Who can remember what a word means if we don't have a reason to remember it?
I do think that learning new words in the course of reading is a good thing. We have an immediate need to learn what a word means so that we can understand what we're reading. But, many times we can figure out the meaning of a word by its context. Also, if we know basic prefixes and suffixes, we can figure out what a word means.
Now, to go read the chapters!
Vocabulary… This is a very important part of teaching Literature. However, I disagree with the way it is usually taught. In one of the classrooms where I volunteered, every day that I was there, the teacher would put the 10 vocabulary words up on the overhead, and the students would copy them down, look up the definitions, and get ready for a quiz within a few days. BORING. REDUNANT. Not real.
As much as students need to know unfamiliar words for a piece that they are approaching, there has to be a better way. Learning through context, I would imagine, is much more lasting and meaningful. I have not seen the current research regarding teaching vocabulary, but I will definitely be making efforts to find out the latest.
I do not see myself spending a lot of time on vocabulary—I think that if more time is spent on encouraging reading in general and actually getting the kids to read more, then their vocabulary will increase as a result.
Now, I’ll have to ponder how this will affect my students’ standardized test scores. Isn’t that statement sad?!
Vocabulary is the basis of almost all communication. Having said this it becomes obvious how important the understanding of vocabulary can be. What is the best form of leaning vocabulary is a good question. I am sure this depends on the abilities and learning styles of each person and their established knowledge of the language they are learning. Personally I prefer to teach vocabulary through reading and conversation that affords the opportunity to see and use the vocabulary in a context and explore other uses of the same words. With my ELL students, vocabulary is at the basis of our daily endeavors. I have found reading as my main tool for presenting new and of review of past vocabulary, followed by conversation and discussion of the text and uses of the vocabulary within the text. The trick for me is to keep as much of our learned vocabulary in use within the classroom throughout the year, so the students are able to store this knowledge and begin to understand it’s use in other contexts.
Vocabulary in history is a very important aspect. I will definitely utilize many new terms and vocabulary will be mandatory, as well as a necessity. Without knowing the terms, the students cannot fully grasp the material they are to learn. I plan on approaching vocabulary as a job for the students. I think I would give them a list of important terms and then have them fill it out, then go over it in class to get participation and class growth. It would be a good exercize for the class to help teach itself. I would let the class come to a consensus on what the word means and how it is relevant to the material, then it would be the class definition. I would want to devote either half or a whole classperiod for every unit for vocabulary, since it is so important to my content area.
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