WEEK 7 RESPOND to ALLEN Chapters 1-3
Respond to another persons' reflection or an interesting point from the reading. If you would like to engage in an on-line discussion, go to our yahoo group and post your responses there.
posted by Susan A. Garr at 5:01 PM
5 Comments:
RE: MICHAEL'S COMMENT:
"The reasons why simply defining words do not help students actually learn them may be embarrassingly obvious. (pg.8) After all, did each of us learn to speak simply from being TOLD what words mean, without engaging in the language?"
This says a lot. It also made me reflect back on the part of the text where Allen talks about the students using the words she used, and incorporated them into the conversation, versus vocab words. The students DO know the concepts, they are just learning the label. And this needs to be done in a way that reflects the MEANING versus a label so that the relationship between the word and the concept is memorable.
This makes me think of parents who purposefully talk to their children as adults (or not in simplistic, kiddie-talk) and encourage discussions, etc... Most of the kids I know in this situation are developmentally above their peers. Why wouldn't it be parallel to vocab and students?
Also makes me think about second language acquisition... it happens the most effectively when it mirrors the process of first language acquisition when we learn things immersed, in a sense. As a child, we KNOW what a refrigerator is, but we learn through conversational exposure to the label what we call it in English.
What does reflect mean, does it mean to give a summary of a chapter. Or does it meant to think about something in a serious manner. If it is the first i would say the reflections were superb, I would not even have to buy the book, I could read other peoples summaries, and saved the cash. If it was the second, I would ahve omthiseng ot ensrpd to. A key goal in education is to make students reflect about the world, to become critical thinkers. Teachers need to take drastic steps in improving critical thinking skills in young adults, and sometimes even in themselves. noah clarke
I thought the comment from Jenny Marano was very interesting. She said that she learned the most in her math classes from Teachers who incorporated in vocabulary. I am thinking back on my own math classes and only rarely remember getting vocabulary. ONly sometimes were terms put down, when they were not self-explanatory. In those cases I did also learn more. Without the full concept of a term it is hard to grasp a full topic.
Importance of Vocabulary Instruction
No two words truly mean the same thing Thus to truly express oneself in the English language one needs a rich plethora of vocabulary. For example what if Lincoln had said “ Eighty seven years ago our ancestors created an new nation. A nation that was committed to liberty and the concept that all men are born equal”. Compare this to what Lincoln said at Gettysburg. “Four score and seven years our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation Conceived in liberty and dedicated the proposition that all men are created equal”. A true mastery of the vocabulary made the Gettysburg Address and memorable speech. Thus, I don’t believe there is such as thing as spending too much time on vocabulary.
Shentil
Jacqueline Aessa
Title Reply to Shentil
I definitely agree with you Shentil in regard of having some word alike. For example the word "like". Some times it means "similar" and other times mean that "you are interested in someone." This is why I think it is very important to emphasize for our student to read the whole paragraph to get the meaning of the text rather just than reading one word per line.
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