During my student teaching I have a lot of freedom. I have to teach certain novels, but other than that, it is pretty much up to me what concepts I teach through the novels. I think learning vocabulary is very important, so I want to include some of it in my lessons. However, as I was planning how to teach it, I thought back to how I was taught it. It wasn't very effective.
It was very traditional. Each week we were given a list of words to learn on Monday, and then we were tested on Friday. So it was essentially a memorization game, not truly learning. Sure I would remember the word for Friday, but after that I would often forget the new words. Why? We were never truly using the word. Yes, we would put them into sentences, but doing that once was easy and didn't make the word concrete in my brain.
So I'm trying to think of a new way to teach my student their vocabulary. The first idea that came to mind was letting the students pick their own vocabulary words for the novel we are reading. Since students are at different levels, different words will be uknown to them. Therefore, I am having them pick 15 words from the novel that are new to them. I'm still having them use the words in a sentence, but I need more than that. That one small step didn't do it for me, so I'm guessing it won't do it for most of them either. What else can I do?
I think that letting them pick the words will make it meaningful, but what else do I do so that they truly learn the word? And how do I test them on their new words when they all have different lists. Any ideas?
3 Free Technologies to Help Students Learn to Read
8 months ago
Ainslee - I just finished teaching Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz. What I did for vocabulary was pick out words while I was reading. Made a list of them that I gave to the students. While they were reading - they had to fill out the definitions based on how they understood the context. If they absolutely could not figure it out, then they could use a dictionary - but they had to put the definition in their own word. I checked the vocabulary every day by just walking around the room while they were working. If they had it done - they got the points. If not - they did not get the points for that reading assignment. I would go over the words they had questions about. Most of the time they got them figured out. I will put some of the vocabulary words on the test they are taking next week. I was sure to use the words often while teaching the unit. And was continually checking for understanding. Hope this helps!
ReplyDelete-Emily
You could make a game out of it. You could have them play the game where they have a vocab word on their forehead and then they have to ask other people questions to figure out what it is. Also it is good for them still to be tested on it so they have some responsibility. They also can make sentences with the new words. hope that helps!
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