Vocabulary is actually a really important thing for teachers and students. That is what I experienced when I was growing up. We would spend a full day on spelling and vocabulary. This chapter opened my eyes to new ways to teach and help student's vocabulary. I really enjoyed the Vocabulary Casserole activity. It make me laugh a little bit, but it was a true way to think about how we teach vocabulary right now. What happens in this activity is you find 20 words no one has ever heard of before. Put them on the blackboard and ask the students to write them down THen put the definition on the board and have the students write the definitions down as well. Have the students use the words in a sentence and maybe give them a test on friday. It is not a strategy to use anymore, because really the students are not retaining the information. At least I did not when it was presented to me like this. But I liked how it was presented in the book in a humorous kind of way.
My favorite strategy in this chapter is the vocabulary trees. Instead of having the students know the root word and some words that come from it, have them make their own tree about the root word to build up their own vocabulary. It is a fun visual way to help students as well as give them something to reference if it happens to be on a test. I really enjoyed that strategy because I think that as teachers we need to be considerate of students who do not benefit from straight lectures and taking notes. Some students are very visual, and this activity helps those students in visualizing words and vocabulary.
I know a lot of students hated vocab books in high school, but I really liked them It may be because i'm a vocab freak and I love to learn new vocab, but there were a ton of great exercises in the books that helped me understand the meaning of new words. I think the vocabulary casserole was funny. I would actually think about using it for words that are not necessarily in the English language. I might use it for lists of slang words or new verbs like "facebook me" or things like that. I like the analogies. They were the most beneficial to me in high school,and I feel like they help students infer.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I have been in many English classrooms watching students copying vocabulary off the board to be memorized. It is so inefficient and boring!
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