Vocabulary!

           Having a strong vocabulary not only permits us to effectively participate in our society but also promotes reading comprehension. There is a strong connection between vocabulary and reading comprehension, which is why vocabulary instruction is so important. I was immediately excited when I saw that our reading topic for this class session was vocabulary. As a young student I was always interested in spelling and vocabulary words that were used in the classroom. As a future teacher I am still very interested in this area and hope to promote this in my classroom by having a word wall.

            In Camille L. Z. Blachowicz and Peter Fisher’s article “Vocabulary Lessons” the importance of teaching vocabulary lessons is thoroughly examined.  The authors state that research points to four practices that teachers can use to expand students’ vocabularies and improve their reading. These include developing word awareness and love of words through word play, deliver explicit instruction to develop important vocabulary, build strategies for independence, and engage students actively with a wide range of books. The practice that really stuck out to me was the first one involving word play. I am interested in younger grades therefore I feel like activities that involve the students playing with vocabulary words will create the idea that vocabulary words can be fun. The students will then become more engaged and interested in the words and will automatically be learning these words. I loved Renee’s idea in class about how it is a good idea to use Velcro on the word wall so you can play games and activities.

            In “The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth” written by Holly B. Lane and Stephanie Arriaza Allen, modeling is used to show how teachers can effectively overtime teach students sophisticated vocabulary.  I really connected with this article because I strongly believe in modeling and feel like it is very beneficial to both teachers and students. I enjoyed reading the section Modeling Sophisticated Vocabulary Use because I believe that it is important when students are learning new material that they are able to make real life connections. In my opinion this was a great article that embeds many of my same thoughts and beliefs.

            While reading the online article I noticed that there is a whole section on Basal Readers. I have had very little experience with Basal readers because, my cohort, Anderson County does not use this system. I feel like this is a great program that helps teachers gather materials and students build their comprehension and vocabulary skills. I found it very shocking that children by the age of three who come from a more privileged family have heard 30 million more words than the children who do not. I feel like all children hear tons of words because of the places they may go. For instance, daycare, after school care, the grocery store, gas station etc. I did not know that this gap was so significantly large! As a future educator this shows that it is crucial to help students develop a strong vocabulary.

            Chapter 6 is full of great strategies and activities for teaching vocabulary. The technique that stood out the most to me was teaching vocabulary words during a read aloud. I have seen this done in a classroom and I feel like it is a great idea. Introducing words that you feel students will be unfamiliar with before the story allows the students to think about those words and use context clues in the story to figure out the meaning.