Vocabulary

I really enjoyed the articles I read about vocabulary instruction. They made me start thinking about all the words that I know and trying to remember when and where I acquired them. To this day my dad uses words I do not know and I am eager to hear him explain the definitions to me. The first article I read was by Lane and Allen about Modeling Sophisticated Word Use. I loved this article! I think the idea of incidental learning is very important to children's own vocabulary development. One of the teacher's examples was about slowly changing words the children use on a regular basis to more sophisticated words. For example changing the title of a classroom duty from 'zookeeper that feeds the hamsters' to 'animal nutrition specialist that provides nutritional sustenance to our rodent friends'. By incorporating words children may not know in to daily routines, children get a great deal of exposure to words in different contexts. What really made sense to me from this article was even if you use words the students are unfamiliar with, they are likely to look up the word or remember your definition, and then recognize the word when they hear it again, thus expanding its definition and connections. Children are like sponges and when they hear words they remember them and this can be a huge advantage while either learning to read, reading, or comprehending.

The second article I read was by Blachowicz and Fisher and really emphasized the importance of word play while learning vocabulary. Children actively participate in their own learning when they play games. This article also talked about how incidental word learning plays a big role in expanding vocabulary. A fun example I liked from this article was one teacher had a word wall full of words students had added when they come across a word they weren't familiar with. They could win points for looking the word up, sharing it with the class, talking about where they read or heard the word, and then using it. I think this is a great idea to bring to the classroom, and students choose to participate in this activity which encourages personal motivation to learn new words!

This poster to the right is a great thing to have in the classroom for students to reference while they are working on writing assignments. Encourage them to find synonyms for common words and watch their vocabularies flourish!