The main way that my elementary and secondary teachers taught vocabulary was by having the students write the words down in their journal at the beginning of each class period. The other way we would learn vocab is by repeating the word out loud as a class. Orally speaking the word over and over again was effective, but became monotonous after several meetings. In college, however, the challenge of new vocabulary was placed on the students. If I came across a word that I didn't know I was expected to look it up or as a clarifying question in class otherwise the professor would assume that we all knew the word.
These techniques gave me a basic understanding of what each word meant. The repetition of words didn't truly make the meaning of the word seem flexible or adaptable to different situations. We also were taught the primary definition for the words rather than multiple definitions to be used in different situations. This fact presented a problem mostly because it too me along time to be able to distinguish between the different meanings of the same word.
I think that having students write down vocabulary at the beginning of each class period is helpful to build the students own word bank, but I don't feel that by itself will be a truly effective tool. Same with repeating the words and definitions as a class. There needs to be a connection made between utilizing those aspects of teaching with helping the students gain a deeper understanding of the vocabulary. Personally, I feel that during a reading or anytime during instruction that one of the vocabulary words appears there needs to be discussion about how the word is being used.
You are right Alex teaching vocabulary is boring because it is one of those things that is learned well by writing and reading the definition. As a teacher it will be our job to try to make it enjoyable through finding creative ways to teach vocabulary. Through one of my classes, I learned about having students write the words they struggle with then look up the definition. Giving students initiative to learn on their own can help them gain strengths in vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about discussing the word as it is encountered. A "pre-test" style quiz or activity could also be used; it would need to be well designed though or it wouldn't be much better than just copying definitions from the book.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is a unique discipline because in many ways, it does not address the principles from the Harmon, Wood, and Hedrick reading. For instance, the authors recommend choosing thematically related words. In English, your thematically-related words might be words like "iambic pentameter, Shakespearean sonnet, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, etc." But a lot of words in stories are not thematically related. For instance, I saw one English teacher who tried to focus her unit around words like GAIT and APPARATUS and APOSTATE. Well, those words are not thematically related, and students won't encounter them multiple times throughout the unit, so those are not the best words to focus on. If the word was not central to the narrative, you could just briefly discuss it and move on. But if the word was central to the poem, you could discuss it in the context of other vocabulary words...for instance, how that word was tied to an image or a metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI guess, my message is...in English, you have to be especially careful about choosing central vocabulary words for your thematic units. Don't choose those words that don't represent the big concepts.