Reaction to Class 11/20/14

In life, I believe every human wants two things: to be heard and know what they are saying means something, that their words are taken into account by someone, somewhere. The article I read was Vocabulary: Questions from the classroom bu Fisher, Ogle and Blachowicz. The authors spoke of how failing schools promote children with insufficient vocabulary knowledge. They prosed pertinent questions such as: Which words should be taught? What do we know about vocabulary instruction? What specific approaches or strategies can help English Language Learners? I was enthused to hear and read specific resolutions to these questions. Unfortunately, this article gave only the Concept of Definiton map which displayed the word's definition, examples as well as non-examples. This reminded me of Freyer's Model. I know my students enjoyed creating their bricks for our Word Wall. On each brick, my learners put the word(s), roots, origins, visual, and example for each words. Fisher, Ogle and Blachowicz reinforced how application and repetition of vocabulary is critical for success. They also believe that economically disadvanatged are way below economically advantaged children in vocabluary instruction and development. The authors spoke of a vocabulary rich environment where children have numerous opportunities to speak, hear and read their new vocabulary. A "flood of words" and a "flood of books" were given as just one solution where teachers would be able to increase their learners' vocabulary. For visual learners, semantic mapping was brought up in order for children to "see" what differentiates one word from another. Numerous lists such as: The Fry Instant Words List, Living Word Vocabulary and the General Service of English Words for older students and English Language Learners were also supported by research that can serve as another source of information. Reading aloud was promoted as beneficial to develop new meaning vocabulary, word meanings, as well as aid students to go beyond their existing vocabularies and introduce new concepts and higher order words. Learners take in and digest new terms by using them numerous times and in different ways. As with any process, this does not occur overnight. Sometimes using cognates, synonyms, root words and/or origins, this may help to increase their vocabulary and make them more knowledgeable about words. In Putting 2 and 2 together, our group expert spoke to us about how affluent readers use such strategies as: parts to whole, analogy, whole and part to whole to acquire new vocabulary. Parts to whole is where students use prefixes, suffixes and/or parts to discover the meaning of a new words. The analogy method says just the prefix helps acquire meaning by defining what relation the meaning has to the whole. In this artcile, educators were encouraged to chunk and make connections to new words. We also learned about Research on Vocabulary Instruction in the Content Area. In this article, our group expert explained how affluent readers used graphic organizers to go from no knowledge to partial knowledge. They were presented with challenging words but applied PEP-Person, Event, Place in order for them to categorize vocabulary words in Social Studies. I like how some of my group members mentioned techniques they find helpful in their classrooms. Kaitlin brought up how she has her students create a Vocabulary Self-Collection where their own vocabulary is based on their interests. She will give them a list and the learners make their own lists as well. They then switch books and make trigger maps. She mentioned spellingcity.com. I also liked how she said when she has her students open a book, choose a word that they don't know. This allows them a chance to let their own language and individuality come through. Again, reflecting how we all want to be heard and know what we have to say has some importance.