Week 10 (March 23)

I really liked how this chapter outlined the goals for vocabulary instruction. In always viewed vocabulary lessons as looking up words, and then writing them in sentences. However this chapter pointed hot how children really learn vocabulary in a meaningful way. I was excited to read about how connecting words to background knowledge. It made snese to me that learning words in isolation is not effective, but I feel that that is alot of how I was taught. It makes sense from what I am learning in my other classes that connecting words to what children already know will help them learn and remember more words. I couldn't beleive that children need to read, write, or say a word 8 to 10 tiems before they recognize it. This really impacted me. I now realize that vocabulary must really be incorporated into my classroom and what we are working on. Simply showing them a list or haveing them define a word once will not help. It is just a waste of time for everyone. I also liked that the book emphasized higher level word knowledge. Again, it means that students must work with words and own them, instead of simply memorizing them. I never thought about how learning bocabulary would also help the children learn stratagies that would help them learn words on their own later in life. This is really valuable because it helps them to become competent members of society. Finally, by involving the students in word activities, it again enforces that children really need to work with words and not just memorize them. I loved that this chapter enforced in many ways the importance of working with words, an offered suggestions as to how a teacher can successfully teach vocabulary.