Vocabulary

As I read this chapter and think about my vocabulary learning, the thing I remember most is that I always loved vocabulary. It was like my favorite thing to test on. Notice I said, “test.” Given the fact that I hate test and am the worst test taker ever, I have to think about why I liked to test on vocabulary. The only reason being that it was the easiest subject to memorize since all I had to do was recognize the context clues or find a word in the meaning that made the most since. I was never asked to actually use any of the words. Maybe that is why my sentences and anything to do with writing was never quite up to par.

Since I am aware of my lack of vocabulary skills (I blame my elementary teachers), I want to take this and learn from it by using word walls, vocabulary cards, word list, journals, shades of meaning and many other strategies. Vocabulary is so important for background knowledge, reading comprehension, and writing. It even affects the way we speak and how we understand others. It doesn’t help that we live in the South and slang is so common. There will be students who come from all different environments who have different dialects and it will be our job to facilitate and expand that part of their vocabulary. Some students may say they do not like to read when all it boils down to is they do not like to read what they do not understand. If the vocabulary is easy to understand, the text will be more fulfilling and more easily comprehended. My favorite strategy to use when teaching vocabulary is breaking down the word. It is so when you can understand where a word comes from and why it means what it does.

With all of the different types of students who live in various environments, how do you know how big of a word range to use and how many different strategies to use in one lesson? I feel like that didn’t make any sense. If you have Billie whose parents didn’t finish high school, work two jobs, and have no books in the house versus Anna whose parents both have a their masters, choose their own hours, and have a personal library, how in the world do you differentiate instruction? Mind you this is only two people. Twenty-three people is a whole different ballgame.