Vocabulary and Read-Alouds

The readings from today were very insightful and they called to mind connects that I made in my own life. In chapter 6 of the text, Cunningham and Allington introduce the topic of vocabulary by presenting three words (plastic, purple, and racket) and then asking what the reader thinks of when they read or hear those words. They follow a few possible thought patterns that one could have upon hearing those words and then bring their point home by stating, "when we see or hear words, our brains make all kinds of connections with those words, depending on our past experiences" (p 95). I thought this was a wonderful and interesting point. Depending on our world view, experiences, and associations, our words come to mean and remind us of different things. In all aspects of education, remembering that one's own experiences shape their thought processes and associations will be key for educators to reach each and every student. The chapter also breaks down how we know words, how to help children build vocabularies and create associations, and how vocabulary can be increased through reading. I like the idea of choosing three words from a read-aloud and teaching them to the class through explicit instruction or classroom discussion. Making a poster with the read-aloud words on it is also a good way to keep children thinking about these words and their meanings. I also liked the section on promoting word wonder. If a teacher is enthusiastic about reading and the importance of vocabularies and word projects, student will be excited also. This is an important point that I will definitely apply to my own classroom. My least favorite year of school was the year that my teacher taught just to teach. She did not seem to love teaching, children, or the learning process. That one experience with an unengaging and unenthusiastic teacher has stuck with me into my early adulthood. Thus, I'll always remember that "enthusiasm is contagious!" (p 114)

I really enjoyed reading Lane and Allen's article about teaching sophisticated vocabularies through the frequent modeling of vocabulary words and their meanings. I like how the article describes vocabulary as critical to reading and challenges teachers to introduce vocabulary in a robust, strong, and powerful way. I believe this stresses the importance of vocabulary skills. The article also mentions that not all students come to school with a a wide range of words that they know how to use. In teaching vocabulary, one must meet learners where they are and instruct them in vocabulary in an aggressive manner through word exposure, multiple definitions, context, and processing. The assigned article by Blachowicz and Fisher take a close look at vocabulary instruction as well. The article states, "Just as a house needs a strong foundation, so reading comprehension depends on a strong base of oral language and concept development" (p 67).  My favorite part of this article was the suggestion that teachers should create a positive environment for word learning by using activities, materials, and resources that enable students to play with words. I can remember "learning" vocabulary in school by sitting and copying word definitions over and over again. I never remembered what the words meant when I was finished and I dreaded vocabulary lessons throughout my elementary academic career. I definitely intent to take the ideas for vocabulary instruction in this chapter and apply them to my own classroom. I enjoyed the last article assigned because it relied on statistic so heavily throughout. Looking at actual statistics always solidifies concepts for me. In the article, Hart and Risely conduct an experiment on children and vocabulary use and intake. One of the most shocking statistics for me was that "in four years, the average child in a professional family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words, an average child in a working-class family 26  million words, and average child in a welfare family 13 million words" (p 9). Thus, many students are at a disadvantage when they walk in the classroom door. This statistic was a good reminder that we must meet students where they are when they walk into our classrooms and that early intervention is key to building a child's early vocabulary.

As previously mentioned, I can relate to these articles because I hated vocabulary instruction in school. I vow to never, EVER force my students to write definitions or words multiple times and call it teaching!