"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
Arthur C. Clarke
Collecting Words for a Lifetime of Language
by Susan Abramson
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| Fourth-graders Skyped with children from a school in North Pole, Alaska, just north of Fairbanks. |
Vocabulary instruction is an extremely important part of a balanced literacy curriculum. Too often, though, vocabulary instruction consists of a list of random words to look up in the dictionary and memorize, followed by a weekly quiz. Although it is possible to do well on the weekly quiz, this method results in little transfer of these words to the students speaking or vocabulary. After investigating ways to strengthen vocabulary instruction and looking to our own experiences and current research, we are able to articulate some essential ingredients of strong vocabulary instruction:
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| Photo by Abi Mitchel |
• Asking students to look up words and copy the definition does not help them learn new words. The dictionary definition may include other unfamiliar words causing students to merely memorize unknown words. One caveat is worth noting: Introducing new words using student-friendly, plain, everyday language DOES help students learn new vocabulary words, and direct instruction, as long as it is the right kind of direct instruction, is important and productive.
• Students need to learn words at more than one level. We recently exposed third graders to the word brew. The first and most common meaning, to stir liquid ingredients, was readily understood by third-graders. It took more time and discussion to understand that brew can also mean “just beginning”, as in “trouble was brewing." Similarly, the meaning of the word “thaw” as a synonym for melt or defrost was not hard; understanding the meaning of thaw in the sentence, “I was angry but once she apologized my feelings started to thaw” required more conversation to understand the nuances of the word, and how it is used and understood in different contexts.
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| Our Lower School bird feeders |
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| Keeping track of the birds we see |
• Finally, students can learn words through wordplay. We want students to be curious about words and have lots of opportunities to play with words. In kindergarten coming up with different ways to describe the cold weather: brisk, chilly, icy, freezing and promoting rich, robust language use in their structured play: “The block tower you built is immense!” are examples of this. In the Lower School these ingredients can be seen during the regular school day in word and language study, embedded into instructional read-alouds, part of the WordPlay class in fifth-grade, and also in our after-school class for third and fourth grade students, WordMasters, which challenges students to learn and play with challenging and interesting new vocabulary
words. Along the way, we try to weave vocabulary into experiences throughout all areas of the curriculum, working hard to turn our students into competent, curious learners with a robust vocabulary and love of language.
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Below is an example of engaged, second-grade empathetic writing designed to make the world a better place.
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| Looking down at the top of the three-ft. high composter! |
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| Sliding in the snow is always better! |
Food Allergies Warning
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| Notice that hazelnut are on the ingredient list |
On Valentine's Day we had a kindergarten student who ate a piece of chocolate that triggered sever food allergies. We all need to be very careful about ANY food that we share with students, not just cakes, cookies and granola bars. PLEASE look at the ingredients list for any food you send in to be shared. If you have any doubt, don't!
Of Interest to parents:
1. A plea from a parent at the playground - "Don't help my kids"
2. On building a home library.
There is a new Preschool 3 Blog post.
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| Collaborative pendulum art installed |
