The first thing that stuck me was the recipe cards at the beginning of the chapter. All I could think was what a great idea! I think that if a teacher was at a point were she didn't know how to teach a certain subject, vocabulary being one example, she could have her students make these cards. She could then keep them in a "recipe box" of ideas! This way students would be more likely to enjoy and learn from the lessons.
Another thing I really liked about this chapter was the vocabulary tree. I also learned better with visuals, and I think this would be perfect for students like me. They could be worked on as a class on the chalkboard when a new root word was introduced, and then copied at the end of the class to be put in the students binders.
The section of the chapter that I was most interested in was the section that talked about reading aloud and using SSR. It really amazed me that reading is were students hear the most uncommon words. I thought about how Dr. Pytash starts each class by reading an excerpt from a young adult novel. Before reading this chapter I was thinking about doing that in my class at the beginning of each week, but now I am certain I will. This section stresses how important reading out loud to your class really is. Not only does it get kids interested in reading what they like, but it reenforces vocabulary. I also thought it would be a good idea to have students keep an in class log of those texts they read outside of class. Encouraging them to read at least one outside book every nine weeks.
It also brought up how important silent reading in class is. This surprised me because I have not had many teachers who do this. I understand why-- it takes up instruction time. But according to this chapter it is extremely important. I think that I will try to set aside 10 minutes at the end of each class period when I am a teacher for individual reading. This time can be used to finish up reading that is for class or to explore books that students can be reading independently.
I experienced the same spelling routine as you and I now realize that did not help me AT ALL! I also agree I thought the strategies would be very helpful in my future classroom and I know I will use them. In many of my english classes the teachers would set aside certain time for silent reading and sometimes a whole day. And the teachers would let you read anything whether it was a book or magazine as long as you were reading. This is a good way to encourage reading because sometimes students can finding mean in other types of print material.
ReplyDeleteIn my last two years of high school my English teacher set aside a whole nine weeks just for silent reading. We had to read enough books in that time to get a set number of points. I didn't understand why he did it back then, but now I get why it's so important to give students the opportunity to read an expand their vocabulary knowledge.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I think many people have had similar vocabulary experiences - memorize, memorize, and forget... You mentioned great strategies - and of course, the more students read, the more exposure to words they have.
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