Teaching Vocabulary

I hope someone else has a good answer because I’d love to find something that works well for this age.

On a personal level, I have a 6year old daughter, and 2 boys. We take one or two big words that we talk about at dinner sometimes anyway. I actually bought those SAT vocabulary cards for my oldest but we are incorporating them into conversation at dinner. Out goal is to use it 14 times in the converstation. The kids are actually using these occasionally in converstation now.

My oldest kid who reads all the time has a large vocabulary. My middle does not. I think it has to do with how much independent reading they do. I strongly, strongly encourage parents to get books on tape to use. I use these for children and tell all my parents of LD kids to use this. The thing is we can get kids to decode but we can’t remediate for all the lost time the kids never read and so their vocabulary is usually weak. So I tell parents to have the kids listen to books on tape because most parents don’t read to their kids at night. THe trick is getting the kids hooked. I tell them to go to the library as the tapes are free.

So as a teacher I try to use words in the daily vocabulary but this is tough. Memorizing the word type worksheets don’t last too long term. I am ordering WordlyWise though for the older kids because I have heard these are pretty good. I plan on using Wordly WIse for homework.

Read, read, read. While you are working with other kids have the kids listen to popular titles on tape. I have 8 stations in my room for listening to tapes. I found that in a LD resource setting, it is hard to read to the kids out loud so this is the best I can do.

Michelle

It’s called *teaching* — not administering programs, not testing, not handing out papers, but getting in there and actively using interpersonal skills and language skills and wide-ranging knowledge.

Read the kids an interesting book out loud — anything, dinosaurs, tigers, insects, cars, what’s underground, your body — something on a very interesting topic but on a language level just a little bit higher than what they are used to, something with four or five words on a page that the average child in your class might not know.
Stop and *talk* about it. Stop each page or each paragraph. Ask kids if they understand what ____ means. Take ideas, and then tell them if necessary. Use the new word in a sentence. Re-read the sentence that it’s in from the book. Also ask the kids other questions about the topics from the book — what do they think, how do they feel, what do they know. Be positive about thoughtfuil responses and give minimial feedback to silliness, wordless noisemaking, etc.

When talking to the kids in general, use proper English. Speak clearly and simply but use the correct words. Two that really irk me — it’s a doll, not a baby, and it’s a dog, not a puppy. Also it’s subtract or minus, not take-away, and it’s multiplication, not timesing. After all, if you, the adult in charge, use baby talk, what do you *expect* them to use? Use more advanced vocabulary where it’s warranted; if talking about a car for example, you can talk anbout steering wheel and pedals and brakes, and headlights and windshield and switches and gas gauge and … Point to objects as you name them, en\courage the shild to repeat the names, and discuss haw things work and how ideas connect to each other.
Use progressively longer sentences and more complex constructions as the kids get used to being spoken to in real English and not just four-word commands. I once worked for a very short period of time in a daycare where the *only* words that were addressed to the kids were “Put your boots on” “Line up” “Sit down”. Then they wondered why one 18-month-old who was there ten hours a day wasn’t starting to talk … why should he, and what did he have to say, and to who?

Some of the most excellent English teachers I know also say that teaching vocabulary is very difficult. So, before I tell you what you’re not doing, let me ask you what you are doing:

Are you hooking vocabulary to things students know of—categories for example. A sally lightfoot crab, for example, fits into a certain category of animals. We make that broader for those with less experience.

Are you using the words often in many ways? How do you decide what words your students should know? Keying in on a certain list of words is a difficult decision.

Wilson language has challenging vocabulary at the B level and less at the A level. Still, I use it with younger kiddos. (I do like SPIRE better for K-3, however.) It isn’t the program that’s your problem—it’s the age-old issue of getting kids without many life experiences to grow in their word knowledge.

The Mid-continent Regional Educational Laborator (McRel) has an excellent book entitled “Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If not me then who?” by Billmeye, Rachel and Barton, Mary Lee. It has a section on vocabulary. Among the techniques mentioned are concept mapping, semantic mapping, the Frayer model (which I use a lot), semantic feature analysis, Stephens Vocabulary Elaboration Strategy (SVES), Student VOC strategy, Word Sorts.

After all the teaching is over, be sure to play some vocab games, too. I’ve made up my own bingo cards with words. I give definitions and they mark the word on the card. I also play “wordy-gurdy” in the hall or at recess. I wander about with treats in my pocket. Students who can give me a word & defintion from a previous list get a little treat—pencil, eraser, or what not. This year I think I’m going to have a “wordy-gurdy” hat. When they see me with it on, the game is on…6th graders love this one! Most kids would, I think.

Yes, I have word wall, too—always in categories—seldome if ever random.

Also, I use the internet a lot when I’m doing a new book that has unfamiliar settings. I make a photoalbum and show it from the computer to a screen…also have a printed copy for students to view at their leisure. A picture tells a thousand words for kids who’ve never seen a prairie or the Maine coastline or sea shells—but are reading Sarah Plain & Tall.

For younger students, I would do lots of category work. Lots.

My Wilson phonics is a very small [yet essential] part of my total reading program. I also feel that listening to grade-level materials is critical to building vocabulary. So many poor readers fall farther behind because they cannot read on-grade-level materials.

Feel free to email me. I don’t check these boards as much since the format changed. It takes to long to sift through everything. There are people whose responses I overlook consistently and intentionally. This format prevents that.

With older kids I found there was a whole group who just weren’t tuned into words as having their own identity, meaning, flavor, etc. I suspect it’s similar to the way somebody trained in music will hear all kinds of things in chords and notes of a song… whereas the untrained ear will catch the rhythm and the feel — some of the “meaning” but not at the same level.
So — how to tune the kids in to this? Just giving them more chance to use & hear words sometimes seemed to widen the gap — the “tuned in” kids jumped on board and surfed along, while the “untrained” ears were still only catching the surface elements.
Slowing it down and teaching and monitoring the process, encouraging exploring words and using new ones and the differences between similar words (word walls with 10 different words for “scared” at Halloween, for example) help; I put some of the other stuff I did (but again, this was with older kids so it would have to be adapted) at [url]http://www.resourceroom.net/myarticles/vocabulary.htm[/url][img]http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/happy/xyxwave.gif[/img]

I do have a child who has a gifted vocabulary. I know his secret. He makes pictures in his mind for every word he hears. When he hears fern he sees a plant. When he hears integrated he sees the car seats that are integrated into our car.

I find it very easy to teach him new vocabulary words because of this skill. (Other things have not been so easy but that is another story.)He will hear a word once and the meaning will stick with him. He does this automatically but I think it is something that can be taught. Lindamood bell’s visualizing and verbalizing does this.

I totally agree that books on tape are great until their reading level catches up to their comprehension.