I liked the idea Jago presents about using a bookmark to help students identify what words they struggle with. I know many times while I'm reading, I tend to just skip over the word, getting the gist of it through context clues. I do mean to look up the word, but I always forget too because it's not that important to me. But if I wrote them down on a bookmark, something that I would be seeing any time I opened the book, I would be more likely to look those unfamiliar words up. I also liked how she used a word the students struggled with (entombment) instead of using a word she thought they might have problems with. Breaking the word down to its root and then to the prefixes and suffixes really helped the students figure out what the word meant, without just being told the definition. This works really well with words that they can figure out; however, there are words like "miasma" that cannot be figured out this way, as Jago points out. Jago asked the students to figure out what the word meant out using the surrounding words.
I do like that Jago creates a distinction between having an idea of what a word means and actually being able to provide a definition. I often find myself struggling with this. I may know what a word means in pretty much any context and I can use the word effectively, but I cannot always come up with a definition for it.
Teaching our students vocabulary is important but there are different ways to do it than just having vocab lists or having students look up the definitions for a grade. Jago lists some good ideas in the chart on page 32, such as using personalized examples, encouraging students to use new words, and keeping lists of new words posted around the classroom.
I also really liked Jago's approach to teaching vocabulary. In my opinion, vocabulary lists and weekly tests do little to help students learn words in the long run. I think it's important for students to recognize where their problems are and then fix them with the guidance of a teacher and that's exactly what Jago's approach encourages.
ReplyDeleteI have always been a fan of marking up text, and using the bookmark is a great way to contribute to that concept. As I am taking History of English this semster I've suddenly realized how important roots are. And having a student learn by using roots and suffixes can be a great way for them to work through their mystery word and rememebr its context in future readings.
ReplyDeleteI like Jagos creative approaches to vocabulary and I love the idea of the bookmarks, which sound similar to a concept I've used before called vocab journals. I also love the idea of having a list of the terms posted in the classroom. It seems so simple, but it is so important for students to be surrounded by good words so that they become natural and start to use them in their everyday lives.
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