V.O.C.A.B.

I'm becoming OBSESSED with looking at vocabulary activities that engage students and challenge the way they view words!

For example, one activity calls on students to work in small groups and plan a charade to show the definition of a word.  They cannot tell the class exactly what word it is, so they really have to think about how to represent the word in order for the students to best guess.

Another idea is called the "Chain Link" game.  One student is assigned a word.  They tell the class the word and the definition.  From there, the next student goes with another word and has to contemplate ways that their word connects with the first word.  So on and so forth.  It is kind of link the students are building a scaffold and bridge between the vocabulary words within a unit.  It's a physical schema.  Seeing these connections help with future recall as well as a broader understanding of the vocabulary.

The thing that I am realizing most through reading the book "Word Nerds" is that there are SO MANY ways to teach vocabulary that all students can access the material.  Moreso: it can be genuinely fun.  One interesting sentence of this week's reading: "Engaging students in activities that ask them to apply vocabulary improve their comprehension and helps them recognize vocabulary as a fluid and standard component of academic conversations rather than just a list of words on an anchor chart."  In other words, I want my students to feel comfortable and confident in using those vocabulary words in academic conversations fluidly.  They can actually employ the language in real life.

My own nature as a young student might get nervous by non-traditional vocabulary lessons.  Now, as I'm looking into the subject, I realize that it is attainable, fun, and can actually be really comfortable.  The more students are called upon to think in broader, more connected, more complex, less traditional ways, the more comfortable they will be with approaching new challenges.

This week, I got to the part about assessment in vocabulary instruction.  The teaching should never become activity land.  We really have to monitor to make sure the students are really learning.  It even discussed to the importance of recognizing misconceptions students may have about the vocabulary before and during instruction.  We need to pay special attention to the connections students are making between the words.