Chapter 9--Vocabulary: Figuring Out What Words Mean

Contrary to the usual vocabulary lists we all got back in elementary and middle school and were just memorized for the tests there are other ways of actually learning new words. Pure memorization is not going to get a student anywhere because they can't build on that memorization to make room for new material and new words. 

I loved Kylene's study of teachers and their study of twenty vocabulary words. It was interesting to see how the teachers finally agreed that if they did not give the students twenty words per week that they would never catch up. Ms. Beers was not only worried about there being too many words but also how difficult the words were. The teachers had to learn the list of twenty words a week before using them in front of the students and an additional week before introducing the list to the students. Altogether, the teacher had two weeks to learn these twenty words before making the students learn them. After the process started not only did the teachers have a list of twenty words to remember and use but also another list of twenty to introduce to the students. Overtime the words piled up. After four weeks the teachers were exhausted. One said, "... This is ridiculous. There is no way I can keep up with all these words" (Beers 181). Another stated that she never uses some of the words that were even on the lists. This experiment let the teachers see what they were expecting out of the students and after doing it themselves they learned what a huge task it was. 

Another thing we need to be careful of, is telling students to use context clues to figure out a word. Instead, it might be better if we say "using the context as a clue" (Beers 186). The chapter tells us that context clues require a lot of inferencing that dependent readers can't do. So even if they try to figure out the word, it is at times hard because they don't have the skills to inference, as well as a lot of times there is not enough information in a sentence to blatantly figure out the word's meaning to understand the sentence fully. 

A previous chapter mentioned collecting words on bookmarks that students didn't know. This is brought up again in this chapter. I think this is a really great idea to broaden students vocabulary. Not only could they put them on bookmarks but the teacher could make a running list in the classroom so each week students could learn five to ten more words. That might not seem like a lot but over a nine weeks that's forty-five to ninety words without even having to have a test over them. 

Logographic cues are a good way of finding the meaning of words without having to write a lot. Instead, students can be creative and draw pictures and symbols. On one side of an index card students can write the vocab word and on the opposite side they can define the word, as well as draw a logograph to suggest the meaning. Many students are visual learners and I think this technique would really help them by allowing them to think about the meaning of the word by seeing the drawing. 

The last thing that I was interested in was probably the most important thing in this chapter. Reading aloud was termed by Becoming a Nation of Readers "the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading" (Beers 197). I know a lot of people think it's stupid to be in high school and have a teacher reading to you. They think that their not in elementary school anymore and thus don't need to be treated like babies; although, the reading aloud is extremely important and will only make the students better readers. Personally, I enjoy having someone else read at times. It gives you a break and lets you follow along and imagine more. My high school English teachers did just that. A lot of times they wanted to point out certain parts and other times it could have been for this exact reason, of helping us become better readers. Along with this out loud reading comes silent reading. I know it can be hard to incorporate this into teachers lessons at times but just look at what a huge impact it can have. It affects vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and even students attitudes. Students need to realize how important this is, even though there is a debate on whether teachers should do the silent reading with the students. I think what the students need to see is that the teacher values silent reading and it should not be used as a time filler; yet know that sometimes they won't be able to read with them as they have other things to complete to affect the student.