Tena wrote: I noticed Janet Allen uses a lot of "non-examples" the "what it isn't" sort of thing. Short of an exact opposite, I think this would be confusing to some kids. What did you find?
Pam writes: No, it's been my experience, once the kids understand a graphic organizer that asks for non-examples and what non-examples are, they are good to go. I tried a form of a frayer model that I adapted from Vocabulary Unplugged. It had the word (with dictionary definition) in the middle connected to 4 boxes. Those 4 boxes asked for: definition in kid's own words, a synonym or example, an illustration, and a non-example. I found this to be effective, but time consuming (last year's group just plain didn't do homework & this year's group isn't much better). The kids' didn't like doing these, but most grudgingly admitted that it really helped them to understand and use the words. So, it was a battle to get them to do, but worth the effort. If anything, my kids last year struggled more with the illustration than the non-example as many of our words weren't nouns. I did find that I had to really hold their hands with the first 5 (regular ed) and probably 15 (ese/ELL). It really helped them to have an example of a completed one to review too. :o) Pam/6th gr./FL An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. Anatole France (1844 - 1924) ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
