Elisa I think you are very accurate in your example of explaining the word and concept of "miscues" and the exposure repetition opportunities for application etc. They have the opportunity to as I like to say,*Think it, breathe it, digest it, hear it, and in the end know it and make it part of them! * I am of the opinion that we need to take it perhaps one step further and have been toying in my head with this idea of vocabulary development. I currently teach 6th grade LA/SS, after 25 years with k-2, now I am in my fourth year with 6th grade and I am feeling the need to harness this vocabulary work into a working model in my classroom. I feel we need to go beyond word exposure in great read aloud, novel, non-fiction etc like all things the students need opportunities to "wallow in the words" as one author put it be *word collectors*. I am thinking about anchor charts next year, collections for the students to keep in their writer's notebooks (which I do but I find the students write them in their to please me but don't use it as a resource), tagging words in their book clubs for discussion(again do that now but it doesn't go beyond the discussion and the moment), finding words that bring out the essence of a character ( again been there done that). So I am wondering how do I engage them to use great words? Maybe plotting the character in *words* along a time line as they read their book club novels, and applying that same idea in their small moment idea they write about a person use a time line of words to see if you are getting the accurate picture of who this person is, and later in the year the short story they write, and how about plotting great inventors with words as they research, ???? This is my stream of thought how do we take them deeper? How do we light the fire to be word collectors? I know if I can come up with the right formula the students will follow I've seen it in reading strategies, writing strategies. My big question is where do I take them to have a desire to look for the just right word to describe the setting, the character, or pause to think *what made that come alive when I read it?* I want my students to yearn for the right words, understand new words, apply that knew knowledge, and always be looking and thinking. I saw some of that this year with our writing but not to the extent I want it to be. So I am thinking maybe some anchor chart in the room titled "Words that Wow Us!" "Words the Define People" etc. Help someone .....
Our district just had Richard Allington in for a day, awesome, I think I am in love *: )*. He is amazing I could go on and on about that however.... He told us that some report said that our students are spending 5 1/2 hours daily with some type of electronic media a day! There is our competition folks! He also spoke about the Five Missing pillars of Scientific Reading instruction from the NRP (2001) which he says,"... has been criticized for its narrowly-focused research review." Allington gave us citations from five additional pillars of scientific reading instruction... what really matters. *Writing and reading have reciprocal positive effects. The more effective we curriculum plan ensures that lessons in reading and writing, composing and comprehension, and decoding and spelling are well-linked so as to take advantage of the natural reciprocity between the various reading and language process. *somewhere in that is vocabulary development. Susan Cronk, MS, NBCT Jenks West Intermediate 6th Grade LA/SS On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 1:14 AM, Waingort Jimenez, Elisa < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Bev and others, > I've just started following this conversation and may have missed some > emails in this thread. I tend to agree with what has been expressed so far. > I do believe it's important for kids to learn accurate language to describe > and explain things. I agree with you, Bev, that simply throwing more big > words at kids ain't gonna do it. (How's that for a big word?) For years I > have used big words when reading aloud and helped kids get the meaning by > explaining them right along with what's in the actual text Other times, > I've just kept reading in anticipation of the story doing its work. I also > know that exposure to many good stories with lots of good vocabulary will > increase the likelihood that children will not only be exposed to "big > words" but that they will acquire their meaning as well and start using them > on their own. > > Here's an example. I have been talking to my grade 2 students about > miscues, both my own and theirs. We talk about brilliant miscues and what > makes them brilliant. They are starting to point out their miscues to me on > their own. I use the word in the classroom as if it's a part of their > vocabulary trove and give lots of examples of what a miscue is. They get > it. Translating or memorizing doesn't work. Usage, exposure, scaffolding, > more usage (this includes writing and speaking), exposure, scaffolding, etc. > does work. I used to think that if a kid could explain a term such as width > without using the word width that was OK. Now, I'm seeing how there could > be a gap here. Why? Because the first student will be left out of a > conversation since s/he doesn't know this word. I don't want kids to be > left out. > Make sense? > Elisa > > Elisa Waingort > Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual > Dalhousie Elementary > Calgary, Canada > > > > I suspect that this whole discussion is muddy because we ourselves aren't > clear about LANGUAGE acquisition as opposed to VOCABULARY acquisition. > > Elisa, what do you think? > > Hoping not to offend, but feeling strongly, > Bev > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
