Okay, now back to your question about vocabulary. My thoughts--you're probably already doing many of these things: One of the best things you can do to help students learn new words is to use them repeatedly throughout the day in a variety of contexts (Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986--and others). Making up fun rhymes or chants (maybe even with a dance move or two if you're brave;) that get stuck in their heads is another great way--because it gets the students trying the words out with their own voices. Janet Allen suggested that words should be used 10-15 times in meaningful contexts (she's not talking about students that have difficulty remembering words so I'm guessing the number of repetitions would be more for the students your working with).
Also, start close to home with vocabulary words most related to things students interact with on a daily basis. OR relate the new words to things that students see or do daily. Someone already mentioned word walls and, I think, linking words to visuals when possible. I saw a first grade teacher last year who put sight words on the carpet where students were sitting and each student was responsible for the word they were sitting on. Then they focused on one or two words a day then the student would get to put the word up on the word wall which was in reach of all the students. I liked this approach because it gave students ownership of the words. Of course this was for words that were already in their vocabulary. They were learning to spell these for their writing and recognize them automatically in their reading. And finally--in my class when a student found a word we were studying in a book (or even listening to the new/t.v. at home) they would write down how it was used. We would talk about it, post it on the door, and when the door was full we'd party. It became like an ongoing scavenger hunt in our lives. Each time they found a word the way it was used gave us more clues to the life it had taken on in its new context. (this last suggestion may be too hard for your students, but since I don't know them I thought I'd share) Angela ---------------------------------------- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [email protected] > Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:54:46 -0400 > Subject: [MOSAIC] Vocabulary Strategies for Cognitive Impaired Students > > I’m a student at Wayne State University in Professor Creech class. I also > work in a special education center base school with cognitive impairment > children age 8 to 10. My students have a hard time dealing with vocabulary > words. Do anyone have any suggestions or strategies I could use to get them > to comprehend at least some of the vocabulary words. > _______________________________________________ > 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. > _________________________________________________________________ Making the world a better place one message at a time. http://www.imtalkathon.com/?source=EML_WLH_Talkathon_BetterPlace _______________________________________________ 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.
