Analysis Of The Article Rationale For Robust Vocabulary Instructions

980 Words2 Pages

A. What were a few of your favorite strategies from Dr. Connor’s video? Why? One strategy that I found useful in Dr. Connor’s video was the text talk method. Text talk assists teachers in selecting appropriate vocabulary words to help students engage with words in meaningful ways. Dr. Connors presentation on the tier system provides teachers with a framework for choosing appropriate words. Students are exposed to tier one words on a regular basis and tier three words appear in certain contexts. This strategy is useful because it will guide question and response activities in the classroom, and help assess the student’s present level of knowledge. In addition, another useful strategy was the word association activity. In the activity, students …show more content…

This is addressed through the idea of the Matthew Effect, which is applied to vocabulary instruction through SES groups. Beck and Mckeown shed light on the problems associated with teaching vocabulary and propose a change, which will undoubtedly help struggling students. The teacher’s responsibility is to instill a curiosity and love for words in his/her students. Reading through the article, it became evident that in order to know a word you must be able to apply it in different situations. As stated in the article “Simply put, knowing a word is not an all-or-nothing proposition: It is not the case that one either knows or does not know a word (9).” The authors propose a theory that student’s knowledge of vocabulary words lies on a continuum. This ranges from limited knowledge, narrow knowledge and finally a rich understanding of the word and use of it in context. Overall, the article has made it evident that direct instruction is correlated with student achievement in the classroom.
Questions
1.) How can we bring vocabulary instruction to life in the classroom?
2.) What are some practices which help children take vocabulary across the curriculum? What are some ways to integrate them in math, science and social studies?
3.) How can we meet the demands of students in the classroom if they reside at different levels learning, while …show more content…

Garnett’s paper she outlines common vocabulary practices, such as defining words in the dictionary and studying root words, which have not been successful in helping struggling students. Her teaching philosophy is that vocabulary instruction cannot be a repetitious practice, but it must be flexible when working with the needs of students. Dr. Garnett’s unique and creative teaching approach caters to struggling students, such as Anthony. Her perseverance and commitment to Anthony’s education resonated with me throughout the article. She showed me that as an educator you have a commitment to your students by bringing instruction to life in the classroom, which was demonstrated in her interaction with Anthony. Kate Garnett is a role model for teachers by redefining direct instruction through effective teaching practices, such as her vocabulary game. As stated in the article “ I went home and designed a game activity with meteor, meteorite, atmosphere, friction, impact, and crater aimed at activating the verbal rehearsal so uncommon to Anthony’s repertoire (7).” Dr Garnett created games and designed activities, which would assist in the expansion of Anthony’s mental lexicon, such as category example relationships. In the article is that Dr. Garnett shares a similar approach to teaching vocabulary as with Dr. Connor and the Stahls. They are shattering common practice and giving teachers a model which will assist them when working with struggling

Open Document