Ch. 3

This chapter talked about the importance of word knowledge. It is essential that students constantly work to build their vocabulary. Students with smaller vocabularies will have difficulty deriving meaning from the text. “This gap in word knowledge is problematic because of its impact on content learning and reading comprehension” (Fisher & Frey, 2008).  I tutor a student who is a very good reader; however, he struggles with comprehension. During the retell, he can tell me word for word everything that he has read, but when he is asked questions about the text, it is obvious that he does not understand. He has not had the same experiences that some of the other students were able to have growing up. The book says that students need to not only know the word and its definition but also have a background with the word through concepts that will help them fully comprehend the meaning. Teachers are able to use many different strategies to help students learn vocabulary. This chapter talked about vocabulary acquisition and how students come in contact with 3,000 new words a year. Students are able to build their vocabulary through not only reading but everyday conversation. I believe teachers should always model sophisticated vocabulary in the classroom which will help students build their vocabulary through many different connections. I read an article about a teacher who gave her students certain jobs around the classroom. She would give students certain titles such as weather watcher, cleanup helper, line leader, and the zoo keeper. The zoo keeper was in charge of feeding and watering classroom pets. The cleanup helper helped keep the room clean throughout the day. The line leader was at the head of the line as the students were lead anywhere outside of the classroom for that day. The weather watcher would go to the window or door and give the class a report on the weather conditions for that day. After the students completed the tasks of their jobs, and fully comprehended everything that was involved, she would begin to give them other titles. The zookeeper became the animal nutrition specialist, the cleanup helper became the custodian, the line leader became the class movement coordinator and the weather watcher became the meteorologist. This really gave me a good idea of how students learn best and pick up on their new vocabulary. Giving students a list of words to define and memorize is not the way to go. My mentor teacher hands out a list of vocabulary words and has her students study. She also throws around a ball for the students to catch. Whoever catches the ball is then asked to define a vocabulary word from the weekly list. I would like to use something a little more creative than this for my students. I do like the idea of using a word wall for my students.