Word Nerds: Teaching All Students to Learn and Love Vocabulary, the title alone was my goal. As a student I remember being bored beyond belief by this topic. Flash-forward years later and I felt my students were having the same exact feelings. Initially, I'll admit I was pushed toward researching vocabulary strategies because I noticed that year after year, my students struggled with this topic or strand. However, it is a subject that I have always felt difficult to teach. After repeatedly attempting and seeing 26 sets of bored eyes, I'd give up. I'd rationalize that it was more important to spend this precious time teaching something else.
Chapter 1 answered one of my big questions- "What's the Big Deal About Vocabulary Instruction?" All texts are filled with words, which are fascinating. But, even if our students can read the words they may not always understand the meanings. Teaching students strategies to learn new vocabulary will impact all aspects of a student's life and is connected to their reading, writing, language, speaking and listening. However, will these words stay with the students after the lesson? Will the students understand the words in a deeper manner? Will the students learn to love vocabulary?
I am on my fourth 10 day cycle and I have found that the answers to all these questions are yes. After the first few days I noticed my students were making connections with our vocabulary words. They would cheer when I'd announce it was time for vocabulary. I saw their engagement in the activities.
For my PC1, I asked my peer coach to interview some of my students, randomly, regarding their thoughts on this new vocabulary program. I wanted to know what they thought of it, without me around making them feel obligated to give a certain answer.
"I like when we play Scramble and all the games. They help me learn my words and what they mean. We go over them every day and this helps me learn. We get to see besides just hearing, visualization helps me."
"I like the Word Colors because I can be creative. It helps me because it's fun and I want to learn more. I like the independent activities too because I like searching for the words."
"I really like this way of learning. Doing fun stuff helps me learn because it gets in my mind and stays there. Playing games helps me remember, but my favorite is Scramble. I like both the independent work and the games because I like working by myself sometimes, but also enjoy group work."
"This is a fun new way to do vocabulary- like games. It's not boring, it's more interesting and easier to learn. I like talking about how alike and different these words are. It makes it easier for me to learn."
"This helps me learn definitions of words a lot more. Seeing the synonyms and antonyms when we get in our groups helps me get to know the words much better."
Their interviews made my day and are continuing to make my year. I love seeing how engaged they are with their learning and how this knowledge is carrying over to other aspects of their education.
Here are some examples of our daily activities.
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
Some Examples of Days 4-9 Activities:
There are so many other fun activities we've done and some that I still can't wait to do. From Vocabulary Rap, to Charades, Tableau, Chain Link, Game Board Links, Line it Up, Power Point Portrayals, and Crystal Ball Words among others. I am beyond thrilled that this summer I stumbled upon this book. It has greatly transformed the way I teach vocabulary and best of all, my students love learning this otherwise dry topic.
