Blog #5

I absolutely cringe when I hear words that don't belong together. Knowing techniques on how to build vocabulary will not only help my students, it will be of great value to me also. Because the gap in word knowledge is expansive, it's hard to know where to begin with choosing words. There are different types of words and they type of words determines whether or not it should be taught in detail. Vocabulary and the understanding of each, will determine whether a topic is comprehended. The thing to keep in mind is how helpful would the word be to know. Is it a word that the students can figure out on their own or does it take in-depth information on the study of the word. Words should be taken from the texts the students are reading. This gives them the opportunity to have many exposures to the word. When reading the texts to find vocabulary words, it is good that the teacher puts the words into context during think alouds. Having students interact with words from the text is better than relying on rote memorization for them to learn each. This way is inefficient, words should not be taught in isolation. They should have many uses of context surrounding each. I know when I was in school, my teacher would give me a list of words on Monday and tell me to be prepared on Friday for the test. At no point during the week did we have any type of interaction with the words. I would have liked to have had visual glossaries, word sorts, and did vocabulary word play. I mean I got by with just memorizing each but that's just sub par. Truly knowing a word is more than knowing the definition of it. It is understanding how to use the words in context and being able to make a educated guess about its meaning. The more background knowledge a student has about the word, the better chance they have of understanding so sometimes we as teachers need to find out exactly what they know, and go from there to help with comprehension. Vocabulary self-awareness..I don't know who had the idea, but it is great. Giving students words then having them gather information about each, allows for discovery and their own interpretation of the word. They are able to make guesses about the word then revisit it later to add or clarify as needed. I will keep in mind how explicit instruction in multiple meaning words can boost comprehension. I think it will be really interesting choosing words. 
I am wondering what good way I can incorporate my library of words. Like how will we keep track of all the words from the year since we will be choosing them as we read. I am also thinking about how the students will feel to choose their own words. How will they choose each.