Monday, March 15, 2010
Teaching Vocabulary: What a Word Does and Does Not Mean
"Write the definition of each word. Then use each word in a sentence." I dreaded this assignment from elementary school through high school. The more words there were, the more tedious the task was, and the fewer word meanings I retained. Sometimes I was not quite sure what a word meant based on its definition, so I was able to pretend understanding by camouflaging the word in a vague sentence such as, "He [word] across the school." Many verbs could fit this sentence- spit, cartwheeled, ran, walked, screamed, yelped, squealed, etc. Only the strictest of teachers would not allow my ambiguous vocabulary use.
Vocabulary in a Primary Special Education Class
However, one of the students provided that precipitation is "a weather computer" because he remembered there was a brief segment that showed a meteorologist using a computerized forecasting program. This prompted a discussion of what precipitation is not. As we continued the conversation, it turned out that some of the students were using precipitation and weather synonymously. We needed to discuss weather on our weather chart (e.g. sunny, windy) that is not precipitation. Students then completed the "not precipitation" graphic organizer by listing items in each category and depicting them. At the end of the lesson, all students were able to describe precipitation and name the kind of precipitation. Our future lessons will further support meaning by discussing why precipitation is important and how it can be helpful or harmful. Do you have a vocabulary success story or tidbit you would to share with Teaching and Tech Tinkerings? Send a comment.
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2 comments:
Thank you for this great post. I will forward to some of my friends who will find this useful.
Aparna, I'm glad you appreciated the post. Thanks for sharing.
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