EDU 742
Literacy reflection on vocabulary strategies
Take two
EDU 742
Dave Underwood
Instructor Linda Lacasse
Underwood 1

EDU 742 Underwood 2
After reading, watching the videos and working on a vocabulary strategy this week I have found how important teaching vocabulary from content texts is. There are so many different ways to help our students learn new and old vocabulary words. The importance of knowing the meanings of words is the foundation for understanding the text being read. By knowing the meaning of words through activities that get children to think and come up with reasoning for the meanings of words and not just the memorization of definitions of these unknown words is "key" for understanding. I like to think of vocabulary words as “unknown”. These words may be new or old, they may even be words that children are using but don’t know the meaning of them. In order to continue a students learning in any subject they need to have a way they learn the unknown, if students have a good tool to learn the unknown words in a context they will better understand the content of the context. It’s frustrating to young and old learners to understand what they are reading if they don’t know the vocabulary. This was a great way to learn why we teach vocabulary across the content area and why it is important. Students need to have a foundation on which to scaffold and build their knowledge of vocabulary words. I feel by having a vocabulary journal where student can put words they need to know and want to know is a good way to learn. The students can reference these vocabulary books when writing and at times they are allowed to use them during a test.
This vocabulary strategy is geared and is implemented at the fifth grade level I am teaching currently. I think this strategy may be used for differentiating higher level learners at the fourth grade level and as far as into the middle school grades where appropriate. I chose to do this strategy because it is a current vocabulary strategy I am using in my classroom and I feel the most comfortable explaining this one.
My students use their vocabulary journal primarily for social studies. If there is a word they are unfamiliar with and they want to know the meaning of it they may add it to their journal. In addition to words of their own choosing I choose around five for them to learn on a three day cycle of social studies.
Students and I choose words from their text and other resources we use during social studies. Our guided reading has been paired with social studies fortunately and we have pulled many words from there. We also have pulled words from primary sources such as the declaration of independence. There are many words in this document that are not familiar to our vocabulary today that we were interested in finding out their meaning of. When we come upon a word either students or I we write it on a word bank page in the front of the journal. It is from this we pull words and find their meaning. It is from here we look up the definition, part of speech, syllables and pronunciation. We then look at the context in which this word is used and why the word may have been chosen over another word. We use our text glossary, Webster’s dictionary, the internet, dictionary.com and we also do a Google search of the meaning. We try and look at creditable websites when choosing who we trust for meanings of words.
I try and promote a class that is actively engaged in using these words and we often come back to where we found the target word to think about how this word was used in the text. When we discuss the new target words we try to come up with question connections and ask questions using the new words. For example” we hold these truths to be self evident” we chose the word evident, added it to our journal, researched the meaning and definition and then we ask what do you know that is evident?
Someone chimes in, “you know,… what do you know that is obvious?” Someone then says Mr.
Underwood is a man. I’ll take that as an answer. Something you notice that is obvious.

EDU 742 Underwood 3
As proficient readers students who are also proficient in vocabulary are the ones who are proactive in their quest for knowledge of meanings for words new and old. These students use their existing knowledge to understand meanings of words; they ask questions about the word and the meaning and where it came from and why it is used in a sentence over another word. Proficient readers relate to learning new words in that they take the new words or meaning for words learned and think about it and ways to use it and how it fits into their learning.
One of the things that came to mind when doing this project was how it linked to Alverman’s text in that we, at times, teach new meanings for known words. In the most recent context my student came across the word “plane” in a trade book on the revolutionary war. Most knew it meant a flat surface but in this context the word “plane” was a tool used in woodworking. I needed to explain in this context it meant a tool used to shave wood. Words take on different meanings depending on the context they are used in. in this case it is best to, “clarify differences between what students already know about a particular word’s meaning and the new meaning” (Alverman, 2004). I found by my students being interested in knowing the dual meaning of this word was a time to capitalize on a teachable moment. My getting them engaged and relaying what they know and the new meaning to the word and being able to have them connect it to something they know was becoming difficult. I then started showing them pictures and eventually a YouTube video of a wood plane. Some of them actually said “I think my dada has one of those”. By connecting the text to them I was able to help them understand the new meaning of this known word. “Linking new meanings to known words by capitalizing on children’s real world experiences, taps into their ability to make text to self and text to world connections”. (Alverman, 2004 pg 69-70)
Students with different learning styles and abilities will find this journal effective to them because they are able to add words of their own. Lower and higher learning ability children and even ELL students can choose words that are new to them, unfamiliar or ones they would like to learn more about. Special needs children are able to place a picture in a space provided to give them a visual of the word to help them understand.