Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Chapter 9 post
I have always liked learning new words, and I believe that many students across the achievement spectrum enjoy vocabulary acquisition. When I went through school I remember this one teacher I had that made us write a word 20 times, then the definition 20 times, then 20 different sentences with the vocabulary word in it. Back then I though t that the teacher was doing this because she hated us, later I realized that repetition is the key to memorization. I would never use repetition to solely teach vocabulary though, I would prefer to let my students choose their vocabulary word from the text, but that is assuming that all students do their reading (a lot don't). I liked the idea study words, don't memorize, because a student can memorize the words and the definition for a week, then forget everything once the test is over, that is why I remember the vocabulary words that I use, not the ones I memorized to get good grades.Teaching word parts and different suffixes is important too, when a student knows the Latin meaning of certain parts of words they are on their way to mastering the English language. Today I went to my students study hall for field experience, we studied math, then finished by preparing for his upcoming vocabulary test. WE had fun studying for vocabulary, and I take credit for this, I made it fun by explaining how mastering the English language will allow for him to shock people with his repertoire of words, but I also made explaining every different word fun for him. I used all of the words in funny contexts, and gave his suggestions for how to use the vocab words in class to impress. To my surprise my student actually got interested in using these new words for his advantage, that made my day that he got excited about something I was teaching him.
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Sam one of the best classes I ever took was here at Kent way back in the mid 80’s. It was called English Words in Classical Elements. The professor who taught the course was a stout little man who loved words and their etymology. As you said, word parts i.e. suffixes, prefixes, and bases are important and can give clues to figuring the meaning of words. Knowing a words origin can also give readers clues. Often you will find base words of a particular origin and if as you mentioned you know the meaning of a word of Latin origin or any other then you will likely be able to figure out the meaning of the word. This course helped me build my vocabulary exponentially. The professor had each of the students in the class buy a large key ring. We were then instructed to put word cards on the key ring and add suffixes, prefixes, base words, and complete words with their corresponding definitions on the key ring as we encountered them. By the end of the semester the key ring wish bloated with words. It was better than a dictionary or thesaurus. It had every piece of every word in the English language one could imagine. I kept it for years until it literally fell apart from use and age. I have always said one day I would make another one. Maybe as I continue to work with my students both newspaper and special needs I finally will.
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You make a good point - there is a very big difference between memorizing and learning.
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