Chapter 3 talked about Vocabulary and its influence on comprehension. As a young student, I always loved to read. I always had a broad vocabulary, and comprehension was never an issue for me. It has always been an issue for me to think about how I would actually TEACH vocabulary. Either you know the words or you don't? Either you can use the word, or you cant.
But, when reading this chapter, I shifted into thinking about my college experience. I'm not going to lie and say that I have spent hours upon hours of my college career reading the text books when the instructor was not holding us accountable. But the times that I have attempted to broaden my horizons by reading the text book, it was a total waste of my time. In part because, i very seldomly understood what i was reading. Why is that? Because they use humongous words that may as well have been French. Did I make my elementary school teachers proud by looking up those words and writing out a definition the way i was taught so many years ago? Well, no! So, I can imagine the struggle going on in little minds.
I liked that the chapter gave ideas of how to incorporate vocabulary into the classroom everyday and not just in a single session of "looking up words in the glossary." I think that Word Walls seem like a fun way to build vocabulary. Using context clues to understand unfamiliar words is a very important strategy for understanding unfamiliar words when you arent able to just look up a word in a dictionary. This strategy can be practiced in all content area reading. Using flash cards for vocabulary can also be helpful for students practicing with words. There were many great ideas given in the chapter. However, it makes me wonder if all of these wonderful vocabulary strategies are available, why did I spend so many years copying terms from the glossary? Why do i see this still happening? Will I be able to incorporate these strategies in my classroom, or will I be stuck in the glossary rut?
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