Vocabulary plays a huge role in students' ability to comprehend literature. There are many different ways that students can develop an advanced vocabulary. Ideally, students will have built upon their language skills over the years, but unfortunately many students will arrive in their high school English classroom very unprepared. This is difficult for their teachers because the material they need to teach requires advanced vocabulary.
Hinchman provides many different ideas about how teachers can present vocabulary to their students. Some of the ideas mentioned in her book, Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, include; a word a day, K-W-L (which stands for know, want to know, and learn), Teach-Teach-Trade, root words, and digital words (ch. 7). Teachers will be able to know what works best for their students in their classroom after trying these different approaches. What works well for one teacher might not work for another depending on the environment and the students.
Beers also discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction in the book Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Beers focuses more on how students learn vocabulary and what general methods best work in successfully teaching them. An interesting question that was brought up in chapter seven was, "What does it mean to know a word? (Beers, p. 91)." We talk all the time about the importance of vocabulary, but we fail to address what it means for a student to know a word. They may be able to use it in a sentence and spell it, but that doesn't mean that they know what it means. I'm sure there are still some words that I use just because I have heard other people use them all the time so I know the context with which they apply, yet I don't get the entire meaning. We need to make sure students understand the meaning of words. Just being able to read the word and say it aloud does not make it known to the student.
Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.
Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.
Hinchman provides many different ideas about how teachers can present vocabulary to their students. Some of the ideas mentioned in her book, Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, include; a word a day, K-W-L (which stands for know, want to know, and learn), Teach-Teach-Trade, root words, and digital words (ch. 7). Teachers will be able to know what works best for their students in their classroom after trying these different approaches. What works well for one teacher might not work for another depending on the environment and the students.
Beers also discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction in the book Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Beers focuses more on how students learn vocabulary and what general methods best work in successfully teaching them. An interesting question that was brought up in chapter seven was, "What does it mean to know a word? (Beers, p. 91)." We talk all the time about the importance of vocabulary, but we fail to address what it means for a student to know a word. They may be able to use it in a sentence and spell it, but that doesn't mean that they know what it means. I'm sure there are still some words that I use just because I have heard other people use them all the time so I know the context with which they apply, yet I don't get the entire meaning. We need to make sure students understand the meaning of words. Just being able to read the word and say it aloud does not make it known to the student.
Beers, G. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice.
Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.
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