Chapter 3 Vocabulary

Vocabulary is something that children begin to learn as early as they can speak or even hear.  If you are not familiar with the knowledge of what a word means, it can seriously complicate your life in many ways.  In order to communicate, for example, you must learn vocabulary skills. Many students learn vocabulary at a different pace.  Some learn quicker or slower that others.  In addition to vocabulary instruction, it is important to recognize that students acquire word knowledge from the wide reading students do and from teacher read alouds.  I've always thought that vocabulary came natural to me, but through my experiences in the elementary education program i have realized that it takes more than just hearing a word and knowing what it means.

Vocabulary can determine your success, not only in reading, but also in any other field.  Vocabulary knowledge can predict your success of content area performance, including comprehension.  In order to comprehend a word, you must know the vocabulary.  A quote in chapter three that caught my attention said, "They examined the achievement of struggling first-year college students and discovered that vocabulary knowledge was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than cognitive ability.  In addition to vocabulary, comprehension is also influenced by prior knowledge, fluency, text difficulty, and interest."  Another thing that caught my attention in the text stated that teachers usually focus on certain vocabulary words each week given to the students to memorize, learn how to spell them, and look up the definition.  However, these vocabulary words are rarely in the reading sections that are read in the classroom. Students benefit from instruction on the differences between concept and label words (concept words=can be inferred through context clues whereas label word=allows students to think deeply about the complexities represented by one word.) This can prevent them from getting bogged down in minute ideas at the expense of big ideas.

Self-assessment of current knowledge is another area of vocabulary that teachers should focus on. Teaching individual students vocabulary can be complicated based on their varying word knowledge levels. Each student brings his or her own word understanding to the text. Instead of applying a "one size fits all" approach to vocabulary instruction, assess students before the reading. Find out what the student knows and become aware. This will also benefit the student so he or she can also better their understanding of what each of them knows and needs to know.

Current practices in vocabulary instruction seek to integrate varied methods. For content area language growth, word selection is essential. A growing number of teachers are identifying grade-level words for explicit instruction. However, it is critical to reinforce understanding through meaning, which is also seen as critical to student learning. Chapter 3 advises students to: be actively involved in word learning, make personal connections, be emersed in vocabulary, and consolidate meaning through multiple information sources. The authors also note that these principles apply to all learning, however their experience has shown that these conditions are vital for vocabulary acquisition and retention.

Chapter 5: Questioning Strategies

Considering I am a future teacher, questioning is a major topic when it comes to understanding your students' knowledge. Growing up, I do not remember Higher order thinking in the classroom. However, I wish that my teachers would have used more interesting strategies in their lessons because that would have made each class a bit more interesting and exciting. The six levels of competence, which include knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are all important for teachers to use in their classroom and not just on tests or assessments.

There are several strategies in chapter 5 that I really think would be great to use in the classroom. For example, the QUILT framework is a useful technique for quality questioning. QUILT stands for Question and Understand to Improve Learning and Thinking. Learning and thinking invites teachers to consider what happens both before and after the question is asked. The stages of the QUILT framework include: Prepare the Question, Present the Question, Prompt Student Responses, Process Student Responses, and Reflect on Questioning Practice. The way we word our questions and responses can shape students' beliefs about themselves and their place in the world.

The five implementation tips can be very useful for reciprocal teaching in the secondary mathematics classroom. I believe that students will learn and comprehend a lesson better by using the implementation tips other than the TED suggestions because the implementation tips are right to the point and provide almost everything you need in order to help students solve a math problem. Although, I did enjoy listening to the video in class of the math teacher because he integrated humor with learning math tips at the same time. But overall, questioning in the classroom is a MUST! Teachers must ask students questions to determine their level of comprehension. This chapter was very informative to me and taught me a lot of good strategies I did not know about.

One question I have about Chapter 5:
Teachers do tend to have the upper hand when questions are being asked. What can we do, as future teachers, to prompt our students to ask more Higher Order Thinking questions during each lesson?

Notetaking VS. Notemaking

When I first saw the word "notemaking" I thought it was just another word for "notetaking" but this is obviously not the case. I grew up in school taking notes, and if I ever did "make notes" I was not aware I was doing something different. Notetaking refers to students' written notes from a lecture or class discussion (which is what most of us have probably done throughout our entire school career). Notemaking is the act of recording notes from printed materials. Notemaking allows you go back again for more information, while notetaking does not. Studies show that students who take better notes generally do better in school. Recording the notes, also called "process function"  and reviewing the notes later, known as "product function" are both required to create valuable notes. This is referred to as the "encoding and external functions." The encoding function is something I have always had trouble accomplishing, which is being able to pay attention to the lecture while writing or taking notes. However, this allows students to deepen their understanding and transform the information they received. The external storage function gives students the opportunity to review their notes and main ideas before using the information on a test, essay, or quiz. Overall, I think students need to be taught the correct way (or successful way) to take notes so they will be organized and feel better about the entire process.


Why are some students so good at listening to a lecture and taking awesome notes and some students aren't (like me, for example)?

Why don't most teachers teach us good notetaking procedures when we are young?

"Picture This!" (The 3 Q's)

1. A quote that stands out to me in Chapter 6: "Graphic organizers offer an opportunity for students to construct an answer while allowing the teacher to quickly assess their understanding." This quote stands out to me because it explains (in one sentence) how graphic organizers are effective and why teachers should use graphic organizers in the classroom. 


2. One question I would like to ask the author: How would you use a concept map (or other graphic organizers) with kindergartners or first graders? Basically, how can I simplify graphic organizers so that the younger children will understand what they are doing and why?


3. A personal connection to the text: I remember creating a concept map in my science class (for elementary education). That was really the first time I fully understood what a graphic organizer was and it completely helped me understand the concept I was studying. However, this chapter has made me realize that there are many other types of graphic organizers that I never knew about. I really enjoyed learning more about graphic organizers and how to use them in each subject area.

Writing to Learn

This article, along with chapter 8, was very informative. I learned a lot of new strategies to incorporate into my classroom when I become a teacher, which is very helpful. "Considering a topic under study and then writing about it requires deeper processing than reading alone entails, according," according to Fordham, Wellman, and Sandman. I really liked this statement because I can definitely relate to it. In other words, they are basically saying that writing about a topic that you've just read require more than just reading about it. Comprehension is something that students have to work at. It doesn't just come natural. I, for example, had lots of problems in elementary school with comprehending a short story and then anwering questions about it. I was an excellent reader, but I often found myself re-reading the story or looking back at it several times to try and comprehend what I had just read. "Integrating writing with reading enhances comprehension because the two are reciprocal processes." This is another great sentence that caught my attention. I never really understood why I had to answer questions about short stories when I was in elementary school, but now I realize that it was a way for me to enhance my comprehension skills. I used to think a good reader was someone who could read fast and never had trouble with the words. I know now that is definitely not the case. You must find ways to comprehend what you read, or reading will be absolutely useless.

There were many good strategies that I read about and will use in my classroom. The first one I really liked was biopoems. Biopoems are excellent strategies to achieve a deeper understanding of a historical figure. It requires students to think carefully about what they've read and make inferences about what a person's actions and statements imply. The biopoem we did in class was actually very fun for me. Another strategy I liked was the ABC list. An ABC list requires critical and creative thinking. The students conceptualize their new understanding of a particular topic by creating an alphabet list. After reading the text, the students choose significant words of phrases for each letter of the alphabet. This strategy would be especially good with the younger children. For older kids, quick writes and structured note taking would be good strategies to help them prepare for reading assignments.

Two questions I have:
How can I distinguish between a good reader (with comprehension skills) and a good reader (without comprehension skills)?
Most of these strategies were not used when I was in elementary school. Are the teachers implementing them now? If so, I would like to know which ones work best and if there are other ones I have not heard of that work well with students.

Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades

All throghout elementary school, reading was always a subject I was confident in. The reason I was so confident in reading was because of how fast and fluent I could read. However, just because I could read at a fast pace and could also read the words correctly, I rarely comprehended the text. Comprehension was not very important to me when I was in elementary school. I thought that if I could read fast and fluent then I was considered a good reader. I was terribly wrong. Today I still have that same problem. I read very well, but I often find myself reading the text several times so that I can comprehend what it says. This is a problem that I wish my teachers would have recognized and helped me with when I was young because I probably would not have the same problem today if it would have been corrected a long time ago when I was still learning the process of reading comprehension. This article had very good ideas on emphasizing the importance of content area literacy instruction. Reading to learn and learning to read go hand in hand, just like the article said. Doing both at the same time, in my opinion, can really help students become better readers and even want to read more often.

The article suggested different types of texts for students to read, instead of just textbook reading, such as trade books, Internet sites, newspapers, and magazines. These content-related texts can provide students with opportunities to increase their domain knowledge about dozens of real world topics. The more time students spend reading about expository text, the greater they will be with this text type. I think that using different kinds of texts in schools will definitely attract more interest in the students and maybe give them a fun way to read. I believe that if I had these things when I was in elementary school then I would be much better at reading comprehension and also have a greater passion to read. According to the article, teaching common expository text stuctures, such as description, sequence, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution, facilitates reading and writing of exposition. This is so important for students because they will be better able to comprehend and retain the information found in them.

If content-related texts such as trade books, Internet sites, newspapers, and magazines are not provided in our schools, then how can we expand the use of expository text to students?
If these texts were allowed in schools, but some parents were not comfortable with their children using them, what other alternatives could the teachers use?