Vocabulary teacher resources professional#

► In Ten Minutes: (1) pass out blank paper to each student (2) ask them to fold the paper into quarters (a vertical fold and then a horizontal fold) (3) unfold the paper and write the vocabulary word in the center (4) in the upper left quadrant have students write their own definition of the word (5) in the upper right quadrant have them draw a picture that describes the word (6) in the lower left quadrant have students come up with synonyms for the word, and (7) finally, in the lower right have students either write antonyms or a sentence. ► In Ten Minutes: have students create a jingle for a word that includes its definition (A jingle for the word clarify might be: clarify and shed some light, explain with details and say it right or clarify to avoid confusion, explain clearly for the right conclusion.) Would a five-minute introduction to a word be valuable? Could two minutes of transition time really help with word learning, and better yet, allow for word ownership? In every instance, sometimes with some tweaking, the answer was yes. Then we had to evaluate both the necessity of the lesson and its level of success. As I embarked on my vocabulary journey, I found myself challenging those teachers to create lessons in 10 minutes or less.įirst, I modeled several lessons and let the naysayers time me.

Vocabulary teacher resources professional#

Most of my time is spent doing professional development with teachers these days.

Many of these academic words are essential for test success, and many are critical for meaningful speaking, listening, and writing. I call them “everybody’s words” as every teacher is responsible for teaching them. Those are the “Tier 2” words that are used across content areas. Is it too much? It will depend on the day, but we must find time to teach academic vocabulary. How many minutes does it take? In a 40-minute class, ten minutes is 25% of the class time. Taking this information and adding it to other current research, I realized that short lessons would improve vocabulary over time. “One should not underestimate the value of any meaningful encounter with a word, even if the encounter with a word is relatively small.” (Nagy and Herman) Students can benefit from brief encounters with words. How do teachers find the time to teach vocabulary, especially teachers in departmentalized situations in which they may only have periods lasting 40-45 minutes? An important piece of research caught my eye and filled me with hope. Fortunately, brief vocabulary encounters work Now the Common Core State Standards have set the bar high for vocabulary, and I have set my sights on what words are important for students to learn and what brain-compatible strategies work best. Getting vocabulary words into long-term memory was certainly key to helping students understand and remember content. When I learned about the brain and began to understand memory, I researched how the brain is wired for reading and the importance of vocabulary was more evident.

Students with small vocabularies are more likely to struggle with reading, have difficulty understanding content, and can be seriously at risk for academic failure.Īssigning vocabulary rather than teaching vocabulary was a waste of my students’ time, but vocabulary strategies that worked were as scarce as time. In those days gone by, I didn’t realize the importance of vocabulary. Vocabulary seems too often to be at the end of a long list, so sometimes you get to it and other times…well, does it really matter? Why vocabulary is important

There is so much content, kids to work with individually, assignments to grade, group work to facilitate, and vocabulary to teach. Then and now, the days of school are filled to the brim.

In fact, most of them were not included in the reading and writing my students were doing in my class or in others. Even though the words in that vocabulary book were interesting, many of those words were not going to be useful in the future. With reading, grammar, writing, and spelling, there never seemed to be time for anything else.īesides that, my vocabulary book contained just enough lessons to do one per week. “I don’t have time to teach vocabulary.” When I was a young language arts teacher, vocabulary was on the list of things to “cover,” so “cover” it I did.