Leveraging Learning

Vocabulary is a fundamental component of reading and comprehension.  It is, therefore, a barrier for many students, particularly those for whom reading is a struggle.  Or those with auditory processing difficulty. I love words.  I think about their origins, sort them, find synonyms and examples.  Make up songs about them.  Learn how to spell them.  Think about their parts of speech and how they are used in sentences.  I do these things alone, with my classes and for fun.   All of these are excellent first steps, but I need to improve.  Here's why: Often when we get lost in a new word in class it occurs on the spur of the moment.  There are ideas and resources that I lack on the fly.  Surely, I could anticipate these moments better.  Not always, but often enough to make the moment more teachable. Typically, our discussion is oral.  What about the visual kids?  I need to have more visual input for them -...

Choosing just one book that has transformed my teaching feels a little like choosing a favorite child.  I just can't do it.  But the longer I work in Special Education, the more I realize that vocabulary is often a barrier to comprehension.  I see it every day.  Students struggle with concepts because they lack the vocabulary to discuss and understand them.  As teachers, we need to give them more than simple exposure to words.  Students need deep understanding of words, shades of words, word origins, similar words, examples and non-examples in order to truly own a word. One of the books on my shelf that gets frequent use is Vocabulary Games for the Classroom by Lindsay Carleton and Robert Marzano.  The book provides comprehensive lists of words and concepts that should be understood at the various levels of learning.  Also, there are a myriad of games which are fun and provide a deep understanding of the terms. A favorite in my class is Which...