For years, I focused on teaching my striving readers phonics. My hypothesis was, if I teach the babies phonics, then they will read better. However, I’m learning more and more that it’s not about phonics so much as it is about vocabulary. “Vocabulary is a critical factor in the development
What does it mean to know a word? Given that words are multifaceted in nature, how do we ensure that students can savor the richness of individual words? In a word conscious classroom, we can not take our students’ knowledge of words for granted. Many of the formative assessments don’t
Teachers can use poetry to introduce word consciousness. Poems can be used to illustrate succulent sounds and to help students master meanings of words within our English Language. In this episode, students will explore the elements of a rhyming poem. Reference: Scott, J. A., Skobel, B. J., & Wells, J.
“Learning about words is as central as breathing in a literacy classroom, because words are the cornerstone of both oral and written language. Learning about words is inseparable from learning about reading and learning about writing” (Scott, Skobel, and Wells, p. 1, 2008). Hence, it is critical that we teach
Our student’s attention must be drawn to what is unknown about their word knowledge just as much as to what is known about their word knowledge. Many times, students over estimate their word knowledge and therefore, they will unintentionally inflate their self-appraisals. Hence, it is important for teachers to understand
How fine of a job are teachers doing with teaching the Latin and Greek roots of English? Thinking back to my own experience in learning about the affixes, I can attest that my exposure to this aspect of the language was slighted. Rasinski, Padak, Newton, and Newton, in their 2011 article,
In our first episode, we will explore my story as a vocabulary have not. References: Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N., Newton, J. and Newton, E. (2011), The Latin–Greek Connection. Read Teach, 65: 133–141. doi:10.1002/TRTR.01015 https://www.timrasinski.com/presentations/article_latin-greek_connection_-_rt_tr_np_jn_en_2011.pdf
Words, words, words. Students will fall in love with words, when they are equipped with vocabulary. And students who love words learn better. When teaching language arts, we are teaching students the art of using language. Language Arts is composed of six components: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Viewing, and Visually
“Literacy is about learning, and learning is about unlearning and relearning” (Spencer & Juliani, 2017, p. 19). Spencer and Juliani, authors of Empower: What happens when students own their learning, devised six truths that support a principle for empowering our learners. Truth numbers one and five from their book, focus on