Bless, Address or Press Lida Moore Entry #9

 

In Lida’s entry 9, Supporting Students Construction of Vocabulary Knowledge, she discusses the importance of teaching students a variety of strategies for vocabulary development and word learning. Lida was also the deeper dive discussion leader this week. Her entry focuses on the realization that students need to be supplied with a variety of strategies for word learning in order to be successful. This was a realization that I had as well, as when I was in elementary school learning vocabulary words, I do not recall being provided with a variety of strategies in case the strategy provided was not working. Lida also discusses how she recalls often being told to look something up in a thesaurus or dictionary, and I agree with this as well. Sadly many of my teachers did not provide a variety of strategies for looking at and understanding words, but we see in both Tompkins and the Graves article that strategies can vary and we can provide words around the classroom, like word walls or character posters relating to vocabulary, in order to help students understand the meanings of words and broaden their vocabulary. I also found it interesting in the readings that the program in the article provides vocabulary instruction 3 times a week for 30 minutes and how this amount of time and the frequency, did have positive effects on students ability to learn and understand vocabulary words. Lida also discusses how when students are prompted to look up words and write sentences from a list of unknown words can be dull and detrimental to their learning because they feel as though they are just checking off a box. I would also agree with this point and relate this back to the article and how they provide posters with step by step instructions for word learning strategies and allows students to think more creatively and critically about words rather than simply looking them up in the dictionary. We also need to provide students with experiences that allow for vocabulary learning, and these can be provided through multiple strategies, such as word maps, word sorts, using context clues in books, etc. Allowing students to explore vocabulary and what works for them and what does not inspires them to keep learning and expanding their vocabulary. 

The main point in Lida’s response that I would like to bless and address is as follows; “This discussion of teaching vocabulary strategies to students has made me more aware of how I encounter and deal with words in texts that I read and don't understand. As a teacher, I think it is essential to think about my own strategies and learn new techniques that I can teach to my students as they expand their vocabularies. It will be so important as both Tompkins et al. (2022) and Graves et al. (2017) stress to use Think Alouds and to discuss with students the processes and strategies to use when coming across unfamiliar vocabulary. I want my students to believe that they can stretch their minds and use all they know to figure out what they are reading. Of course, putting into place rhythms of silent sustained reading and reading aloud to my students will be critical for them to expand their vocabularies.” (Moore,2022) I would like to address this and bless it because I completely agree with this statement. I believe that this article and the Tompkins chapter allowed me to reflect on the strategies I used and the ones provided to me when I was learning vocabulary in elementary school, as well as how I decipher unfamiliar words now as well. These strategies have grown and changed for me over the years as I was exposed to them and the context in which they are used. I also agree that using think aloud strategies, as well as the strategy Dr. Jones mentioned in class and the activity that we did where we looked at a text and pulled words that may be unfamiliar to students, need a deeper explanation, or a brief explanation can be beneficial to use as a future educator teaching vocabulary. Overall, I do strongly believe that I will need to implement strategies for myself and my students that will allow them to explore vocabulary and become affluent readers and writers.