Beers text Ch. 7: "Mastering the Art of Effective Vocabulary" by Janet Allen
Hinchman text, Ch. 7: "Active Engagement with Words" by Karen Bromley
Words have power. This thought is virtually uncontested fact in academia. Words can also be very hard, especially in the English language.
According to Bromley, "Possessing large vocabularies : boosts comprehension...improves achievement...enhances thinking and communication...[and] promotes fluency" (121). Words are tools that aid in our understanding and communication. They are basic and crucial building blocks in education, yet also one of the most challenging to acquire and use.
In her Chapter of Adolescent Literacy (Beers), Janet Allen highlights the challenges of teaching vocabulary to high school students. This is something I thought about while reading Bromley's chapter, because it seems to me like vocabulary teaching and learning can become very tedious very easily and very quickly. In my high school, vocabulary took the form of looking up words, writing them down, turning them in, then reviewing the assignments on the day of the quiz by memorising key words in definition associated with each word. Two days after the unit quiz, no one could even remember what the vocab words had been, much less what they meant. However, I fully appreciate the fact that both Allen and Bromley focus on the fact that variety's the spice. They both name several teaching methods that can be used interchangeably. In the most extreme scenarios of variety, students in one classroom could choose one of two, three, or maybe even four different methods to learn or practice vocabulary words. I think that's a brilliant way to reach out to students and keep vocab lessons from getting too boring.
The Know - Want to Know - Learn (K-W-L) method that Bromley mentions in her chapter of Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy (Hinchman) mentions is actually something I'd never heard of before, but at the same time it put into words something I already understood. It's the kind of thing any experienced reader learns to do automatically, though sometimes on a larger scale than Bromley presents. The K-W-L activity is a fantastic opportunity for scaffolding with students while helping them develop strong reading strategies. She presents it as a way to aid word acquisition, but I think it would be a great system for any new reading or study topic.
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