Kerry Wright EDU7666
Journal
Topic Heading
On 9/14 there was a question on the discussion boards under the Teacher.net, teacher chat boards, primary elementary about a class having low vocabulary test scores. The discussion had entries from 9/14-9/15. There were several entries that requested clarification of vocabulary tests. I had assumed that it was to understand the meaning of words but the originator meant word identification skills. This transaction surprised me because I assumed that vocabulary was the meaning of words. However, I learned that vocabulary has different meanings to different teachers.
There was not direct response from the originator but the discussion revealed the following suggestions: drawing pictures of the words so the children can show if they understand the words; doing extra work during guided reading with the words; meeting with the students daily who did poorly on the assessment to work on those words using chants; doing PowerPoint presentation with pictures and sentences; using the web page usehttp://homepage.mac.com/chrisbiffle/FileSharing37.htmlkto for activities. One teacher gave a schedule of activities to conduct each day during one week. These activities included introduction of the words, drawing pictures, writing sentences with two of the words and answering yes/no questions.
Although I suggested drawing pictures of the words, I have used some of the techniques listed above. I do plan to investigate the web page listed above and singing chants.
Responses to others’ questions
I chose this question because I had learned about drawing pictures of words from Dr. Robinson literacy class. I used this approach in my classes and found it to be very accurate at assessing the students’ understanding of words. When I read the problem on the discussion board, I felt compelled to share that approach.
