Learning the Language of the Land
You know the value of a broad, rich vocabulary, even if you just visit a different area of the nation and not some exotic country on a different continent. The same is true for your students. For many of them, the language of college may seem just as foreign to them. As you scope out the journey of the courses you teach, know that your students will need to understand some basic terms to be able to follow directions and stay on task. You can plan from the very beginning to teach vocabulary intentionally, without having to drill students, allowing them to acquire the skill of recognizing and using more sophisticated language in and out of class. If they use it, they won’t lose it.
Consider levels of vocabulary. As you choose and prepare lessons around specific readings, select and provide definitions for words that are specific to that book/article. These are words that the reader must understand to comprehend the piece. Then there are also those words that are just vocabulary expanders. They may not be critical to understanding but are words unfamiliar to them.
It also is helpful to pull out some of the vocabulary specific to the genre or academic field, in this case the field of literature, that students will need to know across the content areas. Don’t go overboard. I remember being overwhelmed by vocabulary lists, and your students will be too. It is important to limit this list. Perhaps you can focus on five of each, or 5-5-5. The focus should be on the text in its entirety, not the individual words.
You may recognize these levels as Tier 1, 2, and 3 words referring to the vocabulary based on how practical the words are for everyday speaking, reading, writing, and/or academic use. In your area of the country, you may hear about the 40/40/40 rule which refers to words students need to know — for 40 days, 40 weeks, for 40 years — and then allot teaching and study time accordingly. As we’ve discussed before, people’s core vocabularies differ widely. Depending on the makeup of your class, another way to approach vocabulary in literature is to direct students to keep their own list of those words that “bump them out” of the reading.
Vocabulary is definitely an important aspect of reading, but every day we each read print without stopping to look up every unknown word. Reading is about predicting what’s coming next, and as long as our predictions keep working we continue. It’s only when we come to something that suddenly doesn’t conform to our prediction or doesn’t make sense that we’re forced to look up a word or backtrack in our reading.
Vocabulary Found Down A Rabbit Hole
Gayle J Sands, who supervises secondary student practicum students at McDaniel College in Western MD. She has written that the return to the classroom after a school break brings a sense of ending, of the loss of freedom. If we are lucky, it also brings anticipation and hope. Maybe there is an obscure word that will explain the feeling.
She says, “As a word junkie, I have always loved finding new words to add to my vocabulary. Merriam-Webster has a wonderful selection of unusual words. Let’s play around with them.”
Process for Vocabulary Word Play
- Go to https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/surprising-uncommon-words and wander down the rabbit-hole this site provides.
- Choose an interesting word from the many lists on the website (scroll down and select “all”) or select a favorite word from elsewhere.
- Working from that word/concept, develop a list of synonyms and antonyms.
Wordhippo, (https://www.wordhippo.com) is a powerful resource that I recommend to anyone who writes. Wordhippo offers an abundance of synonyms, antonyms, rhymes, definitions and more.
- Enjoy the play of sounds and meanings. Have fun with this. Write with abandon…
Try writing one yourself. Here’s a poem Anna wrote to try out the “assignment”.
IMPIGNORATE
In August in the YOU ES AYE
Educators impignorate
They check their calendars for the exact date
Most can hardly wait
Impignorate means to pledge or pawn
For teachers this means time
Less time for gardening and cutting the lawn
But, preserving an hour to meet here and rhyme
Educators Impignorate
Standing at the window
Watching students rush through the gate
Seeing their curious faces and glow
Ready and willing to help them grow
Hoping they too Impignorate
Ready to learn, can hardly wait
Trusting their teachers’ intellect and passion
Unconcerned at this time about latest fashion
Come friends, let’s Impignorate
Supporting our colleagues over food we just ate
No Impignorate does not mean overeating
It’s pawning our time and pledging our fate
To what happens when our students get through the gate
The gate of resistance and wonder
Knowing we’ll help when they blunder.
Source: https://www.ethicalela.com/wordplay-for-august/
So, if students merely jot down or highlight an unfamiliar or interesting word while they’re reading, not stopping to look up unless necessary for understanding, they will have a personal list of their own. You could share those words in a classroom list or word cloud to see how many others selected them or leave them discrete. Regardless of how you choose to handle vocabulary, we urge you again to use restraint. Learning vocabulary is a means to understanding the whole. It is not the goal itself.
Think about creating a virtual word wall that you project for students to see specific words as the course unfolds. Add to or change the list to coordinate with the texts you are teaching. On discussion or writing days, draw students’ attention to the list to encourage them to incorporate this vocabulary as they talk and write. General words can be in one color font, and specific words in another. Fresh lists create new interest just as the changing road signs you notice along the highway revive interest in the trip. Those teaching in virtual settings can create hyperlinks that students can click on to get them to these word walls. The key is to make it easy to access what they need to learn in order to do well in the course.