Dean Kindig and Moira Prister

I received this from JeanMarie Courtney about Vocabulary Building and Comprehension–What Works and Doesn’t Work. It’s excellent, and worth a read.

“It is difficult to argue against the importance of vocabulary development when it comes to reading and learning across all disciplines. Additionally, domain- or content-specific vocabulary is essential for success in nearly every field of work. A recent study of vocabulary and comprehension instruction in 33 third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms published in Reading Research Quarterly (Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 31-60) offered several interesting insights.

The following strategies were associated with gains in vocabulary achievement:

• · Explicitly teaching definitions of words
• · Helping students see relations among words
• · Providing instruction related to syntax and morphology – breaking down words and analyzing how words are used in different syntactic contexts

In contrast, the researchers found negative or negligible effects on vocabulary achievement when teachers used these two strategies:

• · Trying to get students to think about words in different contexts or use context clues to figure out the meanings of unknown words – “When [instruction on context clues] was seen, teachers tended to point out that students should use context clues to figure out a new word, without explaining, modeling, and/or guiding how to employ the strategy” (48)
• · “Attention to literal comprehension – Based on their findings, the researchers speculated that, “if teachers spend too much time on literal comprehension, they may not provide enough support for deeper word learning” (48)

Vocabulary development is too important to leave to chance. We can’t just assume or hope that students (or even colleagues) will learn new words by chance. We have to be purposeful and deliberate about making sure that those around us really understand on a deep level the words they need to be successful. How do you help students even those you work with learn and remember essential vocabulary?”

- Mike Doughty, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, BOCES

I just found the kind of soap crayons that my children (and grandchildren) used to write their spelling words on the tub walls. Practicing a few words  each day (the ones they are finding harder) helped kinesthetically get the eidetic image of the word into their brains. And it was darn fun!

Soap Crayons Link: http://www.amazon.com/Play-Visions-Crayola-Bathtub-Crayons/dp/B0043BYOO0

We’ve used washable fingerpaint on bathtub walls as well. Bad idea if you have tile walls, though, unless you like Disney grout. Test it out first. We’ve used this on a tabletop too. Roll up their sleeves and use an apron…

If summer weather ever returns, we keep colored chalk in a pail in the closet. We’ve done one spelling word 4 times in each segment of the sidewalk, each in a different color. If they get 100% on their spelling test, try writing them 3 times the following week. The game becomes “How few times do we have to write the words and have you still get 100%?”

Today a second-grade student was having some difficulty doing an entry logging her Abe Lincoln book into her Literary Journal.

Noting that she was copying the teacher’s model letter by letter (or 2 letters at a time max), I asked her how many letters she thought she could copy after really looking at a word. I’d show her a whole word or word part, she’d look at it, then she said, “Go!” I would cover the original and she would write the letters from her visual memory. We progressed easily from 2 to 3 to 4 and finally copying 5 letters at a time.

Visual-Sequential Memory can be taught right at this age, but actual visual memory for whole words (eidetic memory) takes a couple of years longer (especially for girls). She’s ready to do this “Look-Cover-Write” exercise with 4- and 5-letter words. In fact, students can do longer words if there is an –ing at the end, which they know as one unit.

One of my kids has had a heck of a time getting started with a new nonfiction story.

I’ve seen this before. It’s one of the executive functions (Initiate, Sustain, Inhibit, Shift)—things we do with our attention. I think he needs “front-loading” before writing, to include:

1. His Heart--His classroom-generated list of what’s in his heart (a picture showing what he really loves)
2. Photographs from home of recent fun times, trips, pets, relatives, friends
3. “Cheat Sheet” from parents, telling me the “hot button” topics I can use– what he did over the weekend/over vacation, pet’s name, best friend’s name, favorite hobby
4. Access to published stories written by other kids his age, to show that writing about domestic/common things is OK
5. A “pocket of passion” – Kids who write about what they are passionate about can do it more easily than those who don’t have these ”pockets of passion”. This should be what pre-K is, but don’t get me started!

Reluctance to write also can be:

1. a stalling tactic (“If I look perplexed about what to write, I won’t  have to write),
2. a “worthiness” issue (“Nothing I’ve experienced merits a story; I’m comparing my life to others and my experiences don’t merit a story”),
3. just a lack of experience in getting started—not only with writing, but perhaps getting other things started on his own. What has the child begun lately? Was it haphazard? Poorly conceived? His writing might be a reflection of this, and he needs practice in getting things started.

Microsoft in its infinite wis-dumb made Windows updates that made my old timer program cease to work. Thanks again, Windows. But…I found one that works quite well, and it runs full-screen.

Countdown Timer

Type in the minutes you want it to count backwards from, click “Set”, and click “Start”. Kids are fascinated with the thousandths that are counting down underneath, especially when you tell them that they are changing 1000 times a second.

I added the site to my upper menu bar by dragging the icon to the left of the URL to the menu bar. That works with any site you wish to keep close at hand, and if you do it in Google after signing in, it will be on all of your devices when you sign into them.

I only needed a snippet of a YouTube video, and ran across this handy online tool: TubeChop.

Copy the video’s link from any YouTube, paste it into TubeChop, and move the sliders or type in the starting point and ending point and click “Chop”. A new link appears in the URL window. That’s the TubeChopped snippet you want.

Ever want a hardcover book that you have authored? Kids love to see their name on the cover of a book they have authored. We did it the hard way, because now Lulu.com has new book templates to make the creation process easier.

Here are some books students have done. They are for sale, too!

World War 2 Aircraft – http://www.lulu.com/author/content_revise.php?fCID=12903500

The Titanic – http://www.lulu.com/author/content_revise.php?fCID=12876429

My book, Winning Learners, is also on Lulu, in PDF Download, eBook, and Spiral-Bound form!

http://whenisgood.net/Create

We’re trying to nail down a meeting time between 4 specialists and 4 teachers for a time to meet. I was just sent this website, and it will work perfectly for finding the right time for a 1/2-hour meeting. Each person colors in the times that work for them.

Our students in Fourth Grade are studying Native Americans, and I needed an activity to cement in what a wampum belt was. It’s a doing-type of group, so they made virtual wampum belts as I read to them. You can add one bead at a time or click the other radio button to “draw” in any of the purple or white shells. There is also an erase selection.

http://www.nativetech.org/beadwork/wampumgraph/index.html

What to read to them:

http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm