Vocabulary and Read-Alouds

The Vocabulary Lessons article by Blachowitz emphasized the importance of instilling students with an appreciation for words and encouraging them to want to build their vocabulary. The article focused a lot on creating environments that expose students to activities, materials, and other resources that is helpful in expanding the students vocabulary. The STAR model was introduced as a way to deliver explicit, rich instruction to develop important vocabulary.By Selecting, Teaching, Activating, and Revisiting, the teacher chooses a word, teaches that word (explaining the concepts associated with that word), activating the word with what students already know (referring it back to their real life), and revisit the words with activities such as games and writing. I found this article helpful especially because of the STAR model. It's easy to choose a new word to discuss in class, but by using this model you reinforce what you are learning, which is important for teaching at any grade level.


The chapter by Cunningham and Allington discusses how vocabulary is critical to reading comprehension, and when reading or listening to something, you comprehend, or understand, if you instantly access the appropriate meanings for the words. In other words, your comprehension is impaired if you are reading or listening to something and don't have meaning for many of the words. The article states vocabulary is one of the most valuable tools for literacy and it's crucial for us, as teachers, to build vital vocabularies to help our students become the very best readers and writers.I especially found the section on definition copying informative because I remember from being in school myself that I was assigned definitions to copy down and memorize for a test. If you asked me now what even one of those definitions were, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Research has shown that definitional approaches vocabulary instruction have no effect on reading comprehension. It's obviously more important for students to know and understand words than to just memorize them. As a teacher I plan to use research-based methods to teach vocabulary and comprehension.

Lane and Allen's article on the Vocabulary-Rich Classroom also explained how vocabulary is a critical factor in the development of reading skills and that vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors of reading comprehension. The article discusses the four types of vocabulary- oral, print, receptive, and productive- and the importance of developing all the types of vocabulary. It's explained that's not only important about knowing a high number of words, but about how well you know those words. The three-tier model is introduced as a method for determining which words to teach, these include the basic words that most children already know, tier tow includes words that are key to comprehension and are used by "mature language users," and tier three includes low-frequency words. I think introducing these tiers are important, but only if you can relate them back to the child. Just by introducing a word and having a student copy it and define it, doesn't mean they are going to comprehend it. In a situation like this, using the STAR method described in the previous article would be useful. I also found the section about "dumbing-down" language for students interesting. Just because students are young and not as progressed as older grade students, doesn't mean we have to use simple language around them. When introducing a more sophisticated word, be confident in the students to be able to learn it. By modeling ways to learn to students (asking questions, looking up definitions), teachers can help their students to become intrinsically motivated.

The Early Catastrophe article was like previous articles read for the class, in which research is done on families to see how children's vocabulary is effected by the environment they are brought up in. I found it informative because learning the vast difference in vocabulary levels that my students will have makes it easier for me to know when I become a teacher that all my students are going to be different and at different learning levels. Unrelated to teaching, these articles are helping me make choices of how I plan on parenting when I have children. Socioeconomic status does have a lot to do with students vocabulary levels, but doesn't mean that students with low SES can be expected to not know as much, some students with low SES may have been in a richer vocabulary environment than a student with a high SES. As a teacher it's important to get to know each of your students so you know where they are on academic level and where you want them to be.