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Above is a great list of sites with vocabulary activities.


One concept I thought was interesting in the readings this week was word consciousness. Encouraging a positive disposition towards words so that children will find learning new words intrinsically rewarding is such a huge part of creating a beneficial classroom culture. Especially given that a lot of vocabulary learning is incidental, it is important to give kids an impetus to ask or figure out what something means when they encounter a new word. This was mentioned in a couple of the articles, the idea that in addition to controlled vocabulary lessons, a teacher has to also make students capable of independent learning. It seems kind of obtuse but a lot of the strategies recommended were similar to those for teaching emergent readers to love reading-- in that case, creating a print-rich environment; in this case, creating an environment with a lot of chances to be exposed to new words.

Vocabulary was always one of my strong suits and I think one of the main reasons it came more easily to me is that the adults in my life never used baby words or talked down to me. That's probably my least favorite thing people do when interacting with children. I want to make a conscious effort not to do that, but sometimes it feels difficult because you still want to be understood clearly.