Dumbledore, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows said, “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.” Reading this quote as a sophomore in high school meant nearly nothing to me. However, having progressed in my own education and becoming an educator myself, it is now one of my most favored quotes as words have an incredible power, not just for storytelling. After reflecting on my first year of teaching, I realized how much my students needed access to words, and that they not only lived in a “food desert,” but also in a vocabulary wasteland where they had little access to quality academic vocabulary. After watching my students in the first months of school, I realized the importance of incorporating a strong vocabulary component into my routine written, oral, and reading instruction and that a vocabulary intervention is necessary for students all across the education spectrum, …show more content…
Of a variety of factors affecting text complexity that predict student performance, vocabulary and syntax appear to be the most critical features (Nelson, Perfetti, Liben, & Liben 2012). Complexities that exist within vocabulary instruction can often be difficult for teachers and schools to successfully instruct and assess their students. The sheer complexity of vocabulary acquisition with components such as receptive vocabulary versus productive vocabulary, oral vocabulary versus print vocabulary, and breadth of vocabulary versus depth of vocabulary (Kamil & Heibert, 2005) in conjunction with other factors such as variations in students’ vocabulary size (Nagy, 2005), as well as which words are taught (Beck et al., 2002) and how word knowledge is measured (Biemiller, 2005) must all be considered in shaping our understanding of a student’s vocabulary
From the Glass Castle, Jeannette’s mother read picture books with Jeannette and her siblings in their early childhood. This activity established good reading habits for Jeannette and her siblings. When she was older, after dinner, her father read the dictionary with the kids, looked up the words they did not know, and discussed the definitions (Walls 56). Because of the reading habits her parents gave her, every time Jeannette did not understand a word, she looked up the word in the dictionary. The routine of reading dictionary after dinner and the habit of looking up an unknown word in the dictionary helped Jeannette build up her vocabulary. With abundant vocabulary and excellent reading skills, Jeannette did not have problem with her college admission test. Studies show that having good reading habits not only increase the volume of children’s vocabulary but also help them perform well on their exams. In the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Policy Information Center 's report, The Family: America 's Smallest School, the author points out the importance of reading to children:
In her essay, “The New Literacy: Stanford Study Finds Richness and Complexity in Students’ Writing,” Cynthia Haven claims that writing, for the modern college student, has changed due to recent technology, specifically the internet. To prove this claim, the author turns to a study that began in 2001 at Stanford. This study’s goal was to analyze the writing habits of college students; however, the results yielded more than just that. The study found that students are writing much more than was expected, and much of what they write is not for a grade. So, these students write almost as much for their personal gain as they do for an academic one. Due to this, students are able to understand and utilize higher-level writing techniques, such as epistemic writing. Furthermore, they have
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, Brief Edition (2nd Edition) (2 ed., pp. 413-429). New York: Longman.
Professor Jacob Neusner states that there exists a social contract between teacher and student, which is that true learning occurs when teachers teach students to teach themselves. In his article “What Does ‘Vocabulary’ Mean?”, Andrew Heinze asks what should professors at educational institutions do to accommodate the needs of students and address the problem with college students not comprehending basic vocabulary, and the impact this has on their performance in school. In order to address this education gap a few things need to be called to action and or either accomplished: attrition rate of teachers, parents of students need to become more involved in their children’s education, the lack of reading comprehension with students needs to be addressed and solved, and finally there has to be initiative from the student to work hard and gain an education. If these things are achieved, Andrew Heinze can have an answer to his question, what should [professors] do about [inadvertently speaking over their students’ heads].
During adolescence, I began reading and writing through a fundamental learning program called, "Hooked on Phonics." This program consisted of long hours spent reading short novels and writing elementary phrases which were commonly taught in the second and third grade. With the motto, "Improve your child's reading and writing skills in just four weeks!" I was bound to become the next Mark Twain. The method of this course specialized in the improvements of word acquisition rates as well as reading speed; however, it lacked in the area of teaching comprehension. At a young age, I was instilled with the dire need to be highly educated and although I was unable to experience a fun and adventurous childhood like many other children, I am grateful for being raised with a greater knowledge and wisdom than that ingrained in many.
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp. 371-377, 2008.
Readability of text: The grade level I chose is fifth, and the material comes from McGraw-Hill’s Reading Wonders. “The Boy Who Invented TV” by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Greg Couch is the text I used to apply Fry’s Readability Formula. The Lexile Text Complexity Range is set at 860 and the Text Evaluator is at 38 for this particular story. “The Boy Who Invented TV” was an appropriate biography for fifth grade, however I was surprised to use the Fry’s Readability Formula and find that it was actually graphed at an upper seventh grade level. After doing this readability I have a newfound understanding as to why students, especially lower level, can really struggle with the text found in their books. It is much more evident that after reading
In order to enhance their vocabulary, to improve their comprehension of the text, students much first have background knowledge of basic definitions that will help them connect and build new vocabulary with former vocabulary. The students must also have the ability to look at the context of an unfamiliar word and be able to decipher the meaning based on the words or phrases that surround it. The foundational skills of accomplishing this is through studying early fundamental vocabulary words and then connecting new words with priorly known words of similar meaning. (Center for Research on Education, n.d.)
Reading was my worst enemy in Middle school. Teachers always assigned us books or articles for research papers. My problem was that I could never get excited about reading the material. I have always been an action kind of person and the boring old history books, teachers assigned us weren’t action packed enough for my taste. So, my solution to the problem was to have my own little taste to the story but still stay on topic. I used descriptive words to make a boring scene sound more exciting. Adding this new taste to books for papers made my reading level sky rocket and made me become a better
Text complexity- this involves students being able to read fiction and nonfiction texts at grade level independently. As well as being able to read these texts and understand them without any assistance.
Stahl, S.A., & Fairbanks, M. M. (1986). The effect of vocabulary instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 56(1) 72-110
Vocabulary depth tests are inherently productive in nature and provide various tasks, such as translating and productive writing. Although it is debated which approach gives the best results, Paribakht´s and Wesche´s (1993) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) is a distinguished test in determining the stages of students´ developing knowledge. The VKS is a self-report test where students read a word and evaluate their depth of knowledge of that word. It is a five-category elicitation scale and provides a representation of students´ knowledge by using a five-point scoring scale as shown below in Figure
Literacy is an on-going skill that teachers and students alike should commonly study and practice in all grades. Problems faced by teachers, especially teachers in higher grades, are not having the skills to be effective teachers of literacy. To effectively teach literacy across content areas, a teacher would need skills such as knowledge of the reading process and the ability to cultivate the knowledge gained in order to make informed decisions within their classrooms (Clary, Oglan, Styslinger,
To accomplish vocabulary development, before reading the teacher needs to instruct their students on any prerequisites that they need to understand to interpret the text appropriately. This means the teacher has to pull out the most important words as well as those that may be too difficult for the stud...
It is important that when selecting complex text educators look for specific factors that would meet each reader’s needs. These factors include language proficiency, background knowledge and experiences, and level of motivation. Depending on the factors mentioned, the educators can differentiate the instruction to meet the needs of the students where they could read a text and apply strategies learned. It is important to understand the text complexity because we do want readers to read text which are not challenging enough or that are extremely challenge that would make their self-efficacy low. Therefore, when Fisher & Frey (2012) stated the factors to take into consideration when selecting a text are established, readers would interact with the text. Moreover, the use of comprehension strategies like question and answer relationships (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016) would help the readers comprehend the text as they read