Wait, what? I have a blog? What is this blank space for adding words? How do I add an image again? It's obviously been awhile since I've posted. I can blame lots of things, but mostly I think it's been a simple lack of motivation. Here I am at the end of the year, though, and I wanted to capture some quick snapshot reflections. Maybe the 12 people who read this blog will find something helpful, but mostly I can to chronicle some of my successes from the year as I make plans for moving forward next year, my 10th year of teaching!
As I shared last fall, I focused my Individual Learning Plan on vocabulary strategies this year, and throughout the year I researched and implemented many different teaching strategies. I also delivered ungraded pre- and post-tests in both English 2 and College Composition I. The results showed marked improvements in both sets of students with some students' scores improving from a 31% to 100% by the end of the course! I won't pretend to be a statistical genius, but only three students' scores did not improve, so I'll consider the new focus and strategies successful. You can find a discussion of other strategies used by following this link, but today I will focus on my favorites. Vocabulary Conversations: This was a simple strategy (the Conversation Game) I read about online. Because I wanted students to actually own the words, not just meaninglessly memorize definitions, I tried this technique in College Comp I. The students enjoyed it, and it was delightful to walk around the room and hear them using the words. It's as simple as this: 1. Make student groups of 3-5. 2. Assign each student 2-3 of the vocab words you're focusing on for the particular unit. (I just made note cards that can be reused next year.) 3. Provide a topic of conversation: summer plans, the zombie apocalypse, the U.S. prison system. You get the point. 4. Listen to their conversations. Each student must correctly and within context use his/her assigned words. If they get stuck, their group members can help out. One student said, "I feel like we're a bunch of college professors sitting around talking!" I love hearing them own these mature words that will improve their writing and reading comprehension. Written Assessments: At the beginning of the year I mostly focused on traditional matching assessments, but I started to notice a pattern. Students who excelled at this kind of assessment were getting 100% every time whereas a small student population was struggling with the SAT vocab words in a big way. Additionally, no one really seemed to be owning the words, my real goal. I didn't see transference to their writing, so I switched up my assessment procedure. Students responded to a direct prompt using a specified number of our vocab words within their correct context. Here's a sample assessment. The students who struggled with the traditional assessment saw greater success with the writing, and I began to see the words enter student essays. Win-win! Vocabulary Illustrations: Even high school seniors like to draw some stick figures with markers every once in awhile. For this strategy, I assigned small groups a list of our focused words for the week. I gave them a few minutes to either individually illustrate each word or create a scenario where all words could be used together. Some of them got quite creative with this. We would share with the whole class, providing more word exposure to everyone. Word Map: For this strategy, I modified this graphic organizer. I used this successfully in English 2 and College Composition, and if I had more time, I would use this with every vocabulary unit. It takes some time, but it really got students thinking about these words, their meanings, and their contexts. I modified by also having students choose a color for their word. When we shared out with the whole class, they had to also share WHY they chose their color. This was higher-order thinking and connection-building, and it was valuable as students worked towards comprehension and ownership. This is really a quick snapshot of the vocabulary highlights in my room. I will be revisiting these strategies next year. While vocabulary won't be the focus of my ILP, I am grateful that I work in a district that provides teachers with the time and resources needed to pursue meaningful professional development. The work I completed this year will benefit my students in coming years as well.
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