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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Oh, the week before break. How I love and hate thee simultaneously. I have 736 ideas for thoughtful blog posts swarming around in my head, but I can't find the time to write them just yet. For now they will simmer, and for today, I present my vocabulary tree. It's wonky and ridiculous and several of the lights are broken. But it's ours. My English 2 students created delightful ornaments displaying new vocab words they've learned in their independent reading books. Each ornament is lovingly clinging to the tree with a bent paper clip. That's how we roll around here in the week before break. Well, I've said I work with the best students and teachers around. Today I have proof. Katie Nissen, our tech integrationist, and I collaborated on a vocabulary strategy as part of my ILP (Individual Learning Plan) focusing on vocabulary. College Comp students worked with partners to illustrate one of our weekly SAT-level vocab words in a 15-second video. I gave the word choices, Katie provided the technology, and the students were set loose. Their videos were submitted to the New York Times Learning Network and Vocabulary.com 2nd Annual Vocabulary Contest. You can see all of their videos here. Today we learned the winners of the contest, and while they were no monetary prizes, this teacher's heart is overflowing with pride for my hard-working, creative students. Keep in mind, this was a nationwide contest with over 500 submissions! Megan, Brenna, and Emily were in the top 10 with their video for the word "malleable." If that wasn't enough, three of the ten honorable mention videos were OUR STUDENTS ("verbose" by Jake and Mallory, "putrid" by Austin and Hannah, and "luxuriate" by Krystal, Kaycee, and Alexis).
I think a celebratory party is in order! As I mentioned last week, I've lucky enough to work at a school that gives teachers ownership of professional development. This year as I focus on my vocabulary instruction and teaching strategies, I will be sharing the journey here at Teach Happy. Sometimes in my class we use technology and make crazy fun videos. Sometimes we do something simple, like the List Three strategy I used last week. This strategy is found in the Appendix of Bringing Words to Life by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan, the book I'm using for some of my vocabulary instruction ideas. I haven't crawled through much of the theory at the beginning of the book, but so far I've found a few helpful activities to use with our word lists. Because my ultimate goal is word ownership, not just test regurgitation, I want students to hear and see how these words are applied, especially in their daily lives. This List Three activity asks students to "generate appropriate contexts or situations for statements or questions about their words." It took me about 15 minutes to create the activity based on pre-selected word lists. For each of the words we are working with, students are asked to generate a list of three examples according to a specific task. For example, last week in College Composition, one of our SAT words was "reconciliation," so I asked students to list three actions they might see during a reconciliation. Answers included hugs, hand shakes, and even crying. Another word was "ostentatious," so they had to list three behaviors they consider to be ostentatious. One answer that gave us a few laughs was driving a limo to school every day. I had students work independently first, and then we came together as a group to discuss our lists. I encouraged students to add what they deemed the best ideas from their classmates to their own lists. (I figure more exposure means more ownership.) Next time I will probably have them work in small groups to discuss their way through the list. This activity builds brain bridges as students create connections with words. They are saying these words, using them, and applying them to contexts within their own worlds. And best yet, it was successful. A few students asked for this strategy again because it they really felt like they were learning the words. I'm seeing them in more of their writing, too. Yippee! You can see the handout I gave students here. Feel free to steal and modify as you would like. This week I will use this handout with my English 2 students as we use the same strategy to own our Unit 2 Words in Context. This activity doesn't take much prep time, and I feel like it was time well spent as my students begin to own more complex words. What do you think? Is the List Three activity something you will use in your classroom? How can you modify it to work for you? I love spending my valuable time at professional development. And I'm not even being facetious. For the past few years, my school has implemented a form of professional development that allows teachers to work on our own Individual Learning Plan (ILP). (We need more acronyms in education, don't we?) I've spent time working on concept-based units, integrating curriculum to the Common Core, and now this year strengthening my vocabulary instruction. I'll be sharing instructional strategies that work for me here at Teach Happy and look forward to the feedback that follows. The Iowa Core states, “Without prompting, they [college and career-ready students] demonstrate command of standard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging vocabulary.” However, other than a brief stint with vocabulary workbooks, I have never been very intentional with my vocabulary instruction. I knew I need to, though, and I am privileged to work at a school that allows me the time and resources to work on that weakness. This past week I used one of my favorite vocabulary activities in two of my classes, English 2 and College Composition. (I also work in a 1:1 school, so when possible, I try to use technology to enhance my instructional strategies.) English 2 students worked with words in context from our current unit on characterization, and College Comp students worked with some popular SAT words. I want students' knowledge to go beyond just studying for a vocabulary test, so for this activity they worked on owning the words by creating an animated dialogue using GoAnimate.com. GoAnimate is a great choice for this project because we can log in for free with our Google Apps accounts. (We also laugh a lot during this activity because of the monotone voices and computerized accents, and as the title of this blog states, happiness is welcome in my classroom. I'm always amazed at how engaged students are when creating these short little videos.) Tips:
What do you think? Would you like to use dialogue animation for vocabulary instruction in your classroom? What other vocab activities have been successful with your students? |
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September 2020
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