What Mr. Logan learned from
Benchmark Three
Most of my
students grew--- some staggeringly well in every category but one: Language
Standards. What is in that category? Basically, vocabulary-- I admit it, I put
no attention to building their vocabulary this year beyond pointing out
vocabulary in the literature I made them read.
As always,
I used the data to inform instruction. I had a few options to address their
vocabulary deficiency. I have five different series of vocabulary programs
(black line masters for workbook pages,) each of differing merit. I opted not
to go with any of them for one simple reason. If you are a parent of one of my
students, ask them about this.
1.
If a vocabulary chapter had ten words, when I polled my
students, only 2 of them were new to them. That means that the exercises
designed to reinforce their memory, usage, and comprehension of these words
would be wasted effort for 80% of their words. Absolutely no one has time to
waste after losing 9 days of school to winter closings and 12 days of schedule
interruptions (delayed openings).
2.
The lists that students would have to memorize for
tests are discovered in a vacuum. It is highly probable that students will
encounter these words, but inauthentic learning is off-putting to students.
They see it for what it is and react to it as “busy work.” Again - Absolutely
no one has time to waste.
So does
this mean I waved the white flag at the problem as being insurmountable and
unsolvable? Have you met Mr. Logan? My detractors say I am stubborn and cocky.
My fans say I am confident and driven. I can live with either comment--- it’s
all about connotation versus denotation. We opted for a different choice.
“Choose Your Own Vocabulary.” I asked students to abandon context clues once a day
when they encounter words that are unfamiliar, uncertain, or are totally new.
2.
These words have to appear naturally, within the 24
hours since our last class meeting. Acceptable sources include: an article they
read in another class, a chapter out of a textbook, a word they encountered
surfing the web, a word they encountered in their free-read novel, or a word
they encountered while reading a periodical for fun.
3.
Students were not allowed to just look up random words.
4.
Students brought the word, spelled correctly, defined,
with root word, prefix, and suffix already identified.
5.
Each table created a database and shared it with me and
their group mates.
6.
The first ten minutes of every class from the past two
weeks has been utilized for the groups to share their words with each other and
then the scribe shared the words with the class.
The
feedback that students gave about the experience is pretty powerful. In a class
of 20 students, students have the opportunity to be exposed to twenty different
words each day (theirs and 19 others). Using an informal poll, students gave
feedback that more than fifteen of the words they encounter from each other are
new. Out of those 15 words, they reported that they could see themselves using
five or more in writing or speech immediately.
Let’s put
those soft numbers in perspective. This means that students are potentially
acquiring 25 words each week from each other that they will begin using in
their writing immediately. Students also shared that they enjoy learning from
each other more than a random list generated by a textbook publisher.
Here is a
sample list of words that students encountered yesterday in my period 4 English
8 Class:
·
Opusculum
·
Terminus
·
Phenom
·
guile
·
Intelligible
·
Beguile
·
Robust
·
Arsenal
·
Incapacitated
·
Vigilant
·
Coalition
·
Diagnosis
·
Nombril
·
osmosis
·
cumbersome
·
monocle
·
ratification
·
egotistical
·
inkling
Where are
these words coming from? Most of these words are coming from their academic day.
Many are from social studies, world languages, and science. When teachers, who
do not teach ELA, ask what they can do to help improve ELA State Testing
scores—the answer is pretty simple. They are already doing it. This is not the
English classroom that GenX or Baby Boomers experienced, and that’s a good
thing. It’s potentially better. The key component to all of this is that the
kids still have to do their lesson to learn their lesson.
Manny
Scott, an inspirational speaker and original member of the Freedom Writers
(Hilary Swank starred in the movie by the same name about this group of teens)
shared with members of an audience-- mostly educators and business
professionals, with a handful of teens: “A Texas rancher challenged me when I
repeated the phrase ‘You can drag a horse to water, but you can’t force it to
drink.’ He said you can pry its mouth open, force some salt down its gullet,
and then it will be happy to drink!”
I have been
ruled by a desire to find that metaphorical salt for my students this year and
I have found it in an unlikely source. Whereas I have, in general, 80% participation
with homework, Choose Your Own Vocabulary achieves well over 95%. Why? I’m not
sure--- I don’t really want to look a gift horse in the mouth and ask, but if I
were to conjecture, I would say the social element of bringing the words,
hearing what words others brought, and hearing the teacher’s commentary
motivates them. Now for the rest of that salt…
That’s my
story and I’m sticking to it.
