Past vs. Present: The Best Way to Teach Core Vocabulary

We all remember the joy of vocabulary assignments, right?  Write the list of words, copy the definition from the text book or the dictionary, and then use the word in a sentence to show that you understand its meaning.  Boring!!!  And not just boring, but those sentences were so easy to fake- usually one was provided right in the text.  This is the ONLY way I remember doing vocal when I was in school.

This is not how I intend to teach core vocabulary that pertains to math and English to my students.  I am in a unique position where I would really like to teach classes in both of my disciplines- given this case core vocabulary word from one discipline may have a completely different meaning in the other.  

According to Harmon, Wood, and Hendrick the is a visible and invisible aspect when it comes to core vocabulary.  Students need to understand vocabulary used in each discipline on a higher level than what has traditionally been used.  Students need to be able to understand these words, apply them to concepts, visualize them, and use them in a way that demonstrates to their instructor and their peers that they are truly learning the vocabulary of that discipline.

To me the key when it comes to core vocabulary instruction in both English and math classes is simply to USE the words.  This is something I have discussed in past posts and what I plan to do in my room.  It is not enough to teach my students a word and then hope they retain it in their brain box.  I learned an interesting concept last semester that I found applies well to what Harmon, Wood and Hendrick are trying to get across.

I attended a diversity training in conjunction with SCED 3200/3210 last semester.  While talking about stereotypes, the instructor explained that we put things in boxes inside our brain.  If we come across a person that is part of a culture that we know very little about they are automatically placed in a box with limited contents.  Our brain has to categorize things this way in order to process information.  The way to change our knowledge and the stereotype that we associate with that person is to add more items to the box.  Learn more things about that person and their culture.

Vocabulary is the same way.  Just as was discussed in my last post, you need both activity and context when it comes to learning new words and concepts!  You also need to make using these words a commonplace activity.  This will help put more things in the box.  Let's talk Geometry for a minute- If I have my students write down the definition of area, use it in a sentence, and then move on to another concept they never get the actual concept of area.  Then lets say these same kids are in my Language Arts class later in the day.  I then talk to them about the area that Hemingway described in his writings.  This is a much different use of the word area and may lead to confusion the next day in our math class.  

In contrast let's say our Geometry lesson takes a different path.  We spend time discussing the width and length of an object- concepts that should be familiar to the students.  I make sure that they understand this is a measurement that we can take.  I then take a rectangle and we measure the length and width of a shape.  I take piece of paper and cut it to the same dimensions and then demonstrate how the paper covers the shape's surface.  I then explain that this is the "surface area" of the shape, it is a measure of what it takes to cover the surface.  We then practice finding the surface area of different shapes and begin discussing formulas for doing so.  This puts a lot of information in their box and meets the visible and invisible aspect of core vocabulary that Harmon, Wood, and Hendrick refer to.

In the same way, when these students come to my Language Arts class I can explain that the area Hemingway referred to was a geographic location in which he traveled.  We can both look at pictures and read his words in order to get a sense of the area.  By using these key words in the atmosphere of the class my students will better learn their meaning and be able to use them on their own making them a part of their own learning process.  This is how I will teach core vocabulary in my "areas" of discipline!

Let's talk about "activity" and "context"...

Scope magazine is either a great teaching tool or the downfall of modern education.  I have seen this publication used in two ways: the first is to read, discuss, and use an article as a platform for a larger project that generally includes some type of writing- this works for me and is an effective use of the publication; the second is to read the story and then fill out the accompanying worksheets.  Been there, done that, not effective!

This is where we get into Buehl's idea that "the activity and the context have a tremendous impact on classroom learning."  How many of us sat in class as kids, read a text, and then answered a list of questions at the end of the selection?  This girl right here did!  I often think to myself, "But I went to school in the '80s and '90s and things were different."  Guess what?...not true!

David Gourley Elementary School was where I began my education.  Yep, I was a David Gourley Panda (I can even still sing you our panda song, and I'm old)- and I was a Panda that loved to read!!!  I read every book in the school library including the entire 1982 edition of Encyclopedia Britanica!  My mom loved to read, my grandma loved to read, my dad always had great books on the back of the toilet (that's how I was introduced to Shakespeare and learned how refrigeration works), and I don't remember having a teacher in Elementary school that didn't love to read and encouraged me to do so.  However, in the '80s the biggest reason you read books was to write book reports.  I wrote a LOT of book reports and liked doing it- it was my thing.  But I had friends that often told me I had problems- book reports were dumb.  Although the free $0.39 hamburger that you got from Hardees for reading 10 books was a great prize, this was definitely not the most effective way to get kids excited about reading.  For me it was natural- I loved to read- but that all stopped when I was in 8th grade.  

In 8th grade my English teacher also required x number of book reports each term- great!  I was good at book reports.  The trick was that we had to read from multiple genres.  I was also ok with this, it wasn't my favorite thing, but it was manageable.  I read the entire The Work and The Glory series and used it as just 1 of my book reports.  I then read books from other genres and wrote reports accordingly.  My teacher gave me an A-.  The grade really wasn't the end of the world like I thought it was, but I had done everything that she asked me to do even though I was starting to get bored with the whole book report thing.  I had actually read triple the number of required pages.  She gave me the A- for the term because I was "reading entirely too much LDS literature."  That's it...that was her excuse.  It crushed my little 14 year old self and I wasn't the same reader again until my senior year.

This experience has made me understand how important it is to not just focus on context and content- it means nothing without some type of activity to really bring it home.  If you don't enjoy what you are doing you are never going to love it.  We are all that way.  Take a student that has loved history his whole life and put him in a class where all he does is read his text book and answer the questions at the end of the section, and guess what?  He may just learn to hate history!  OR take a student who hates math- put her in a class that is engaging where she can discuss how math effects finances, hold onto shapes as she figures out their volume and area, and take her outside to teach her how to find the height of the flagpole using another student in the class, his shadow, and the shadow of the flagpole and guess what?  She might just learn to love math!

I spent the next 3 years of my 9th-11th grade English classes reading some of the most incredible books ever written... The 3 pictured here are just a small selection of what we were given to read.  BUT the English teachers I had for those 3 years were obviously not aware of the correlation between activity and context.  These were straight forward 1- read the book, 2- write a paper, 3- take an exam years for me.  I was bored.  And because I was bored I remember very little about these wonderful books.  The height of activity when it came to these great texts was when we "watched the movie" after we "read the book."  I still remember that I quite liked Gary Sinese in The Grapes of Wrath, but I don't remember anything that happened in that classroom.  As a matter of fact I'm not sure whether I read the book my sophomore or junior year, and I can't tell you the name of even one of my secondary school English teachers from 7th-11th grade.

So what did I read during these years that I remember?  Math and Physics books.  That's right- I was one of those nerds.  I had these teachers my junior year that team taught AP Physics and Pre-Calculus together.  We were on a block schedule where I had these classes for 3rd and 8th period so I went to the class every day.  My teachers were Mr. Duncan and Mrs. Kuehl, and they were AWESOME!!!  We did labs, we came up with scenarios, we built what we had read about, and we learned how it worked.  That's right- I was completely engrossed by my math and physics books.  And you know what- it was all about the activity and the context.  Sure we wrote down our problems and did text work, but we didn't just read the problem and write the answer, we built it, moved it, tested it, broke it, built it again, and then wrote about it.  I knew what a tangent to a curve was because of the force it created on the ball I was swinging on the end of a rope.  Then I could do the math to show what was happening and explain what the math meant!  It was engaging and I loved it.  

Finally my senior year came.  I was in AP Calculus and still had an amazing math teacher, Mr. Esplin, who kept me enthralled with what I was learning.  But I also had Coach Cullimore.  Cullie was my 400+ pound football coaching AP English teacher who had shoulder length red hair that grew everywhere but on top of his head, a messy and stubbly beard, and a large array of what I can only describe as large MC Hammer pants.  He also made me love reading again.  We had to read 18 books that year and I would be lying through my teeth if I told you that I read every one of them- I actually only read 2 or 3- I relied on cliff notes to get me through the others, but I learned a lot about those books.  By that time I was disenchanted with reading novels and had been for some time.  I had learned that I had a gift for writing and could "wing it" when it came to writing essays.  But Cullie made books fun again.  He would get in these crazy, engaging discussion with us about books like 1984- a book that I honestly didn't give a flying fart about- but he made me realize that I could still appreciate it and find a way to relate it to myself and society, and learn from it in the process.  In that class I learned to love books again.  The funniest thing about it was that we wrote a lot of papers- some people may even call them book reports- but they were better than that to me because I enjoyed every word.  A lot of discussion and effort went into those reports and I loved that class!  

This is Cullie wearing his party hat for his 60th birthday a few years ago- he is my high school hero!  Without even knowing it he taught me how I want to teach...

 I will teach English and Math when I grow up (hopefully next year)- or maybe I'll teach my kids without growing up.  But I know what kid of teacher I want to be.  I want my kids to want to come to class because they can't wait to see what we're going to do that day.  I want them to feel like they learned something even if they tried their hardest to hate the subject that we're learning.  I want my students to read and write, but I also want them to discuss, learn from each other, build things and ideas and take them apart again until they know how things work and understand what they're thinking.  I don't want my students to write a blog 20 years from now and be the teacher whose name and class they couldn't even remember.

SCED 4200 Introduction- Where math and English meet!

My name is April Jones.  I live in Holden, Utah- a town of 386 people just north of Fillmore, Utah.  It is a big change from growing up in Salt Lake, Hurricane and our time spent in Logan when my husband attended Utah State.

I am a mother of 3- Jake is 13, Emma is 11, Danny is 9- and have been married to my best friend for 14 1/2 years.  He graduated from USU in with a degree in Wildlife Science in 2008 and has been the Conservation Officer (Game Warden) in Millard County ever since.

I actually have too many interests and hobbies which can cause a fair amount of stress- I just want to do it all.  I am a seamstress and do much of the sewing needed in Millard County.  I am an artist and have done some work for the Division of Wildlife and for the Utah Fallen Officers Association.  I love camping, cooking, hiking and running- although health problems have prevented that for the last 16 months- and just spending time with my family in general.

I went back to work 3 1/2 years ago once my children were in school full time and I had a heart surgery that literally saved my life.  I worked as an Instructional Assistant in the Special Education program at Fillmore Middle School.  Up until that point I had convinced myself that I didn't need to go back to school, but after one year working I decided I wanted my own classroom.  I hadn't attended college since 2000, but decided to go back and finish my degree.  I originally started a degree in math and physics, but was unable to finish the physics portion through the USU extension in Delta.  I definitely knew I wanted my major to be Math Education and set out to complete a minor in English Teaching when I was told that was the next biggest demand in the district.  This was something that didn't really excite me when I started out, but as I spent more time working with English teachers and worked through the program at USU I began to realize that I love English as much as I love math! I am proud to say that I will be certified to teach math and English at the high school level!

I'm not entirely sure how to define my discipline.  I have had people respond in different ways to the way I feel about teaching.  I want to teach KIDS, using math and English is how I plan to do that.  While I love my areas of discipline, I love the students more and feel that I have something to share with them that no one else can.  I believe that they are worth my time and I believe that I can work with them in the areas of math and English literacy.  

Literacy is the language of understanding and education.  It is an art- one that is becoming harder and harder to find as time goes on!  I love the idea that English is the tool I can use to increase understanding in math literacy.  Math has it's own language that often is misunderstood.  Teachers often think they are doing the students a favor by "dumbing down" the literacy of math- and English for that matter.  We focus on cute rhymes and catchy rules rather than really understanding terms and building the correct foundation for learning.

I am excited for this class and so excited and scared to student teach in the fall!  I feel that the SCED program, my experiences in my major and minor content areas, and my opportunity to work in a Middle School setting have provided the groundwork that I need for my upcoming experiences.