We had a fabulous experience today with the new approach to the story. I am certain there are quite a few out there who are familiar with the Open Court process of story presentation. We mixed it up in room 11 today and it went very well.
Instead of beginning with out-of-context word knowledge we began with browsing the story in the anthology and Clues/Problems and Wonderings (a component that I will use forever even if I bid Open Court farewell). I followed up with revisiting the Jack nursery rhymes, Jack and the Beanstalk, and The House That Jack Built because they are all part of the selection Come Back, Jack! It was fun and the children were having a delightful time choral reading the nursery rhymes and discussing the two books. Finally, I read from the authentic piece that had the nursery rhymes as part of the book on the inside cover.
Students were engaged as I read the story. Yes, I used voices---the giant being the #1 favorite. The upside of the experience? The children heard the story read in its entirety fluently and they heard the new vocabulary in context. The downside? None, yet.
After the reading the story I played the PowerPoint for the new vocabulary and the connection back to the text was immediate. That was new and huge in my opinion. To experience the vocabulary in context will hopefully assist in the students' making meaning of it.
I could not have been more pleased with the classroom experience today. I will now begin developing a survey for the students to take and also interview questions for my focus group of ELL students.
Thanks for reading. ~Theresa
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2 comments:
Theresa, I front load my students with vocabulary words before they even look at the text. They look up the definitions, draw a picture, write a sentence using the word and then we look for synonyms, antonyms and examples. Is this not a favorable way to introduce new vocabulary? I find that the students are much more fluent when reading and understand the text better. Remember, I teach 4th grade.
I too frontload the vocab for my 6th graders. I also draw pictures, act out the words, use synonyms, etc. I find that when students encounter the vocab words in the text, they do remember how to say the word, but for some, the meaning part is still sketchy. One thing I have found to be consistently supportive of vocabulary meaning retention is when I use my interactive whiteboard to draw wacky pictures that give meanings to the words. I think the difference for me (and maybe Monica too) is that our students are older, and we do not pre-read selections with the students simply because of the length of the selections. You're on to something for the little ones, however!
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