A Focus on Vocabulary
In this week’s article, A Focus on Vocabulary, the statistic that “no more than 8 to 10 words can be taught effectively each week” stood out to me. When I first read this I thought it seemed unreal, but then I thought about the use of the word effectively in the sentence. I’m sure that in the classroom, students are introduced to a lot more than 8 to 10 words per week, but this doesn’t mean that they necessarily learn their meanings as a result. The article went on to discuss incidental learning and the fact that students must learn vocabulary from other sources than the classroom, specifically through “oral language and wide reading.” It also mentioned that research supports the idea that the amount of time a student spends reading is “one of the best predictors of their vocabulary size.” This led me to think about the importance of reading for children, and reflect on my own experiences. When I was growing up we had no cable TV, no video games, but we had a mountain of books in our house. My mom started reading to me before I could even talk, and as I got older I spent all my free time at home reading. I would ask my mom what new words meant, or would look them up in the dictionary myself. I excelled at spelling and vocabulary tests at school, and I can honestly say that I have never struggled with reading comprehension. Given the important link between reading, vocabulary, and comprehension discussed in this article, I think my own experience highlights the importance of encouraging students to pick up a book on their own time.