The Importance of Vocabulary

This week we are focusing on vocabulary!  Vocabulary is something that I have always found somewhat interesting.  Adding to my vocabulary is something that I enjoy now, and something that I have enjoyed all throughout school.  It never seems to hurt to know the meanings of a few more words.  Besides the fact that vocabulary can help you understand what someone is saying, it is also really helpful when writing papers and giving speeches.  Having a rich vocabulary can really set one apart from someone that has a smaller vocabulary.

One of the articles assigned this week was "Vocabulary Lessons" by Camille Blachowicz and Peter Fisher.  This article explained how important vocabulary was, and gave some interesting statistics on vocabulary.  It also detailed the role that vocabulary plays in comprehension.  An interesting fact that I garnered from the article was that fifth graders engaging in independent reading for ten minutes a day read 622,000 more words a year than a child that does no independent reading.  Ten minutes is very short, but the amount of text interaction and vocabulary building that students can gain from that is astounding!  The article gave four ways to that educators can use to develop vocabulary in their classrooms.  These included using activities that encourage word play among students, using explicit vocabulary instruction, showing students how to develop their vocabulary independently, and by exposing children to a variety of books and readings.  

More than any topic that we have covered thus far in class, I feel as though vocabulary is something that my teachers did teach to me correctly.  Glancing at the four steps in the reading I can instantly think of instances in which my teachers used these methods.  I can remember playing word games all throughout elementary and middle school.  I remember explicit vocabulary instruction in upper elementary school and middle school.  From the time I started reading my teachers showed me how to find the meanings of words and develop my vocabulary.  My classrooms always had lots of books and my teachers always encouraged me to read.

I feel as though vocabulary building is something that most of us have had positive experiences with, but I may be wrong.  In closing I leave my readers with a couple questions:

• What were some ways that your teachers taught vocabulary?  Do you remember any specific games or styles that they used?
• Did anyone go through schools where vocabulary wasn't addressed often?  If so, do you feel as though this hindered you as you got older?