Monday, January 28, 2013
Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
I chose this podcast because I enjoy *trying* to have an extensive vocabulary. As I will talk about later in this post, being able to express yourself, knowledge, and ideas with language is very key in education. You are not going to be able to explain one thing, one way to every student you will ever have, so an extensive vocabulary will help fill that gap between your teaching and the student's understanding.
This can be a great tool for teacher and student alike.
For teachers: I've had many teachers/professors in the past who would start the class off with a question in the form of a riddle or maybe regarding something from previous material, or even a key term from a chapter recently read. This was somewhat of a "warp-up" for our brains as I discovered later in life and there are still many of the "warm-ups" I remember as of today.
The way the Word of the Day could be used by teachers in this aspect is helping student's broaden their vocabulary. Teaching students new words and their meanings as well as their applications in everyday grammar and speech help them communicate easier by giving them different vocabulary to explain their reasoning and knowledge, as well as inquiry.
This tool, although simple, can be very effective in the classroom if used in unison with other class materials.
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I remember going over vocabulary words, just one or two a week, in one of my reading classes and then we would get points for finding them in the books we were reading. This really helped to understand what the words meant, and then remember the meaning, seeing the definition and then finding it in context.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about being able to vocalize what we need to teach to our students that best fit their learning styles. I remember in high school doing vocabulary words, but as an adult they have faded away. I will keep your idea in mind for myself.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of incorporating a word of the day in the classroom. It seems like a great way to add words to everyone's vocabulary and a review for maybe an upcoming spelling test.
ReplyDeleteI like that you took a different approach to the blogs than most people. One of my high school teachers use to begin his class with a riddle which was a good way to get every student engaged with the class before it even began.
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