Classics in the Classroom-Chapter Two

Student's don't read because they don't have enough of a well-developed vocabulary to understand the text, but they can't develop a vocabulary unless they read the text - this dilemma presents a vicious cycle. As a teacher, I can break this cycle by providing vocabulary enriching texts, which may be challenging, but accompanied with the right teaching methods, will provide my students with better, more developed vocabularies.

On page 26 of Classics in the Classroom, Jago offers some examples of vocabulary lessons that work. She has her tenth-grade students reading The Fall of the House of Usher (Yeah Edgar Allan Poe =), and the students pick out tricky or unknown words. She then follows the steps set down by Stahl and Shiel (1992): she and her students find the prefix and the suffix in the word entombment (en-prefix, ment-suffix), and then she has the students look at the context of the word miasma (which I didn't know, but now I do), and last she had students discuss Poe's vocabulary choice and how it makes them feel. I was a little confused about this last step of semantic groupings...is it grouping words according to emotion they evoke or should they be grouped by parts of speech? Whatever the correct answer, I think grouping words by the emotions they evoke is a much easier way of remembering the word.

"Some look at the language gap between high-performing students and low-performing students and give up hope." Well I don't want to give up hope, and so the next section gives great tips on successful/unsuccessful lesson plans. I really liked the point she made on page 32 about admitting when you don't know something and being willing to learn along with the students. One of the things I, and I'm sure anyone who has ever wanted to be a teacher, fear is not knowing the answer. But, if I just admit it and try and figure it out with my students, I'm sure I'll earn their respect and hopefully cover my lack of information in the process :)

I actually did the activity presented on pages 33-37 and I thought it was great! I've never read "Julius Caesar" (something I will totally remedy in the near future) and I was able to establish a really cool character sketch using the key words Jago suggested to her students.

I think the most important thing to remember about vocabulary is that I want to present words that are challenging, but also practical. I want my students to be able to use their vocabulary, not only in their reading, but also in conversations for the rest of their lives.