MWSubstack 005: Vocabulary; Listening Skills
What are some effective, time-sensitive ways to teach academic vocabulary and other hard words? And how do we get students to REALLY listen in class?
Welcome to MiddleWeb Substack. It’s a twice-monthly, two-topic, five-minute read for middle grades educators, featuring several of MiddleWeb’s most popular and influential articles, a book review, and a noteworthy 4-8 resource or project we’ve spotted. That’s it!
►TEACHING VOCABULARY
How can we possibly fit word study in?
Vocabulary! Our students’ comprehension of academic language (and other hard words) is vital to learning and assessment across the content areas. As state testing season approaches, strategies for building vocabulary are getting extra attention in many classrooms.
If you’re looking for some effective, time-efficient ideas, we have a terrific collection of articles. The most popular – Marilee Sprenger’s ”The 10-Minute Vocabulary Lesson” – has been read over 100,000 times. Sprenger is known for her books and articles about the brain and learning – she understands what makes words stick.
Early in her career, Marilee writes…
I didn’t realize the importance of vocabulary. And its importance cannot be overstated. Students with small vocabularies are more likely to struggle with reading, have difficulty understanding content, and can be seriously at risk for academic failure.
Assigning vocabulary rather than teaching vocabulary was a waste of my students’ time, but vocabulary strategies that worked were as scarce as time. No one really taught me how to teach it.
As she searched for solutions, her brain research helped point the way:
How do teachers find the time to teach vocabulary, especially teachers in departmentalized situations in which they may only have periods lasting 40-45 minutes? An important piece of research caught my eye and filled me with hope. Students can benefit from brief encounters with words.
Visit Marilee’s post and learn about ten 10-minute vocab activities that will fit into most any teacher’s busy schedule. And if you’re thinking about those standardized test instructions, here’s another popular article she wrote for us: ”25 Words That Trigger Student Understanding.” They’re not exciting or glamorous, she says, “yet they can make or break higher level learning.”
Also check out the fresh ideas in middle school teacher Megan Kelly’s “springboard post” inspired by Sprenger: ”Low Prep and No Prep Vocabulary Activities.”
Recently I’ve had a few Grade 6 students ask me to define words I took for granted they would know by the beginning of middle school.
This soon had me reflecting on my teaching practice. Why should they know these words if I’m not being intentional about teaching them?
Want more articles on teaching vocabulary? Each of these MiddleWeb posts is worth your time. And we know that’s worth a lot.
3 Strategies Help Students Decipher Unknown Words (Brenda Overturf)
Interactive Word Walls Enliven Vocab Learning (Valentina Gonzalez)
4 Vocab Steps Help Kids Grasp Information Text (Harris & Cummins)
“Cycles” Make Word Study Part of Everyday Learning (Pam Koutrakos)
Brain-Friendly Strategies for Your Vocab Toolbox (Marilee Sprenger)
5 Ways to Assure Quality Exposure to New Words (Amy Benjamin)
►LISTENING SKILLS:
We can teach students to be good listeners
Poor listening skills are endemic in modern culture, writes teacher educator Curtis Chandler in his recent MiddleWeb article “7 Ways to Help Student Become Active Listeners.” Chandler, a former Kansas State Teacher of Year, cites research revealing that in the modern world we only retain about half of what others say – and that’s immediately after we’ve heard it.
In a classroom inundated with conversations, oral instructions, and academic vocabulary, poor listening skills can have long-term consequences. Teachers need tools to help students move beyond passive listening and instead develop the ability to actively and intentionally listen to, process, and comprehend what they hear.
Luckily, there are some simple approaches and activities that we can employ to help our learners develop and improve their listening skills. I’ll briefly describe seven I’ve used in my own teaching.
Judging from the strong response to Curtis’ article, teachers are actively looking for listening solutions. Here are five more MiddleWeb posts that can help.
Speaking and Listening Are Core Skills Today (Erik Palmer)
12 Ways to Get Students Speaking and Listening (Sarah Tantillo)
Speaking and Listening Skills Have Fresh Importance (Matt Renwick)
Help Students Make the Most of Interviews (Hagan, Friesen & Cummins)
To Create a Conversational Safe Space, Begin with Listening Skills (Matthew Kay)
►ELSEWHERE:
Do themed middle schools work as community builders?
“Middle schools are experimenting with ‘themes’ like math, sustainability and the arts. But is it all just branding?” That’s the thought-provoking headline on this recent story from The Hechinger Report. The article examines the pros and cons of themed schools, highlighting the positives of well-conceived and well-led programs while offering some “buyer beware” warnings and examples of below-average academic performance.
►BOOK REVIEW
The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library: Building a Collection that Inspires, Engages, and Challenges Readers by Colby Sharp and Donalyn Miller
Reading champions Sharp and Miller push teachers across the content areas “to think further and deeper than we might otherwise about the impact classroom libraries can have on students,” writes our reviewer Katie Durkin. The authors offer ready-to-use strategies for enhancing classroom libraries and don’t shy away from current controversies. Durkin, a middle school teacher leader, also recommends the book to curriculum coordinators and administrators who may question the value. (Read the review.)
►REVIEW THIS SPOTLIGHT BOOK FOR US
Welcome to Reading Workshop: Structures and Routines that Support All Readers. Brenda Krupp and Lynne Dorfman “bring their years of collective experience leading successful reading workshops to showcase the structures, routines, rituals, and behind-the-scenes decision making that will have your reading workshop running smoothly and effectively.” Grades K-5. (Here’s how to review a free book.)
►NEXT TIME
Executive function is often the missing link in student achievement. If we don’t support students to develop these critical skills, they won’t succeed. ALSO: We know scaffolding is good practice, but how do we scaffold effectively in today’s diverse classrooms? Two urgent topics in our next issue.