Chapter Nine

Growing up, my vocabulary lessons were exactly how Beers describes them: get words on Monday, study them throughout the week, and quiz on Friday, and to be honest, I do not think I could remember any of those words even if you paid me. I always figured using the context of a sentence would help students, but I never considered that they would only be getting the gist of the words; hence, not being able to use it in other situations. I like that Beers explains that while contextual clues may aid the student in understanding a passage or sentence, but more than that is difficult for the students and that he/she may not be able to use the word in conversation or writing (186). Beers goes on to explain an idea, which I considered to be the quintessential statement about vocabulary and our students. She basically says that because students need more than just definitions and context clues and because dependent readers may not understand these, we must teach how words work (188). This can be done through prefixes and roots, which would help students, understand how words are put together and how they can define a word by the letters within it (188).

I really enjoyed the suggestion about using a word hunts. I think Beers is correct when she says that we, as teachers, “must delight in the vocabulary that authors offer” (191). I think that by creating an environment with students where vocabulary cannot just be a word you do not know, but rather a word that you find funny, interesting, or cool to look at is something that would be greatly beneficial to students. This activity would help students to expand their vocabulary, in an environment that does not give them the stress of a quiz and is not focused on the students memorizing the words, but rather enjoying them, which seems as though it would be much more effective.