What a wonderful example of instructional decision-making "on the fly." My brief (so far) two years as literacy coach have been exciting intellectually as I've tried to "show and tell" brand new teachers what makes the difference and how you decide what to do/not to do on the spot. Elisa's is another perfect illustration. I'm just barely starting to see that what I'm missing is the consistent de-briefing to explain the why/why not/how of a particular set of instruction. Setting things up for the teacher to see and guiding the conversation so that s/he discovers AND ARTICULATES her discovery is sooooo important but so hard to do. For instance, when I finish modeling to a whole class, there's the moment when I "pass off" the whole class, and that's certainly not a time for the teacher and I to talk reflectively. But the immediate debriefing seems key. Maybe the key is to model in small groups so that the classroom teacher has the opportunity to debrief when everyone else in engaged? But the discussion in whole groups is so rich and ripe for teaching/learning, that seems an ideal time. Hmmmmm. What I didn't include in Elisa's response was her description of vocabulary acquisition: usage, scaffolding, usage, scaffolding... and that's what I've seen through the years with both immersion kids and ELL/LEP kids. I just haven't seen any evidence that big words on worksheets/workbooks transfer. I've seen plenty of evidence that USING big words transfers. And I'd guess that Elisa would agree that using big words along with concrete experiences pays the biggest dividends. My guess is that the next-most-profitable would be using big words with symbolic experience (following the math metaphor here), such as when reading a picture book, would be the next-more-effective. The least effective would be defining words with more abstract words. Some of the vocabulary programs sold today seem to me to be a way to make us (educators) and the public "feel better" that we're actually doing something in regard to vocabulary acquisition and are "bridging the gap" between the haves and have nots. Also, we can believe our students are "accountable" for vocabulary acquisition when we use these programs. Translation: we have a grade for a grade book. The heartbreaking agony of this whole topic of vocabulary acquisition to me is that when someone like Elisa talks about usage/scaffolding, we see a rich language environment with lots of experiences, and know that's what works. But with the current pandemic of testing, testing, testing, that's the part of our curriculum we cut out!! We take away (and I'm not faulting any of us) the very thing which does teach enable children to acquire language, including vocabulary. And, to make it all the more frustrating, sad-to-the-bone to me is that our professional newbies are seeing education as it is today and extrapolating that that's all it can (or should) be. Dry, "efficient," droning. ************************************************************************ For years I have used big words when reading aloud and helped kids get the meaning by explaining them right along with what's in the actual text. Other times, I've just kept reading in anticipation of the story doing its work. Make sense?Elisa _________________________________________________________________ Enjoy 5 GB of free, password-protected online storage. http://www.windowslive.com/skydrive/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_skydrive_062008 _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
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