Vocabulary, in systems

Over the weekend I listened to a podcast on Voice of Literacy, with Dr. Neuman of the University of Michigan. She traveled the country researching programs that concentrate on vocabulary in the very early elementary years. She found that teachers at middle school and high school levels assume vocabulary lessons are taught at the primary level, but they are not. Out of 55 different schools visited, there were no planned lessons in vocabulary. It appeared that explicit vocabulary instruction was missing from the curriculum.

Dr. Neuman tells teachers and parents, “Focus more explicitly on vocabulary development early on.” This is why she has launched “World of Words”—or “WOW” as it is called—encouraging young children to become word-conscious. Young children deserve to have a curriculum that can accelerate vocabulary knowledge so that they can go into the latter grades of elementary school prepared, knowing the appropriate words to talk about ideas in science, social studies, and math.

Children need to have a self-teaching mechanism to work from. Yes, children learn from their teachers and their modeling of strategies, but children also need to learn on their own. One way that this can be setup for children is to teach words in categories or groups. When there are categories of words (ex. apple, strawberry, mango, banana), the child will have the opportunity to recognize the word itself, as well as how it is connected to a particular group. Systems like these help children organize their ideas and connect new knowledge to what they already know, expanding their schema. Now when they hear, “A pear is a kind of fruit,” they can make connections to the other fruits they know, enhancing their conceptual development.

These somewhat abstract ideas and strategies can be illustrated to children with charts. In an article called Schema, Miller says that “Charting holds thinking—it makes our thinking public and permanent, and traces our works together.” Being able to see your thoughts mapped out is a great advantage, and children love seeing their thoughts too, up in front of the class. It shows them that they are an integral part of the lesson and that their thoughts are important.

Dr. Neuman says that the bottom line is “oral language comprehension is the foundation of early literacy development.” She encourages us to engage in responsive talking with kids, and work on their agenda. Listen to what they have to say, use intelligent language, and answer all of their questions—even if it’s nonstop. These children are learning from us, so it is important not to talk down to them, but to use interesting words like fatigue, as Dr. Neuman suggests. Hearing new words perks up children’s minds and gets them thinking in new ways. Providing systems for them to organize and remember these words—even better.