II. GOAL
TWO. Develop a knowledge of basic vocabulary words commonly encountered in
social studies, English, and general content areas.
A. CONTENT
OUTLINE
1. Vocabulary lists
1-16 for social studies.
2. Vocabulary
lists 17-21 and other vocabulary lists as appropriate to the reading students
will encounter in this course.
B. INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS
1. Vocabulary lists from Selection 911A
2. Dictionaries
3. Listening tests over in-depth discussions of selected words.
C. TEACHING
STRATEGIES
1. Homework involving writing out the definitions to the weekly lists placed
on the board. [Attempt to devise a more
valid means of helping students learn vocabulary, since research has long shown
that such dictionary assignments are ineffective in promoting vocabulary
growth. For ideas see the two works Semantic
Mapping: Classroom Applications (by Joan E. Heimlich and Susan D. Pittelman, International Reading Association, 1986) and Semantic
Feature Analysis (by Susan D. Pittelman, Joan E.
Heimlich, Roberta L. Bergland, and Michael P. French,
IRA, 1991). See also The State of Knowledge about the Teaching of Vocabulary
by Walter T. Petty, Curtis P. Herold, and Earline Stoll (NCTE, 1968) and Teaching Vocabulary to
Improve Reading Comprehension by William E. Nagy (NCTE, 1988)]. See the
research bibliographies for Preferred Practices for Teaching Vocabulary.
2.
Oral
discussion of the words with the class by the teacher. Use the “Which Word Means”
Strategy Selections.
3.
Student
writing of vocabulary test multiple choice questions following the directions
in Selection 1290A.
4.
Oral
testing of student knowledge of the words.
5.
Student
sentence writing assignment for each list.
(Choose five words from each list; write a meaningful sentence for each
of the five words selected.) [This
procedure should be replaced or enhanced with a more effective technique developed from
suggestions in Semantic Feature Analysis.]
6.
Student
free writing composition employing the words of the vocabulary list in
meaningful sentences.
D. EVALUATION
PROCEDURE
1. Credit given for completed homework.
2.
Points
given for each correct oral response during oral review.
3.
Credit given for completed sentence writing
assignment. [This will no doubt be an
assignment needing modification]
4.
Credit
given for completed 1414 free writing composition which employs the words given
in the vocabulary list.
5.
Weekly
multiple-choice vocabulary test over the week's vocabulary list.
6.
Occasional
short-answer and/or essay questions on in-depth discussions of selected
vocabulary words.
