I am wanting to give my students vocabulary for a weekly homework assignment. Last year I only gave homework 4 times the whole year, and I know the other 7th LA teachers didn't give homework either. I wanted to give more, but they never did it the few times I gave it. I think if I am more consistent with it, they will be more consistent with turning it in (or they will once they see their grades suffering).
The reason I want to do Voc. for hmwk is because their voc. stinks! That is the problem with their reading comprehension. My school doesn't have a set voc. program. I don't know if my dept. head plans on doing something this year since she realized their lack of voc. skills last year, but it is easier to have a plan myself than wait around for her.
I am stuck as to what to do though. I know that I want to give 5 words a week (is that enough, or should I give more?), on Monday, and the homework will all be due on Friday. I want to have small assignments for every night, but something routine so they can do it all at once if they want. On Fridays I plan to play voc. games of some sort (bingo, concentration, slam dunk), with maybe a quiz every 2 weeks. But I can't seem to come up with enough ideas for the homework for each night. Also, if I collect their homework each Friday to grade it, then how will they study their words for voc. quizzes?
The only idea I have so far is for them to write the definition in words that they can understand, identify the part of speech, find 2 synonyms/antonyms, and write the word in a sentence, or all the words together in a paragraph. What else could I assign for vocabulary homework? Also, what do I do about grading the hmwk, and the students keeping their words so they can study? Where do y'all get your voc. lists? I have lists for novels that we read, but that's about it. Should I have them do the definitons, syn/ant., etc. in class as Monday's bellwork, and then have them do different assignments with the voc. words each night (and turn in on Fri.)so that way I never really have to 'take' their words from them, and they have no excuse not to study?
Help me, I really need to implement more vocabulary into my classroom.
We don't teach vocabulary as a separate subject, so can't really help you with specifics, but...if you want the students to take their homework seriously you have to be consistent with it. They should have appropriate, meaningful homework every day (maybe not on weekends) and you should have clear expectations and consequences about completion. If it's not important to you, it won't be important to them.
What grade are you teaching? If you department head doesn't have vocab for your class. Make your own up for that grade. I know some sites depending on the grade that I will give you. Also in regards to homework you must give them more for them to take it seriously. Make it part of their grade and give consequences if it is not completed. Add an homework policy in your syllabus that way it is in writing. If it is a younger age group make sure you send home a homework policy form for all parents to sign.
Building vocabulary is a necessary task, but you'll want to make sure that these are words they'll have an opportunity to use while they are learning them. Let them be from what they are reading, or check with your grade level content teachers for words that will help them in other areas.
I agree that you must be consistent with homework. Have it posted in the same place everyday, encourage them to write it down, collect it, go over it, give feedback.
My grade level didn't teach vocab, and I noticed that these scores were low when we took the Terra Nova tests. I found a book from Cottonwood Press called Abra-Vocabra. These are words kids are likely to see in the media and in their reading as well as on tests. There are 12 words per list (2 are "bonus" words that are harder) and a test for each list. I do a list per week, pretesting on Monday, Activity/flashcards on Wednesday, and Quiz on Friday. I also give a cumulative test after every ten lists.
PM me if you want more info. I've used it for four years, and I love it!
In order for vocabulary to be meaningful, the students must have opportunities to USE the words. We have weekly vocabulary (10 words) and as we discuss the words on Monday we relate each of the words to whatever we are reading at the time as well as to the students' own life. For example, one of our words in week one is collaborate. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of collaboration on a school project. I have them list in their journal times they have collaborated with... their parents, siblings ,a friend etc. What would collaboration LOOK like? What would it sound like?
Homework idea ,which I use often, is to have them find (Or draw) an illustration of the vocab. word (I call this "Visual Vocabulary" )
You could assign words or have each student bring a visual for EACH of the five words. The rule is that it must be VISUAL for the whole class to see. I have had students bring a large bag of candy for the word "bonanza" and after explaining to the class the definition, each student got one piece of candy from the presenters bonanza. Magazine pictures and drawings that illustrate the word are very useful to tack to the board along with the word and definition as a visual reminder of the new words each week.
Another possible HW assign might be to have the kids keep track of every time during the week they were able to fit one of the words into a conversation. (parents enjoy this) For example, "Mom, I could get these dinner dishes cleaned up a lot quicker if brother would COLLABORATE with me."
I suggest that you make the quizzes each week easy to grade so that you don't get bogged down and throw vocabulary out the window. These kids need vocab.! I agree!!
Thanks for your help and suggestions. I am looking in to purchasing one set of the Wordly Wise Series. That way I can get my voc. lists, and will have plenty of activities for the students to do for homework. I may just spread it out over 2 weeks instead of just one week since there are 15 words per lesson, and 5 different lengthy activities. I found someone selling the workbook, answer key, and test book brand new for only$18. I am really thinking of trying it out.
When I taught middle school spec ed I had 10 a week, and they were different from the spelling words (my spelling words were words that actually needed to learn how to spell, like from the list of commonly misspelled words). I got vocab from a variety of places. NC has an EOG test, so I made sure lit elements and things were on there. I also used words I thought were difficult from the stories we were reading. For homework we did spelling sentences, matching word to definition (listed words on one side and def on other), writing their own def for the voc word, abc order (difficult for some of my sped kids), filling in the correct voc word in a sentence, etc. Vocab was a necessary evil, and since we had long blocks, taking 10 min each day to work on it didn't kill us. Also, I checked hw everyday and made it part of their grade. We had planners that req parents to sign every night, so none of them could say I didn't know we had hw (I also initialed every night to verify they wrote it down correctly).
I am at the HS level, but I do vocab and spelling. Vocab because, like you've said, it helps in their comprehension, and with the standardized tests that they take one way or another, and spelling, well because, despite the computer, they need it. I'm always amazed when my kids have to write in the classroom and can't spell. Anyway, you can google SAT and/or ACT vocabulary depending on your area, and get a list of the words needed to that test. You could also google Middle School misspelled words or Middle School Vocabulary. You'll find so many different ways of doing vocab. There are also many sites that will create puzzles and what not. The good news is that once you set it all up, you can use it again and again and it's worth it.
Here's what I do (7th grade):
I made up a list of about 5 words per week based on affixes. I figured that by orienting all our vocab around prefixes, suffixes, and root words, we'd be getting more bang for our buck, so to speak, than if we just studied random words.
That way, when they run across new words, they can use their knowledge of affixes to at least have an educated guess about their meanings.
I give them the new affix on Friday and we discuss it and see if anyone can think of words containing it.
On Monday, I give them about 5 words that I've chosen to be our list that week and I have them define the words and find parts of speech.
On Tues., I give them a short handout to complete (usually something simple like fill-in-the-blank, matching, mult. choice, crossword puzzles, etc.). They do these papers and then glue them into their vocab notebooks.
On Wednesday, I play a review game with them (all my vocab quizzes are cumulative so after a few weeks, the games are more fun because we can use more words).
On Thursday, I give them a quiz.
Friday, start all over.
I find that this method is quick, relatively painless, and it's great for retention. I'd rather teach fewer words and have them actually stick than cover 600 words they never recall again.
