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Saving Daylight – Using Vocabulary Words Aloud in Class

March 9, 2013 Anne Yale Leave a Comment

As a teacher, I’ve always loathed “springing forward,” because the vernal time change doesn’t, in fact, save time, but actually cheats us of an hour. With a dining room table perpetually plastered with mounting piles of papers to grade, I’m always on the lookout for ways of saving time by doing things more efficiently, streamlining my processes, and reducing or eliminating unnecessary procedures or steps. One of the best stack-shrinking suggestions I ever got from another teacher was to assign my students to write a short composition or paragraph using the vocabulary words we’re studying, and then listening to them (and simultaneously assessing them) as they read their work aloud.

In terms of pedagogy, there are several advantages to this exercise:

  1. It requires students to use the words in context — vocabulary acquisition is not complete until students start to work the words into everyday speech situations on a consistent and regular basis.
  2. It allows for immediate, periodic, and authentic assessment — by listening to students read their work out loud instead of lugging home more papers, students’ acquisition of new words can be evaluated orally/aurally on the spot.
  3. It implements the standards for speaking and listening — inviting all of the class members to participate in tallying up each speaker’s performance along with you ensures an engaged audience. One suggested scoring method, for instance, would be to award each speaker point(s) for each vocabulary word used correctly in context, and an additional point (or points) for each word the speaker pronounces correctly.

Of course, students may be reluctant, initially. Many resist reading aloud for a variety of reasons. The very first time I instituted this practice in my classroom by asking for volunteers, no hands went up. Since I’ve always had more success by taking more of a “carrot,” rather than a “stick” approach, I offered “extra credit” or “bonus points” to the first orators. Eventually, as students gained confidence in their abilities to utilize new words, the task became more competitive, less of a chore. For the entertainment of everyone in the room, and much to my (not so) secret delight, clever verbal sparring matches, referred to in the colloquial parlance of some locales as “joaning” or “playing the dozens” frequently ensued. Some of the more creative students even produced short stories, skits, or radio plays on occasion. But perhaps the best outcome of all: because this one assignment is assessed orally/aurally each week, it contributes no papers to the “to be graded” heap on the dining room table. And THAT truly saves daylight.

Teaching Tips, Vocabulary Activities authentic assessment, common core, daylight savings time, listening and speaking, teaching vocabulary, time saving tips for teachers, vocabulary activities, vocabulary words in context

You Bet Your Life!

February 5, 2013 Anne Yale Leave a Comment

Not many people remember watching a popular and widely televised quiz show from the mid-50’s called You Bet Your Life. I stumbled upon it thanks to the cultural repository known as YouTube. Hosted by Groucho Marx, one of the show’s hallmark features, called the “word of the day,” or “magic word,” (or “woid,” as Marx pronounced it) made great use of dramatic irony and the iconic rubber chicken, both of which have since become indelibly associated with Groucho Marx’ particular brand of verbally playful comedy. At the beginning of each segment, before the next pair of contestants came out, the “magic word” was shared with the studio (and television) audience. If, at anytime during the contenders’ chat with Marx, either of the participants uttered the “word of the day” by chance (or sheer luck), the rubber chicken dropped from the ceiling (with the “magic word” printed on a card held in its beak) and the contestants won an additional cash prize!

While most of us probably can’t rig our classrooms so that a rubber chicken falls from the ceiling (but wouldn’t it be fun if we could?) we can still adapt the concept of a “word of the day” or “magic word” to reinforce vocabulary words. The show’s successful implementation of this idea relies on two key factors: surprise and randomness. Although they surely knew this was part of the show’s premise, the contestants who said the “magic word” always seemed surprised – but who wouldn’t be to see a rubber chicken drop from the sky? However, the studio (and television) audience also reacted with surprise, even though they were in on it from the outset. This must be attributable, then, to the randomness with which it happened – no one knew ahead of time when or even if any pair of contestants would manage to say the word. And if they did, having been uttered, that word was taken out of circulation and replaced with a new “word of the day”.

As a classroom strategy, then, the same basic principles should be in play:

  • Surprise! – to be fair, the students should know that there is a “word of the day” in play, but they can’t know ahead of time what it is. Rubber chicken notwithstanding, if the fact that someone actually says the word aloud is not enough of a surprise already, perhaps some sort of visual and/or sound cue could be produced with little difficulty, using whatever instructional media is on hand. A word or image printed on a card or projected on a whiteboard would work, or a bell or buzzer used for another purpose (say, timed writing, for example) could be used to alert the class that the “magic word” has just been spoken.
  • Randomness – if a student in one class period says the word, the word has to be taken out of circulation and replaced with a new one. In a contained classroom, once the “word of the day” for that day has been uttered, play can be suspended for that day and resumed the next day. Also, while the “word-of-the-day” can be used to reinforce the vocabulary that’s currently being studied, the words may be chosen from previously studied vocabulary as well.
  • You Win a Prize! – finally, although awarding a cash prize is quite impractical, offering another token prize, (i.e. a pencil, sticker, bookmark, etc.) or even a couple of points of “extra credit” can be just as effective, as long as the prize is presented with some degree of fanfare, and specifically reserved for “word of the day” recipients.

Like studio and television audiences, students respond to game-play. It makes learning fun. More importantly, however, will Groucho Marx’ clever little device tempt students to work “difficult” words into classroom conversation, pronounce them aloud, and remember them later on? You bet your life!

 

Teaching Tips, Vocabulary Activities comedy, Groucho Marx, magic word, rubber chicken, vocabulary activities, word of the day, word play, You Bet Your Life

“Dress Up” Words: Formal vs. Informal Language

December 1, 2012 Anne Yale 2 Comments

Strung from the ceiling with red yarn, a wire clothes hanger (the kind you get from the dry cleaner’s) dangles brightly colored cards with “Topic Sentence” “Evidence” and “Support” printed on them for every student in the room to see. Intrigued, I asked my colleague about it. “It’s the thesis,” she said matter-of-factly, “because everything hangs from the thesis.”

I know – brilliant, right? Such was my introduction to the concept of the graphic organizer. I went home, raided my closet, and made one for my own classroom. But the idea of hanging things in front of students to depict how we use language got me thinking. As students move through school and beyond to the workplace and/or post-secondary education and training, it’s important for them to develop an understanding of audience awareness and the appropriate usage of formal vs. informal language. Addressing the boss (or professors) with the same casual language used to greet friends and family members is a faux pas – especially in writing.

We can borrow some other items from the closet to quickly illustrate the differences between formal and informal language:

Formal v. Informal Graphic Organizer

Ranging from least to most formal, the t-shirt could represent the most casual speaking and writing situations, such as how we greet and engage with our friends and peers. If asked or prompted for examples, students might respond that slang or “text-speak” abbreviations (OMG! u r so funny, LOL!) would fall into this category.

A little bit dressier is the polo shirt, which could symbolize a step up in formality. We might, for example, address familiar people who deserve a certain degree of respect (such as parents, teachers, or grandparents) with this type of common, ordinary, everyday language. Though probably devoid of many slang expressions, this category is still a bit “casual Friday,” and may include some regionalisms or colloquial expressions familiar to the group.

Even dressier is the shirt and tie. This is “business dress” – serious, buttoned-down Standard Edited English tailored for a specific audience. Examples of this speaking and writing situation would include business or workplace communication and academic writing. This is where the study of vocabulary words pays off.

And finally, the bow tie and tux shirt connote “special” occasions – reserved for speaking and writing situations such as college essays or marriage proposals, which occur infrequently, but call for a smattering of elegance and grace. As the graphic organizer quickly depicts, what we’re really talking about here is not just degrees of formality and familiarity, but sophistication. Consider, for example, the verb to steal:

A listing of slang words or expressions might include boost, snitch, jack, lift, rip off, pinch, and/or take the infamous “five-finger discount.” It’s likely that students could generate an even more “colorful” supply of very informal terms.

Of course, the common, ordinary, everyday word we’re discussing is steal, and it serves the purpose in most conversations and incident reports. But what if we’re writing an argumentative essay on crime using theft statistics, or an inventory loss report for the boss?

This is where vocabulary words come in. Not only can we avoid the monotony of repeating the word “steal” over and over again, but by using a few words with a little more sophistication, we can also dress up our self-expression and give precise and nuanced meanings. We could pilfer, filch, plunder, or appropriate a few choice words, for instance.

How about purloin? Not a word you see every day, but something that James Bond or Jason Bourne might be inclined to do in certain desperate situations.

In addition to helping students see the subtle differences between formal and informal language, and encouraging them to think about audience awareness, familiarity, and choosing the right words in their own speaking and writing, this graphic organizer might also be used to jump-start a discussion of diction with examples drawn from literature, and/or to discuss the denotation(s) and connotation(s) of a single word or words. Regardless, just as seeing that clothes hanger used as a graphic organizer for “the thesis” in my colleague’s classroom gave me some new ideas and got me thinking, I hope that the presentation of this graphic organizer gives you some ideas to hang around with for a while.

 

Formal v Informal Language_Graphic Organizer

Formal v Informal Graphic Organizer Power Point Presentation

Teaching Tips, Vocabulary Activities common core, formal vs. informal language, graphic organizers, teaching vocabulary, vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary activities

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