Vocabulary Instruction

During the 13 years I spent in the public school system in Washington state I was exposed to many different styles of vocabulary instruction. Most of the time we were studying a section in the textbook and at the beginning of the chapter was found a list of vocabulary words that were used throughout the chapter. We would study the definitions of those words, have a test on the words, and be expected to know the words as we worked through the chapter of the text book. During my high school years, teachers would give us a more extensive list of vocabulary words to know and we would be required to create flash cards using those words which would provide us with a study aid. During my 11th grade year, our teacher had us memorize Latin root words during the summer before we entered her class and we were tested on those words for the first day of class. Our teacher explained to us that by knowing those root words we would be provided with clues that would help us recognize the definition of other words that use those roots. Below is found the link to a PDF file that lists common latin root words, the meaning of that word, and examples where that root word is used.

http://www.uhv.edu/StudentSuccessCenter/study/pdf/building.vocab.roots.pdf  

Having these root words memorized helped us all a lot as we were exposed to more vocabulary words throughout the year. Our teacher would have us learn 7-10 new vocab words each week. The words she would have us memorize were pulled from a list of common words found on the SAT that many students did not know the meaning of. Her main focus throughout the entire year was to help us prepare for the SAT and the AP English tests. Each week we would find a definition for each word, draw a picture of the word that would help us remember it, and use the word in a sentence. We would then be tested on these words at the end of the week. She didn't expose us to these words in the most interesting or innovative ways, but she provided us with enough exposure to these words to help us cement the meaning of these words into our minds. These words were never directly related to core concepts of the class, but after having learned these words I would run across these words and remember the meaning due to the way in which we had learned.

There are some elements of my teacher's strategies that I would want to implement in the classroom, but I mostly want to build off of her strategies. I want to help my student learn the Latin roots, affixes, and suffixes in order to provide students with context clues that can help students understand the meaning of other words. I want to come up with ways in which students can get out of their seats, move around the classroom, and build kinesthetic and sensory ways in which students can learn and memorize these words. I would like to help students learn vocab words that are directly related to the core concepts of what we are learning in the unit.

Having learned new strategies of teaching vocabulary has helped a lot. Students can learn vocab words through games, drawing pictures, and making charts. My only concern is deciding what specific vocabulary words I should focus on in English classes because that content is so broad. Should I focus on literary terms, words that students have struggled with in the text we are working with, or words for a list of words found on a standardized test? With Psychology I know that I will be able to focus on words that we are learning in conjunction with the specific unit.