Reading Matters Winter 2018

CultivatingWord Choice Through Personalized Learning and Community

By Heather Sox, Fork Shoals School

Inquiry and Research Process In the Spring of 2017, my students wrote memoirs about moments in their lives that made them who they are today. I analyzed their writing using Ruth Culham’s 6+1 Traits of Writing (2003) to see the area in which they were lacking. I found that across the board, students’ word choice was an area of weakness. I completed a more detailed analysis of three student samples, a struggling writer, an average writer, and an advanced writer, and found that all three students’ lowest trait score was word choice. I had previously taught lessons on word choice throughout the year, such as utilizing vivid verbs and using accurate and descriptive words in their writing. Even though students had been given the strategies to use effective word choice in their writing, when given the chance to revise, students were still not changing any of their words. This led me to teach several minilessons on revising for word choice (Spandel, 2013). I modeled how to revise for word choice with my own writing, and we spent time revising together as a class for that specific trait. Students then took part in peer revision, looking only for word choice and helping each other improve the language in their writing. Student word choice definitely improved, but I found that struggling writers still lacked the vocabulary to choose words that effectively enhanced their memoirs. This led me to begin wondering how I could build all students’ vocabulary in order to improve their word choice in their writing. There were two concepts that I felt I needed to incorporate into my classroom in order to begin closing the gap in vocabulary: community and read alouds. I have always used read alouds in my classroom because of student engagement and interest. Over the past several years, I have utilized more interactive read alouds in order to gain the benefit of constructing meaning through shared experiences and conversation, but I was not teaching vocabulary or word choice using read alouds. Schippert (2005) also shared a similar experience, “Although I taught vocabulary each day in various subjects, I had never considered the richness of words that I had been sharing with my students for years in read alouds as potential vocabulary instruction.”These opportunities that we as teachers are already creating in our classrooms everyday can be used to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge. Read alouds are an easy and effective way to build vocabulary in the classroom. Just reading to students encourages vocabulary development, and discussing key concepts and words within the story, increases the amount of words students will learn (Gunning, 2006). Even though read alouds are proven to increase student vocabulary, I decided that just reading aloud

ABSTRACT — The author of this article is a fifth grade teacher whose goal was to improve her students’ word choice after analyzing writing pieces during the school year. After teaching revising for word choice, there was still a large gap in effective word choice between struggling readers and writers and more advanced students. Collaborative revising seemed to help some students, but the most struggling writers did not modify any words to make them more precise or descriptive due to not having a large vocabulary foundation. This article uses student data and research to plan a strategy to cultivate all students’ vocabulary in order to improve their word choice in their writing through community and personalized learning. Effective word choice in a student’s writing is essential and can also impact voice and sentence fluency. When students use descriptive and detailed words, it truly takes their writing to the next level. We’ve all taught lessons on word choice, such as “vivid verbs” and “showing and not telling,” and some kids take off with it. They use words that enable the reader to truly visualize what is happening, and their word choice becomes precise and effective. Then you have students who are still using very basic words. Their word choice is bland and even after modeling how to revise for word choice, they change nothing. This difference in vocabulary is evident in most classrooms, and it can be easy to just accept it. Language is the foundation of writing, and research shows that students’ language development varies depending on background. Before children even come to school, there is a gap in the amount of language they have been exposed to. Gunning (2006) describes that discrepancy: “Within the first four years of life, children from welfare families would have heard about 13 million words, children from working-class families would have heard about 26 million words, and children from professional families would have heard about 45 million words” (p. 35). As children get older, vocabulary development also varies depending on ability level and background. Children below the 25th percentile, come to school knowing 3,000 words; whereas, students above the 75th percentile, know about 8,000 words (Gunning, 2006). This gap stresses the importance of developing language in the classroom. This led me to begin questioning this obvious gap in word knowledge in my own classroom. I wanted to build all students’ vocabulary to improve their word choice in their writing not just my students who had solid language foundations. I knew this would not be a one and done strategy. In order to truly cultivate every student’s vocabulary development, it would have to be a year long practice that would hopefully transfer to their writing.

Reading Matters Vocabulary Matters

| 8 | Reading Matters | Volume 18 • Winter 2018 | scira.org

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