Reading Matters Winter 2018

to students wasn’t enough. I need to intentionally choose read alouds that have brilliant word choice and discuss that vocabulary during interactive read alouds. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2001) develop a strategy called Text Talk where teachers ask questions to discuss ideas in the story and connect them throughout. They indicate two ways that this strategy develops language: “One is that the kind of questions asked elicit greater language production. The other is that Text Talk takes advantage of some of the sophisticated vocabulary found in young children’s trade books by explicitly teaching and encouraging use of several words from a story after the story has been read.” Being intentional with interactive read alouds and vocabulary is essential to growing a child’s language. The above research validated my use of interactive read alouds in my classroom, but I also felt like I needed to take it a step further in order to truly begin to close that vocabulary gap. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) stress the importance of a rich language environment where students are discussing and recording words they come in contact with in daily life and literature. This became the next essential step for me. Students have to do more than just hear and discuss them during a read aloud. They need to record and interact with them as well. vocabulary knowledge. There needed to be a community aspect, a language community where students shared words they found independently and learned from each other. Ruddell and Shearer (2002) acknowledge the importance of reading to build vocabulary, but they add that “social and environmental influences can be used not only as sources of vocabulary, but also tools to heighten awareness and motivation for discovering the meanings of unknown words.” They implemented a strategy called Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy where students record words they come in contact with that they want to study. Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy was also an important part of interactive word walls discuss in the article “Interactive Word Walls: More Than Just Reading and Writing on the Walls.” The authors researched word walls in the classroom and their impact. They found the interactive word wall “holds potential for enhancing vocabulary learning with older learners when used in conjunction with effective instructional practices, such as visual coding, context application, collaboration, and self- selection” (Harmon, Wood, Hedrick, Vintinner, and Willeford, 2009). Classroom word walls definitely improve language development, but in order for it to be effective, students have to select words on their own and in a collaborative environment. Recording words the students discover in all types of literature as a class and independently could combine the benefit of reading aloud and being aware of words around them. Sharing them and keeping a running list as a class, builds a rich language environment and encourages students to be independent word learners. Building a language community through read alouds and independent word acquisition will expose students to a wide range of words to use in their own writing; therefore, enhancing their word choice. Just reading aloud to students and recording words they notice in those books would not single handedly build students’

The Strategy Implementation Plan There were five steps that I initially planned to take during the school year in order to create a rich language environment in my classroom. I planned to collect literature to use for interactive read alouds throughout the year that contain quality word choice. This allows me to model beautiful language that authors use for my students. A great resource for choosing literature to help students with their writing is Dorfman and Cappelli’s book titled Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6 (2017). This text discusses using mentor texts in the classroom to teach writing, but it also provides a list of literature that addresses certain traits of writing. I set up a class word collection space in the classroom and modeled how to record words during our read alouds. Our word collection space became anchor charts titled Words We Love . We record the word, how the author used the word, and why we chose the word. Through this process, students discover effective, precise, and descriptive words that authors use in their writing. Using mentor texts to teach word choice gives students access to words they might not have known or paid attention to before. We also set up a student word collection site in individual student word study notebooks where students will record word choice they come across in their independent reading books that they love. This personalized aspect to collecting words gives students access to words on their level and also teaches them to become word learners on their own. The process of word learning cannot just end at recording words in a chart. Throughout the year, I modeled various vocabulary strategies, such as, the Frayer Model, Four Square, and using the app WordFoto to describe a vocabulary word. After recording words they love from their independent reading books, students choose one word a week to explain and illustrate using a vocabulary strategy that has been modeled and add it our class Words We Love Google Slide. This slide is be accessible on Google Classroom where all my students can access it and check out their peers’ new words. This technology piece adds engagement and interest and also gives students an online database of words from their classmates, which they can access in class or at home. The last and most important step is the sharing piece. Once a week during word study, three or four students share the word they chose to illustrate with the class. We discuss this word and add it to our class Words We Love list. This community aspect of sharing words through read alouds and words from their independent reading books allows students of all levels to learn from each other and be exposed to words they might not necessarily access in their personal literature. Strategy Implementation After implementing the Words We Love strategy in my classroom for a semester, I have been thrilled with the results. We have been collecting words we find as a class during interactive read alouds. Students have also been

Reading Matters Vocabulary Matters

Reading Matters | Volume 18 • Winter 2018 | scira.org | 9

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