The more we get into our book, the more excited I become to start working with my student. It's becoming more and more real as the chapters get more concrete! The chapters today had a lot of good information about fluency and spelling and the need for students to delve deeper into language--and how we can help them. It was almost as if the chapter was written for me and my students these past few weeks as we've been looking at vocabulary words and focusing on understanding them. I know I have a ways to go to help my many levels of ELLs, but I'm thankful that according to the authors I'm on the right track. Like Erik, I'm thinking of incorporating a Word Wall (which Annette added to with her great ideas of word bingo, etc). The words my students and I are working with are not easy ones and it's an achievement for my students to know the spelling and at least be a little more familiar with them. With repeated exposure and revisits as facilitated by the Word Wall, I think the more students will be encouraged to use them in their everyday speech. Let's all embrace the Word Wall...
(taken from http://touchofthemasterministries.org/images/5696_105460397006_93874507006_2675602_5503512_n.jpg)
The topic of fluency and the idea that words are meant for more than sound calls to mind the following quote by Heinrich Heine:
"Talking and eloquence are not the same; to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks." (taken from
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/heinrichhe118764.html)
It's not enough to know that letters equal certain sounds. We speak to convey meaning, to communicate, and entertain. I'm very glad to be in the company of such excellent eloquence, Team MAGEC!
*Don't mind the overuse of "more." Let's just chalk it up to my impatience to see us all succeed! Miss you all.
Amazing image. I guess we should all start our word walls. If others may ask what gave us this idea, we'll simply respond, "Team Magec."
ReplyDeleteI like that quote. In my humble opinion, I think eloquence got our current president elected. So yes, I think it is important to teach our students eloquence in case they ever are in a situation where they need to be eloquent.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Word Wall would be a great asset to learning how to spell in any subject area. Would you use the Word Wall with vocabulary of your choice only, or would you afford the students the opportunity to include vocabulary words of their choice, provided that they're related to the topic or subject? Just curious!!
ReplyDeleteChristine,
ReplyDeletelooks like we're all on the same page!! Love your image!! It's all about reading and building vocabulary, I love learning new words and using them in my papers and conversations. The great thing about it, is there are thousands of them and we learn new ones everyday!!