Word for Word; Vocabulary

While reading this chapter, the very first thing that pops out at me is "Struggling readers to not simply need more basic skills." This phrase just reminded me of what this class is all about: Students struggling in reading in the upper grades. This was interesting to read because this is the first time that this issue has been addressed since I've been in the education program. Our endorsement is in reading, and we've learned about different strategies on how to help a struggling reader. The only problem is that we are learning how to help emerging readers to strengthen their fluency and comprehension. This little paragraph has me interested in more ways i can help readers who are in secondary schools struggling. Reading about how giving these students basic skills isn't as effective is relevant to me as a future teacher because although they may be reading on a fourth grade level, they're not on a fourth grade level so instruction needs to be appropriate for the age level also.

It is very interesting to read that you can incorporate vocabulary into mathematics. This goes to show that you truly can integrate subjects in just about anything. Although they're still utilizing math vocabulary, giving them a consistent structure for defining and extending vocabulary is a good skill to embed in students for later vocabulary use during reading or language arts. Mr. Burrow's example of his mathematics journal page also lists a real life box. this is where the students tell where they see that word in the real world. This also creates an authentic way for the students to find use of using the mathematics in their lives. This is a good strategy to keep the students from feeling as if the subject they're learning is useless to them when the get older.

A quote that particularly strikes interest in me is that "The vocabulary demands on students skyrocket during the secondary school years, ballooning to an estimated 88, 500 words. Although academic language demands are high, it is estimated that everyday speech consist of only 5,000-7,000 words." It is interesting that students are expected to learn so many words when in truth, they'll only use up to 10% of those words in everyday conversations. this means that the words they're learning in secondary schools are not being utilized and vocabulary isn't strengthened using conversation. This brings me to a question that I'm concerned about: how to we get students to understand that a broad vocabulary is valuable to them if the see that they only use 10% of their words in conversation? It also makes me wonder how i would help strengthen the words they've already learned so that it stays with them rather than having them forget the definitions as soon as they've taken a test.