Week 12 - Harris (Response)

The mini-lesson Janine mentioned that could help support students improve their vocabularies involves breaking words down into their parts, and thinking about each individual portion, and where they recall seeing those portions in other contexts. I am not completely convinced that this method can be used consistently to the benefit of all students. It is unclear to me how students make connections and associations between the actual words and their meanings, what they represent, when they focus solely on the different parts of the word itself and their contexts other than in the term being learned. I agree that it is important to introduce primarily tier 2 words in ways that are authentic and meaningful to students, to help them comprehend and retain the associations between words and their meanings. According to the Scott article, "Teaching All the Children", frequent and consist exposure to certain words in context is often more beneficial to improving student vocabulary than rote learning.