Monday, February 12, 2007
Vocabulary and Prior Knowledge
Since we have been talking about vocabulary in Reading, I have been thinking a lot about how the research plays out in my class. In Social Studies, like Science I would imagine, we teach a lot of content vocabulary. Well, we don't always teach it, but we expect the students to know it. Often, an understanding of those words is critically important to comprehension of the text (and thus success on the test). I've realized lately how much more background knowledge some of my students have when compared to others. This background knowledge clearly helps this understand our vocabulary. It does not hardly seem fair to the students who do not have as much prior knowledge. Students with high levels of knowledge quickly and effectively connect with the new vocab, and take ownership of it instantly. Students with low levels of background knowledge must consciously study to understand the vocab. I've been shocked as how true the research is on the topic of background knowledge. However, when I use some of the strategies suggested in the text to access prior knowledge, I tend to have more success in getting vocab into the heads of those who often struggle.
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2 comments:
It is the old "Matthew effect" of the rich get richer - what we need to do is to encourage students to be word wizzards - to be fascinated with words and vocabulary.
One thing I learned in the classroom was that even though some students had much more prior knowledge than others, brainstorming enabled everyone to have a more even playing field.
I read up on that Matthew effect you mentioned, while doing research on my service learning project. They used the effect as explanation for the summer slump. I was glad you had mentioned it here so I could make the connection.
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