I am a firm believer in reading aloud to my 7-8 grade students regularly, if not daily. My ESL students need repeated exposure to English words in context. I know that my thinking aloud has helped my students understand how I process different texts, and how I think about the texts as a mental response, but I haven’t been satisfied with how I have used the read-aloud experience to really help the students develop wider vocabularies.

I had a flash of a procedure that would be a more systematic approach. What if I took just a few (maybe 5) great words from the portion of text I was reading (whether fiction or non-fiction) and did some more in-depth study of those words over a few days (until I chose some new words)?

For example, read a chapter from the current read- aloud choice, stopping at the chosen words as I read to highlight them. After the read-aloud/think aloud, put those 5 words on large index cards and post.  Discuss what the words means as used in the text. Alphabetize in a word wall. Multi-syllabic words can be “chunked” into syllables. They can be studied for affixes. The roots can be removed and then a circle map created for new words using the same root. An association game can be played using the word and the character/situation from the text that it is related to in some way. Words can be sorted by part of speech, or tense, or origin.

The point of this is that vocabulary becomes imbedded in meaningful reading of text, and that students get multiple, but short, exposures throughout a week.

Secondly, I really enjoy Two Writing Teachers blog, especially the daily snapshots of what is happening in the classroom. It inspired me to to do the same.

I teach in a Title 1 school, which is about 80% Hispanic. I am bilingual, and teach English As a Second Language. In my school, I AM the LAnguage Arts teacher for my students, all of whom qualify for ESL. My 7th grade students also have a reading teacher. I am the only LA teacher my 8th graders have. In Texas we have the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test which the 8th graders muct pass to go on to 9th grade (No CHild Left Behind Legislation).

The tests are over now, but school is in session until June 5th. For the kids, they’re done. I have chosen to read Where the Red Fern Grows as a class in 7th grade, and today we read aloud chapter 17. I have not been doing vocabulary lists,or an extended project. I want my kids to ENJOY reading, and even my successful students rarely choose to read. My main goal in reading this mostly aloud (students follow in their own copies) is to have success in getting into a story of novel length. Today, my feisty 7th period group listened (quite a few even followed along reading) for some pretty extended periods!

I do point out as I read where I might not know a word, and talk through how I deal with it (context? not worry about it and keep going? break it apart for roots/affixes?), or questions I ask myself. I commented today that the questions I ask the kids are questions that I ask myself in my head. One of my girls said, “I never ask myself questions when I read.” She earlier had commented that she understands better when I read aloud. She is one of my better students as well. We had a nice discussion for a moment on how good readers ask questions/make comments in their heads while they read

Tomorrow is Friday…yay! I need sleep!