Vocabulary Centers

This is one of those 'Oh Boy' moments I warned you about.

Today at the Learning Academy was my day to teach my first vocabulary center. Going into it, I felt pretty confident. I thought that my center was great because it included mutliple practice opportunties for the students, and the class is well behaved and small with a total of nine students. My co-partner and I split the class into two groups- she took half for her center, and I took the other (we each had four students due to absences). I was given science vocabulary terms by the main teacher in the classroom. These vocabulary terms include: inquiry, conclusion, observe, tools, investigate. Right off the bat I should have known that these words were not going to produce student happiness. In order to comprehend something, one must be able to read it. How can a dsylexic student read and spell these large words? They cannot. I learned that out quickly.

I began by having the students put on their scientist caps- "We are going to be scientists!" I then began asking students about each individual vocab term. We started with inquiry. I asked them why they ask questions in class. Matthew came right out and exclaimed, "To find answers!" Exactly what I was looking for. I then asked what words they use to ask questions. They all gave examples (i.e. Tiffany gave the answer of who- with that cam who, what, when, where, why, and how). I asked each student what questions a scientist might ask. Each student gave an answer, and this is when the drama began. I had the fidgeter in my group, Bentley the trouble maker. He began talking when the other members in his group were thinking about the questions a scientist might ask. He began to talk to his neighbor, who then also began talking. I should have pulled a manners stick at this point, but I waited until later. After inquiry, we discussed tools: what tools do they use everyday (i.e. toothbrush); tools help make jobs easier; what kind of tools do scientists use (i.e. Zach said a meter stick). Observe was our third term: I provided each shoulder partner a large dice. Each group used their five senses (previously discussed) to observe. They told me the smell, look, and feel. Investigate was our next term. Investigate and observe kind of go hand in hand: we also discussed the defintion. Conclusion was our last term: "Finding an answer," said Matthew.

After all of the discussion was over, the group each made a foldable. They had to write the word, draw a picture, and put the word in a sentence. I began to fully understand the fact that they still didn't know how to put the word on paper, because they could not pronounce it, and, thus, could not sound it out to put it on paper. The foldable concept fell apart. I was expecting it to go much better.

Once I realized the foldable was not going to work, I moved on and we played a game. The students, and myself, each had a vocab term taped on our head. We had to organize ourselves in the correct order that the vocab terms happen in real life (inquiry, investigate, observe, tools , conclusion). This was a challenge because the students had not had any exposure to these words before. Thus, they had never seen them and could not transfer them to recognizing them. During this time, Bentley began to laugh, and egged Matthew on to keep saying inappropriate things that were not meant to be discussed during this time. Once I warned him, on the second offense I pulled his manners stick. I should have pulled it to begin with when he first began to act up. The class had substitute teacher today, so of course, in their minds not all of the rules applied. Overall, I think that the students grasp the concepts of the words, just not the recognizing or the spelling of the words. When asked what a certain word meant, they told me. I did this at the end of the game and they all said the correct answer.

This center was a lot more challenging than I expected. In my plan, it is organized and perfectly planned. However, implementing it was a whole different story. I have just recently learned about academic background knowledge and how students have a more difficult time grasping concepts if they have never been exposed to it before. This center was a prime example. Perhaps this center would have worked with children who do not struggle with dyslexia. I just feel like we should challenge this students to go above and beyond what they already know how to read and spell. Perhaps I just need to find a different way; a way that doesn't involve as much reading, writing, and spelling of the word, but the more in-depth look at the words. More hands on activities I think would work best with this group of students. I also need to work on my classroom management skills- it is just so different being the guest in their class versus me being the only one in charge of a class. When I have my own classroom, I hope to have a better grip on management.