The Director's Column for February, 2010
Greetings from the Great Expectations office in beautiful Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I believe this winter has been a challenging one with all the snow and ice that has fallen. I know many of you have suffered with the loss of electrical power and my thoughts are with you.
The classroom practice I am focusing on this month is Practice #8 which states:
“Enriched vocabulary is evident and is drawn directly from challenging writings and/or wisdom literature. Sources should include classic literature, myths, fables, poetry, proverbs, quotes, and other genres.”
This practice is important for the following reasons:
- Challenging vocabulary activities increase the love of language.
- New vocabulary enhances dialogue and enables students to communicate more effectively.
- Vocabulary from challenging literature is rich and fresh, making it exciting for students.
- Enriched vocabulary and interesting literature provide novelty for the brain.
- Great literature introduces readers to many different genres (poetry, fiction, autobiographies, folk tales, plays, essays, etc.)
- Character-building literature enriches students’ vocabulary and expands their horizons.
- Literature-rich content stimulates imagination and helps students discover their expanding world, and provides new ways to look at life’s changes.
- Analysis of wisdom literature involves thinking and feeling and allows students to make connections between themselves and the characters in the story.
- Making connections is vitally important to learning. The use of quality written works can provide anticipatory sets that help students connect with real life situations.
- Diverse literature allows students to experience cultural literacy.
- Diverse literature introduces students to great authors.
- Immersion in literature can lead to a life-long love of reading and learning, which increases future opportunities.
- Enriched vocabulary can build self-esteem in students, and high self-esteem increases academic potential.
The following “How To’s” for implementation will help you successfully integrate this practice:
- Select meaningful literature, character-building poetry, myths, and fables from various cultures as content for reading lessons.
- Use excerpts from wisdom literature to set the “stage” for new topics.
- Introduce authors and discuss how their writings relate to real life.
- Develop a classroom library that students can use.
- Allow students to create their own form of book reports.
The successful implementation of this practice will “look like” and “sound like” the following:
- Teachers and students use enriched vocabulary drawn directly from challenging writings and/or wisdom literature.
- Teachers use visual displays and word walls that include enriched vocabulary drawn directly from challenging writings and/or wisdom literature.