Professional Book Studies
This year my local chapter of professional teachers of reading, called Boone-Story, is studying the book Word Nerds. So far there have been lots of practical, easy to apply strategies, activities, and ideas to use in my vocabulary instruction in the classroom. The hardest part, as always, is finding the time to integrate it into my already packed curriculum. I already use a program called Text Talk that our school purchased years ago for my robust vocabulary instruction, written by the vocabulary guru Isabel Beck. With some technology twists of my own, I really think its beneficial to the students, but I know it still needs some beefing up to be more meaningful. I'm hoping to take things one step at a time to improve and I know that as long as I'm moving forward and not sitting still, I'm making a difference.
This year my local chapter of professional teachers of reading, called Boone-Story, is studying the book Word Nerds. So far there have been lots of practical, easy to apply strategies, activities, and ideas to use in my vocabulary instruction in the classroom. The hardest part, as always, is finding the time to integrate it into my already packed curriculum. I already use a program called Text Talk that our school purchased years ago for my robust vocabulary instruction, written by the vocabulary guru Isabel Beck. With some technology twists of my own, I really think its beneficial to the students, but I know it still needs some beefing up to be more meaningful. I'm hoping to take things one step at a time to improve and I know that as long as I'm moving forward and not sitting still, I'm making a difference.
- Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones
by: Herb Warren
"Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words could never hurt me."
And this I knew was surely true
And truth could not desert me.
But now I know it is not so.
I've changed the latter part,
For sticks and stones may break the bones
But words can break the heart.
Sticks and stones may break the bones
But leave the spirit whole,
But simple words can break the heart
Or silence crush the soul.
This thought-provoking poem was a wonderful way to start this book. Right away I was able to make connections to Mind Set and the importance of our words. Allington and Johnson, researchers, set out to study how successful literacy teachers worked their magic in the classroom. They found that these teachers had subtle ways in which they built emotionally and relationally healthy, learning communities, with caring, secure, and actively literate human beings. As teachers we have a critical role in the future of how our students will speak. "Speaking is as much an action as hitting someone with a stick, or hugging them" (Austin 1962). Boy do we need to be careful, slow, and deliberate with our words! "The attention system is in many ways a "gatekeeper of knowledge acquisition" (Gauvain 2001). I have to slow down to have students' attention, otherwise nothing will be gained. We must teach how to be a good listener and begin to teach self-control.