Pytash: Chapter 2 All About Words

When I read this chapter it made me think about how I was taught vocabulary when I was in middle and high school. For the most part I remember getting a list of words at the beginning of the week and we had to learn how to spell them and know their meaning. I feel like I was able to do this and lean perfectly fine. I would have my mom help me study and she would always use some kind of analogy or acronym to help me remember, and I would always do well. I can see that the problem is that not everyone has a mom to help them like I did, so we have to do more as teachers to help students learn.

I thought it was interesting that the book said, "...Students need to know 90-95 percent of the words." (22) in order for reasonable comprehension of what they are reading. I think this is the problem we have when teaching many in the cannon, because students are unfamiliar with the vocabulary. I feel like most students are in Stage 2 level of knowing the words in these novels. They have probably "heard it, but don't know what it means," which is why they can pronounce the words but aren't able to find it's meaning. The book also said that students benefit from reading aloud through the 8th grade, I thought this was interesting because I feel like I still understand what I'm reading better when I read aloud, so perhaps it's always beneficial.