I'm still reading and came up with some more info that might be helpful as we look at what vocab we teach to students in the future (what books, what words, etc.).
From another article (section titled "What Words Should Be Taught"):
- Start with words that are important to the content and are crucial to text understanding. (Ex: photosynthesis or reconstructionism)
- Teach useful words that students are likely to see in many different contexts. (Ex: fragment and revolve rather than fractal and gyrate since the former appear more frequently)
- Provide instruction on difficult words and phrases such as those with multiple meanings and idioms.
- Latin and Greek root words and affixes help.
- Vocabulary instruction was found to be more productive when students were actively involved in selecting words and working in pairs and groups.
(These are from Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000; Dole, Sloan, & Trathen, 1995; and Malone & McLaughlin, 1997).
As a colleague said when I shared this with her, how do we go about teaching Latin and Greek root words so that it's not "just another list" to memorize? I have done some wordbuilding activities where students create new words and play with roots, prefixes, and suffixes, but I would like more ideas for activities.
Anyone have ideas for challenging, engaging activities that help teach word parts to high school students?
