I learned years ago from teachers repeating the same thing over and over again as they grilled me, “if you can’t define a word (off the top of your head), you don’t really know what it means.” I don’t buy all of that. We can know what something means in context but to be able to blurt out a dictionary definition is another thing. It makes me think of the learning a word example I mentioned before. Somewhere along the line, I’ve heard someone say that to have a word become a part of your working vocabulary, you must repeat it three times a day for 3-5 weeks. I wish I could find the original source and I mentioned that earlier in this very blog but springing off that idea, I feel you can know a process but without using it, the understanding you’ve gained to that point of using said process goes away. Use it or lose it. I’ve evolved my original P3 idea. Use it or lose it. I asked them to list the exercises we’d done in just the last three classes and they came up with three of 11, only. Where’d the others go? The “evolved” version of my “application” is to utilize and practice the parts of a writing process… a generalized writing process, using a generalized college research paper as the form we strive to create. I think I can construct a format for them to follow, in which I repeat some steps following the age-old writing process of pre-writing, drafting, revision, proof reading, and publishing and I can build in exercises to put these steps on the path to the 3 times a day for 3-5 weeks concept- that it will take to make these exercises part of their regular writing process (and vocabulary) before it goes away.
I could not agree with you more about the regurgitation of dictionary definitions. Context is incredibly important. And that's not to say that there's no value in knowing the definition as stated in the dictionary, but finding a balance and truly helping students learn is key.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best vocabulary teachers I ever had had this system down. Anytime we were reading and found a vocabulary word and showed it to her, we'd get a sticker on a chart; most stickers at the end of the semester won a prize. This tactic was brilliant because not only did it trick us into reading (she didn't care if we found the words in a novel, magazine, poem, comic strip, etc) but when we showed her the word she'd also ask us what it meant, what part of speech was it being used as in the sentence, etc. It really made us think. And even now, 11 years later, if I'm reading and see one of those words, I remember that was once a vocabulary word. Many of those words have become a part of my everyday language! Teachers sure are tricky sometimes...