Developing Vocabulary
Developing Vocabulary
If you are the parent of a young reader, you will notice that they bring many small books to read at home. These books are written to support early and emergent readers. Through these books, young readers learn to recognize hundreds of new words, but they already know most of the meanings of the words. They are in their everyday spoken or listening vocabulary.
In upper grades, your children will come into contact with many unfamiliar words. They will be required to recognize them, but they will also have to learn the meanings of these new words. Here's how you can help your child gain understanding of new vocabulary:
Read aloud to your child and discuss the story vocabulary. Select books that are just beyond the reach of your reader, ones that they are not able to read yet. This stretches their understanding of the language used in literature.
Avoid talking down to your child. Use words that build their vocabulary. Research shows that if a child has a word in their listening vocabulary, they will have an easier time decoding an unfamiliar word. In other words, a "heard word" will make sense in the context of the text and they will almost automatically try that word.
Play vocabulary games to develop understanding. Here are some suggestions that are also good to use in the car when your children are tired of riding!
Go Together: List objects in a category, taking turns. Sample categories: types of cars, vegetables, winter words, holidays, emotion descriptors, sports, toys, etc. The game is over when one player runs out of words.
Tell a Tale: Ask your child to think of three words for you to use in creating an oral story. After you finish telling your story and modeling the process, give your child three words to use in making up a story. Stop when they get tired of playing or run out of ideas. You don't want to overdo a good thing!
Frumdiddle: A frumdiddle is a secret object. Think of a "frumdiddle," provide clues to its identification and ask your child to guess what it is. Give just one clue at a time and let them guess. Use "in your face" or obvious clues to start with and when they get better at the game, you can use more discreet or obscure clues. Use what teachers call $100 words in your clues to expand their vocabulary (a thesaurus helps). When your child guesses the secret object, exclaim, "Frumdiddle!"
First Grade VOCABULARY WORDS
These words come from various topics covered this week including special areas. Use and discuss these words at home whenever possible. The students do not need to spell these words. They just need a general knowledge of the meanings. It has been proven that increasing vocabulary skills will increase reading skills.