eSCAping Type 1

About a month ago, really just as a means of coping with my resignation, I published my “Top Teaching Tips” … a post that got more views, shares, and comments than anything else on this blog. Its instant popularity was entirely unexpected and completely floored me.

My husband straight up laughed at me for being so surprised. He said, “When you taught, weren’t you obsessed with finding out what other people were doing in their classrooms? Don’t you still follow a bunch of random teachers on Instagram?”

Well, yeah. Plus, even with the “teacher shortage,” there are far more teachers in the world than people with Ataxia.

So, I’ve decided to incorporate more “teacher stuff” in this blog. And, again, if you’re not a high school English teacher, you might not find this post very interesting. But, I’m hoping there are a lot of readers out there who do.

What might be even more surprising than the popularity of that post, is the fact that I love teaching vocabulary. The thing that no one can agree on how to teach, the thing that initially caused me so much stress and anguish, turned into the thing that most returning students fondly remembered and excitedly asked about.

So, in an effort to maybe help someone else with this dreaded teaching requirement, here’s a step-by-step guide to the system that brought me five years of success:

– Every week, I chose TWO words to display on my small front bulletin board. These “Words of the Week” came from a few different sources – 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, Common SAT Vocabulary – and went in alphabetical order (meaning the first week was two “A” words, then “B” and so on, in case that wasn’t clear). Students were learning new words for 26 weeks of the school year. This gave me a bit of leeway when we needed some weeks for other things.  Plus, keeping the number low allowed students to actually learn the words, not just memorize a list of definitions.

– The words were the same for all of my classes, regardless of grade level. I worked at a small school, so I taught every single sophomore and junior every single day. That means half the school was learning the same words at the same time. I rotated between two word lists, so sophomores wouldn’t be learning the same words twice, but once they left me as seniors they knew the vocab those students were learning.

– The daily Bell Ringers then included these words, or were replaced or accompanied by Vocabulary (which was written in the back of their Bell Ringer journal in an attempt to stay organized). It’s important to have them actually work with the words every day, even if it’s only for three minutes.

I generally followed this rough schedule:

Monday, I would give them the definition, part of speech, and a sentence using that word. That way I knew everyone had the same (correct, teacher-approved) definition. Plus, students finding it on their own took up too much time. 

Tuesdays they would draw pictures of the WoWs, and then have the opportunity to draw theirs on the front white board. Yes, this took up more time, but they actually loved this activity – I recommend it.

Wednesday they had to give a real life example of each WoW.

Thursday they’d write a super short story (as few sentences as possible) including all vocab words from the past three weeks.

Friday I’d show a sentence that included the WoWs, but with incorrect grammar/spelling/punctuation that students would have to fix.

– After each week, I would move the WoWs to our permanent Word Wall, and replace them with two new vocabulary words. This gave students a constant visual reminder of what we had learned, and served as a great resource for review and essay writing.

– Every five weeks there would be a quiz. It was actually a lot of work on my part, but worth it. I’d write a lengthy paragraph that included 15 vocabulary words – the 10 “new” ones, and then the other five could be any word we had learned thus far – which I’d then delete. Students simply had to fill in the blanks, proving they knew the definitions well enough to use the words in context.

Now, none of this is super special.

My real pride and joy came from how students earned bonus points.

According to my syllabus:

You may earn bonus points by using or finding any Vocabulary Word we’ve learned so far outside of this classroom. Explain the situation in writing, and then turn it in for extra credit.

Example: The CNN anchorman said “Trump’s bellicose tweets…” in reference to the president’s aggressive statements towards Iran, showing a willingness to fight.

Since half of the school had the same opportunity, theoretically someone could shout “I am enervated after taking that Spanish test!” in the cafeteria, and 50 students could earn bonus points.

However, in my five years of doing this, that never actually happened. Having to write & explain something was just way too much unnecessary work for some of these teens.

However, some turned in multiple examples a week. I had coworkers who noticed improved essay vocabulary. I got emails from parents about dinner table conversations.

Not a ton, but enough for me to feel successful. And, teachers know, that doesn’t happen nearly enough in our field.

Obviously I’m not guaranteeing success with this. As with anything, you’ll have to tweak this system so it works for you.

But, there’s no chicanery here – hopefully, someone finds this post auspicious enough that they abjure their former fatuous beliefs and realize teaching vocabulary is not deleterious, but actually congenial and salutary.

 

P.S. My Teachers Pay Teachers store is coming soon! So, eventually, you’ll be able to buy those Vocab quizzes I made if you’re a normal human being who doesn’t have time to make them yourself…