Words matter. I will never forget when something clicked in my teenage mind that words matter. Honestly, it was when I truly began to read the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and study his impact on history.
“Continue to work with the faith that un-earned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
I am a big dreamer. I think it is a major reason for why I take risks.
“I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true.” –Walt Disney
So, if words can be so powerful, how can we encourage our students to grasp this concept? Afterall, as educators, we want to empower our students to be successful in their immediate and future endeavors. At the very least, I would like students to advocate or express themselves fully.
Several years ago, I attended a professional development that reviewed Marzano’s tiered vocabulary words. It got me to think not only about my use of diction in and out work but also about my student’s use of words in their various environments. I brought back the pyramid image to my students; the one that explains the 3 tiers of vocabulary and used the I Do, We Do, and You Do approach.
I model examples of words and match them to the appropriate tier for my students.
We look at a list of provided words and match them to the appropriate tier together.
You look at a list of provided words and not only match them to the appropriate tier, but you (the student) create word maps for each.
For the rest of the school year, we always identify our vocabulary words as either tier 1, 2, or 3. However, after the introduction to the tiered vocabulary, I don’t give them words from a list anymore. On certain weeks, I would ask my students (who had various levels of vocabulary knowledge) to pick 10 words from whatever they were reading—independent reading, articles, speeches, and/or class books.
Example using the MLK speech: REDEMPTIVE, SLUMS, WALLOW, DESPAIR, CREED, SELF-EVIDENT.
Now, just like most things in life, we need emphasis and repetition to get it to sink in. One of my favorite things that I used to do was to get students to think about pushing their descriptive vocabulary using paint samples. Yes, I said paint samples. I would have my students pick a shade of color sample. On the top shade, I would have written a basic descriptive word like BIG. Their bell ringer (quick open informal assessment) would be to fill in the rest of the shades of colors with better and more descriptive words for BIG…or for whatever their word was on the paint sample. So, the next word may be ENORMOUS and then MASSIVE.
We would hang these shades of vocabulary on the wall which basically became an anchor chart for them when writing. At the early stage of this lesson plan, there was an adult fiction book that was getting a lot of attention, so I decided to create a pun, or more like an inside joke, and titled the wall “50 Shades of Vocabulary”. No child ever got the joke, but it was fun for a smile or chuckle from my colleagues and even parents when they walked into the room. Remember, we embrace the crazy.
See You Real Soon,
Erin
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