Dilemma

One change that I think I need to make in my teaching is to “encourage students to use content vocabulary to express their understanding.” Because of my classroom situation (one hour per week for each child in my school), I am always conscious of not “wasting” time. When I child asks me a question but does not use the correct terminology, I will usually say the terminology for him or her and then quickly begin to answer the question. I do not make sure that the child is familiar with the vocabulary. I know this is a problem, but I struggle with how to do better and still get everything accomplished that I need to accomplish during the school year. I tell you, I am really hopping in that computer lab! Ironically, one of the things I need to accomplish is to get the children to use the content vocabulary.

I had several good strategies for vocabulary in my 3rd grade classroom, but I can’t seem to devote the time to these same activities now. I need to increase my use of word walls and other posted visuals to help my students “get” the vocabulary. I also need to make sure that I model using the correct vocabulary for them. Other strategies that I relied on don’t make sense in my lab. One of my favorite activities, and my students’ favorites too, was to learn the sign language word for our vocabulary, but once again, this takes time that we don’t have. Other activities we did included making our own motions for vocabulary words and creating “pictionaries” of the words. In these, the students were allowed to either write out a definition for their words or they could choose to illustrate the definition and skip the words. This especially seemed to help in math with geometry terms, but it often worked well in science, too. I just wish I had some good ideas of quick ways to help my children master the vocabulary of the computer lab.

Suggestions, anyone?