Friday, June 24, 2011

A brief thought for further consideration

According to research, a great way of teaching background knowledge is to teach key vocabulary.  (Marzano has something rapidly approaching 6 books on the topic.)  It is very possible to know some information or possess some skill without having the vocabulary for it; for example, children from Spain conjugate verbs in the second-person plural imperfect without ever knowing what those words mean.  Another example is a basketball player who knows nothing about physiology or trigonometry, but has a free-throw average of 80%.   It is, however, very difficult to teach a concept without a shared vocabulary.  To give a skill without a vocabulary would involve simply modeling a skill over and over, and having the student mimic it.  To give knowledge without the vocabulary...again, modeling, maybe?  That's tougher, I think.

1 comment:

Ray said...

Two schools and two school improvement plans with vocabulary as one of the strategies to improve learning. Still not inputted vocabulary as a priority in the school. Had dialogue with a teacher on Friday about vocabulary instruction and we agreed to keep each other accountable next year.

Have left a few comments on your last few post but when I post they get lost. Will try and do a better job of copy and pasting.