Oct 27

Long time.. we've been out for break and sickness. We're starting a novel now, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, and our vocab is now tied to the book. It makes me wonder how we teach vocab. I've discussed this before, and at least this is more in context, but how do we know / check whether students really retain these words? We'd have to do planned activities with the students, but we'd also have to pre- and post-test. I'm sure they already know many of these vocab words, and it varies quite a bit from student to student. Having students select their own vocab words might be more productive, but also time-consuming, and projects with the words would be more difficult from the teacher's point of view. Meanwhile, we're also testing with multiple choice, which is very common. It's also recommended for students with LD who might not be able to pick a definition out of their head even if they "know" the word. Of course, then we have to ask what "knowing" the word really means.