The Word Conscious Classroom

“A classroom community must be established so that it is considered normal to ask about word meanings, experiment with language use, and to have not only the teacher, but other students, serve as vocabulary coaches” (Scott, Skobel, & Wells, 2008, p. 15). Children learn best through play, hence, as teachersRead More

Teachers can use poetry to introduce word consciousness. Poems can be used to illustrate succulent sounds and to help students master meanings of words within our English Language. In this episode, students will explore the elements of a rhyming poem. Reference: Scott, J. A., Skobel, B. J., & Wells, J.Read More

“Learning about words is as central as breathing in a literacy classroom, because words are the cornerstone of both oral and written language. Learning about words is inseparable from learning about reading and learning about writing” (Scott, Skobel, and Wells, p. 1, 2008). Hence, it is critical that we teachRead More

Our student’s attention must be drawn to what is unknown about their word knowledge just as much as to what is known about their word knowledge. Many times, students over estimate their word knowledge and therefore, they will unintentionally inflate their self-appraisals. Hence, it is important for teachers to understandRead More

How fine of a job are teachers doing with teaching the Latin and Greek roots of English? Thinking back to my own experience in learning about the affixes, I can attest that my exposure to this aspect of the language was slighted. Rasinski, Padak, Newton, and Newton, in their 2011 article,Read More

Students are taught to appreciate music and art, but are they also taught to appreciate words? According to Scott, Skobel, and Wells (2008) “Authors give us Gifts of Words, wonderfully composed phrases that capture the essence of what they want to say” (p. 8). In this podcast episode, you willRead More

“The development of conscious control over language use and the ability to negotiate the social and academic language of schooling are particularly important for students who do not generally fare well in schools” (Scott, et. al.; 2008, p. 9). In this episode, students will tell you what the teacher canRead More

Hear from two fifth grade girls on how they react to sophisticated words.

In our first episode, we will explore my story as a vocabulary have not. References: Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N., Newton, J. and Newton, E. (2011), The Latin–Greek Connection. Read Teach, 65: 133–141. doi:10.1002/TRTR.01015 https://www.timrasinski.com/presentations/article_latin-greek_connection_-_rt_tr_np_jn_en_2011.pdf

Words, words, words. Students will fall in love with words, when they are equipped with vocabulary. And students who love words learn better. When teaching language arts, we are teaching students the art of using language. Language Arts is composed of six components: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Viewing, and VisuallyRead More