Learning new words/dictionary use

[elise1mds]

Do your kids have dictionaries in their rooms or available at all times? How do you get them to look up unfamiliar words? DS loves to read and is constantly reading things where words may be new to him. He reads very well for his age, but even so. I just want him to be able to comprehend while he's reading. During the day, he will usually come to me and ask for definitions, but when he's reading at bedtime, he'll read till he falls asleep. I'd like to get him a good dictionary to put next to his bedside so that he can look up words, but I'm not entirely sure he'd use it. He does know how to use one. I'd let him make a list for future reference, but again, I'm not sure he would, and I really can't let him have a pencil in his room as he has a tendency to draw on the furniture/bed linens.

 

Ideas? Thanks!

[plain jane]

I took Andrew Pewduwa's recommendation and bought my oldest an electronic dictionary. It gets a TON of use and I'm really glad to have spent all that money on a good one.

[EppieJ]

Perhaps you could try sending him to the dictionary when he comes to you for definitions? Maybe that would help to train him to find out the answer for himself. Just a thought, as I have no expertise in this area. I send my son to the dictionary to find out how to spell things. He doesn't like it, but I figure it's good practice for him to learn how to find out for himself. Of course, my ds is 9...a little older than yours. Hope you find something that works for you!

[Laura Corin]

I wouldn't worry. If your son is a good reader, he will probably pick up most meanings from context. You should make sure that he can look things up fluently if he needs to (do it together when he asks for a definition) but I wouldn't stress it: you don't want to make reading a chore for him.

 

Laura

[Penny]

I agree with the electronic dictionary. After purchasing one and finding it to be extremely useful, we've since purchased 3 more!

 

Let's face it, how often do we as adults get up, locate, and grab our HUGE dictionary to manually look up the words when we're in bed? And as far as learning the word from context, it really doesn't work unless one sees the word over and over again in reading. The words my dc are learning just aren't used frequently (EX capacious, viand, verdent, miasma, lugubrious, torpid, and on and on....) Also, it's likely that the dc will assume the wrong meaning for the word...I have and my dc have many more times than we've assumed the correct meaning. (During read a louds I ask what they thing the word means before I look it up...we're always wrong!)

 

Also, the thesaurus is wonderful. During writing dc love to use it to write with words I don't know. It is a challenge for them to force me to use the dictionary to check their work. That's fantastic since we both learn new words. Now you may have the type of dc that will do this with a paper thesaurus, but I don't. Mine would look up a few words, but not do the type of searching they now do since it is so very easy.

 

I have the Sharp PW-E550. It is very intuitive and a good dictionary. Since it has a history, it is simple to review the words or keep them to add to a memory system. (We've just started using ANKI as our memory system.) Just don't drop the PW-E550 as it is not super sturdy! I bought mine on Amazon for about $75 or so. (I so wish it were cheaper.) If anyone knows of a better electronic dictionary, I too would be interested. But as far as I know, the Sharp is the best.

 

Blessings!

[MomOfOneFunOne]

Curiously, my girl will read the dictionary but she tends not to look up words in it. She's an uber reader and understands well above her age/grade but when she comes up against a word she doesnt' know, she usually assumes that if it's important enough to know, she'll get it from context eventually. Sometimes she asks me if the lack of understanding keeps her from understanding the sentence/passage. She'll also ask if she likes the word and thinks it's one she'd like to own. She has a magnificent vocabulary so I don't really worry about it.

 

Electronic dictionary/thesaurus: well, I dont' really like them but following Pudewa's advice, also, I got one for my girl. As I said, my daughter likes to read the dictionary so when I actually do have her look up a word, an hour later she's reading cool words and can't even remember what she was supposed to be looking up (apple didn't fall far from the tree there). The electronic d/t keeps that from happening so much when the point is finding the word and not just enjoying the dictionary.

 

So, I don't worry about just telling her definitions but sometimes I do want her to look up things.

[elise1mds]

Ahhhhh an electronic dictionary. I knew someone would be able to get me out of my box. I do believe I'll be getting him one of those! I asked him if he would like one, and he got really excited.

 

Then again, he also got excited when I bought a first aid kit today to keep in the van. ;)

 

Thanks!

[Pippen]

Agree about the electronic dictionary. I don't even remember the last time we used our big hardcover. I have a favorites file labeled "School Help" and have bookmarked the Merriam Webster site and that's what everyone uses.

[ElizabethB]

The iPad book reader has a function where you double click a word, then press dictionary (very easy, it comes up right above the word), then you get the dictionary entry. It's great, I hope they have one for Spanish so I can read things in Spanish, I would look things up and read harder Spanish books if I could look words up that easily. (We haven't bought one yet, but I had to go try it out at our local Apple Store.)

[siloam]

Do your kids have dictionaries in their rooms or available at all times? How do you get them to look up unfamiliar words? DS loves to read and is constantly reading things where words may be new to him. He reads very well for his age, but even so. I just want him to be able to comprehend while he's reading. During the day, he will usually come to me and ask for definitions, but when he's reading at bedtime, he'll read till he falls asleep. I'd like to get him a good dictionary to put next to his bedside so that he can look up words, but I'm not entirely sure he'd use it. He does know how to use one. I'd let him make a list for future reference, but again, I'm not sure he would, and I really can't let him have a pencil in his room as he has a tendency to draw on the furniture/bed linens.

 

Ideas? Thanks!

 

Yes, but this is a scheduled and developed skill in Classical Writing (and I love that!).

 

Though when they ask for reading I just give them the definition. My kids wouldn't use a dictionary at night, they just guess based on context.

 

Heather