Vocab study while reading... question

[robsiew]

Okay, here's something I've struggled with my oldest ds on. He's 9.5, but reading quite far above his grade level. No idea what level because I haven't really assessed him.

 

We do not do vocabulary as a separate subject and quite frankly, I'm not keen on adding in yet another thing. So, I'd like to do it through his reading. This would be reading he's doing with me, not reading he's doing individually. I usually choose books just over his reading level to read with him.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has a tried and true process for teaching vocab through actual reading. My tactic has been this...

 

1. He starts reading. We come across a word that I think he might not know (or sometimes he'll ask what a word means... not often though).

 

2. I ask him what the word means. If he can tell me we move on... if not we look it up in the dictionary. (I do this because it would take him too much time, but I don't know if I'm okay with that...)

 

3. We keep reading.

 

Okay, so a couple things concern me with my approach.

 

1. I'd like him to be looking the word up. Is that reasonable at age 9.5? We are beyond a children's dictionary in the level of reading he's at so it's a little more difficult to look up words for him.

 

2. He has a **really** hard time when we stop the flow of the story to look up words. Is there another process that would be better to follow?

 

3. I don't think there will be much retention of new words this way. We never practice them again. I'm guessing it would be better to make a list of the words we come across and do **something** with them during the week?

 

4. Should I even be worrying about this in grammar stage? He'll be in 4th grade this coming year. I notice WTM doesn't really address vocab until after spelling is complete (we will finish AAS this coming year).

 

Thanks for any input you can give me! I would like to expand his vocabulary, but I don't need to add another workbook to his (or my!) load.

[Sophia]

I wish I had gotten my older children in the habit of looking up words they didn't know when they encountered them in their reading.

 

I do have my 11 y.o. google definitions when we read together and I know she doesn't know the word.

 

She then comes back and reads the sentence and I can tell it makes so much more sense (imagine that!) to her.

 

I know she doesn't do it if I'm not there to prompt her, and I'm contemplating having her write down 3-5 new words she learned from her independent reading and how they were used and turning that in as "homework."

 

Still thinking that one through...

[Ester Maria]

That's how we handle vocabulary as well - through reading. I allow my daughters to go through the texts on their own, but I require they look up and WRITE DOWN the unknown words and concepts. Later, they can also talk to me about it, I may ask of them to explain the meaning of some word in a text, but that's pretty much it, no formal vocabulary study.

1. I'd like him to be looking the word up. Is that reasonable at age 9.5? We are beyond a children's dictionary in the level of reading he's at so it's a little more difficult to look up words for him.

Looking the word up is reasonable as soon as the child can read. Of course that at the beginning it might not go smoothly and you have to take care not to overwhelm them, they might not have the vocabulary large enough to understand the definitions, etc., BUT, you get better at something by doing it.

2. He has a **really** hard time when we stop the flow of the story to look up words. Is there another process that would be better to follow?

Yes, but it's suitable for shorter texts. Make him jot down the unknown words AS he reads, and when he finishes reading, THEN he looks at the list again, sees what he understood from the context and what needs to be looked up, and then goes back to the text and understands it with the new vocabulary.

3. I don't think there will be much retention of new words this way. We never practice them again. I'm guessing it would be better to make a list of the words we come across and do **something** with them during the week?

I usually tell my children to google those words, to see potential sentences with them and get a gist of how they should be used. Or ask them to form their own sentences with them, but it's tricky if they do it in English, because sometimes I don't know if a particular usage or expression is possible (you might not have that problem though - I'm not a native speaker and they technically speak the language better than I do so we sometimes have a sort of opposite problem with English vocabulary). Or you can go the old-fashioned way and require of him to learn the words and then orally examine him (you describe a concept, he tells you the word, and the other way round - you give him a new word and expect of him to describe what it stands for or to provide you with a synonymous word).

4. Should I even be worrying about this in grammar stage? He'll be in 4th grade this coming year. I notice WTM doesn't really address vocab until after spelling is complete (we will finish AAS this coming year).

Sure, actually I wouldn't call it bothering the child with a separate vocabulary study but, rather, making sure the child understands what he's reading and working on. Two birds with one stone. :)

[Carol in Cal.]

Whether the context is reading or speech, retention is improved by immediate use.

 

Having said that, I think that you're wise to be sensitive to the fact that all of these lookups can effect your son's love of reading. You don't want to risk that!

 

What to do?

 

You might want to consider a simple Latin or word roots program as a separate study. That will broaden his vocabulary without making it into a specific subject, and it's just a good all around thing to do anyway.

 

Then with regards to the reading interruptions, I would experiment. Does it work better if you just underline the words and then look them up later? Does it work better if you select certain of the books for this treatment and not others?

 

For my dd, who had similar objections to your son's, I would stop and ask her what a word meant if I thought she did not know. Then if she could not tell me, I would tell her the meaning, and we would read the sentence or paragraph again, and then move on. I found that that was a reasonable compromise. It did not take as long as looking words up in the dictionary, and I found that DD learned those words well that way. I tried not to break up the flow too much--I did not necessarily do this with every single word that I thought she might not know if there were a lot of them. Sometimes I would just stop and explain an entire sentence and then read it again if it had several challenging words in it. The bottom line is that I tuned this aspect of our work to my DD's tolerance level so as to teach her vocabulary and still preserve her love of reading. I encourage you to make your plan but also respond to your DS's legitimate desire to enjoy the flow of his books.

Edited June 10, 2010 by Carol in Cal.

[hmschooln]

What we've done is when I have ds read aloud, if he comes to a word he doesn't know the meaning of he gives me a signal and I make a list of the words. Then when his reading time is over he has to pick 6 of the listed words to write the definition for and use it in a sentence. I think I will start also writing down the page the word is used in his reading so he can instantly go back after finding the meaning to get a better understanding of the story, oh he'll be so thrilled to discover I've got something new for him.;):001_smile:

[robsiew]

Thanks for the ideas! He is studying Latin, so I know that will help. I think I'll try writing down the words as we read, then looking them up afterward, then looking back to make more sense of the sentence. I think that will help him keep the flow of his story, yet learn new words! Thanks for helping me think through this!

[momto2Cs]

I think I'll try writing down the words as we read, then looking them up afterward, then looking back to make more sense of the sentence. I think that will help him keep the flow of his story, yet learn new words! Thanks for helping me think through this!

 

That's how we do it, and it seems to work well. I sit by my 9 year old while he uses his dictionary in case he needs help, but he's getting better with it - for the 7 year old, I look them up and explain them. I also have both kids give me examples (orally) of how to use the word. Once they start using it, they own it!

[creekmom]

Instead of writing down the words right away, you might want to purchase those cool Post-it arrows. He could easily use the arrow to mark the word (they're fun to use!). Later, he could find the words and put them in a vocab. notebook with the def. and sentence.

[momto2Cs]

Instead of writing down the words right away, you might want to purchase those cool Post-it arrows. He could easily use the arrow to mark the word (they're fun to use!). Later, he could find the words and put them in a vocab. notebook with the def. and sentence.

 

 

I could see my son loving that idea! Thanks!

[nmoira]

2. He has a **really** hard time when we stop the flow of the story to look up words. Is there another process that would be better to follow?

In this case, I'd be inclined to pre-read the material yourself and prepare a bit ahead of time. Go over the words (with some example sentences of a similar context) before reading the passage, and then again afterwards. Or you can give him cues by rephrasing the sentence or passage just read instead of defining the word outright.

[robsiew]

Instead of writing down the words right away, you might want to purchase those cool Post-it arrows. He could easily use the arrow to mark the word (they're fun to use!). Later, he could find the words and put them in a vocab. notebook with the def. and sentence.

 

This is a great idea! I think he'd love it! I may institute that in his individual reading as well! In fact, I loved it so much I got some this morning while I was out!

 

Also... I like the idea of pre-reading... that may work some of the time, but honestly with 4 kids I'm not sure that will always be a realistic happening...

 

I actually kind of like the idea of him being responsible for finding the words he doesn't know and then learning what to do with them, rather than me picking them out ahead of time.... I can see it working both ways though. Thanks again Ladies!

[Time for Chocolate]

I was teasing my sister-in-law the other day and told her to let her son use her Kindle, then he could read the definition by just clicking on the word. The flow doesn't get interrupted and he'll learn more vocabulary words in context.

 

But for those of us who don't have one or those of you who don't want your children using yours...:) the sticky note arrow idea and the lesson prep. idea are great!

 

You could also use the Vertias Press Novel Guides that have lists of vocabulary already pulled and comprehension questions ready to go.

 

HTH

[HeatherInWI]

I'd say to just define them aloud for him as you read. That's what I do with my dc, who have both developed excellent vocabularies.

If none of us involved in the reading know the word, we look it up, and they have the necessary skills to do that for themselves (and they enjoy it, especially when a word has stumped their parents). I'd be afraid that demanding constant "looking up" would make it hard to really get into what was being read and discourage asking questions.

 

I like the Post-it arrow idea and will encourage them to use that for books they're reading alone.

[StartingOver]

When my older children were younger, I would pre- read ( skim ) the books ( By chapter, or book depending on age ) they read silently or orally, making a list of the words I think they may need a definition to. Before we read the books, they look up the definition and copy it in a notebook separated by letter - and by book title. They keep the notebook close by to look up the word if they don't remember it when reading.

 

It both makes it easier to look them up, gives them the practice of finding the definition, and creates a running list of new words.