Vocabulary approaches?

[TABmom]

What do you think the best approach to vocabulary is? I would like to start focusing on it more next year. I'd really like opinions on English from the Roots Up or something else that focuses o  Greek or latin word roots? My oldest will be a 6th grader next year and I'm mostly thinking of him, but I will also have a 3rd grader. Thanks! 

 

 

[HomeAgain]

We prefer a roots-based approach, and a good dictionary that has word origin included for unfamiliar words found in studies.  I don't know if it's the best, but it makes deciphering words easier than a straight memorization approach.
Both of your kids might enjoy playing Rummy Roots.  There are 4 or 5 games within it, starting with a very simple matching game like Go Fish.  I would suggest printing out word lists for the kids, though, since there is only one set in the instructions.

[carrierocha]

We use the entire Michael Clay Thompson language arts series alongside Classical Composition for more structured writing assignments to practice what we're learning in writing and grammar. That said, his vocab is really good, I think. It has several tracks, but isn't confusing.

First: stems. He introduces several latin stems in each lesson with sample words, etc.

Second: nonfiction words: whole words that students are likely to encounter in non-fiction reading. These are purposely at least 1 year above grade level.

Third: literature words. By this I mean that he has made a list of the 1,000 most common words from classical literature (visage, countenance, etc.) and introduces those bit by bit to the students.

The point is for students to be able to decode words through the stems, but then also to equip them to be comfortable reading quality nonfiction like academic journals, etc. and classical literature.

You can use his vocab as a stand alone product without the other LA components.

[Dudley]

I’m no professional here, but I can speak from our experience.

Vocab that you pull from a read aloud never worked for me, I get too caught up in story and don’t want to stop, I think the context is good, but still easy to forget. Just doesn’t get done. 

We did wordly wise for like 5 years. My daughter never really engaged.

last two years we have done word roots from critical thinking company. In this program you have to work to decifer which collection of roots,prefixes and suffixes (words) go together to match a definition. So you really come to absorb what the differences are, having to think beyond memorizing. And my daughter has to engage to think at this level, not just fill in blanks. I personally use vocab as a mostly independent subject, but if you wanted to play some of the word roots games or make flash card (I think ctc has an app for root flash cards ) it could add even more. Last year we did both wordly wise and word roots and my daughter said she learned so much more from word roots we dropped wordly wise this year.