Slice of Life Post March 22, 2023 by Barb Edler

I remember my mother reading to me when I was quite young. She read books about Grabbit the Rabbit who was a greedy little pig. Grabbit the Rabbit taught me that it was not good to be greedy. She read a sweet story about a candy cane and a chocolate turkey who conversed with each other in a candy store window. This story always made me cry because I felt sorry for the boastful turkey who believed he would be purchased before the candy cane but in the end, he was sadly left behind. Although I cried for that chocolate turkey, I learned not to be boastful. Perhaps it was my mother’s lessons and reading books aloud that taught me some vital life lessons and inspired my love for language.

When I taught high school language arts, I loved teaching vocabulary especially when I learned a few excellent strategies. Fortunately, I was blessed by Sue Beers’ guidance, who is a reading specialist/consultant. Sue’s courses were always engaging, and she had a wonderful way of introducing key concepts through humorous videos. The following are a few tips she shared about teaching vocabulary:

1. only teach five to seven words per week
2. students need to have multiple encounters with new vocabulary
3. frontload vocabulary prior to reading
4. use graphics to help teach vocabulary (consider Cartoon Comics and the Frayer Model)
5. have students say words aloud

Another PD I enjoyed was from Marcia Tate whose energetic workshop included the importance of movement when learning a new skill. After that PD, I began having students pass a ball to each other, saying out loud the new vocabulary word. The student who caught the ball would define the word. Students would throw the ball numerous times so words and their definitions are consistently repeated. This was not always easy to do in the classroom, but it was possible. When the weather was nice, it was a great excuse to go outside.

Currently, I learn new vocabulary by playing the New York Times Spelling Bee game. My good friend, Martha, is also a big fan of the Spelling Bee. She keeps a word notebook as she plays the game.

Yesterday, I played Scrabble with her. Martha is a scrabble shark. I had a healthy lead, but of course, she passed my score because she got over 50 points on a seven-letter word. Amazingly, I still won, but barely. Honestly, I got lucky by drawing a lot better tile, but it’s great to be a winner.

I wanted to take a photograph of the Scrabble game because I learned the word enviro. Glenda Funk is an enviro!

How do you have fun with words? And oh, btw, I’m a Queen Bee today!