Entry #9 How did I learn vocabulary?

 "Students develop concepts, learn one or more meanings of words, and make associations among words through these activities (Word Study Activities p.238, 240). None of them require students to simply write words and their definitions or to use the words in sentences or a contrived story." (Tompkins, 2017, p.241)

As  I read Tompkins' (2017) explanation of what is not good vocabulary teaching, I relived in my mind what I do remember about learning vocabulary in school.  We had spelling lists each week and one of the activities we were required to do was write each word in a sentence. If I remember correctly I believe we also had vocabulary lists with definitions. If these are ineffective ways of learning vocabulary, how did I expand my vocabulary?

I loved to read as a kid. I read in bed, read under trees, and read at the library. Tompkins (2017) explains how independent reading of books that students can choose at the appropriate level, along with teaching strategies to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, gives students an opportunity to learn new vocabulary. (p.243-244)  Giving students a say in what they read and providing students with "textual lineages...texts that are meaningful and significant in our lives," (Muhammad, 2020, p.147) will make independent reading more enjoyable and more likely to expand students' vocabulary. 

Tompkins (2017) also discusses how with teacher assistance, student use of dictionaries can be an effective strategy to use in figuring out unfamiliar words. (p.243) I can still hear my Dad's words in my mind today: "Look it up in the dictionary." I can picture the worn out red cover of my high school dictionary.  

Along with the childhood experiences which I feel affected my vocabulary learning, I see how the methods shared by Tompkins (2017) in Chapter 7 and the metalinguistic awareness of Zipke's (2008) riddles could be engaging ways to teach vocabulary today, even though I never realized that my Dad's bad jokes were actually teaching me vocabulary!