Enhancing Vocabulary

      As a perspective teacher, recognizing vocabulary is important,
 as vocabulary is 65% of all comprehension. Learning vocabulary 
 begins with emergent readers and continues into school. Children
 learn vocabulary not only through teaching yet through peers,
 parents, and television.  Reading also builds vocabulary. There
 are steps to enhance vocabulary.  All methods can start as soon
 as kindergarten.  
     1) Provide rich learning experiences - Learning goes beyond the
 classroom, as children see and organize information words. Vocabulary
 words expand their background knowledge and promote personal meaning.
 Behind words are concepts, which must be understood. Understanding
 concepts provides meaning. 
     2) Graphic organizers such as, semantic mappings can be used.
 The idea behind organizing words is the ability to compose, organize,
 and create word relationships. Words are divided into themes showing
 relationships to one another and further enhancing a vocabulary word. 
     3) Preparation is also essential, as children learn more when
 vocabulary words appear in their reading. As prospective teachers,
 we can prepare students with vocabulary from their text to reinforce
 the words. Comprehension and fluency will be enhanced, as few
 interruptions will arise from the unknown words. 
     4) Finally, making learning and vocabulary FUN. I vow never
 to have" Look-Up the Words in the Dictionary Monday". I hated it
 as a child and will not continue the laborious, tedious process.
 Words can be introduced by their word histories, by describing
 origins and mythology; crosswords can be used with definitions
 as clues. Possible sentences and word splash are also fun ways
 to introduce new vocabulary. (Children are given vocabulary words
 and asked to elicit sentences to determine the meaning.)  The key
 is to engage children in defining words.  Engagement will stimulate
 the children to look for meaning to verify their predictions. 
My goal is to make sure children remember vocabulary beyond the
 weekly vocabulary list. Activities such as these help reinforce
 and encourage children in learning vocabulary. After all, our goal
 is to provide a strong background in vocabulary, as it is essential
 to comprehension.  

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