In the Blachowicz & Fisher article about vocabulary, they had a section where they discussed how learning morphology and stems is a crucial tool for vocabulary development. I connected this back to the Cunningham & Allington chapter where we learned that for every so many words a student knows, they can make 700 something more. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I posted about it before, so it's there. I think that students learning how to build up their vocabulary on their own is such a big part of learning and being an 'educated person.'
I also saw where they said the dictionary is a huge tool in a student's vocabulary. I think this is true, I know when I was younger I used to look words up all the time. I think this is changing though with the new generations and their dependency on the internet. If Google goes down or there is no wifi, will our students know to pull out a dictionary to complete an assignment? I know with the Kindles, iPhones, and laptops people are saying the paper generation is dead, but I think that's a bad plan. We need our books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias!
This shouldn't stop you from finding out what a word means.
I know what you mean about always looking things up when you were a kid. I remember my dad would never tell me how to spell something or what it meant. He always made me look it up.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a really good point! With all of the technology going around it can make you wonder if students have become too dependent on the internet and other technologies. I think as future teachers to this technologically savvy generation we must integrate what the students know and are comfortable with. For instance introduce them to dictionary.com which has a thesaurus, a reference tab, and even a translator!
ReplyDeleteThe lack children's interest in actual paper back books has become outrageous. Instead of doing research in the library or in an encyclopedia they result to the internet and their Ipad/iphone/ipods. This is sad to me because we are hindering out children to actually go out and work for something instead of staying in and googling it. We must take a stand now and provide our students with a variety of old fashion research with new research ideas.
ReplyDeleteI agree that books are important, but isn't it the idea of reading and learning that are more important? Yes, it is important to know where to find your resources, but our world is heading more and more towards being technology centered. I don't think that that is a bad thing, actually, and I love books. I suggest that you revisit your view of technology because it can be a wonderful tool, and it IS changing our world. It IS changing the way that our students interact with literacy. Just something to think about.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need our books! I do not like the idea of technology taking over the world.I feel like students rely too much on technology.
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