Pytash: All About Words

This chapter of Classics in the Classroom was really important to me. It was not until we started field experience at Firestone High School that I realized students have a problem with vocabulary acquisition. I have come to realize that difficulty that students have when it comes to defining words, syntax and even phonetics. As a future English teacher, vocabulary is really the foundation of all my lessons. If students do not know how to read it will ultimately have a drastic impact on their level of comprehension. If students do not and cannot expand their vocabulary it will effect the way, in which they write. Needless to say vocabulary acquisition is the heart of all Language Arts classrooms.

I did not have to read this chapter to fully understand the ineffective ways vocabulary lessons are commonly used in Language Arts classrooms today. Jago expressed that the methods some teachers use puts little emphasis on comprehension, while students just memorize vocabulary words for a test and soon after they forget the words. As a future teacher, I believe students should not have to worry about remembering vocabulary words for tests, but they should be using these words in different exercises year round. These words should be used so much that they become a part of their everyday language.

One of the parts of the chapter that really made me think was when Jago spoke about the criteria for vocabulary words. I never thought about vocabulary from the standpoint of the teacher, and I never thought about the process in which teachers should evaluate what words are taught. After reading this chapter it is tremendously important for vocabulary words to be meaningful and useful. When these words are meaningful, students can get more use out of them and they are able to better navigate through society knowing words that are going to be prevalent in their lives.