Building on rich vocabulary

Exposing students to rich vocabulary through authentic texts has expanded their vocabulary about topics they are writing about. 

Manaiakalani_Student Achievement Data Sense making Feb 2020

Through texts my students have been reading about topics we are studying, I have found they are confident in using the vocabulary they are reading in their discussions and their writing. The ideas presented in topics are discussed in detail and the students make connections with texts by critically thinking about texts and questioning the ideas in texts. 

For example, this term our topic is Garden to Table where our class are learning about horticulture and also making a community garden to share with our community. Through their reading materials, the students have been reading about seasonal planting, the horticultural industry, how technology is improving the harvesting of fruit and its consequences for labour work and employment. 

During the reading discussions, the students explore the main ideas in texts. We then as a group dig deeper into the text by critically thinking about the implications of what we read. In one text Kiwifruit growing spills beyond Bay of Plenty to other regions the students discussed the impact technology has on kiwifruit picking, the technological aspect of the invention and also how this could impact people who are employed by farmers to pick kiwifruit such as the seasonal workers brought in from the Pacific Islands. In one text, the students explored so many perspectives in their discussions.

Through these rich discussions, I observe the confidence the students have in sharing their ideas, exploring ideas which are new to them and using vocabulary related to the topic.

When the students move on to writing, they already have many ideas about the topic and are now learning to organise their writing in sequence by brainstorming ideas and expanding their brainstorms into paragraphs. 

One of the activities we do in class to help students with brainstorming ideas is a vocabulary activity where we collaborative use a Google Doc to write down vocabulary related to the topic we are writing about. Most of the vocabulary the students use come from their reading materials and some from their personal vocabulary. We then elaborate on the vocabulary in the brainstorm by adding detail about the vocabulary. By doing this activity, the students are supported in using the vocabulary from texts in their writing. It also helps them by planning paragraphs for their writing.