Entry #9: Vocabulary Development Can Be Fun?

 At this point in my Early Childhood Education career, I fully understand the importance of Vocabulary Development; It correlates directly to developing fluent readers/writers and stems from phonemic awareness for the most part. What I find myself still learning is the "How" side of this topic. How can I, as a teacher of young minds, help develop a growth of vocabulary, while also keeping students interested in what they're ultimately learning? That last part is especially something I'd like to focus on in my teachings. 

In this week's article reading, Marcy Zipke touches on motivation being a key factor in how successful a lesson will be. Her theory revolves around using riddles to engage students, and how these lessons subsequently aide in the development of reading comprehension, in addition to vocabulary development. 

"Kids everywhere delight in working language. They do this for two reasons: (1) It is fun, and (2) it is how they make discoveries about language. These discoveries lead to the metalinguistic knowledge necessary for reading" (Zipke, 2008, p. 128). 

The idea that students can be learning, while also having fun, is such an important lesson for even myself to acknowledge. I think a lot of elementary and even middle school curriculums have this as a missing piece. The enthusiasm for learning is so crucial in order to reach kids, and keep them engaged, wanting to learn more. This brings me back to thinking about Muhammad's HRL Framework, and her ideas that students and children will be more likely to participate in lessons and be excited about books, when they see themselves in the writing. Additionally, one lesson Muhammad specifically talks about in the "Ten Lessons From Black Literary Societies" is that "Literacy was tied to joy, love, and aesthetic fulfillment" (Muhammad, 2020, p. 33).

"The learning content oftentimes neglects to teach them to experience joy and contentment in literature and learning as teachers are often pressured to raise test scores" (Muhammad, 2020, p. 33).

If children are engaged in what they are reading, find joy in it, and excited to learn about new vocabulary words they may come across because of that joy, I think that is success. Reading is essential in vocabulary growth, especially in the younger grades, therefore, the more time children spend reading (and enjoying what they are reading), the more successful they will be in reading comprehension and beyond. 

I can relate this back to my own learnings as a child, and how engrossed I was with riddles and then poems a little later on, specifically, the Shel Silverstein books. 

I read all of these books over, and over again as a child. Even before I really knew the words I was reading, I remember using some of the strategies Tompkins talks about in the chapter this week to help with my comprehension of certain words and sentences. As I grew older, I had more vocabulary knowledge, and continued to read the books out of pure enjoyment for the silly stories and riddles. All this to say, I was able to choose which independent reading books I wanted to as a young student, and because I was interested in what I was reading, I was more likely to continue reading and find a love for these types of books, and others down the line.