Vocabulary Lesson – Root Words I enjoyed how this group managed to make such a dry topic interesting. I remember being taught root words in the traditional manner. This group demonstrated to the class that learning root words can be fun. The introduction for this grade 6 lesson was organized and detailed. All the relevant PLOs were listed. The lesson would take place in the middle of a unit and students would have prior knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes. In the first part of the lesson, I particularly enjoyed the “envelope” activity. Students were given an envelope with one root word and suffixes that could paired with this word. To make it interesting, nonsense words could also be created in this exercise. I especially like the example of the telemobile. This is definitely a great way to teach vocabulary. The second part of the lesson involved a dramatic component. The students would act out root words and root families. I think this is a good way for students to learn words they could easily forget. An activity like this is memorable. It also gets the students out of their desks for a while. In the rationale, the group mentioned that these activities are good for ESL and struggling learners. If students are put into balanced groups, struggling learners may feel more comfortable participating. There is definitely a lot of cooperative learning going on in this lesson. I think it is good to move away from the teacher centered approach and get students really involved. The skit, as well, can help shy students gain confidence. It also promotes communication skills among students. I thought this group did a great job overall.
Rachel wrote: Before I want to start off with a feedback for this group presentation, I HAVE TO mention how entertaining this group’s presentation was. Great job to all of you on making the presentation so enjoyable and yet very informative! :) As Linguistics major, I had my very first experience in my undergraduate years learning about the concept of word families and root words. By watching this group carrying out a lesson based on this idea, I was amazed how engaging such a lesson can turn out to be, even for sixth graders. First, I really liked how they started off by activating students’ prior knowledge through using dictionary to search for certain words as an introduction for the lesson. This activity is, I believe, very important because it gives students an opportunity to explore the dictionary and improve their skills in searching words and their word families etc. also, I think that doing a skit using a set of given root word by looking up in the dictionary and searching related words in the same word family is a real creative way of elaborating this lesson. Perhaps, as a replacement for the skit as the closure activity, we as teachers could also do an art or music lesson to present different words in the same word family in creative ways as well. Overall, I thought each lesson and steps were laid out nicely.
I absolutely loved the way this group made something that is usually so boring and so meaningless into something fun and purposeful! I really liked how they appealed to all the different kinds of learners with visuals, manipulatives and drama etc! I also really liked the way they structured the activity around making meaning out of the root words which shows students the value of learning them in the first place and how they will be useful to the students in everyday life! There are so many extension activities you can do with a unit like these like some of the ones brought up in readings and in class like making up nonsense words and making up definitions based off of understandings of prefixes, affixes and suffixes etc. Great job guys!
Group six presented an exciting and engaging lesson that focuses on discovering vocabulary through employing word families and drama. The lesson provides an excellent progression of development, starting with an introduction to exploring the relationships between words and ending with an opportunity to build on their understanding of words through connecting vocabulary and experience. Part of what makes this lesson so valuable is that it is incredibly interactive. It uses questions to get students talking about the concept of word families and incorporates drama to engage students, allowing them to move and explore vocabulary. The fun nature of the drama production is an important component of engaging students and provides an opportunity for the class to share some laughter. Furthermore, through allowing students to produce their own skits using new vocabulary, teachers are provided with an opportunity to assess student understanding and identify ideas that need to be clarified. I like the idea of expanding this lesson into a cross-curricular activity for exploring other vocabulary. For example, developing word families for vocabulary that emerges in science lessons will help students to uncover the meaning of words and the ideas that go into developing new words. This activity helps to expand students’ understanding of words and helps to enhance their experience of language.
This group did a great job at making something that is usually boring into a lesson that is fun and engaging. The activity with the cards not only allows students to work together but it also gives students a chance to visually see the words and manipulate them, which is extremely important. As an extension teachers can have students make up their own cards and these can be left in the classroom for students to use when they finish assignments early. In addition, the drama incorporated into the lesson was so much fun. I liked that the group mentioned how teachers can include students who are shy or do not feel comfortable acting in front of the class. I had this issue in the class that I taught as one of my students with FAS felt very uncomfortable speaking let alone acting in front of the class so I appreciated the group talking about this matter.
Your lesson on vocabulary, word families and affixes was well done and very interesting. The introduction was clear, well presented, and led into your lesson well. I am intrigued by word origins, and found your demonstration of the “shrinker strategy” to be engaging and effective. This strategy is so simple and makes total sense. It definitely gives me cause to think about what types of words and word formats should be in spelling or vocabulary tests. The breaking down of words into roots and affixes onto cards and building new words was a fun activity. I particularly liked the idea of constructing new words that make sense, but are not really words, as I think this gives the students a fun way to show their understanding. Your dramatic component of the lesson was fun, engaging and included great movement. In conclusion, I think this is a great lesson to take the fear out of “big words” for some students. Great job by everyone.
Root words. I really liked how you incorporated activities for all the different types of learners and made things fun. Even the drama activity can involve those who are a little shy. Learning root words is really important because it helps children with decoding material that is new to them. It gives them more independence and confidence in their writing and reading, and will expand their vocabulary in a big way. I like the idea of making up words using multiple root words, prefixes and suffixes, and then formulating a definition for them. This gives the children practice using those components and also engages their creative writing skills. You guys were really organized and gave us lots of ideas to use!
dam, Hailey, Tristan, Christina, Matt: Fabulous! Anything that facilitates student involvement is great in my book. I can see the students having a blast coming up with and performing these skits. You guys took on a challenging topic, in my opinion: it's hard to make root words, prefixes and suffixes engaging, but I definately feel like your presentation nailed it. I was wondering how you would assess the students' understanding besides the skits. Some students watching a certain skit may not feel completely comfortable with a certain root word. I applaud your group for taking an otherwise dull topic and blasting it full of life! Cheers!
Hi all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this lesson! I teach a lot of ESL students and I find that the method of breaking down the affixes and roots of words really helps to increase their comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary. I think that it also provides them with a sense of power because they start to recognize groups of letters in words that provides them with hints about the meaning, and they get really excited. Of course, this is not just important for ESL students, it is important for all students. It is amazing how much their comprehension improves when they begin to understand the meaning of parts of words. I also think that the “investigative” nature of working with affixes and roots really helps provide students with an opportunity to make predictions and to begin to work with making inferences. I think it also poses a great opportunity to do some cross-curricular work – if you were studying ancient Greece you could look at how many of the words we use today originated from that time frame.
I love the activity that you designed with the tiles. I know that putting those kinds of activities together can be rather labourious, but they are things that never get outdated, they can be used again and again and are of the utmost value in helping to increase vocabulary, teaching kids to play with words (which really demonstrates their ability to understand meaning), and will help provide them with tools in the future to continue building their understanding of words that they will encounter as they go up in the grades.
One last note: GREAT integration of drama, so entertaining for us adults, I can only imagine how much the students would love it! Another great example of how incorporating the arts (and some fun), can really help kids to wrap their minds around what can sometimes be confusing concepts.
I love that you guys chose to teach a lesson about developing vocabulary instead of using a book to teach comprehension skills; that was very creative of you. A few weeks ago we briefly learned about Readers Theater in class, but even after that lesson, I will still not exactly certain how to fully incorporate drama activities into the classroom. I think it was ingenious of you guys to have the students make skits that use their vocabulary words as they will be learning these words without even realizing and simultaneously be able to engage their creative sides on a usually boring task.
I really enjoyed this presentation and found many useful strategies and ideas that I can use to making teaching vocabulary fun in the classroom. I grew up with the impression that vocabulary lessons are to be mundane. However, the presentation made a lesson teaching vocabulary come alive and fun! The importance of teaching students root word families and having students think about the definition of it brings much value in reading unknown words in books. I thought the game/activity with the tiles and putting in some ‘false’ words was a good way to check for understanding as well as teaching students dictionary skills. Although this lesson was catered to a grade 6 class, I can see how it’ll cater to students in the higher grades as well especially ELL learners or students who are not avid readers and lack vocabulary. Having students make a skit and act out the root word also makes the learning motivating and challenging at the same time. It encourages students to interact and communicate and bring meaning to the words at they learn. Overall, I thought this was a very well thought out presentation and lesson and I look forward to trying these great ideas to practice in September. Thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas and making learning fun!
This was a very engaging presentation, on a topic we as adult students can still benefit from. For example, I don’t think I knew, “off the top of my head”, that “tele” means “distance” before this lesson. I really like the idea that by having students physically manipulating the words and word parts, it gives them a sense of control and power over words, and an understanding of how the compound words have come to be. This familiarity and control will reduce the feelings of fear and intimidation as they encounter many long imposing words as they continue on in life. I think this should benefit ESL students as well as native speakers, and may “level the playing field” for ESL learners. For example, even if they don’t know what a telescope is physically, they can get a sense of its use and purpose if they know the meanings of the root words.
I found the dramatic part of the presentation a powerful way to connect imagery to the root words and compounds as a viewer, though I think the actor who has to develop their own action or sound would also get a better understanding of the words. Of course, the “phon” root lent itself better to this activity than other roots (eg. Gram – something written) might.
This presentation was fantastic! It took a somewhat drab or mundane subject and made it very fun and interactive. I think this group put a creative spin and offered unique options to put into practice other than just the usual worksheets and repetition. Breaking down the words and then using that information to help define future words is a great way to link learning. The activities were so fun and could really be tailored for so many different grades and levels. The presentation was filled with so much great information, great job!
Group 6 I loved your presentation! I don't really remember learning about prefixes, suffixes, and root words in elementary school, but I am sure I would have remembered if I had been taught with lessons like yours! You were all so enthusiastic about your topic! I never would have thought you could teach roots, prefixes, and suffixes through lessons that incorporated the fine arts! Great Job!!
The presentation was amazing. I liked how your group took an ordinary/bland topic and made it very engaging, interactive, relevant, purposeful and meaningful. It is important to teach students about root words as it will be useful for them to read complex words and also, help build their vocabulary. I remember learning the root words, prefixes and suffixes in a traditional way – filling out worksheets and underlining suffixes and prefixes in the sentences. The activities that you included in your lesson were great. I really liked the idea of bringing drama into the lesson and students acting out the root words. It was great to see that all the members of your group were so enthusiastic about teaching this topic and the way you brought humour in the presentation. Very well done!
I completely agree with what many have said above: this group did a great job turning a traditionally dry topic into something engaging and interactive. Thanks for choosing this topic group 6; it’s easy for us to come up with engaging lessons about picture books but when we come to the technical PLOs we would be lost for inspiration.
I believe the key aspect of your lessons was that you gave it relevancy for the students by centering the activities on using what the students already know to decipher what they need to know. That is, instead of you choosing to make the lesson didactic or instructional, (i.e. “this root means ‘X’ and so this word will mean something about ‘X’), you instead have put to onus on the students to figure it out using what they know. This requires strength on the part of the busybody teacher who always wants to “tell” and makes the activities empowering and relevant for the students.
As I listened to your presentation I was wondering if the kids could be writing stories for their peers using unknown words that their peers would have to decipher using the well-constructed context of the story. Then, your presentation suggested doing just that, but with skits---way more fun. Well done group six.
Group 6: This lesson was a lot of fun. I had never thought that there could be a way of making learning affixes fun until this lesson was done. I like the hands on, active nature of this lesson. The fact that skits about words with related meaning could turn out so completely ridiculous is a strong point of this lesson because funny ideas seem easier to remember than dry ideas. While students are given the opportunity to be silly and to have fun with their classmates, they are learning valuable grammatical skills in a way that is meaningful and may relate more to real life than working on grammar worksheets which may be out of the context of student’s daily lives. I also liked the expansion idea of having gifted students create skits using the nonsense words from the affix/root envelopes. Thinking of logical definitions for nonsense words would require students to incorporate what they know about different concepts into one unified new concept. This would require imagination as well as analytical thinking.
Group 6: This was such an engaging lesson about vocabulary from start to finish. I loved how your group presented different ideas for activities and they all tied in nicely with the lesson objectives. I especially loved the activity with the affix tiles. It reminded my of a linguistic course I took called “The Wonder of Words. In that class, there were similar exercises and assignments where we had to break down complex words into their prefixes, roots, and suffixes. We looked at word families and learned how many words were generated using Latin root words. We also had to derive meaning from nonsense words based on the parts they were made up of. As someone else in the class mentioned, it really helps take away some of the fear about “big” words. I can easily understand how a child might get frustrated or overwhelmed with using or spelling big words. However, if you get students to break down the words into its affixes and roots and take what they know of that, the task may not be as daunting. The mini skit activity to incorporate new vocabulary was also very entertaining and engaging. Tying in drama into language arts made the lesson more encompassing of all learners, for example, stimulating to more visual and kinesthetic learners. Thanks for giving such a fantastically fun and useful presentation!
Group 6: Matt, Hailey, Tristan, Adam, and Kristina This was a very engaging presentation, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! When I taught grammar I found that it was incredibly boring; however, I really liked your “word-families” activity. It is very hands-on, and it deviated away from simply looking up a given word in the dictionary. Essentially, it gave students a part in the word developing process, and therefore, that activity was more meaningful to them. I love doing skits and drama in the classroom, and not surprisingly I loved the dramatic component of your lesson. I thought that it was a good activity to engage the audience in because we actually felt like we were taking part in the lesson. I also think that students would enjoy this activity because to them it will not seem like a typical vocabulary lesson. Many of the students that I taught disliked vocabulary lessons because they were so repetitive. This activity goes outside the formula for a traditional vocabulary lesson, and is sure to attract even the reluctant students’ attention. Your groups’ rationale and value for the lesson was explained very thoroughly, and I especially liked the objective that students can take the meaning of root words, to predict what a whole word might mean. Thanks for a wonderful lesson, Nicely done!
Thank you for such an entertaining and funny presentation! I never thought that a vocabulary lesson could be as fun and engaging as this one. This lesson brought significant attention to the importance of developing children’s ability to identify root words as a way to enhance their literacy level. This topic could easily be overlooked by many teachers by rushing through a unit like this one without making relevant connections to the value of root words and words families in real-life sceneries. I feel like I learned so much from your lesson myself and I understand, now, how becoming familiar with root words can potentially give students so much more confidence when they stumble into difficult words. Instead of mechanically memorizing words and their spelling, students can use their knowledge on word families to identify and make meaning in uncommon words and language. This is especially useful for ESL and struggling students because it provides them a unique strategy to get to know words and become familiar with them. Using the cut outs from your lesson will be ideal for encouraging students to form their own words, not necessarily in the dictionary, and explain their meaning verbally to the class or in groups. I absolutely loved how interactive and energetic this lesson was for all students, including us! Getting students to live through the idea by acting out the word was MAGNIFICIENT! Well done!!!
Okay so I know as a teacher we are not encouraged to choose favourites, however if there was an award for the most interactive and engaging group, I’m sure group six would win it - hands down! I hadn’t laughed that hard all semester. I really liked how enthusiastic Hailey was when it came to facilitating the drama component. Her passion really shined through. Initially, I questioned how students would come up with a skit using word families; however this group demonstrated the endless possibilities. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about root words up until group six presented. As a result of their lesson, I am positive I will never forget again. It just goes to show teachers can in fact make learning a fun and enjoyable experience when they attempt to step outside the box of standardized curriculum. So thank you group six for providing a very valuable lesson on how to get students thinking about word families and derive meaning from the root words.
Sonja wrote: Group six- “Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots”-Admittedly, this was my favourite presentation. I have never paid attention so intently as I did with this one. The use of drama to teach how different words have different/same roots was a joy to watch. The children will get a kick out of playing the part of a different object in a set of objects that have the same root. I can’t exactly recall who said this part, but it stuck with me. They said that it is a good way to show children that these really big words don’t have to be so scary. So many of these big words can be understood at least halfway just by understanding the root of the word. Excellent job team six!!!
Vocabulary Lesson – Root Words
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how this group managed to make such a dry topic interesting. I remember being taught root words in the traditional manner. This group demonstrated to the class that learning root words can be fun. The introduction for this grade 6 lesson was organized and detailed. All the relevant PLOs were listed. The lesson would take place in the middle of a unit and students would have prior knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes. In the first part of the lesson, I particularly enjoyed the “envelope” activity. Students were given an envelope with one root word and suffixes that could paired with this word. To make it interesting, nonsense words could also be created in this exercise. I especially like the example of the telemobile. This is definitely a great way to teach vocabulary. The second part of the lesson involved a dramatic component. The students would act out root words and root families. I think this is a good way for students to learn words they could easily forget. An activity like this is memorable. It also gets the students out of their desks for a while. In the rationale, the group mentioned that these activities are good for ESL and struggling learners. If students are put into balanced groups, struggling learners may feel more comfortable participating. There is definitely a lot of cooperative learning going on in this lesson. I think it is good to move away from the teacher centered approach and get students really involved. The skit, as well, can help shy students gain confidence. It also promotes communication skills among students. I thought this group did a great job overall.
Rachel wrote:
ReplyDeleteBefore I want to start off with a feedback for this group presentation, I HAVE TO mention how entertaining this group’s presentation was. Great job to all of you on making the presentation so enjoyable and yet very informative! :)
As Linguistics major, I had my very first experience in my undergraduate years learning about the concept of word families and root words. By watching this group carrying out a lesson based on this idea, I was amazed how engaging such a lesson can turn out to be, even for sixth graders. First, I really liked how they started off by activating students’ prior knowledge through using dictionary to search for certain words as an introduction for the lesson. This activity is, I believe, very important because it gives students an opportunity to explore the dictionary and improve their skills in searching words and their word families etc. also, I think that doing a skit using a set of given root word by looking up in the dictionary and searching related words in the same word family is a real creative way of elaborating this lesson. Perhaps, as a replacement for the skit as the closure activity, we as teachers could also do an art or music lesson to present different words in the same word family in creative ways as well. Overall, I thought each lesson and steps were laid out nicely.
I absolutely loved the way this group made something that is usually so boring and so meaningless into something fun and purposeful! I really liked how they appealed to all the different kinds of learners with visuals, manipulatives and drama etc! I also really liked the way they structured the activity around making meaning out of the root words which shows students the value of learning them in the first place and how they will be useful to the students in everyday life! There are so many extension activities you can do with a unit like these like some of the ones brought up in readings and in class like making up nonsense words and making up definitions based off of understandings of prefixes, affixes and suffixes etc. Great job guys!
ReplyDeleteGroup six presented an exciting and engaging lesson that focuses on discovering vocabulary through employing word families and drama. The lesson provides an excellent progression of development, starting with an introduction to exploring the relationships between words and ending with an opportunity to build on their understanding of words through connecting vocabulary and experience. Part of what makes this lesson so valuable is that it is incredibly interactive. It uses questions to get students talking about the concept of word families and incorporates drama to engage students, allowing them to move and explore vocabulary. The fun nature of the drama production is an important component of engaging students and provides an opportunity for the class to share some laughter. Furthermore, through allowing students to produce their own skits using new vocabulary, teachers are provided with an opportunity to assess student understanding and identify ideas that need to be clarified. I like the idea of expanding this lesson into a cross-curricular activity for exploring other vocabulary. For example, developing word families for vocabulary that emerges in science lessons will help students to uncover the meaning of words and the ideas that go into developing new words. This activity helps to expand students’ understanding of words and helps to enhance their experience of language.
ReplyDeleteFantastic Lesson!
This group did a great job at making something that is usually boring into a lesson that is fun and engaging. The activity with the cards not only allows students to work together but it also gives students a chance to visually see the words and manipulate them, which is extremely important. As an extension teachers can have students make up their own cards and these can be left in the classroom for students to use when they finish assignments early. In addition, the drama incorporated into the lesson was so much fun. I liked that the group mentioned how teachers can include students who are shy or do not feel comfortable acting in front of the class. I had this issue in the class that I taught as one of my students with FAS felt very uncomfortable speaking let alone acting in front of the class so I appreciated the group talking about this matter.
ReplyDeleteGroup # 4
ReplyDeleteMatt, Adam, Hailey, Kristina, and Tristan,
Your lesson on vocabulary, word families and affixes was well done and very interesting. The introduction was clear, well presented, and led into your lesson well. I am intrigued by word origins, and found your demonstration of the “shrinker strategy” to be engaging and effective. This strategy is so simple and makes total sense. It definitely gives me cause to think about what types of words and word formats should be in spelling or vocabulary tests. The breaking down of words into roots and affixes onto cards and building new words was a fun activity. I particularly liked the idea of constructing new words that make sense, but are not really words, as I think this gives the students a fun way to show their understanding. Your dramatic component of the lesson was fun, engaging and included great movement. In conclusion, I think this is a great lesson to take the fear out of “big words” for some students. Great job by everyone.
Root words. I really liked how you incorporated activities for all the different types of learners and made things fun. Even the drama activity can involve those who are a little shy. Learning root words is really important because it helps children with decoding material that is new to them. It gives them more independence and confidence in their writing and reading, and will expand their vocabulary in a big way. I like the idea of making up words using multiple root words, prefixes and suffixes, and then formulating a definition for them. This gives the children practice using those components and also engages their creative writing skills. You guys were really organized and gave us lots of ideas to use!
ReplyDeletedam, Hailey, Tristan, Christina, Matt: Fabulous! Anything that facilitates student involvement is great in my book. I can see the students having a blast coming up with and performing these skits. You guys took on a challenging topic, in my opinion: it's hard to make root words, prefixes and suffixes engaging, but I definately feel like your presentation nailed it. I was wondering how you would assess the students' understanding besides the skits. Some students watching a certain skit may not feel completely comfortable with a certain root word. I applaud your group for taking an otherwise dull topic and blasting it full of life! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHi all,
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I absolutely loved this lesson! I teach a lot of ESL students and I find that the method of breaking down the affixes and roots of words really helps to increase their comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary. I think that it also provides them with a sense of power because they start to recognize groups of letters in words that provides them with hints about the meaning, and they get really excited. Of course, this is not just important for ESL students, it is important for all students. It is amazing how much their comprehension improves when they begin to understand the meaning of parts of words. I also think that the “investigative” nature of working with affixes and roots really helps provide students with an opportunity to make predictions and to begin to work with making inferences. I think it also poses a great opportunity to do some cross-curricular work – if you were studying ancient Greece you could look at how many of the words we use today originated from that time frame.
I love the activity that you designed with the tiles. I know that putting those kinds of activities together can be rather labourious, but they are things that never get outdated, they can be used again and again and are of the utmost value in helping to increase vocabulary, teaching kids to play with words (which really demonstrates their ability to understand meaning), and will help provide them with tools in the future to continue building their understanding of words that they will encounter as they go up in the grades.
One last note: GREAT integration of drama, so entertaining for us adults, I can only imagine how much the students would love it! Another great example of how incorporating the arts (and some fun), can really help kids to wrap their minds around what can sometimes be confusing concepts.
I love that you guys chose to teach a lesson about developing vocabulary instead of using a book to teach comprehension skills; that was very creative of you. A few weeks ago we briefly learned about Readers Theater in class, but even after that lesson, I will still not exactly certain how to fully incorporate drama activities into the classroom. I think it was ingenious of you guys to have the students make skits that use their vocabulary words as they will be learning these words without even realizing and simultaneously be able to engage their creative sides on a usually boring task.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this presentation and found many useful strategies and ideas that I can use to making teaching vocabulary fun in the classroom. I grew up with the impression that vocabulary lessons are to be mundane. However, the presentation made a lesson teaching vocabulary come alive and fun! The importance of teaching students root word families and having students think about the definition of it brings much value in reading unknown words in books. I thought the game/activity with the tiles and putting in some ‘false’ words was a good way to check for understanding as well as teaching students dictionary skills. Although this lesson was catered to a grade 6 class, I can see how it’ll cater to students in the higher grades as well especially ELL learners or students who are not avid readers and lack vocabulary. Having students make a skit and act out the root word also makes the learning motivating and challenging at the same time. It encourages students to interact and communicate and bring meaning to the words at they learn. Overall, I thought this was a very well thought out presentation and lesson and I look forward to trying these great ideas to practice in September. Thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas and making learning fun!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very engaging presentation, on a topic we as adult students can still benefit from. For example, I don’t think I knew, “off the top of my head”, that “tele” means “distance” before this lesson. I really like the idea that by having students physically manipulating the words and word parts, it gives them a sense of control and power over words, and an understanding of how the compound words have come to be. This familiarity and control will reduce the feelings of fear and intimidation as they encounter many long imposing words as they continue on in life. I think this should benefit ESL students as well as native speakers, and may “level the playing field” for ESL learners. For example, even if they don’t know what a telescope is physically, they can get a sense of its use and purpose if they know the meanings of the root words.
ReplyDeleteI found the dramatic part of the presentation a powerful way to connect imagery to the root words and compounds as a viewer, though I think the actor who has to develop their own action or sound would also get a better understanding of the words. Of course, the “phon” root lent itself better to this activity than other roots (eg. Gram – something written) might.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis presentation was fantastic! It took a somewhat drab or mundane subject and made it very fun and interactive. I think this group put a creative spin and offered unique options to put into practice other than just the usual worksheets and repetition. Breaking down the words and then using that information to help define future words is a great way to link learning. The activities were so fun and could really be tailored for so many different grades and levels. The presentation was filled with so much great information, great job!
ReplyDeleteGroup 6
ReplyDeleteI loved your presentation! I don't really remember learning about prefixes, suffixes, and root words in elementary school, but I am sure I would have remembered if I had been taught with lessons like yours! You were all so enthusiastic about your topic! I never would have thought you could teach roots, prefixes, and suffixes through lessons that incorporated the fine arts! Great Job!!
The presentation was amazing. I liked how your group took an ordinary/bland topic and made it very engaging, interactive, relevant, purposeful and meaningful. It is important to teach students about root words as it will be useful for them to read complex words and also, help build their vocabulary. I remember learning the root words, prefixes and suffixes in a traditional way – filling out worksheets and underlining suffixes and prefixes in the sentences. The activities that you included in your lesson were great. I really liked the idea of bringing drama into the lesson and students acting out the root words. It was great to see that all the members of your group were so enthusiastic about teaching this topic and the way you brought humour in the presentation. Very well done!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what many have said above: this group did a great job turning a traditionally dry topic into something engaging and interactive. Thanks for choosing this topic group 6; it’s easy for us to come up with engaging lessons about picture books but when we come to the technical PLOs we would be lost for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI believe the key aspect of your lessons was that you gave it relevancy for the students by centering the activities on using what the students already know to decipher what they need to know. That is, instead of you choosing to make the lesson didactic or instructional, (i.e. “this root means ‘X’ and so this word will mean something about ‘X’), you instead have put to onus on the students to figure it out using what they know. This requires strength on the part of the busybody teacher who always wants to “tell” and makes the activities empowering and relevant for the students.
As I listened to your presentation I was wondering if the kids could be writing stories for their peers using unknown words that their peers would have to decipher using the well-constructed context of the story. Then, your presentation suggested doing just that, but with skits---way more fun. Well done group six.
Group 6:
ReplyDeleteThis lesson was a lot of fun. I had never thought that there could be a way of making learning affixes fun until this lesson was done. I like the hands on, active nature of this lesson. The fact that skits about words with related meaning could turn out so completely ridiculous is a strong point of this lesson because funny ideas seem easier to remember than dry ideas. While students are given the opportunity to be silly and to have fun with their classmates, they are learning valuable grammatical skills in a way that is meaningful and may relate more to real life than working on grammar worksheets which may be out of the context of student’s daily lives. I also liked the expansion idea of having gifted students create skits using the nonsense words from the affix/root envelopes. Thinking of logical definitions for nonsense words would require students to incorporate what they know about different concepts into one unified new concept. This would require imagination as well as analytical thinking.
Group 6: This was such an engaging lesson about vocabulary from start to finish. I loved how your group presented different ideas for activities and they all tied in nicely with the lesson objectives. I especially loved the activity with the affix tiles. It reminded my of a linguistic course I took called “The Wonder of Words. In that class, there were similar exercises and assignments where we had to break down complex words into their prefixes, roots, and suffixes. We looked at word families and learned how many words were generated using Latin root words. We also had to derive meaning from nonsense words based on the parts they were made up of. As someone else in the class mentioned, it really helps take away some of the fear about “big” words. I can easily understand how a child might get frustrated or overwhelmed with using or spelling big words. However, if you get students to break down the words into its affixes and roots and take what they know of that, the task may not be as daunting. The mini skit activity to incorporate new vocabulary was also very entertaining and engaging. Tying in drama into language arts made the lesson more encompassing of all learners, for example, stimulating to more visual and kinesthetic learners. Thanks for giving such a fantastically fun and useful presentation!
ReplyDeleteGroup 6: Matt, Hailey, Tristan, Adam, and Kristina
ReplyDeleteThis was a very engaging presentation, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! When I taught grammar I found that it was incredibly boring; however, I really liked your “word-families” activity. It is very hands-on, and it deviated away from simply looking up a given word in the dictionary. Essentially, it gave students a part in the word developing process, and therefore, that activity was more meaningful to them. I love doing skits and drama in the classroom, and not surprisingly I loved the dramatic component of your lesson. I thought that it was a good activity to engage the audience in because we actually felt like we were taking part in the lesson. I also think that students would enjoy this activity because to them it will not seem like a typical vocabulary lesson. Many of the students that I taught disliked vocabulary lessons because they were so repetitive. This activity goes outside the formula for a traditional vocabulary lesson, and is sure to attract even the reluctant students’ attention. Your groups’ rationale and value for the lesson was explained very thoroughly, and I especially liked the objective that students can take the meaning of root words, to predict what a whole word might mean.
Thanks for a wonderful lesson,
Nicely done!
Thank you for such an entertaining and funny presentation! I never thought that a vocabulary lesson could be as fun and engaging as this one. This lesson brought significant attention to the importance of developing children’s ability to identify root words as a way to enhance their literacy level. This topic could easily be overlooked by many teachers by rushing through a unit like this one without making relevant connections to the value of root words and words families in real-life sceneries. I feel like I learned so much from your lesson myself and I understand, now, how becoming familiar with root words can potentially give students so much more confidence when they stumble into difficult words. Instead of mechanically memorizing words and their spelling, students can use their knowledge on word families to identify and make meaning in uncommon words and language. This is especially useful for ESL and struggling students because it provides them a unique strategy to get to know words and become familiar with them. Using the cut outs from your lesson will be ideal for encouraging students to form their own words, not necessarily in the dictionary, and explain their meaning verbally to the class or in groups. I absolutely loved how interactive and energetic this lesson was for all students, including us! Getting students to live through the idea by acting out the word was MAGNIFICIENT!
ReplyDeleteWell done!!!
Group Six – Pre-fix, Suffix, and Root
ReplyDeleteOkay so I know as a teacher we are not encouraged to choose favourites, however if there was an award for the most interactive and engaging group, I’m sure group six would win it - hands down! I hadn’t laughed that hard all semester. I really liked how enthusiastic Hailey was when it came to facilitating the drama component. Her passion really shined through. Initially, I questioned how students would come up with a skit using word families; however this group demonstrated the endless possibilities. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about root words up until group six presented. As a result of their lesson, I am positive I will never forget again. It just goes to show teachers can in fact make learning a fun and enjoyable experience when they attempt to step outside the box of standardized curriculum. So thank you group six for providing a very valuable lesson on how to get students thinking about word families and derive meaning from the root words.
Sonja wrote:
ReplyDeleteGroup six-
“Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots”-Admittedly, this was my favourite presentation. I have never paid attention so intently as I did with this one. The use of drama to teach how different words have different/same roots was a joy to watch. The children will get a kick out of playing the part of a different object in a set of objects that have the same root. I can’t exactly recall who said this part, but it stuck with me. They said that it is a good way to show children that these really big words don’t have to be so scary. So many of these big words can be understood at least halfway just by understanding the root of the word. Excellent job team six!!!