Vocabulary Acquisition

                                             

     Both Edna Brabham and Carol Lynch-Brown outline the effects of teacher's reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition.  One major component of their scholarly article that resonates with me is the importance of the manner in which a teacher reads aloud.  Perhaps, teachers can make the experience more enjoyable by using props, role-play and visuals to assist the read aloud exercise.  Certainly, a more entertaining and exciting learning experience can help students commit the material to memory.  However, these experiences must not only be a form of entertainment.  Indeed, teachers must be sure to capitalize on the learning opportunity.  How can we ensure teachers make these read aloud experiences reinforce the learning objective?  How can we support and encourage teachers to enhance instruction as well as motivate students?  The small percentage of teachers who use a read aloud to correlate with instruction is quite alarming.  Certainly, many educators are eager to share a good book with students but we must be sure to carefully evaluate the relevance of the literature we choose to share with students.     
     Indeed, during my own brief experience in Elementary Education I have found many exciting and activity-packed lesson plans that seem motivating and beneficial to students, but I have learned to evaluate these lessons and notice whether or not the activity reinforces the learning objective.  Certainly, it is easy for us to be misled, hoping to write lesson plans with many thrilling activities without first critiquing the activity to extract its impact on learning.  Therefore, we must be readily available for our peers and assist in the peer review process.  We should not be afraid to critically evaluate another pre-service teacher's work because this work could impact the education of future generations!  I hope it is our goal to provide helpful insight in the humblest of ways. 

                                              
    
     Lastly, I would like to address the needs of all learners.  As research supports, many interactional styles of reading can help boost comprehension.  However, how are we reaching our introverted and shy students?  Many lessons incorporate cooperative learning and certainly its effectiveness is seen in the classroom, but I wonder if we pay too much attention to this one style of learning and fail to reach all students and appreciate them for their vibrant and varied personality types.  Of course, many programs that prepare future teachers focus on the importance of multiple modalities.  However, we must remember that these modalities do not exclusively exist among visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and musical learners.  Paying attention to certain personality traits and personal interests can extend the impact of the learning objective and reach all learners.