Chapter 4 Vocabulary and Fluency

               An IRT lesson for younger students that involves a read-aloud is provided! I like read-alouds because books that are chosen for this type of reading are developmentally appropriate but are written above the student's reading level. Students are also actively involved in this reading experience. The first step in this lesson is for the teacher to decide what kind of book will be read, highlight vocabulary words, model word learning strategies and decide what video to use to enrich the vocabulary from the read aloud. Videos will be used to support vocabulary instruction. I think this method is helpful and brings word-learning to life. I think this is also beneficial to ELL students. Visuals can be a great way to teach ELL students of words and concepts, it allows them to make connections to what they already know. It is important for the teacher to choose books that are frequently used in the text, these words are probably the most important to the book.
                 Like in every lesson, it is important to activate prior knowledge! This jogs the student's mind and gets them going. 🏃 Explicit instruction is also helpful for younger kids, direct instruction is always best! For instance, when the teacher comes upon an important vocabulary word in the book; he or she should directly state its definition. Making connections when reading is always good and again, activates prior knowledge and creates new knowledge as well. I think that a K-W-L chart would be helpful when teaching a new topic. It allows a student to make connections to what they learned and increase their knowledge.
              Reiterating the importance for students and explain why being able to integrate information from many sources allows students to make connections and synthesize learned information. Using a video as an aid to a book increases a student's multi-tasking skills and allows them to feel comfortable with using more than one source to obtain and learn information. I think that using videos can be helpful in the classroom, but like anything, should be used in moderation and should not be the only source of information. 😄