Once again, a timely read.

As the year is winding down, I am able to see cumulative data and really analyze the growth of my students. As I have explored the Aims Web data, I have realized that essentially, my students can read. The problem is they struggle with comprehension. I'm realizing that even some of my strongest students have some comprehension difficulties. I was trying to figure out what the problem is. Then I read chapter 7 in Adolescent Literacy.

Janet Allen makes a strong argument for the role vocabulary plays in comprehension. She also brings forth the same issues I have dealt with in vocabulary instruction--boring, out of context and memorization. I don't want to do anything with these qualities, so why would my students?

The strategies Allen demonstrates in the chapter are so simple. I can see the potential for growth in using these strategies. They are similar to some of the Sharokky Hollie strategies, and they extend beyond what he taught me. This is yet another piece that I was looking for. I loved the strategies I had, but I didn't want to use them so much that they lost their effectiveness. I now have tools I can add to my toolbox that will be equally effective. The more you have, the further you can stretch them. I am excited to rework my vocabulary teaching for next year. I like the word wall in the classroom as well as the individual student word walls. I think this will be a more effective method for organizing our personal thesaurus. Now I just wish I could find a list of tier 2 words.