Emily Crozier

Understanding Vocabulary Reflection

October 3, 2017

Yesterday in class our goal was to get the members of our small groups to understand the

vocabulary words. Since I was in a group of four, we chose our words by counting to the number

five and the words that were in that range were our designated vocabulary words. Reading off

the list, I could only describe a small amount of them so I was curious to discover what my

words meant considering I could barely pronounce them. After going through the definitions, I

decided to focus on the words pother and hypermnesia. I chose these words because I thought the

students would be fascinated with their definitions and it would be simpler to give them

examples they could relate to.

I started with the word pother and without giving them the definition, I put in the

perspective of the chaos that occurred earlier in the class period when everyone ran up to the

board to write down the groups they wanted for the upcoming assignment. The girls in my small

group immediately knew that the definition was a commotion or uproar. For the next word,

hypermnesia, I gave the example of our moms. Moms have a special memory that causes them to

remember everything we have done from when we were born until today. Whether good or bad,

they still bring up the memory at certain points even if it is not useful to the moment. This image

I put in the members head made them realize hypermnesia means to have a vivid or precise

memory. Finally, to test the knowledge of the girls in my group I asked to give me examples or

put the words into a sentence. After the three girls went, I knew my lesson was done since they

completed the task successfully.

 From this activity, I have learned how hard it is to be able to describe to other people the

meaning of the word without explicitly saying it to them. However, this showed me the levels I

will have to go to get my students to be able to explain what the word means in their own

definition and be able to describe the meaning through an example or sentence. There is a range

of the students understanding of word from no knowledge to rich, decontextualized knowledge

of the word. The overall goal as an educator is for every student to achieve rich, decontextualized

knowledge of the word and in my specific lesson I accomplished this. Although this may be

easier for your higher achieving students to achieve, every student should be motivated to get to

this level. Regarding ELL students, they may have the same trouble if not more than other

students in the classroom. However, every student should reach the highest level come the day of

the test. If not, this shows the teacher that he or she should go back and give more detailed

instruction on the words used wrongly.