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In every elementary classroom you are sure to find evidence of word making activities. From rearranging magnets to writing on a dry erase board students are taught to create their own words in the early stages of reading and writing. The key word in the last sentence is early stages. In elementary school we are repetitively taught the fundamentals of reading and writing. When we advance to the middle grades we are often expected to know all of the fundamentals and jump straight into middle school material. This may not be the case for everyone but this is true from my personal experience.
The section on making 'Big Word Lessons' brought this matter to my attention when the authors gave an example lesson plan of making words geared towards older students. I believe that it is common for fundamentals to be thrown to the side once we reach middle and high school. I do not think that teachers should ever stop incorporating fundamentals, such as word making, into lessons.
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Now think about this in terms of school. Let's say the fundamentals of reading and writing are work recognition, word making, and comprehension. Although we may focus more on these fundamentals in elementary grades we should still take the time to incorporate these skills in the beginning of class of the semester. From my personal experience in middle school I struggled with vocabulary and word recognition. I was thrown into advanced reading and our teacher expected us to know everything she threw upon us even if it was above our reading level. I became farther behind and gave up because she did not take the time to work on the fundamentals on a higher level.
Activities such as the 'Big Word Lessons' or 'Daily Journals' could take a small amount of time out of class to reassure fundamentals.
- Are you familiar with any fundamental activities that contributed to your learning in middle or high school?
- Do you agree or disagree with the continuing fundamentals in the middle and high school grades?
I remember, in high school, one of my English teachers did a lesson on the origins of words. We broke down words into Latin (and other) roots. We went over what the Latin word meant and how we have translated that into our language. It was interesting and a good way to learn some of those commonalities in words. I think that fundamentals should be continued through middle and high school.
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