read & write

“High-frequency words appear again and again for students.  What is critical is that Johnny has a ready paraphrase.  Students should carry a list of such words in their materials with corresponding paraphrases: “What’s another word for ‘select’?” the

teacher asks.  “Choose” or “pick” is the response.”

A critical and important task for classroom teachers to carry out is item analysis of test.  Look for the prompts to see if there are patterns of words that might be sending students in the wrong direction, not only as they complete tests but also as they carry out assignments.  It is important to remember that when students take tests, they are doing so as independent readers

Second grade: Explain – some students though that the prompt was asking them to choose shich directive was the correct response, explaining or showing in picture.

Third Grade : “draw conclusions about the type”.  Many students literally “drew” their conclusions.

Seventh Grade: “Distinguish the difference”   Many students thought distinguish meant extinguish.

Tenth Grade: “opine on the bias of the reviewers”  Opine is a verb that probably no high school in the history of the country has ever used voluntarily.

“ When students return with homework that indicates a misunderstanding of the directions, it is likely that their response to the task verb was a key reason for the misunderstanding.  It is easy to assume that students are not listening or paying attention; in fact, they may not clearly understand the words in the directions.  One reason students struggle with high-frequency words is that they do not use them in their own daily speech.

The point is that we understand the words we actually use.  If students do not use these words, then they will not understand them, especially in high-stress testing situations.  This is why students need to learn to translate from their vernacular speech to the academic register.   One characteristic of students who perform well on standardized or criteria-referenced tests is, in fact, their ability to assimilate high-frequency protocols with ease.”

The key strategy here is for teachers to ask students to keep a set of student-developed and personal translations for high-frequency words – words that they encounter in class, on the blackboard, on charts, and so on – in their notebooks.  The student paraphrase should be made in a different color of ink.  

Examples:

Select = pick

Determine = think about, then make the best choice

Reasons = the ideas that tell why something happened or why something should happen

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.