Dunnington Reflection 2

Deb Dunnington

Multimodal Learning…

Chapters 2 and 3 (pages 31-50)

Reflection 2

The majority of this section of reading in Multimodal was strategies for teaching vocabulary. I think if you have taught in Adams 12 in the last year you have been inundated with strategies and techniques for teaching vocabulary through ELL training and quite frankly, I think that those methods are probably more valid than the ones suggested in Bean’s text.

Some of the things that Bean suggests are cool, but I am left wondering at their substance – are they really going to benefit the students? This is a question I can’t help but going back to as I continue to read the text. I have tried to take a positive outlook and think about how I could use some of the strategies Bean suggests in my classroom. I could definitely see using a few, like Freerice for a warm-up activity or to fill a few minutes, and I tried to find a way to use Wordle, another of his suggestions, but upon further reflection and clarification from my discussion group as to what Wordle really is, I question what it’s purpose would be as far as vocabulary. I think Wordle would be a good tool to use to see the frequency of a students word use, but I question how it could build vocabulary besides helping students to recognize that they might have a limited vocabulary or use the same words too much. I know it is important for a person to see a word a certain number of times before they really know it, but I think for a student to take ownership of a vocabulary word they need to do more with it than see it; they need to be able to use it in context and recognize synonyms or antonyms.

Bean does provide a number of vocabulary websites that could be helpful, my only suggestion would be to check them out to see if they are really valid for the purpose you have in mind. In addition to vocabulary, Bean discussed comprehension strategies like Polar Opposites and Talking Drawings. I think both of these techniques could be beneficial and my group even discussed ways we could adapt the Polar Opposites to fit into vocabulary instruction.

The discussion protocol we used today was the 3 Levels of Text. I thought that this might be a good protocol to use in classes because it doesn’t only practice discussion techniques but oral fluency, as each participant is asked to read their selected passage aloud. This might be a time to allow the students to pick their own groups instead of choosing for them. By picking their own groups, they will be able to work with people they are comfortable with so that reading aloud shouldn’t create any traumatic situations.

The reading strategies I found myself using during this section of the reading was really questioning. I continually was asking myself questions about how I could use the strategies Bean included. I was questioning how they would look in my classroom or different ways I could modify and adapt them for my practice. I also used annotation and highlighting, which to me are just standard practices when I read something that isn’t for entertainment.