Harmon, Wood and Hedrick mention the terminology of words that could mean very different things in diverse subjects. Though I knew this I had not thought of the complication this could cause ELL students. English is one of the hardest languages to learn due to this problem of a word meaning diverse things. In teaching the root and affixes of a word can help students to learn to break down what a word can mean. In helping ELL learners understand the meaning of vocabulary we might need to apply visuals through either pictures or graphic design handouts. "...Graves urged educators to consider several important facets of vocabulary learning and teaching that are applicable in the content areas. First, he recommended initiating vocabulary teaching with a student-friendly definition and a meaningful context based upon the students experiential knowledge. These contexts can be written texts, concrete objects, pictures, and even video clips" (pg.7) Some of the activities of using a graphic organizer to find relationships and context clues can help students to visualize an association. Categorizing word commonalities are also helpful for students to understand the usage of words. Vocabulary is a continual journey in speech and writing and as an English/History teacher it will be my job to expand that knowledge for my students.
Thanks for a great posting. I liked your idea to teach words through roots and affixes. That approach would not only help in English, but it would also help for a lot of words in social studies. For instance, here I am thinking about "autocracy, theocracy, democracy," and so forth. I also liked your ideas to use graphic organizers. I hope you are able to put these ideas in action someday.
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