Reflection 10

Vocabulary is essential to every subject in education. It is essential that students learn vocabulary in order to make connections and learn about more complicated concepts. Vocabulary is the crucial first step required for learning and deep understanding. If students do not understand the vocabulary they can often make misconceptions about whole concepts. The list group label vocabulary strategy seems like it would be useful to introduce a concept or new vocabulary to a students. Someone lists all the words they can think are related to the concept, and then group the words into groups that have something in common. At the end of the activity, students come up with a label for each group. I like how students categorize words into groups so they can make associations between vocabulary words they believe have commonalities. However, I foresee some problems some of my students might make during this activity. Therefore, the teacher needs to go over the vocabulary words so students do not develop misconceptions amongst the vocabulary words.

Overall, I found Allen’s chapter 3 quite enjoyable. I loved all of the concept maps they used and I found myself thinking on which ones I could use effectively in the unit I am currently teaching in Biology. There are a lot of wonderful concept maps/ graphic organizers and Allen provides enough on each one for readers to figure out by themselves how it is used and when it should be used in a classroom, without specifically telling when to do so. However, I would have liked to hear more on each one. While there is just enough information to provide the reader a basic understanding of the concept maps and the activities around them I would have liked more information as most of the specific strategies outlined in the chapter are discussed in a small paragraph.