How to Teach Vocabulary

Posted by Dorit Sasson Mar 24, 2007

It's a Saturday night and instead of vegging a bit in front of the television, (something I haven't done for a while) I'm sitting in front of the computer ruminating on a very successful vocabulary lesson I had with my ninth graders earlier this week.

The students, all thirty seven lovers of rappers and rap music, knew a lot more than I thought. For the past week, they have been attentive and motivated when they are usually hard to settle down since there are so many of them. When I surprised them with my long list of rappers I collected while watching MTV and VH1 videos, they looked at me in awe. One student said out loud to another student: “How does she know all this?” He saw me look at him and smiled. I didn't say that I was catching up on a bit of MTV and VH1.

I was looking for ways to go beyond what the book had to offer in terms of how to teach vocabulary and thought about connecting the plight of rappers in the seventies to a social action theme?

I used a graphic organizer and elicited the social action cycle I had hoped to get.

Immigrants come → they live in slum areas → they live in poverty → they join gang members → they are controlled by the gang members (Mafia) → they live in hopelessness →together they create violence

I was amazed. They had linked the words well. Each word seemed to echo an important type in social action. It was exactly the theme that I wanted. So, I went to the next step. I asked the class – what are some ways to take action against this?

One student said, "write social rap songs… it’s the way to stop poverty and violence.”

"What is the one thing that is going to save an immigrant from not entering this cycle of poverty and hopelessness?

The kids said: "self-awareness."

I asked them "Why?" They answered "education. When you know, you have another choice."

Great answer.