Whether you are a first-year teacher or a 30-year veteran, chances are you have learned about some of Dr. Allen's techniques for teaching vocabulary and content area concepts. Her books combine strong research with practical ideas for teaching.
You can scroll through some of Dr. Allen's ideas and suggestions for building content vocabulary and background knowledge here:
One of Dr. Allen's ideas that really resonates with me in my classroom is the idea of "insider terminology". In the introduction to Inside Words, she writes, "I hope that you find your robust instruction leads learners to insider terminology--terminology that will help them think, talk, and write about their content knowledge so they can live and learn inside words."
I love this idea of vocabulary instruction as helping students to learn insider terminology. What does this look like in the classroom? For the past few weeks, some of my students have been reading a series of connected texts about peregrine falcons. Their interest in the falcons, coupled with the texts that we've been reading, has led students to using both specialized and academic vocabulary.
One thing that interests me is the way that some words, even words that I just use casually, quickly become part of our classroom talk. I've been showing the PA Falcon Cam during transitions in my classroom--homeroom, bus time, and when we come in from recess. One day we could hear the male falcon calling to the female. "Do you hear them vocalizing?" I said, and chatted a bit with the small homeroom group about what vocalizing means and how it's a handy term to use when describing a bird's call.
Well, I left the window open on my computer as we went onto other things, and an hour later we heard the falcon's call blasted through the speakers on my Promethean board. "Mrs. Kissner! It's vocalizing!" one of my homeroom students called out. "Can we look at it?" Since then, students have asked me each morning to leave the window open--"so we can hear if the falcon vocalizes."
Other words from our falcon reading selections--scrape, helpless, characteristics, vary--have also been pulled in to talk about our experiences in viewing. Combining reading, vocabulary instruction, and video has helped some of my readers become "insiders" and ready to tackle tougher text.
Dr. Janet Allen will be a keynote speaker at the 46th Keystone State Reading Association Conference.
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