Happy Vocab - An Adolescent Approved Title for How I Teach Vocabulary

When I work with students, I always consider them my research partners. We work together to find what works and what doesn’t work well for their brains for reading, spelling, communicating, and remembering. One of my favorite research partners was Sam. Sam was an 8th grader. He was witty, creative, and just coming into his own as an individual with dyslexia.

One of our goals had been developing stronger executive functions as far as planning and strategies for organizing information. We'd also been on a journey of exploring the layers of the English language and had started delving into the forests of Latin and Greek Morphemes after an amazingly quick jaunt through the realm of the Anglo-Saxon layer.

Sam Used His Language Skills for my Benefit

One day, Sam and I chatted about some recent professional development conferences and research sessions I'd attended related to vocabulary instruction; in particular, I was pointing out the research behind the task we had just completed. I was transitioning materials from one activity to another and he, as usual, was enjoying the slight break his brain got to take while I worked (I am a firm believer that the students should always work harder than me when we are together, so he truly enjoys those brief pauses!). While we chatted, he flipped open his planner and began jotting a string of letters in a note box. It was obvious he had thought of something he didn't want to forget so he was trying to get it down, but not out in the open enough to be asked about it. If you work with adolescents, you know that type of move I'm talking about... I'm listening, but writing this down - wait, did I write that right? uh-oh, what did she say? yeah, got it.... quick slide the paper away so I can look like I'm paying attention and didn't break stride...... As I concluded, I told him I was hoping to develop some decent session names that could describe how working with vocabulary, morphology, etc.. is important but doesn't have to be super boring. I wanted to come up with some names that would work for teacher sessions as well as some that might work for junior high or high school and thought that just saying "You Can Teach Vocabulary Well Without Wanting to Bash Your Head in from Boredom" was probably too long. He looked up sharply and I thought I had finally crossed the threshold into "crazy lady". I was pleasantly surprised when he said, "I have one for you". He thumbed open his planner to the page he had been writing on. That string of letters was actually a mneumonic he had thought of for me:

How to Teach Vocabulary so you don't Want to Blow Your Brains Out.

I was speechless (and thrilled!).

"Or", he said, "you could try Happy Vocab".

More than a Trifecta

1. He created a mneumonic and all the letters were in the right sequence.

2. He had his planner (the first session after we got back from Spring Break) and used it make a note to himself.

3. He used the note he made from himself in his planner.

4. He thought I could teach vocab in a not-so-boring way.

Happy Vocab indeed!