I
teach at Winkler Middle School in Concord, North Carolina. We are a 6-8
school and I am implementing this strategy with my 7th grade
science students. There are 26 students in the class. Many of the students
in this class are below grade level readers.
I have two students with IEPs (individual education plans) and two
English Language Learners.
I chose to implement this strategy with my science class during both our weather/climate unit and our air quality unit. Because these students struggle with reading, we mapped some key vocabulary words prior to reading an informational article.
Word mapping occurs several times throughout the school year. I spent close to 40 minutes the first time I taught the strategy. After that, we usually spent approximately 20 minutes reviewing the concept and mapping vocabulary words. Students keep copies of the prefixes, suffixes, and roots in the back of their science notebooks. Anchor charts with word mapping reminders are posted throughout the room.
During this particular lesson, a few students struggled when working independently to separate the suffix from the root. I facilitated by walking around the room and assisting whenever necessary. Students enjoyed making predictions about the definitions. I asked them to turn and talk, sharing their predicted definitions with a partner.
On the air quality unit test, there was significant improvement with this group's scores as compared to last year. Students felt that the word mapping helped them to understand the vocabulary. Next time I implement word mapping in science, I plan to make sure each of the words maps easily. If there are some that present challenges, I would model those with the class.
I chose to implement this strategy with my science class during both our weather/climate unit and our air quality unit. Because these students struggle with reading, we mapped some key vocabulary words prior to reading an informational article.
Word mapping occurs several times throughout the school year. I spent close to 40 minutes the first time I taught the strategy. After that, we usually spent approximately 20 minutes reviewing the concept and mapping vocabulary words. Students keep copies of the prefixes, suffixes, and roots in the back of their science notebooks. Anchor charts with word mapping reminders are posted throughout the room.
During this particular lesson, a few students struggled when working independently to separate the suffix from the root. I facilitated by walking around the room and assisting whenever necessary. Students enjoyed making predictions about the definitions. I asked them to turn and talk, sharing their predicted definitions with a partner.
On the air quality unit test, there was significant improvement with this group's scores as compared to last year. Students felt that the word mapping helped them to understand the vocabulary. Next time I implement word mapping in science, I plan to make sure each of the words maps easily. If there are some that present challenges, I would model those with the class.