I have added something new to the Genius Ladder this past week. One of the things our 4th and 5th grade students had scored low in was identifing the meaning of unknown words through context. So, I introduced a word that would be unfamilar to them in a blah sentence. Ex: I have oodles of books. Of course, they asked what is oodles?
So my spicy sentence was: I have oodles of children's books.
Then I had them to make guesses as to what they thought oodles would mean. One student said, "a collection". Another said, " a lot".
The spicy sentence was: I have oodles of children's books, so I can start a library.
The guesses then included: a huge amount, thousands, and hundreds.
From here the students looked oodles up in the dictionary to see which guesses were correct. They then wrote a definition of their own and used the word oodles in a sentence. They now ask for a "mystery" word in the Genius Paragraph. They like trying to figure out the meaning. I have started doing this once a week with my small groups. So far it is working well and helping to build their vocabulary

Susan, this will not only help with test scores but help your ESL students become more fluent.
Annette

Great job, Susan! Yes, Annette, State tests use a variety of questions testing for vocabulary knowledge in context. I love the idea of using the Blah sentence to introduce a Mystery Word!! I will do it tomorrow!

Nancy Stoltenberg
WBT Intern 2011-2012

Susan I like this idea! I know that my students would enjoy identifying context, within the genius ladder. I think it might also be interesting to see if students are able to create a sentence providing a synonym, maybe age appropriate, in place of the vocabulary word. This may help with understanding the process of paraphrasing..


Heather Hansen
Wbt Intern
2011/12

I love this idea, Susan. This would be a great activity on a day that I am going to introduce new vocabulary. Ten finger woo with lightening sizzles! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Everyone,

It is working out very well. Heather, the idea of paraphrasing happened on it's own quite by accident. As they were developing their own definitions, they were using synonyms, which we had introduced on the Genius Ladder over a month ago. They noticed and pointed that fact out, then started reading the sentence with the synonym in place of the mystery word. (Paraphasing was just introduced a few weeks ago, so we expanded on that during this time.) I love all that I can accomplish with the Genius Ladder. It is amazing. I hope everyone lets me know how this works for them.

Susan Floyd
WBT Intern
2011-12