Let's Talk Vocab

Fast Llamas, 
Hey, today we talking about a reading strategy called, 10 Most Important Words. In social studies, primary sources are killers for kids. This strategy aims to help kids decipher through all those vocabulary words and get to talking about them.  While I am using for Social Studies, every content can benefit from this strategy to get kids talking, build word walls, assess existing knowledge, teach kids to think and review.

Here is the strategy bit by bit:
Students identify the ten key terms or ideas from a passage and explain why each is important. 

Part 1: Introduction & Strategy Script

Warm-Up: Ask students: "If you had to describe the game of basketball using only three words, what would they be?" Have a few students share and explain why they chose those words.

Introduce the Strategy:

“Your job is to act like a detective and find the 10 words that hold all the clues. These can't be 'filler' words like 'and', 'the', or 'is'. They must be words that are essential to the meaning. If you took them out, the passage wouldn't make sense.

The hardest part isn't finding 10 words—it's only picking 10. This forces you to decide what is most important.”

1. Provide students with a table for their words
2. Have students read a passage.
3. On the second reading of the passage, students circle 10 words they believe are important to understand the text.
4. Students list their words on the provided table and justify 5 out of the 10.
5. Discuss whole group. 

Here is an example of a passage:

Passage: Bridges and Borders: Comparing Central and South America

Central America is a narrow stretch of countries and islands that links North and South America, where people live in both tropical rainforests and small mountain towns and where cultures mix Indigenous, European, African, and Asian traditions; South America is a vast continent with the towering Andes, the wide Amazon rainforest, and large countries like Brazil and Argentina, offering more varied climates and bigger cities. Both regions share languages (mostly Spanish and Portuguese), foods like corn and plantains, and histories shaped by colonization and Indigenous resistance, but they differ in size, geography, and how people make a living—many Central Americans farm on smaller plots or work in coastal trade, while South America has huge agricultural estates, major mining industries, and extensive river systems that shape travel and settlement.

Since vocabulary can be tricky for kids, this focus on terms needed to understand the text is great practice.  Try it out!  

A quick poem

Fast Llamas,

When change is necessary and doesn't come easy, remember that change sticks when we learn from it.

Recognize your patterns, are you making mistakes without awareness?  What habits are causing you to take the easy road and avoid taking responsibility.  You have what I call "respondability", the ability to choose how you respond.  That will give you freedom and finally power over your own life.  Change is a process, not a single moment.

Body Mnemonics

Hey Fast Llamas,

Let's talk about movement and the power for making memory. In this strategy, students physically move to demonstrate or sort information to strengthen memory. This ties into the research connecting long term memory and physical activity. There is a mind body connection... I believe the saying goes, "when I move my body, I move my mind". Pretty powerful stuff right there! How can we harness this valuable strategy in our classrooms? You got it, get students to move. Movement is a powerful type of mnemonic device. Let's dive deeper.

There are two premises in play here:

1. using gesturing to depict vocabulary terms or events

These gesturing techniques use specific actions, like touching parts of your body or tracing shapes, to create a physical association with the information you want to remember. Have students create representations, demonstrating the words.

Examples

• Using your knuckles to count the days in a month.
• Using gestures to remember vocabulary - like the term - "Manifest Destiny" with the gesture: "Stretch your arms wide as if showing the whole continent."
• Using gestures to remember the states of matter, types of precipitation or parts of a story.
• Touching different parts of your body for each item on a list.
• Tracing the shape of an object in the air with your finger.
• Acting out math word problems to better understand them.
• Using hand gestures while learning a new language.
• Creating physical hand signals to recall, like the shape of the state of texas for regions.
  
  
  

2. Moving or walking while learning

• Moving counterclockwise in a room to learn about each phase of the lunar cycle
• Walking while brainstorming to improve creativity.
• Specific activities include hopping across a number line or using body twisters for new concepts.
• Using different parts of the room while reviewing 
• Gallery walks for notes
• Carousel - moving from station to station - adding feedback

All the research conducted on movement suggest that these teacher moves
benefit our students' learning and retention of new material. Also, they can provide students with opportunities to make personal connections to the content. A win-win for the teacher and the students. Does this mean we should be creating mnemonics every day for every new piece of content we teach? “Whoa! Slow down there, tiger!” Based on our current understanding of this type of mnemonic device, when might it be appropriate to use this teacher move? Think about using this strategically, when it garners the best student learning outcome. See you next time!