Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Problem Solving Words


Check out the answers you gave when I asked, What you do when you come across an unfamiliar word?












What do you think about these answers?

Now, let's break down this answer a little bit more: "What do you mean when you talk about using context clues?"  I plugged your answers in to Wordle, which shows us what some of the most common responses were.


Sample answer 1: Using words around the word you don't understand to understand the word you don't understand.  Example: if you don't know what ajar means: The door was left ajar and a little bit of light poked through.  You would know it wasn't all the way closed because a little bit of light poked through but it's probably not all the way open if a little bit of light pokes through because it's only a little bit so I would be able to figure out that ajar means opened only a little bit.

Sample answer 2: To continue reading to see if you can figure out a word means just by the sentence or paragraph it is in.

What do you think of these sample answers?

Now, check out some specific context clue strategies that we'll practice (and have already been practicing, actually!) over and over again, not just with The Outsiders, but with all texts we read and with your own independent reading, as well.






9 comments:

  1. I love how you used Wordle as a way to further look at the raw data.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Robin - strange... for some reason I've gotten in the habit of constantly collecting data ;)
    This year's focus: "How do I use student-> teacher feedback to improve student learning?" Thanks for your influence!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What I think of these answers are I think looking it up isn't as good as the others because it would take too long. But if you use context clues it will take less time but also it is better for you to learn with the context clues instead of using the dictionary or going online to look it up. If you ignore the word, then you wouldn't understand the sentence and you wouldn't understand what you just read. I think looking at context clues is the best because it helps you figure out more words that you may not know.

    Joey
    3/4

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I come across a question I do not know, I normally re-read the sentence to try and understand it. If that doesn't work, then I plug in another word to see if it fits. Every once in a while if I can't figure out a word, then I will skip it.

    Emmalee
    3/4

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that all of those are the definition of context clues. The ones that I use the most are look at the text around the word and make a prediction. I don't think that you should ignore a word because that word could help you understand the book more.

    Jack
    3/4

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think those are very good ways to try to figure out a word. It hink that the best one to use is the "look at context clues."

    Luke
    3/4

    ReplyDelete
  7. The best answer is to look for context clues. Why? Because you are learning, using your knowledge, and you understand the story. If you wait and go back later, the story won't make sense. You need to figure out the word as soon as possible.
    The worst is to ignore it, because you are not learning and won't understand the story.

    Morgan
    8/9

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think that look for context clues is the best choice because it is teaching you something instead of someone else telling you. You won't remember it as well. I think that the worst is to ignore it because you might not remember the book as well.

    Delaney
    8/9

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think the best strategy in this is "re-read to try to understand it" because when you re-read you think it over again and understand it more. I think the worst one is "make a prediction about the word and check it later" because you may forget to go back and if you predict it you may remember it and not the real answer.

    Jacob
    8/9

    ReplyDelete