The purpose of H-F's
Word of the Week program is to emphasize to our students the power
of words while encouraging them to develop more sophisticated
vocabularies.
As Kelly Gallagher (2004) points out in Deeper Reading, expanding
one's vocabulary actually expands one's intellect. Contrary to the
traditional belief that intelligence is innately fixed, educational
psychologists now understand that intelligence is quite fluid. In
fact, we can continually expand our intellects and aptitudes as we
learn more and more words because our brains have the ability to
rewire and adapt to new information. Robert Marzano (2004) explains
in Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement that "teaching vocabulary is synonymous with teaching background
knowledge. The packets of information that constitute our
background knowledge all have labels [words] associated with them"
(p. 35). Thus, making connections between familiar and unfamiliar
terms actually makes us smarter!
We encourage teachers to display the Word of the Week in
classrooms, to refer to it when appropriate, to use it and, most
importantly, to encourage students to use the Word of the Week in
their own speaking and writing. |
