Erin Carlin February 17, 2014 Understanding Vocabulary Reflection

The two words that I chose to see if Taralyn would know were exaggerate and paraphrase. She knew exactly what exactly what exaggerate meant right away, giving the example sentence, My friend exaggerated the story about what happened in school. When I asked her about paraphrase, she did not know what it meant. When I went back to try and teach her the word, she grasped it. I asked her what she might do if she was telling her parents about her day at school but she did not want to give every detail, and she responded that she may shorten it. This was the answer that I was looking for, and I went on to explain that the word paraphrase is similar to shorten in regards to a story. I asked Taralyn to give me a sentence using the word once I thought she understood it, and she said, I paraphrased the story about what happened at school today. It was interesting to do this with Taralyn and it showed how a student can understand a word on different levels. Students often may understand what the word means, but cannot use it in a sentence, or vice versa. As a teacher, it is important to ensure that students can use vocabulary words confidently in a sentence. Making sure that students have a deep understanding of the meaning of the words is vital, and will only benefit students.