Chapter 9

As future teachers, we all know the importance of vocabulary in reading. One of suggestions Beers gives is to teach students how to use the context as clues. Teachers often tell students to use context clues when trying to understand what a word means. A problem occurs when a struggling reader doesn’t know how to interact with a text and look at the context around the word. To me, this strategy is really important because readers of all ages look at the context in order to find clues about an unknown word. Readers will always struggle over words as they read difficult books in their lives. I think this strategy can not only improve a student’s vocabulary, but also help him or her later on in life with understanding different texts. I really like the use of graphic organizers as well. When I was in middle school, I was forced to copy vocabulary words and definitions every week. It was a waste of my time and it didn’t help me with my spelling. I think graphic organizers are creative ways of helping students visualize words and their meanings. I think graphic organizers would help students to have a better understanding of a word and when it would be used in a sentence.