Reason I Teach #5

We have a fabulous vocabulary program at our school. Each week we read a story to the kids that has six new words in it. The words are not simple little words like house and bad; but words like shelter and dreadful. The concept is that kids from lower-income families don't get exposed to the kind of vernacular that children from more privileged families experience on a daily basis. The children are not required to learn how to spell the words - this is about exposure to language and the meaning of the words. And it works! I often hear the kids use the words in everyday chit-chat, and I get a huge chuckle out of hearing them.

"Ms. Wose, that homework was a real challenge last night!"

"Wow, that was a delightful story!"

Last week one of the words was complain. The story I read was all about a boy who complains non-stop about his horrible day. As we talked about the story and the word, we all decided that nobody is really interested in listening to a complainer - it's just no fun.

Today one of my students told me that she used the word complain at home.

ME: "Oh really? How did you use it?"

Student: "I tole my grampa he need to knock off all his complainin' - cause nobody's interested."

I wonder when grampa will be calling to complain about his grandchild's teacher.