Chapter 3 vocabulary

"Vocabulary knowledge can have a profound influence on reading comprehension." This is so true, because if you unaware of what the words mean that you read you can't possibly understand what you are reading. Just from working with my student every week with vocabulary, she makes it very clear that if she doesn't understand a word, she has no idea what she has read. So it therefore makes her unmotivated about what she is reading, because she doesn't understand it. So vocabulary is crucial to learning. I agree with the book when it compared the terms, "knowing" and "memorizing." It stated the memorizing a single definition is likely to fall short of usefulness. To "know" a word, you must understand its context and morphology and hypothesize its meaning based on these elements. Have students make a personal connection with words, to me, it seems that it should stick with them more, if they have reason to use it. When I was trying to teach my student vocabulary words, I did try to make it relate, but it really wasn't working. I can think back to my childhood days, and I remembering not being motivated about learning my vocabulary words. So how do I motivate students, since I understand how they feel about it, because I was too just like them.