Tier 1:
Worries, boat, window, curtains, shoes
Tier 2:
Casket, soldier, officer, escape, troubled, trembling, uniformed
Tier 3:
Nazi, Jewish, Denmark, Sweden, King Christian X, Jewish New Year
I think the most important area of words to focus on with children who read Number The Stars would be Tier 2 because these words are really important throughout the story. Soldier and officer come up multiple times in the text, referring to the Nazi soldiers, and if students do not understand what a soldier and officer are they will get very confused reading this part of the book. These words are just so important to the story that not knowing what they mean could hinder their comprehension. Uniform goes hand in hand with these two words because the author uses uniform to describe the Nazi soldiers. She talks about the uniform and what it looks like and why it is intimidating. Students would need to understand what this word meant to understand the story even more because it defines who the soldiers are. Casket is another important word that comes up in the story; there are two chapters dedicated to a casket. While students are reading these chapters, it will be very difficult to understand what is going on in the scenes if they do not know what a casket is or even what it looks like and why it is used. Helping children to understand this word will really allow them to understand the story even better because the casket plays such a significant role here. Escape is crucial to understand what the Jews are doing and how Annemarie is helping her friends and neighbors. If a child was reading this book and did not know what escape meant, they might not understand that the Jews during this time were all trying to exit the country so they were not killed. Essentially they were escaping from Hitler. Children need to understand this word to help them understand what is going on in the book. Troubled and trembling are both words to describe feelings and events. These two words come up a lot when the book talks about Annemarie and Ellen because these are the two girls who have to face the Nazi’s often. They are often times trembling because the officers have guns and don’t look very nice. Recognizing these two words that describe feelings really allows the reader to understand how the characters are feeling and what they are experiencing. All-in-all the Tier 2 words are extremely important to whether or not the reader can put themselves in the footprints of the characters and experience what they are going to. These words are found everywhere in the book and knowing them will only help the students comprehend the story.
I thought it was my turn to go so I actually did the same thing you did but from my novel. I've only done the initial post once, not sure how we got mixed up..
ReplyDelete“Teachers choose words that are essential to understanding the book or the unit, words that confuse students, and general-utility words students will use as they read other books or study other topics” (Tompkins, p. 237). When choosing words to study, teachers categorize the words in three basic tiers (or levels), but suggest on focusing on the second tier: academic words.
For my book club we are reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes which is about a young Japanese girl who gets Leukemia as a result of radiation from the atom bomb. I am going to examine words in chapter three of this novel, which is titled “Sadako’s Secret”.
Tier 1-BASIC WORDS (These are words used socially in an everyday conversation): Wonderful, team, speech, danced, friends, surprised
Tier 2-ACADEMIC WORDS (These are used more frequently in writing): Honor, pride, happily, frightened, grinning, autumn, natural
Tier 3-SPECIALIZED WORDS (These are technical, abstract words): Kimono, shrines, bamboo, amidst, throngs
Academic words are important for children to understand because as they get older the students are likely to encounter these words more often. Usually the students don’t know these words, but perhaps might understand the general idea around the word, and are too shy to ask. By knowing these words, it allows them to express their ideas and opinions better, and also helps them understand exactly what the sentence means. Academic words also help build the students vocabulary.
In Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes they use specialized words that help develop knowledge of the Japanese culture. Although these words don’t necessarily have to be understood, I think it gives the student a small introduction to the culture. ‘Kimono’ was a word used frequently in this specific chapter as well as the following ones. It would be simple for a teacher to explain this word to her children so they understood what her mom wanted to buy/make for her and why this didn’t mean much to Sadako. At the end of the book there’s an illustration of a kimono, which gives the student a visual cue of what it is exactly.
Like Kati said I also agree that tier 2 (Academic words) are the most important. These words help the students get a better understanding of the characters and introduce them to new ideas.
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Ch. 1
ReplyDeleteTier 1: runner, speck, poison
Tier 2: groaned, whirlwind, atomic bomb, fidgeted, ancestors, leukemia, radiation
Tier 3: Peace Day, Hiroshima, tatami mat
I agree with both of you that the tier 2 words are the most important words to focus on when working with students. The words in tier 1 are words that the students will be able to see in many other situations and becuase of this we do not need to spend time on them. The words in tier 3 are words that are specific to a certain story. In this book, as Courtney stated, the teir 3 words are mostly Japanese words that help describe Sadako's culture. Students reading this book will probably never coming accross these words again and therefore time does not need to be taken to build solid understandings.