In my placement, the classroom is fairly bare and there is little deliberate vocabulary. The very first time I met my teacher she said that having everything at the students eye level was best and nothing else should be on the walls. The students have a ton of 'works' that they are to do each day, and there are multiple vocabulary works. While the students don't have a lot of vocabulary stimulants that are visible on the walls, the vocabulary works are constantly out being manipulated. There are many works that surround the dictionary, and others focus on the students ability to alphabetize words.
Even though the students are not visibly working with vocabulary each time I am there, they have great vocabularies. Just listening to them talk shows me that they are well versed in vocabulary, and really understand words I never thought they would. I think this speaks volumes to the work that the Montessori school does. My teacher really emphasizes that the students can choose to work on things if their classwork is done, and this is really helping the students vocabulary grow regardless what they see in their classroom.
I have not however, seen very many works that focus on the definitions of words. I have to recognize that I am only in the classroom for four hours a week, but I haven't noticed any definition work. If I were to provide additional opportunities, I would create a word wall that students could add words to. It is important that students create their own understanding, and develop a contextual basis for understanding definitions of vocabulary words.
Kelcie, I enjoyed reading this post. My classroom seems to be different in the sense that vocabulary words cover the walls of my classroom. They have a poster with the "poster board words", color and number vocabulary as well as other content based words that apply to Kindergarten. I do notice, however, that the students constantly go to these words on wall when they are looking to use them in their writing. Is this holding them back from learning the spelling and use of the word or will this come naturally the more they see the words used. Like your students, mine love to communicate as well so I can deffinetely say they are learning and practicing vocabulary!
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