DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (localmemphis.com) – Rachel Barrett is working to get her National Board Certification, and she’s focused on improving her students’ reading and vocabulary.
“A lot of my students were struggling with reading because of vocabulary, because words were hard to pronounce or these were words they weren’t familiar with,” said Barrett.
She saw a problem. A vocabulary words parade was her solution.
All teachers gave words to every student, more than a 1000 of them, at Pleasant Hill Elementary.
Each kid wore words. The words are from subjects the kids are learning in class.
For kindergartners, they wore sight words.
First graders wore words about gardening and outdoors.
Second graders wore collective nouns.
Third grader students wore idioms.
Students in fourth and fifth grade students wore vocabulary words from math, science and reading.
“It just makes me excited to be a teacher,” said Barrett. “I want every student to have that drive and be excited about learning, and one way to do that is this.”
“They are going to walk away with knowing more words than they ever learned before,” said Barrett.