Megan Leddy

Understanding Vocabulary Reflection

November 2, 2016
The words I had to teach during this activity were tatterdemalion and uxoricide.
Tatterdemalion means ragged or disreputable in appearance. Uxoricide means a man who
murders his wife. It was very difficult to teach these words when I did not have a rich,
decontextualized knowledge of both of the words. I had to try to get knowledge of the word but I
was not fully ready to use the word in communication but I had to in order to teach the words.
Before I taught the lesson I asked Caroline, Sara, and Andrea if they can use tatterdemalion and
uxoricide in a sentence. No one used the words in a sentence correctly this told me that everyone
had no knowledge of the word which means they are all on the same level and I can start in the
same spot for all three students. I asked them if they had any idea what the words mean again, no
one did.
To start my lesson I said a sentence using tatterdemalion correctly. I said, Ill-equipped
and ragtag, the tatterdemalion volunteers showed no hope of ever becoming a real fighting
army. Then I asked them if they can determine what the word means now. All three of them
were on the right path but still did not quite get it. I told Caroline, Sara, and Andrea that
tatterdemalion comes from the noun tatter which means torn or from the adjective tattered
which means ragged. Next, I showed them a picture of what a tatterdemalion person may look
like. Finally, I asked them to create a sentence using tatterdemalion the correct way. I repeated
these steps using uxoricide. The sentence I used was, The focus of the trial was on Bates and
his charges of uxoricide. Again, I asked Caroline, Sara, and Andrea if they had any ideas. All of
them knew it was something bad. I told them, uxor means wife in Latin and cide means murder. I

did not show them a picture because that would be a little gory. Finally, I asked them to write
their own sentence using uxoricide the right way.
I achieved my objective of Caroline, Sara, and Andrea reaching rich, decontextualized
knowledge of the words. I know they reached this level because I asked them to write a sentence
using the word correctly. This activity was very difficult and we all speak the same language. I
really think this activity shows us how hard it really is to teach vocabulary to students let alone
ELL students. As a classroom teacher I need to make sure my students reach the rich,
decontextualized knowledge of vocabulary words I teach them. I have to pay close attention to
my instruction when I have ELL students in my classroom because there is a language barrier.
ELL students have so much in their way I want to make sure I know how to approach all content
but especially teaching vocabulary because this will help in all other content areas if ELL
students understand the words they are reading.