I wish more teachers were like you. (I was wondering when someone in the teaching field would show up.)
Have you heard of any research on the subject? I’m still dying to see if it exists, or if the profession is just perpetuating these things because they seem like they sorta might be a little helpful for a few kids. Most of the ones I’ve seen come from a weekly pack of photocopied workbook pages. How much research do the companies who devise these materials do?
I have not heard of any research, sorry. Being an old-school teacher (having taught for about 25 years), I tend to be of the try-it-and-see-what-happens variety.And, unfortunately, I make my own, so I can’t even give you a publisher name. I just know that when they’re working through them (again in groups), I hear them discussing words a lot more.
“Here it is – m a j”
“No, that one’s not right. See, there’s an h in that one.”
Etc.
I remember an assignment in which we had to make a word search with a given word list.
It probably would have gone more smoothly had 1 of the “words” not been DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. My first task was to count up those 25 letters to make the grid large enough. Like, why not just use DECLARATION and INDEPENDENCE as 2 separate words? Nix the OF, as people in 5th grade should already know the word OF, definitely.
The worst is word searches when they’re not related to the subject at all. Sometimes we’d have them in, say, health class. How is searching for “marijuana” or “alcohol” in a word search going to help us learn about it?
Whenever I’ve used word searches, it’s been more about vocabulary than spelling.
Basically, it’s a way to keep the words in the front of a student’s mind a bit longer. It takes using a word about seven times in order for it to “stick.” And it will “stick” better if you are using the word in a variety of settings. Word searches are just one tool that can keep a student thinking about a word long enough for it to enter long-term memory. Now, it may not be the best tool or the most effective one. But if enough students prefer them other exercises, I could see how they’d end up in the mix a little too often. Teachers have to weigh a lot of things when they decide how to teach, and sometimes that means giving preference to assignments that generate interest and enthusiasm but are not as effective as something drier.
If your kid is having trouble with them, talk to the teacher. I’m sure he or she would be perfectly willing to tone it down or provide an alternative. Teachers are often desperate for this kind of feedback. It’s surprisingly difficult to judge how much students are getting out of things- sometimes you feel like you are just sending assignments off into the void, with no way to know what is working.
And of course, like anyone on this planet, teachers occasionally get lazy and use shortcuts. As a teacher, I was always glad to be called on it. By nature, teaching is a job that very little supervision and give you very little feedback. It can be easy to fall into bad habits even if you have the best of intentions.
I’m a teacher, too. I just don’t preface my posts with that fact. I also train, hire and evaluate teachers.
Actually, I believe the research indicates that it’s not (on average) seven uses of a word, but simply seven exposures to a word-HOWEVER…it must be in a pragmatically and semantically transparent context. (Mere lists and definitions are of very limited use.)
For this reason, I hold that a word search doesn’t do much to truly “teach” vocabulary. After all, you can solve a word search without knowing the meaning of a word, nor how to use it appropriately. However, it does review words that already have been learned, and call attention to their spelling.
I’ve taught for over 30 years and have used word searches as a critical thinking strategy tool. I use it in spelling, math and other subjects. I teach 6th grade and students don’t know how nor do they want to think on their own. They want me to tell them page, paragraph and sentence when they have to do any kind of research. You say you are a teacher. How many times have your students come to ask you how to spell a word? Do you have dictionaries in your room? If so, do you tell them how to spell it, or do you encourage them to look it up? I never tell them how to spell a word… I tell them to look it up. Here it is, the middle of February, and I still have them asking how to spell words. Kids want the easy way out. Using word searches is just one tool in teaching kids perserverance and searching answers out. I also use scavenger hunts. We are doing a scavenger hunt now using encyclopedias… again, the kids want me to tell them page, paragraph, and sentence where answers are. Not going to happen! I just had a student come up to ask where bananas are grown…part of her assignment was to draw a chart showing where bananas are grown… she did have the encyclpedia opened to bananas, but that was it. I asked her if she had read the article…of course the answer was no. I then had her skim the article, and lo and behold, when she turned the page…guess what? There was a chart showing where bananas were grown! What are you teaching your son when you do his work for him? When the going gets tough…run to mommy and she will bail you out? All of their lives they are going to be presented with problems they have to solve…on their own! Figuring out how to solve them is important…as an educator, I feel that is my job…not to just teach spelling, but also how to search for answers…word searches give immediate feedback as to whether they are right or wrong…building some confidence. Other strategies are not so black and white, and as a result they have to wait to see their results. One more thing. If you feel that this exercise in non-beneficial, then have your son write an essay explaining why. Again, this is another skill he needs to learn. What he doesn’t need, is someone running to his rescue everytime something takes more than 2 minutes to complete!
I’m a teacher of 7th Grade English.
I give spelling tests.
I’ve never given a word search as an assignment. I could see using one for a fun bonus, but not as an assignment or spelling aid.
So…not all teachers do this. 
I’m confused how it would help, actually.
Of course I do. However, looking up words engages a relatively low level of cognitive engagement–I’d hardly call it critical thinking. Word searches themselves involve primarily simple character- and pattern recognition. I completely agree that they are very valuable for students in the early stages of decoding, or more advanced students as vocabulary review, but this is not critical thinking.
If I wanted to, I could successfully do a word search in Swedish (a language I have never learned or studied), simply by comparing a list of words with a grid of letters. I could so without having any understanding of the words, or how to use them properly. How could that in any way be considered critical thinking? That’s what computers robotically do when they scan for key words, without any thought whatsoever.
What you are addressing with the dictionary and research issues, or parents doing their children’s homework, is a question of discipline and the domestic environment. That per se has little to do with critical thinking.
Perhaps you yourself could benefit from looking something up. Try Douglas Bernstein’s widely used Psychology 101 college textbook (entitled Psychology, 8th Edition, Wadsworth Publishing, Cenage Learning):
Critical thinking isn’t just looking up where bananas are grown. I don’t have to ask my students to do that. They just type in “Where are bananas grown?” into Google. Then they cut and paste the answer into their paper. That’s not critical thinking. That’s plagiarism.
Critical thinking would be looking at a natural resources atlas and asking, “Why do they produce bananas in Venezuela, but not in northern Colombia, which is right next door, and the same climate.” It might also be, “Hey, in the book One Hundred Years of Solitude, the fate of the town of Macondo was drastically affected by a banana company. Could that have been based on a real banana company, and if so, which one?”
That’s critical thinking.
Just think about this, some kid is going to think he is a good speller because he has a good grade in the class. Instead, all he is really good at is finding words in a bunch of letters.
(In education too.)
I appologize… I said critical thinking skills when I really meant I’m teaching research skills… and decoding skills… (I’m preparing a lesson on critical thinking and inadvertantly used that term… I stand corrected for my wording… but I stand firm in my belief that when used occassionally, that word searches can be one of many useful tools.
Did you ever teach the concept of paragraphs?
Whatsit Jr. is in 3rd grade and struggles with word searches about as much as the OP’s kid seems to. I have negotiated a solution to this with his teacher. Instead of doing the word search, she will accept instead a neatly-written list of the words on a separate sheet of paper. Whatsit Jr. gets handwriting practice (which he desperately needs) and spelling reinforcement in having to copy the words, and can complete this assignment in about 1/4 the time that doing the stupid word search would take him. All parties involved are pleased with this compromise solution.
yes…but blogging doesn’t always need to follow conventional rules… LOL!
The Straight Dope Message Board, as careful readers will deduce from its name, is actually a message board. Not a blog.
I hope this helps.
In the 8th grade, I had to read The Old Man and the Sea. One of the assignments was to write a one page essay about the meaning of the fish. I was of the opinion that the fish was just a fish. However, the teacher had other ideas. I was able to get a good grade by mimicking her. I would have learned more explaining why I thought that there was no symbolism there, but wouldn’t have gotten a good grade–she wanted, “The fish was a symbol of the old man’s hopes and dreams, etc…”. She was a terrible teacher with terrible methods, and almost turned me off of reading “serious” books.
Are you sure you’re a teacher, and not a high-school student? (This isn’t the Pitt, so I’m trying to be polite.) Your grammar is terrible.
Some of you would argue with God, himself! The point is, teacher’s use a variety of teaching tools. Just because a few students (or their parents) don’t like/agree with one method, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. If the teacher only uses word searches (or only one method)…then there is a problem; however, if this is just one tool then why argue. As for my grammar, I have better grammar skills than most, but I’m not perfect. And for those of you who have nothing better to do than sit around and criticize others, then I feel sorry for you. People who constantly criticize others (sometimes refered to as bullying) are usually people that feel inferior themselves. Criticizing others make them feel superior.
Yes–those who are criticizing you for making almost incomprehensible posts are bullies.
(You do know that accusing others of being bullies is a criticism, right?)
Welcome to the SDMB, blin425.