I thought about this while I watched my son study definitions and names of places and people for his midterm exams. He couldn’t tell me why he was studying any of them, except that he had an exam, and I thought about all the opportunities those words offered for connections and the building of knowledge.

And I thought about this post by a fellow ASCD Emerging Leader which highlights the importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension.

Words are not just words. Words are connected to a web of knowledge. Words unlock layers of understanding.