Portfolio Entry 1

Have you ever seen a word that you don’t know the meaning of? Maybe you have seen a word in a book or a magazine. That has happened to me quite a few times before going into the 8th grade. Now that I am in the 8th grade we have started to have weekly vocab words and a chart to go along with the vocab words for that week. Ever since I have been learning new words, I have had a harder time finding words that I don’t know. That’s not a bad thing, it actually is something that I am proud to announce. This skill has not come easy. It has taken a while to get to where I am now. I still see a word that I am not quite sure the meaning of. But I have increased my own vocabulary. I guess you can say that I have a better dictionary in my brain. And every week the author (me) keeps adding new words into it. That is why I am choosing vocabulary for my growth in language arts.

                For my first artifact I am going to use a website that I use as a study guide. The website is called vocabulary.com. This was a tool that we can use to study this week’s vocab words. When you get on the site and get into this week’s vocabulary words. You are presented with a question about the words. Once you answer it you get points. If you get the most points in your class you get 3 extra credit points on your quiz. Which really comes in handy since you would have had to spend a lot of time on that website to get points. So it is as win-win situation. You get to study your words in a fun way. Plus you can get extra credit points. That is why I use to use this tool all the time. I use it less now just because it is getting a bi old. But whenever I want I know that I can get on to it and study the words. The nice part about it is that if a parent or sibling cant study with you, you have a computer that can’t run away from you when you move towards it. The point is it should always be there for your use. That is why I can say that I have grown in vocabulary. Just a silly little website has helped me increase my imaginary dictionary.

                For my second artifact I am going to use the vocabulary chart. WE get this chart right after we take the vocab quiz. We can wright down this week’s words. Then on our free time we are expected to fill in chart. You have to find two synonyms and two antonyms for each word. And there are ten words. Next we make our own sentence using that word and then we get to draw a picture that helps us remember that word. We have one week to complete the chart, and then another to study the words and get ready for the quiz. This is a nice little tool that we have to do each week. So it helps us study for the vocabulary. This is my main study guide. Without this I might not do so well on my vocab quizzes.

                In conclusion I think that I have grown in my vocabulary. I have gone from a 100 page dictionary to a 150 page dictionary and it is still growing. This is why I think that I have grown in vocabulary. I am glad I have learned this skill now. Because in high school we might have big reading or assignments. It would be a nice skill to understand what the different words mean.