A Booked Schedule Reading, writing and the pursuit of vocabulary words By Mallory Arnold
Mary Jo Fresch provides edification to teachers and students across the country. Edification, as she might define in one of her 20 education books published for teachers, is the process by which one gains greater understanding of something. Fresch says learning vocabulary words is best when given context – so, there you have it. Fresch offers edification through her It’s Fresch’s job to think about learning knowledge of the education world and in a way most people don’t. For example, how best to reach kids through literacy. she says that spelling shouldn’t just be Fresch has lived in Dubabout memorizing a word. lin since 1988, although “You need to have some she took three years off to strategy,” she says. “Just live in Melbourne, Austramemorizing a word is like lia with her husband after memorizing a phone number he was transferred at work. – you can memorize the They returned in 1995 sequence of letters, but you and have been in the same didn’t really learn the words.” house ever since. Instead, she says, teachers As a retired professor of can associate a memThe Ohio State University for ory with a word the College of Education and Mary Jo Fresch so it will stick in Human Ecology, Fresch has kid’s minds. done her fair share of research and study“What we’re doing about how to best teach the youth of ing as teachers is to America. make the students Her 20 books include but are not more independent limited to vocabulary, spelling, picture in their reading and books and more. Her most recent work, writing,” Fresch says. “We can give Empowering Students’ Knowledge of Vo- them the strategies to do that.” cabulary, which she co-authored with A facet of learning that has changed David L. Harrison, will go to schools and in her years in education is the use of teachers across the country. nonfiction books. Fresch says schools are “I really love talking about words and getting implementing more nonfiction literature kids excited about the English language,” she into younger grades so they can learn to says. “The more words they know, the better it read while also getting facts about social is when they go to write and read.” studies and science. 30 • February/March 2021
Reading the Room Fresch, of course, is the biggest advocate of reading. She realizes all kids have different book preferences and encourages parents to find out what their child’s is. Her own grandkids mimic Fresch’s love of literature and are always eager to talk shop when they see her. “One grandson of mine is reading Charlotte’s Web,” she says, “and so, he and I were talking about how good it is. They know grandma loves reading.” She says in any household, if a parent shows an interest in something, the kids will pick up on it. Because Fresch’s grandchildren know she values reading, they constantly are bringing her homemade books and showing off their storytelling skills. “You don’t have to be an expert on reading and writing around children,” she says. “You just have to be excited about it.” That being said, Statista’s 2019 study stating that 75 percent of U.S. adults read at least one book in the year is uplifting, as well as the fact that Americans spend around $110 per year on reading. Fresch doesn’t downplay the increased use of online reading and knows that www.dublinlifemagazine.com
