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THE MOST POPULAR VEGETABABLES.

The world´s most popular vegetable is the potato. But many people don´t consider the potato a vegetable, because it has a lot of carbohydrates. The potato is originally from the Andes in South America, but the largest producer of potatoes today is China. 

 

The other most popular vegetable is the tomato, originally from México. Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and they protect your body against illness. But tomatoes are technically a fruit, not a vegetable! The largest producer of tomatoes is China.

The most popular herb is parsley, has been cultivate for more than 2,000 years. The ancient Greeks thought it was sacred, and they used it to decorate the tombs of the dead.

It is difficult to say what the most popular vegetable is, but one thing is certain, you should try to eat a variety of different vegetables, especially the ones produced in your part of the world.

Other  popular Vegetables  are:

-Onions (used as a cold remedy and they are said to help cure many ailments)

-Cucumbers (the inside of a cucumber can be up to twenty degrees cooler than the outside temperature. This is where the saying cool as a cumber came from).  

-Lettuce (Americans consume about 30 lbs. of lettuce each, per year). 

-Carrots (English women in the 1600’s often wore carrot leaves in their hats in place of flowers or feathers) .

Tomatoes are grown in over 85% of all gardens and Cabbage is grown in 30% of all gardens.
The potato is not on the list for being grown in US and Canadian gardens but is the most popular vegetable used in United States. Head lettuce is the second most popular followed by onions.
Garden lore and odd facts of vegetables add fun and create stories to tell while gardening.
Tags: ten most popular vegetables, vegetable lore, vegetable facts.

HOW TO TEACH READING..

HOW TO TEACH READING.

Reading is about understanding written texts. It is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text.

When reading comprehension breaks down, students need to find ways to repair their understanding. This is where the importance of knowing how to teach reading strategies comes in, so as to facilitate the reading process and give students a clear sense of what they are reading.

Students can become easily frustrated when they do not understand what they are reading and as a result, they become demotivated. A teacher needs to design and teach different strategies in order to help students close the gaps in their understanding. The ultimate challenge for the teacher knows exactly which strategy is useful and most beneficial to teach, since each student needs different strategies. This article in this respect, will give many strategies and a few general pointers for how to teach them.

In addition;

-Zooming in on the text. Students go back and reread a sentence or part of a sentence that was confusing. What it a word, a phrase or an entire sentence that caused a breakdown in understanding? Once they have identified the part or parts, they can refer to other sources such as guessing from context or using a dictionary.

-Jump back and reread. Encourage the students not to get stuck too long on a confusing part of the text. They can always go back, reread and guess.

-Try and try again. If a student cannot understand, s/he should be encouraged to try and try again using all available sources such as guessing using contextual clues such as using the knowledge of parts of speech.

What’s the secret to teaching reading strategies?

The key to teaching reading strategies is to teach it without bringing it to the forefront of the lesson. It is recommended to teach the strategies (without naming them) only after the students accomplish some task based on the reading strategy. Students of Junior High school age are still too young to understand and remember the names of the strategies and it is pointless in lecturing and naming reading strategies. Once they have processed information, the teacher can mention the reading strategy in a by-the-way manner in terms of what they used and how it may help them in the future.

If a teacher gets a positive reaction from the students, s/he can use this opportunity and expand on it. Even if the teaching and/or learning experience was not positive, it is a good idea to learn from it and understand what went wrong and what could have motivated them more. The next time, the teacher can remind the students of having used the strategies when they worked on a particular text and how using those strategies helped them understand the text better.

Using the Visual Aid Method to Teach Reading Strategies

A helpful way to teach and reinforce reading strategies is through the use of graphic organizers. Graphic organizers appeal to a variety of multiple intelligences and it is important for students see the connection between the visual element and the reading task. Again, the a-z reading site is incredibly helpful and provides loads of opportunities to recycle reading strategies in a wonderfully creative way.

Final Words

By finding indirect methods of teaching strategies, a teacher will have “taught” them something and give them the impression of learning. Homework on reading strategies should serve as a further reinforcement and should be logically connected and come out naturally from the lesson.

HOW TO TEACH VOCABULARY.

HOW TO TEACH VOCABULARY.

students with a diversity of backgrounds and skills are immersed in content area instruction. Yet all students, and particularly those who are struggling, are confronted with vocabulary and concepts that are unfamiliar or misunderstood. Those misunderstandings interfere with comprehension of content area curriculum. Robust vocabulary instruction and comprehension strategy instruction can combine to create depth and breadth in understanding words, concepts, topics, and themes of high school content area materials. Teaching the meaning of vocabulary words prior to reading the text is an effective component of traditional vocabulary instruction.

Knowing the educational jargon of teaching vocabulary within the general framework of a lesson plan is important for understanding the bigger picture: how to support readers to become more independent readers. Attending to the phonological awareness of a word is only part of teaching vocabulary.

Consider these important teaching vocabulary terms your next practical steps for additional ways for practicing vocabulary. The more students recognize and work with the target vocabulary, the easier it will be to also recognize those target words in context.

Presenting New Vocabulary: Exposure, this is the first procedure in a vocabulary lesson plan where students are tuned into those words you want to present. Inductive Ways of Presentation, in order to get to a word, teachers show a picture and talk about it. This works differently from deductive methods (more commonly used with grammar related teaching contexts) where teachers isolate the rule and then follow-up with a number of practice activities. Issues of Fluency and Accuracy, in fluency, the emphasis are placed on meaning whereas accuracy emphasizes form and structure.

Practicing New Vocabulary: Teaching vocabulary in a context. The aim of a context is to establish some kind of frame within one of the following text types such as a rap chant, a song or a picture, a story, etc. The reader is encouraged to understand, interpret, make sense, decode (i.e. what does each phoneme sound like?) and decipher (i.e. putting the parts together in order to solve the information gap between decoding and deciphering).

General Vocabulary Teaching Terms:

1. Automaticity - The ability to read a word effortlessly. Do your students need more practice with phonological and decoding?

2. Gradation - Begin with easy activities and work your way up to more complex activities. This approach works for all levels regardless of their knowledge and ability.

3. Cost Effectiveness - maximum profit for minimum cost. (i.e. Using a vocabulary activity again and again for different purposes) Teaching vocabulary can get boring! It's important however to recycle vocabulary in a number of creative and interesting ways.

4. Inference - a vocabulary teaching term related to the aspect of vocabulary and context.

    * To relate to something beyond the text.

    * "I'm thinking of something". Teachers describe the word and students guess its meaning. Teachers should try to encourage students to use educated guessing based on prior information or, on worldly knowledge.

5. Authenticity - To what extent does the target vocabulary reflect real life situations, communications and interactions?

Finally, don't be afraid to try new and unusual ways to teach vocabulary. Use these vocabulary teaching terms as guidelines. Sometimes the most meaningful vocabulary lessons happen when you are the most spontaneous.

HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR.!

HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR?.

Grammar used to be taught using a language book, learning about parts of speech and doing language exercises such as diagramming sentences. Now grammar is usually taught with writing, and it is taught through mini-lessons. It may also be taught in literature circles when teachers discuss with students how an author writes or a character's speech pattern. When you teach grammar with these methods, students are more likely to remember the grammar rules and apply them to their everyday life.

HOW?

1.- Assess your students before you teach any grammar. If they already know what a noun and verb is, then you don't need to waste class time teaching them and doing exercises where everyone is getting 100 percent. The important thing about nouns, for example, are rules such as each sentence needs a subject, capitalizing proper nouns making sure nouns and verbs agree. What are your objectives in grammar for your grade level, and where are your students in regards to these objectives?

2.- Plan mini-lessons to address your students' deficiencies with grammar. If your students can't remember to always capitalize the word "I" (such as a first grade class), then before writing workshop one day, gather the students around your chart paper and do a lesson on capitalizing the word "I." Students can practice this skill by writing a personal narrative where they use the word, I, and immediately, they incorporate the lesson into their everyday writing. Mini-lessons can be taught on any subject. Skills can be practiced in writing. It just takes a little planning on your part

3.- Teach grammar points while you are also discussing books you are reading to the class or that students are reading themselves. Real authors can be amazing tools to use to teach about contractions, noun/verb agreement and all other grammar points you may need to teach. There are even picture books that focus on certain parts of speech or punctuation. Ask your local or school librarian to help you find these books if you want to share them with your class. Show students how real-live authors use grammar in their writing, so students will also use correct grammar and punctuation in their writing. Point out if a character has a weird speech pattern and discuss it. Discuss why that character might not be using proper grammar. These discussions will be more meaningful than doing language exercises.

4.- Practice punctuation, proper grammar, and capitalization with spelling sentences. Teachers often assign students to write spelling sentences, using a spelling word correctly in each sentence. What have your mini-lessons been focusing on? Ask students to practice these skills with spelling sentences. These sentences are also a good assessment when you teach grammar. They will show you if students are applying the grammar rules they are learning, or if students need more instruction and practice.

Tips & Warnings

-Check your school's curriculum. You don't have to teach everything in the grammar book to each grade level. You just have to follow the curriculum and meet the needs of your students.

-Don't make grammar boring. If you approach it with dislike and boredom, so will your students. Incorporate grammar rules and lessons into other subjects to make it more interesting and fun!
 

WHY TO TEACH GRAMMAR.?

1.-An understanding of the nature and functioning of language is a part of general knowledge that students should acquire about themselves and the world they live in.

2. Linguistics (the study of language in all its aspects) is a central discipline for the social sciences and humanities.

3. We all have conscious or subconscious attitudes to the English language and opinions on specific features. [...] While similarities in language reinforce social cohesion, differences may be socially divisive. [...] Greater understanding of the nature of language, language variation, and language change will help to eliminate or moderate prejudices.

4. Study of the English language can help students to develop and refine their ability to adjust their language to the situational context.

5. Learning about grammatical structures, word order, and cohesion devices can improve written style.

6. The interpretation of literary and nonliterary texts sometimes depends crucially on grammatical analysis.

7. Recognition of grammatical structure is often necessary for conventional punctuation.

8. A study of one’s native grammar is helpful for a study of the grammar of a foreign language.