I attended an interesting session about student vocabulary development at the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project Saturday Reunion this past weekend. One of the points I took away was that we, as adults, need to think constantly about the words we use around children. If we want children to speak with more precise and intriguing words, we need to model their use.

I was reminded of this fact during a conversation I had with Katherine this evening.

Me: Remember the time that you and Jason watched a worm walk all the way from the pool to the grass. It took that little guy forever to get there.

Katherine: Worms don’t walk.

Me: Oh right. You guys watched the worm crawl to the grass.

Katherine: Mom! Worms don’t have knees. They don’t  crawl.

Me: My goodness! You’re right. You watched the worm slither.

And with that, Katherine was satisfied and I was provided with a good reminder to raise the bar even when talking about worms.