Teaching Vocabulary 1

Teaching Vocabulary: Intentional, Explicit Instruction

Lynn Figurate Riverside County Achievement Team Indio, CA

[email protected]

Session Goals • Review scientifically based reading research on vocabulary • Review research-based methodology for vocabulary identification strategies • Practice direct vocabulary instruction for specific words and word parts • Rehearse the strategies of how to use context clues and the general mood to determine the meaning of unknown words • Develop a collaborative culture by sharing best practices

Figurate Out • Discuss with your partner: "Paula put down her pirn, wrapped herself in a paduasoy, and entered puerperium." − Story about birthing − Pirn — tool for weaving − Paduasoy — silken robe of Japanese style − Puerperium — the time that was the beginning of labor to birth

The Five Pillars of Reading Instruction • Phonemic awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension

• Framework for Reading • MOTIVATION

Academic Language

(Re)organizing Text

Comprehension Monitoring

Comprehension Strategies Syntax & Text Structure

Vocabulary

Automaticity

Fluency

Sight Words

Phonics

Phonemic Awareness

Concepts of Print

Word Recognition Strategies

COMPREHENSION

Background Knowledge

DECODING

John Shefelbine/Developmental Studies Center [See p. 20 of the CA Reading/ELA Framework]

Research About Vocabulary • Kindergarten students’ vocabulary size is a predictor of comprehension in middle school (Scarborough, 1998) • Students with poor vocabulary by third grade have declining text comprehension scores in fourth and fifth grade (Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin, 1990) • A school emphasis on word identification skills in the early grades without emphasis on books with challenging vocabulary results in poor reading comprehension in middle elementary students (Becker, 1977)

• Vocabulary instruction has a strong connection to comprehension (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Perfetti, 1983) • Pre-instruction of words gave students 33 percent greater contextual understanding (Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki, 1984)

Words Heard in an Hour • Poverty: 615 words • Middle class: 1,251 words • Professional: 2,153 words Hart and Risley, 1995

Registers of Language 1. Frozen Language that is always the same

2. Formal The standard sentence syntax and word choice of work and school

3. Consultative Formal register when used in conversation

4. Casual Language between friends that is characterized by a 400- to 800-word vocabulary

5. Intimate Language between lovers or twins "Reprinted with permission from aha! Process, Inc. www.ahaprocess.com"

Where Do We Find Those Rare Words To Increase Our Vocabularies? • Printed Text − Newspapers - 68 − Adult books - 52 − Comic books - 53 − Children's books - 30 • Television − Adult shows - 22 − Children’s shows - 20 − Cartoons - 30 • Adult Speech − College grad - 17 Hayes & Ahrens, 1988

NRP Recommendations • Taught directly and indirectly • Repetitions • Rich context • Active learning (thinking) • Use multiple vocabulary instruction methods NRP, 2000

Choosing the Right Words • Tier-One Words − Basic words o run, ball, is

• Tier-Two Words

− Academic words − Found in many curriculum areas o vocabulary, example, create, impossible

• Tier-Three Words

− Content words − Low-frequency words o nutrient, cellophane, photosynthesis Beck and McKeown, 1985

Some Words To Teach F re q u e n t A c a d e m ic W o rd s h ttp ://w w w .v u w .a c .n z /la ls /d iv 1 /a w l/fre q u e n t.h tm l A v e ril C o xh e a d M A (V U W ) E m a il: A v e ril.C o xh e a d @ v u w .a c .n z S u b lis t 1 o f 1 0

a n a lys is a p p ro a c h a re a assessm ent assum e a u th o rity a v a ila b le b e n e fit concept c o n s is te n t c o n s titu tio n a l c o n te xt c o n tra c t c re a te d a ta d e fin itio n d e riv e d d is trib u tio n e c o n o m ic e n v iro n m e n t e s ta b lis h e d e s tim a te e v id e n c e e xp o rt fa c to rs fin a n c ia l fo rm u la fu n c tio n id e n tifie d in c o m e in d ic a te in d iv id u a l in te rp re ta tio n in v o lv e d

is s u e s la b o r le g a l le g is la tio n m a jo r m e th o d occur p e rc e n t p e rio d p o lic y p rin c ip le p ro c e d u re p ro c e s s re q u ire d re s e a rc h re s p o n s e ro le s e c tio n s e c to r s ig n ific a n t s im ila r s o u rc e s p e c ific s tru c tu re th e o ry v a ria b le s

(Refer to packet for copies.)

Direct Vocabulary Instruction― Teaching a Word Definition

Examples

Explanation

Nonexamples

Word

Picture

(Refer to packet for copies.)

Questions and Answers

Teaching a Word 1. Select a word • •

Find “Goldilocks” words Parts of speech

2. Find a good definition •

Choose a student-friendly dictionary − −

•

Longman Dictionary of American English Newbury House Dictionary of American English

Explore e-resources − −

www.dictionary.com www.wordsmyth.net

Teaching a Word 3. Provide a student-friendly explanation or description of the word •

Teacher and students decide together

4. Present examples of the word used in contexts different from the story context •

Use synonyms if possible

5. Give nonexamples of the word • •

Use antonyms if possible Predict what students may confuse in the definition or explanation

Teaching a Word 6. Provide a nonlinguistic representation of the word •

Drawing pictures

•

Physical models

•

Kinesthetic activity

•

Graphic organizers

•

Mental pictures/keyword method Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001

Teaching a Word Solicit questions and answers to check for understanding 8. Put the new words in a Vocabulary Log 9. Provide multiple exposures to target words through rich instruction 7.

• Semantic mapping/nascent nomenclature − − −

nurse, thermometer, germs virus, anesthetic, prescription syndrome, placebo, litmus

• Linear arrays/word lines − −

slow-fast hard-easy

Direct Vocabulary Instruction― Word Parts Word parts include prefixes, roots, and suffixes • Building a bridge to other vocabulary words • Introspective

− Prefix: INTRO―within or inward − Root: SPECT―look − Suffix: IVE―to tend to or to lean toward • Definition―to tend to look inward

Word Parts―Frequency of Prefixes The Most Frequent Prefixes in The American Heritage Word Frequency Book, Carrol et al., 1971 Prefix unrein-, im-, ir-, il- (not) disen-, emnonin-, im- (in or into) over- (too much) mis-

Words with the prefix 782 401 313 216 132 126 105 98 83

White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989) contend that only these nine need to be systematically taught.

Teaching Prefixes Day 1: Introduction and four

facts about prefixes Day 2: Explicit instruction on the first three prefixes Day 3: The prefix removal and replacement strategy and three more prefixes Day 4: Review and assessment on the four facts about prefixes, the steps of the prefix removal and replacement strategy, and the meanings of the six prefixes taught

Baumann and Kame’enui, 2004.

Indirect Vocabulary Instruction― Context Clues 1. Repeated, multiple exposures • To learn a word in context, students need to be exposed to the word at least six times Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki, 1984

2. SCANR technique • Substitute a likely synonym for the unknown word • Check the context for clues that support the choice • Ask if the substitution fits the context clues • If not, determine if it needs a new idea • Revise the idea so it better fits the context Jenkins, Matlock, and Slocum, 1989

Context Clues 3.

Categories of Natural Context

Misdirective There’s a wireless and lots of books.

General Context Eagles eat carrion mostly in the winter, when other food is hard to find.

Nondirective Paula put down her pirn, wrapped herself in a paduasoy, and entered puerperium.

Directive Context Eagles have talons, or claws, to help hold slippery, wriggling fish.

Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002

Context Clues Strategies 1.

Definitions or synonyms •

•

2.

same Usually follow a comma, a dash, or words like or, is called, that is, in other words

Concrete examples • •

3.

Look for words or phrases that mean about the

The author provides examples to clarify a difficult concept or idea Look for signal words: such as, including, for instance, to illustrate, are examples of, for example

Description clues • •

The author may use many sentences to describe a word Keep reading. Sometimes the meaning is in the next paragraph

Materials from Reader’s Handbook: A Student Guide for Reading and Learning, Grades 6-8, by Laura Robb et al. copyright © 2002. Displayed with special permission of Great Source Education Group/Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

Context Clues Strategies 4. Contrast clues •

Look for the opposite meaning or a situation that illustrates the opposite meaning

5. Unstated or implied meanings •

Sometimes you have to use what you know to figure out what the author is trying to say

6. Repeating words •

Writers like to make sure we know the meanings of hard words so they use the word a number of times Adapted from Reader’s Handbook, Great Books, 2002.

Indirect Vocabulary Instruction― General Mood Look Inside, Look Out Word

Inside the word

Word Parts

Prior Knowledge

Outside the word

Context Clues

General Mood Herman & Weaver, 1988

Summing Up Vocabulary • Vocabulary is important because − readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print − readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading

• Vocabulary can be developed − indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own − directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word-learning strategies Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, 2001