TOOLS FOR TEACHING ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

TOOLS FOR TEACHING ACADEMIC VOCABULARY from “Inside Words” by Janet Allen Forest Park Middle School January 9, 2008

How confident do you feel about your vocabulary instruction?
On a scale of 1 – 9, how confident are you about your vocabulary instruction?
Place a post-it on the scale on the wall– 1 is the lowest & 9 is the highest.
Adapted from Dale, Rasband, Ross, Gardner, & Cunningham, 2004 1 9 5

Discuss your response to this question within your group.
Choose a group leader and record your responses on an index card.
Group leader should be prepared to share with everyone.
How do you teach vocabulary?

Essential Questions:
Why is vocabulary instruction so important?
What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary instruction?

Word knowledge is much more than word identification or even definitional knowledge–
“ It takes more than definitional knowledge to know a word, and we have to know words in order to identify them in multiple reading and listening contexts and use them in our speaking and writing.” (Allen, 1999)

Finding definitions and writing those words in sentences have had little apparent impact on their word knowledge and language use.
Janet Allen, 1999

Dictionary Use!
When students have been provided dictionary definitions and asked to create sentences or answer brief questions about the words, research has shown:
63 percent of the students’ sentences were judged to be “odd” (Miller & Gildea, 1985)
60 percent of students’ responses were unacceptable (McKeown, 1991; 1993)

When the horse you are riding dies, Dismount ! Some dead horses for vocabulary instruction……
Do not give students isolated words of weekly spelling words to look up in the dictionary and write sentences. This is a deadly useless activity that is boring, not good instruction, and only teaches student how boring it is to learn new words.
Do not use the dictionary as punishment.
Move away from fill in the blank, or matching word definitions in isolation .

Reading Aloud
Students retain more vocabulary when the teacher explains critical vocabulary terms in context during the reading.
Reading a book several times leads to more word learning than reading several books once each.

Reading Aloud
" The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
(Becoming a Nation of Readers, 1985)

Vocabulary Instruction
Direct teaching of vocabulary can help improve comprehension when we follow these guidelines (Cooper, 1993):
A few critical words are taught.
The words are taught in a meaningful context. (including nonlinguistic representations)
Students relate the new words to their background knowledge.
Students are exposed to the words multiple times.

What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary instruction?

TAKE A LOOK Vocabulary Strategies

Before Reading Strategies

Background Knowledge
The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and background knowledge is explicit in research.
(Nagy & Herman, 1984; Marzano, 2004; Hart & Risley, 1995)

“ Our inner-city student might have little background knowledge related to camping trips but a lot related to getting around the city on the subway. Consequently, he would have difficulty learning and integrating new information about camping trips but would find it easy to learn new information about transportation via subway systems”.
(Marzano, 2004)

Organizing Words Into Categories

Word Sorts cold front meteorologist temperature barometer hurricanes

Word Sorts
Provide students with a set of vocabulary word cards (related to a specific concept or topic).
Work in groups to sort the words into categories.
Encourage students to find more than one category for the vocabulary words.
Students then discuss with teacher & peers their rationale for categorizing words.
cold front meteorologist temperature barometer hurricanes

Concept Circles Assessment: Westward Movement hardship trail wagon food hunting learning Describe the meaning and relationships between and among the words in the sections of the concept circles. Traveling west had many hardships. One of the many hardships were diseases that the people had without medical help. Wagons would need to hold many delicacies. For instance, food you’d need to eat and live on were carried in them. The trails could have bad terrain , or could be all flat. Hunting was important and learning how to hunt for buffalo, elk, deer, and birds was learned while on the trail and served as good food for all. terrain disease

Concept Circles Assessment: Circulatory System Veins Large intestines Heart Arteries Salivary Glands Blood carbon dioxide Oxygen Describe the meaning and relationships between and among the words in the sections of the concept circles. (Which word does NOT belong?) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Concept Maps

migrate Schwartz & Raphael, 1985 To move regularly from one region to another people working for seasonal jobs birds Nomads traveling relocating moving around What are some examples? What is it like? What is it?

Word Map What is it? Fence What are some examples? What is it like?

Word Map What is it? Culture What are some examples? What is it like?

Word Map What is it? Disease What are some examples? What is it like?

Your Turn

Frayer Diagram 1 Definition Characteristics Examples Non-Examples First, last week of school. Sitting on the porch reading Unexpected guests for dinner Bubble bath Four projects due Lounging by the pool Stress, anxiety, tension, hostility, Tears, physical symptoms An extreme state of agitation. SWIVET

Frayer Diagram Definition Characteristics Examples Non-Examples What is a Noun?

Fryer Model Term Visual Representation Definition Personal Association sphere A round 3-D shape My ball is the shape of a sphere. sphere

Definition Characteristics Non-Examples Examples Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969) Content for this example taken from Baron & Heideima, (2002) Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (Supplement), McRel. herd
Group
Like animals
Clustered
a congregation of wild animals

Definition Characteristics Non-Examples Examples Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969) Content for this example taken from Baron & Heideima, (2002) Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (Supplement), McRel. Prime 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, . . . 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10. . .
2 is the only even prime number
0 and 1 are not prime
Every whole number can be written as a product of primes
A whole number with exactly two divisors (factors)

Your Turn

Contextual Redefinition
Work with a group to make predictions for definitions of each of the following words. The words included here are found in Notes on the Space We Take. Remember that some words which look familiar will probably have new meanings in this context.
WORD Predicted Definition Definition Based on Context Context Clues Used hiss exoskeleton Vulnerability

During Reading Strategies

Semantic Feature Analysis FDR JFK Nixon Reagan Clinton Democrat + + - - + War time President + - + - - Congress (same party) Re-elected Served in Congress Won majority of popular vote

Semantic Feature Analysis Convex Equilateral Equiangular 4 sided Opposite sides parallel square x x x x x rectangle x x x x triangle x quadrilateral x Regular polygon x x x rhombus x x x x trapezoid x x

Your Turn

After Reading Strategies

VVWA (Verbal & Visual Word Association) Readence, Bean, & Baldwin, 2001 Term Visual Representation Definition a degree of wetness especially of the atmosphere Personal Association humidity

Vocabulary Notebooks
Students keep a log or journal to record what they are learning
Teacher provides a concept or word.
Students write quickly & spontaneously (free write/quick write) everything they know about the word.
Peer and/or teacher response.

Concept Circles Why? ___________________________________________________ Which word does not belong? Cone Rectangle Trapezoid Hexagon

Concept Circles Why? ___________________________________________________ Which word does not belong? England Cuba Japan Hawaii

racism stereotyping Church bombing violence Concept: Civil Rights Movement

Migrant Dust Bowl Hobo Hoovervilles Concept: The Depression

What Are Your Thoughts?

Word Know it well, can explain it, use it Know some-thing about it, can relate it to a situation Have seen or heard the word Do not know the word tyranny serendipity grapnel purport sensitive dubious

4-2-1 summarizer (TPR) Four Two One Rogers, et.al (1999). Motivation and Learning. . .

Collaborative Pairs!
Reflect on the strategies used today.
With which strategies would dictionary use seem most appropriate and inappropriate?
Justify your response!

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TOOLS FOR TEACHING ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

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