Presentation looks at numerous strategies for teaching vocabulary to little kids. Based on the book by the same name by Keith Pruitt. It also goes into the Hart and Risley study and why this study is important.

1. Word Hikes with Little
Tikes
Keith Pruitt, Ed.S
Words of Wisdom Educational
Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com

2. Brain Gym
• I’m going to show you a word. You will have
one minute to form as many words from it as
possible.
• Assimilated

3. Tell Us About Hart and Risley
• Demographic study to determine the
impact on oral vocabulary based on
the social climate of a child’s family.
• Three distinct categories: professional
class, working class, welfare class.
• Followed family for 2 ½ years.
• Created a word list for each child
based on exposure and usage during
the research.

4. The Most
Important
of the
Findings
…the more parents talked to
their children, the faster the
children’s vocabularies were
growing and the higher the
children’s IQ test scores at age
3 and later.
Hart and Risley, Meaningful Differences, p. xx

5. Oral language is the
foundation for
understanding written
text. Word knowledge
is the cornerstone of
reading comprehension.
Why is oral language
important?

6. Professional
45 million
words
Working
26 million
words Welfare 13
million
words
From Hart and Risely
Demographic study (1995)

7. …to keep the language experience of
welfare children equal to that of working-
class children, the welfare children would
need to receive 63,000 words per week of
additional language experience (Hart &
Risley, p. 201).
Can This Gap Be Closed?

8. This study was done
more than 20 years
ago.
Are there factors
that have changed
the results of this
study?
YES!

9. Since we are having fewer
conversations in ALL homes the
gaps have decreased.
Even the children of
professional homes are coming
to us with fewer words.

10. How Important is this Issue?
“…when children do not
understand the meanings of
important words in a text, they are
unlikely to understand the text.”(p. 84)
--Tanya Christ and Christine Wang, Bridging the Vocabulary Gap,
Young Children, July 2010

11. About thirty-five minutes have passed since
the children left the room. We look up from
our work to check the XXXX, glance toward
the XXXX, and notice the beautiful day
outside. We scan the room one more time to
be certain all is ready for XXXX, grab our coats
and keys, and head quickly to the door—still
with enough daylight and enough energy for
a long XXXX with the XXXX.
Reading is from The Daily Five, p. 6 as quoted in The Importance of
Readability by Lori Sabo, The Daily Cafe

12. What factors became
important in your selection
of words?
Context
Background knowledge
(experience)
Guessing

13. Research shows that to accelerate reading
the accuracy rate needs to be at 98%.
Independent Reading level
Successful comprehension
Anything less slows the rate of improvement;
anything below 90% doesn’t improve at all

14. Some Proven Factors
• Students do not passively add words to their
vocabularies by just hearing them (Bloom,
2002) [If so, I could learn Spanish by just
listening to Spanish tapes.]
• Children must become word conscious
(interested in) (Graves, 2000)
• Students develop a schema for words
sometimes called fast mapping (Carey, 1978)

15. The Work of J R Anderson
Sensory
Memory
Working
Memory
Discards
OR
Permanent
Memory Files
Anderson, J.R. (1995). Learning and memory: An integrated approach. New York:
John Wiley & Sons

16. Let there be
strategies!

18. Beck, McKeown, Kucan
• Vocabulary must first be orally introduced.
• Vocabulary is not grade specific.
• Words must be explained, not defined.
• Must be contextualized.
• Multiple usages in a meaningful context (8-10).
• Create Schema (visual representation)
• Students reflect with each other
• Three Tiers of Vocabulary

19. From the DIG program produced by Abrams Learning Trends

20. From the DIG program produced by Abrams Learning Trends
• Oral Language
Development
Conversation
• Introduce the WOW
words (focus words)
• Create visual
representation
(teacher/student)
• Check for meaning in
context

21. bustling

25. antenna
© Art by Keith

26. Exaggerate
Beck and McKeown, Elements of Reading Vocabulary, Steck Vaughn, 2004

27. Fatigue The bear was very fatigued from
walking so far.

28. Flexible

34. Reading to students helps
create background knowledge
that in turn builds vocabulary,
comprehension, and fluency.
How often do you read to
your students?

35. Create a
Visual
Classroom!

38. Peer Reading

42. Let’s Review
1. We have shown the importance of learning words at young ages
2. We have given you some dynamics of how this vocabulary instruction should be
delivered in the classroom
3. We have given you numerous strategies for teaching vocabulary in your
classroom
4. And hopefully we have had some fun.

43. Thank You
Keith Pruitt
Words of Wisdom
www.woweducationalconsulting.com
Visit us on Facebook

44. References
• Allington, R.L. (2012). What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research Based
Programs. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
• Allington, R.L. & Gabriel, Rachael E. (March 2012). Every Child, Every Day. Educational Leadership,
69 (6), 10-15.
• Anderson, J.R. (1995). Learning and memory: An integrated approach. New York: John Wiley &
Sons.
• Beck, I., M. McKeown, & L. Kucan. 2002. Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New
York: Guilford.
• Bloom, P. (2002). How Children Learn the Meaning of Words. Cambridge: MIT Press.
• Carey, S. (1978). The child as word learner. In Linguistic theory and psychological reality, eds. M.
Halle, J. Bresnan, & G. Miller, 264–93. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Christ, Tanya & Wang, Christine. (July 2010). Bridging the Vocabulary Gap, Young Children.
• Ehri, L. C., Dreyer, L. G., Flugman, B., & Gross, A. (2007). Reading Rescue: An effective tutoring
intervention model for language minority students who are struggling readers in first grade.
American Educational Research Journal, 44(2), 414–448.
• Graves, M. 2000. A vocabulary program to complement and bolster a middle-grade comprehension
program. In Reading for meaning: Fostering comprehension in the middle grades, eds. B. Taylor, M.
Graves, & P. van den Broek, 116–35. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

45. • Hart, Betty & Risley, Todd R. (1995). Meaningful Differences in the Everyday
Experience of Young Children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
• Pruitt, Keith. (2011). It’s All About Words: Reading Instruction in the Classroom
(3rd Edition) Old Hickory, TN: Words of Wisdom.
• Sabo, Lori. (2016). The Importance of Readability. Retrieved from The Daily Café.
Retrieved at https://www.thedailycafe.com/articles/The-Importance-of-
Readability