This document provides guidance for teachers on vocabulary instruction and unit planning. It includes templates for unit plans, principles of effective vocabulary instruction, strategies for teaching vocabulary, and examples of prefixes and their meanings. Key points discussed are the large gap in vocabulary knowledge between high and low performing students, the "Matthew Effect" where poor reading skills restrict vocabulary development, and that effective vocabulary instruction does not just involve defining words but promotes student interaction and guided learning.

1. Vocabulary Instruction
Class 9
2017-2018

2. Unit Planning
• Template for Unit Plan is on Sakai under
Resources (4th item from top)
• Create a shared document (e.g Google docs)
for your Inquiry Unit
• Discuss how your set of Learning Objects
could form the basis of a focused unit plan.
The activities do not have to be sequential
• Begin to fill out portions of the Unit Plan

3. • Biemiller, 2004
4,000 word difference in root vocabulary
knowledge by the end of Grade 2 between
children in the highest quartile and those
in the lowest quartile
Vocabulary Knowledge

4. • The “Matthew Effect”
– Cumulative effect of poor reading and
vocabulary skills
– Young children who are poor readers read
less than more able classmates
– Therefore exposed to fewer new words
– Restricted vocabulary leads to even
poorer reading
– Learning in general becomes difficult
Stanovich, 1986

6. • “Effective vocabulary instruction does
not involve assigning words and
having students record definitions and
then using the word in a sentence.”
• Teaching in Action, Primary-3, p. 15
Vocabulary Instruction

7. • Enhance learning by using both firsthand
experience and print resources
• Promote student interaction
• Guide student learning
• Take a metacognitive approach to
instruction
Spencer & Guillaume (2006)
Principles of Effective Vocabulary
Instruction

8. Definitions
• What is the difference between poisonous and
venomous?

12. Meaning Prefix Examples
one mono- monologue, monopoly
one uni- unique, unicycle
two bi- bicycle, biracial
two du- dual, duplex
three tri- tripod, triangle
four quad- quadriplegic,
quadrangle
five penta- pentathlon, the
Pentagon
six hexa- hexagon, hexagonal
seven sept- September
eight oct- October, octopus
nine nov- November
ten dec- December, decade
Prefixes Signifying Number or Amount

13. polit
politics
politician
political
cosmopolitan
polit (Greek): “citizen, subject of
government”

15. Word Building Activity
• Select one prefix from the list provided.
• Brainstorm as many words as possible
containing this prefix (don’t start with a
dictionary!)
• Cover one side of the bag with your words and
mount it on the bulletin board

16. Try to picture this man
The man was about fifty years old. He had long
black hair and whiskers. His skin was pale and
his clothes were tattered. On the floor beside
him lay his hat.

17. Now try to picture him..
He was most fifty and he looked it. His hair was long
and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you
could see his eyes shining through like he was
behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his
long, mixed-up whiskers. There warn’t no color in
his face, where his face showed; it was white; not
like another man’s white, but a white to make a
body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl – a
tree-toad white, a fish-belly white. As for his clothes
– just rags, that was all. He had one ankle

18. resting on t-other knee; the boot on that foot
was busted, and two of his toes stuck through,
and he worked them now and then. His hat was
laying on the floor; an old black slouch with the
top caved in, like a lid.

20. The author??
• Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, describing
Huck’s father Pap

21. Semantics – Word Meaning
• All gender washroom
• Gender neutral washroom
• Washroom for Everyone
• We Don’t Care!

23. IRC Resources for Teaching Parts of
Speech, Grammar, Punctuation
• Nelson Word Study – kits grades 4-6
• Language Power Now – grades 3-10
• Student Writer’s Guide
• Vocabulary
– Knowing Words

24. What if your language were stolen
from you?

25. Sentence Structure

26. Sentence Fragment
Students often have difficulty reading word
problems in math. Whether it be unfamiliar
vocabulary, complex sentences, or vague
instructions.

27. Louise Penny
And what Judge Corriveau saw was a not
particularly pleasant smile. More a sneer, really.
Which surprised her, given the Chief Crown and
the Chief Superintendent were apparently on
the same side.
Glass Houses, p. 2

28. Comma Splice
The New Horizon probe flew past Pluto, it sent
images of the dwarf planet back to Earth.
Students should be critical consumers of media,
this means they make critical judgments about
what they read, view, and hear.

30. Language Registers
You have had a frustrating experience with a product or
service. You wish to make your views known. What are the
different expectations or conventions for the following writing
forms?
• An email to the company CEO
• A tweet to your friends
• An online review
Are there “rules” of sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling
etc. that are different depending on the contexts above?

31. Learning Object Assignment
• Due by class time on Oct. 19 (s1) or Oct. 20 (s2)
• Upload to Drop Box:
– A link to the Learning Object
– A Word file of your Teachers Guide (or link to digital
version)
• Hand in:
– A hard copy of the Teachers Guide, including an
assessment measure for the Learning Object (unless it
is embedded in the LO)

32. Group Presentations
• Criteria #5: Presentation of Monograph
And Learning Object
• Organization: Logical sequence (3)
• Content: Introduction, Body, Conclusion (3)
• Communication: clear, audible (3)
• Length: 25 minutes (1)

33. Group Presentations
• Prepare your presentation for the final class
• Upload the following to the Sakai Forum
specified for your group:
– Monograph
– Each person’s Learning Object
– Each person’s Teacher’s Guide