This document provides an overview of effective vocabulary instruction strategies for teachers. It discusses the importance of vocabulary and recommends using both direct instruction methods like the six-steps of vocabulary instruction as well as teaching vocabulary in context. The document emphasizes that building vocabulary takes time and should start in early grades. It also dispels common misconceptions and provides research-based best practices for vocabulary instruction, such as using multiple instructional methods, sequencing related texts, and promoting word consciousness.

1. Cara Haney
Instructional Coach
Panther Lake Elementary
Vocabulary
Instruction

2. — Elementary?
— Secondary?
— Title 1?
— LAP?
— ELL?
— Special Ed?
— Other?
Introductions

3. — Participants will understand the importance of
vocabulary instruction
— Participants will demonstrate ways to scaffold
and differentiate vocabulary instruction
Success Criteria
— I can identify vocabulary words worth teaching
— I can use direct instruction and in-context
methods for increasing vocabulary instruction
— I can discuss with my colleagues how
vocabulary instruction can look in my position.
Learning Targets

4. • Hernandez 2011 – Students who are not proficient in 3rd
grade are 400% less likely to graduate on time.
• Lesnick et al 2010 – 3rd grade scores are predictive of 8th
grade scores, high school, & college enrollment.
• Fletcher and Lyon 1998 – 74% of 3rd graders who read
poorly will still be struggling in 9th grade
• Snow et al 1998 – “A person who is not at least a modestly
skilled reader by the end of third grade is quite unlikely to
graduate from high school.”
• Juel 1988 – 1st grade reading scores are a “reliable
predictor of later reading scores.”
Five Essential Studies

5. — How is it that tests so early can predict results so many
years later?
— What are we doing in schools that might be
perpetuating these trends?
— What are we not doing in schools that might be
perpetuating these trends?
— Why does the gap between struggling and proficient
readers increase the longer they are in school?
Why?

6. • Proficient readers
start at a higher
point than
non-proficient
readers
• Proficient readers
grow faster each
year relative to non-
proficient readers
Hart & Risley (1995) “The 30 Million
Word Gap”
The Matthew Effect

7. • Students on track for college and career are learning
approximately 3,000 new vocabulary words each year
(Nagy & Anderson, 1984); it is impossible to learn this many
words through vocabulary exercises.
• Children’s vocabulary size approximately doubles between
grades 3 and 7.
• High school seniors near the top of their class knew about
four times as many words as their lower performing
classmates. (Smith, 1941)
Vocabulary Statistics

8. —Lack of critical thinking
—Failure to know or use comprehension
strategies
—Failure to master the standards
What are not the causes

9. — Vocabulary: Failure to grow sufficient
vocabulary
— Knowledge: Failure to develop wide
background knowledge
— Fluency: Failure to become a fluent
reader
What are the causes?

10. 10
Emphasis on Academic Vocabulary
80% of
comprehension in
nonfiction is
dependent upon
understanding the
vocabulary.
Vocabulary
knowledge influences
fluency,
comprehension, and
student achievement.
Vocabulary is likely
the most important
influence on text
complexity.
Vocabulary is one of
the primary causes of
the achievement gap.

11. — Nearly a century of research (Whipple 1925, NAEP
2013)
— Feature of complex text that likely causes greatest
difficulty (Nelson et al 2012)
— Having to determine the meaning of too many words
slows readers up; problem gets much worse with
complex text
— Not knowing words on the page is debilitating
— “30 Million Word Gap”
— After much research…
Importance of Vocabulary

12. Few people have huge
vocabularies, but are deeply
ignorant, or visa versa.
Vocabulary and Knowledge:
Two Sides of Same Coin

13. • Building vocabulary and knowledge takes
time.
• Thus, the earlier you start the better
• The later the grade, the more time you will
need to devote in order for students to catch
up
Vocabulary and Knowledge:
An Inconvenient Truth

14. 14
Image credit: Dr. Kimberly Tyson for LeraningUnlimited.LLC.com
Not All Words are Created Equal

15. 1.Definitions do the trick.
Knowing the definition is important but not enough.
Students need to know the word well enough to use
it.
— Structure and pronunciation
— Grammar
— Spelling
Misconceptions about Vocabulary
Instruction

16. 2. Weekly vocabulary lists are effective.
Memorizing a list of disconnected words and their
definitions does not support word learning1
New information has to be connected and
integrated to existing knowledge.
1 Allington, 2012; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986
Misconceptions about Vocabulary
Instruction

17. 3. Teachers should teach all hard words, especially
those printed in bold or italics.
— Students know some of the words already.
— Some words are not important enough to teach.
Not all words are created equal. Aside from
teaching the words directly, teach students to use the
glossary.
Misconceptions about Vocabulary
Instruction

18. 4. The study of Latin and Greek roots is too hard for
young learners.
Breaking down words into meaningful parts is a
great learning strategy.
Research supports effectiveness of this strategy
(roots and prefixes) in primary grades.
Misconceptions about Vocabulary
Instruction

19. Direct instruction AND learning
vocabulary in context are
necessary components of
vocabulary instruction
Instructional Implications

20. —Shades of meaning
—Spelling
—Pronunciation
—Prefixes, suffixes, roots
—Parts of speech
Direct Instruction

21. 1. Provide a description, explanation, or example of the
new term.
2. Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or
example in their own words.
3. Ask students to construct a picture, pictograph, or
symbolic representation of the term.
4. Engage students periodically in activities that help
them add to their knowledge of the terms in their
vocabulary notebooks.
5. Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one
another.
6. Involve students periodically in games that enable
them to play with terms.
Marzano Six-Steps of Vocabulary
Instruction

22. 22
Enhance reading comprehension with quick
explanations in context:
● concrete words
● single meanings
● nuanced, familiar
language
Instruction in context
“Of course my attention goes
first to the amazing bill. [...]
It’s broad at the base, and
rooted deep into the bird’s
thick-boned skull to absorb the
shock of pounding a tree.”
Hoose, P. (2004). The Race to Save
Lord God Bird. Grades 9-10.

23. 23
Teach in context and reinforce later with additional
instruction:
● abstract words
● multiple meanings
● nuanced, unfamiliar
language
Instruction in Context
“When people saw her lively
and impulsive spirit, they
thought her name, which
meant quick thinking, suited
her well.”
Lin, G. (2009). Where the
Mountain Meets the Moon.
Grades 4-5.

24. Instruction in Context

25. Modeled Response

26. — Students cannot build knowledge
and vocabulary without a high
volume of reading.
— Most words are learned through
reading or being read to.
— Building knowledge helps level
the playing field for students.

27. Close Reading Volume of Reading
Less pages More pages
Grade-level
complex text
Text at different levels
of complexity
All students
same text
Student or teacher
choice of text
Teaches students to
attend to text and to
words
Rapidly builds
knowledge & vocab
EQUALLY CRUCIAL COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE READING PROGRAM

28. Not all high-volume reading is equally
effective
— Research by Landauer and Dumais into
vocabulary acquisition shows that
students acquire vocabulary up 400%
faster when they read a series of related
texts.
— Reading a number of texts within a topic
grows knowledge and vocabulary far
faster than any other approach

29. 29
Sequence collected texts
complexity &
coherence
hook
closure

30. Vocabulary instruction
ØStudents should be active in developing their
understanding of words and ways to learn them.
semantic mapping; word sorts; concept
definition maps

31. Vocabulary instruction
ØStudents should
personalize word
learning.
Vocabulary
Self-Collection
Strategy;
mnemonic
strategies; personal
dictionaries

32. Vocabulary instruction
Ø Students should be
immersed in words
Word walls; personal
word study notebooks;
comparing/contrasting
words with same
morphemic element
(photography,
photosynthesis,
photogenic)

33. Vocabulary instruction
ØStudents should build on multiple
sources of information to learn words
through repeated exposure
seeing and hearing new words
repeatedly

34. A Tool for Identifying Vocabulary
34

36. Results from Word Finder

37. — Your enthusiasm for vocabulary
— Praise students for using vocabulary words in
written and oral expression
— Recycle “old” words…bring them back in the
instruction of “new” words.
— Favorite word wall
Promoting Word Consciousness

38. Our goal with
vocabulary is for
students to use the
vocabulary words in
“real life”, or simply to
show excitement at
the sight of a word
they’ve learned.

39. — Participants will understand the importance of
vocabulary instruction
— Participants will demonstrate ways to scaffold
and differentiate vocabulary instruction
Success Criteria
— I can identify vocabulary words worth teaching
— I can use direct instruction and in-context
methods for increasing vocabulary instruction
— I can discuss with my colleagues how
vocabulary instruction can look in my position.
Learning Targets

40. — Cara Haney
— Panther Lake Elementary
— cara.haney@kent.k12.wa.us
THANK YOU!!!!!