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.

1 95

Adapted from Dale, Rasband, Ross, Gardner, & Cunningham, 2004

• 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……

1. 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.

2. Do not use the dictionary as punishment.

3. 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 InstructionDirect 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

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 Sortscold 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 h

unting

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 dioxid

e

Oxyg

en

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 bathFour 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.

Definition Characteristics

Non-ExamplesExamples

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-ExamplesExamples

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

DefinitionDefinition Based

on ContextContext Clues

Used

hiss

exoskeleton

Vulnerability

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 AnalysisConvex Equilateral Equiangular 4 sided Opposite

sides parallel

square x x x x x

rectangle x x x x

triangle x

quadrilateral x

Regular

polygonx x x

rhombus x x x x

trapezoid x x

Your Turn

VVWA (Verbal & Visual Word Association) Readence, Bean, &

Baldwin, 2001Term 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

Churchbombing

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 asituation

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!