Jennifer GondekInstructional Specialist for Inclusive EducationTST BOCESjgondek@tstboces.org

Intervention Convention:Vocabulary

J. Gondek 2012

Participants will:

• Understand the importance of academic vocabulary in literacy development.

• Be able to describe and implement three research-based interventions to increase academic vocabulary.

• Share teacher-created interventions that have successfully improved academic vocabulary.

• Locate additional resources for further support.

Session Objectives

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• Vocabulary should be taught both directly and indirectly.

• Repetition and multiple exposures are important.

• Learning in rich contexts is valuable.

• Students should be actively engaged in learning tasks.*

• Dependence on a single instructional method will not result in optimal learning.

The Research

National Reading Panel, 2000, pp 4-27J. Gondek 2012

J. Gondek 2012

The Matthew Effect

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• 2,000 high-frequency words encompass approximately 87% of words in text.

• 500-800 academic words make up 10% of academic text.

• 1,000-2,000 discipline specific words constitute most of the remainder.

Which Words Should we Teach?

Biemiller, 2009; Nation, 1990

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How do we classify Tier 1, 2, and 3 words?Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

• most basic words•Rarely require instruction•Familiar to native English speakersEX: happy, baby, clock

•High frequency for mature language users•Found across domains•Subtle differences in meaningEX: coincidence, absurd, industrious, fortunate

•Low frequency•Specific to a particular domain•Best learned when a need arisesEX: isotope, peninsula, circumference

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• Importance and Utility: Words that are characteristic of mature language users and appear frequently across a variety of domains.

• Instructional potential: Words that can be worked with in a variety of ways so that students can build rich representations of them and their connections to other words and concepts.

• Conceptual Understanding: Words for which students understand the general concept but provide precision and specificity in describing the concept.

Criteria for Identifying Tier 2 Words:

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What does it mean to really know a word?

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Stage 1: Never saw it before.

Stage 2: Heard it, but doesn’t know what it means.

Stage 3: Recognizes it in context as having something to do with ________.

Stage 4: Knows it well.

Four Stages of Word Knowledge

Dale (1965)

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Word Know it Well

Know Something About It

Have seen or head the word

Do not know the word

tyranny

surreptitious

grapnel

purport

sensitive

dubious

You Try It:

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A Continuum of Word Knowledge

No knowledge

A vague sense of the meaning

Narrow knowledge with aid of context

Good knowledge but shaky recall

Rich, decontextualized knowledge,connected to other word meanings

Sharon Walpole, University of Delaware

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Fairbanks (1986) found three key characteristics of effective vocabulary programs for mainstream education, which remain the gold standard for effective instruction:

• They provide definitional and contextual information.

• They teach in-depth meaning of words; and

• They provide multiple repetitions or exposures to new words.

Effective Vocabulary Instruction:

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• giving words out of context and asking student to look up meanings in a dictionary;

• doing speeded trials with individual words;

• completing word mazes;

• teaching words as an alternative label when they represent new and challenging concepts;

• teaching spelling rather than vocabulary;

• assuming that contextual clues are enough to yield precise word meanings.

Effective Vocabulary Instruction is NOT:

(Graves, 2006)

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1. Introducing word meanings

2. Increasing depth of word meaning

3. Expanding words to new contexts

4. Providing prompts and supports

Keyword strategy

Visual organizers

Explicit Vocabulary Intervention:

(Steele & Mills, 2011)

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Dialogic Reading (DR)

“One promising research-based strategy is dialogic reading (DR), which is an interactive picture-book reading technique developed in the late 1980s by Whitehurst and colleagues (Whitehurst et al., 1988).”

-Flynn, 2011

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• Provide language models.

• Ask questions to encourage the child to expand his or her language.

• Provide feedback to the child on his or her language or vocabulary choices.

• Elicit sophisticated language from the child.

• Reflects the interests of the child.

Essential Elements of DR

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Dialogic Reading• Teacher facilitates language through a series of prompts

• Teacher shares the book a minimum of 3 times, with 3 levels of questioning. (Can share up to 5-6 times)

WHOLE CLASS:1. Before Reading: Teacher gives a preview of book and 10-20

illustrations that represent age-appropriate vocabulary.2. Teacher introduces book through a typical shared reading

approach.3. Teacher reads book aloud, asking questions about a targeted

illustration.

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Dialogic ReadingSMALL GROUP MEETINGS:1. After initial book introduction, teacher meets with small group for:

Level 1- Introduce targeted vocabulary words and facilitates language by asking attribute and function questions “What’s this?” “What color is it?”

Level 2- Students practice new vocabulary with longer responses. Teacher asks open-ended questions “What do you see on this page?” “What’s happening here?”. The teacher uses expansions to model and as a teaching tool. (No higher-level questions or predicting here!)

Level 3- Students relate knowledge to experience. Teacher facilitates discussions about experiences. Teacher can expand comprehension through higher-level questions about the illustrations, plot, or events.

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• Activate student background knowledge

• Develop a better understanding of the underlying concepts

• Depth of knowledge of words and concepts

• Effective to teach GROUPS of words related to a topic

Semantic Approaches

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The graphic display contains sections in which the student writes the word, its definition (‘what is this?’), additional details that extend its meaning (‘What is it like?’), as well as a listing of examples and ‘non-examples’ (e.g., terms that are the opposite of the target vocabulary word).

Mapping

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1.Brainstorming

2.Mapping

3.Reading

4.Reviewing the map.

Semantic Mapping Sequence:

http://powerupwhatworks.com/Content/render/Reading_vocabulary_semanticMapping

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A target vocabulary term is selected for analysis in this grid-like graphic display. Possible features or properties of the term appear along the top margin, while examples of the term are listed ion the left margin. The student considers the vocabulary term and its definition. Then the student evaluates each example of the term to determine whether it does or does not match each possible term property or element.

Semantic Feature Analysis

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Vocabulary Term: Transportation

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From Assess Well

Based on Biehmiller’s The Living Word Vocabulary

• http://school.gogpg.com/CoreLexica/LivingWordVocabulary/tabid/239/Default.aspx

Assessing Vocabulary

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Interactive Book Reading

Vadasy & Nelson, 2012

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1. Introduce Vocabulary

2. Read the storybook

PromptEvaluateExpandRepeat

3. Ask reflection questions

Interactive Book Reading

Vadasy & Nelson, 2012

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Repeated Interactive Read-Aloud

1. Book Introduction2. Vocabulary Support (~5-10) to discuss during reading

• Unfamiliar• Critical• Tier 2

3. Analytical comments and questions (main character & plot)4. Post-reading “why” questions

Day One

Vadasy & Nelson, 2012

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Repeated Interactive Read-Aloud

1. Additional Vocabulary Support during reading on targeted words

2. Analytical comments and questions (inferences, details)

3. Post-reading “why” questions. Teacher evaluates and expands on student responses.

Day Two

Vadasy & Nelson, 2012

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Repeated Interactive Read-Aloud

1. Ask students about title and characters.2. Ask WH- question prompts about characters and

events to help them reconstruct key aspects of the story.

3. Re-read and continue to discuss key vocabulary with additional explanations and definitions. Extend word meanings to contexts out of the story.

Day Three

Vadasy & Nelson, 2012

Reviewing Vocabulary:1.Word AssociationsWhich word goes with “crook”?2. Have You Ever…?Describe a time you might urge someone.3. Applause, Applause!Clap (a lot, little, not at all) if you would like to be

described as vain. Why?4. Idea CompletionsThe skiing teacher said Maria was a novice on the

slopes because…(Beck, McKeowan, & Kucan, 2002)J. Gondek 2012

From Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency by Fountas & Pinnell, 2006

Reviewing Vocabulary (Older) :

1. Facets of word meaningbanter

A husband and wife argue about what to have for dinner

A husband and wife kid each other about who ate more at dinner.

2. Word AssociationsCould a virtuoso be a rival?

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Screening and Progress Monitoring

1. DIBELS Word Use Fluency (WUF)2. Vocabulary Matching3. CBM Maze (proxy)

“Currently, in contrast to a number of well-developed CMB screening and progress monitoring probes in reading, math and written language for elementary students, there appears to be only one technically adequate CBM screening and progress monitoring measure available to “directly assess” students’ vocabulary growth.” (Vadasy & Nelson, 2012, pg. 128)