Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Making Vocabulary Relevant (and fun!)

for High School StudentsBy Caroline Baas

“Teaching specific terms in a specific way is probably the strongest action a teacher can take to ensure that students have the academic background knowledge they need to understand the content they will encounter in

school.”

-Robert J. Marzano (2005)

Why Teach Vocabulary?• Increases student word-base• Enables students to make connections across the

curriculum and across disciplines• Gives students a contextual foundation for concepts

they encounter inside and outside of the classroom by increasing their background knowledge

• Bolsters content knowledge (Marzano, 2005)• Provides systematic instruction – particularly to

students who do not come from academically advantaged backgrounds (Marzano, 2005)

“Helping students to develop a strong reading vocabulary requires more than having them look up words in a dictionary. Rather, students need instruction that will help them acquire new word knowledge and develop strategies to

enable them to increase the depth of that knowledge over time.”

-Texas Education Agency’s “Texas Reading Initiative” (2002)

The Wrong Way to Teach Vocabulary• Giving students a large number of vocabulary

words to memorize at one time• Asking students to “memorize” instead of “learn”

the definitions of vocabulary words• Giving students no learning strategies for

vocabulary mastery• Solely asking students to use a dictionary to learn

vocabulary words (TEA, 2002)• Including too complicated definitions or

definitions that include jargon or additional challenging words

• Ignoring vocabulary words until formal vocabulary assessment

A Better Way to Teach Vocabulary

• Create a vocabulary routine in your classroom:– Teach a group of new, relevant vocabulary

words each Monday– Create a review or expansion activity to do

each Wednesday– Give a vocabulary assessment each Friday– A great way to fit this routine into regular class

time is to do address vocabulary first on each of these days and then move onto regular classroom activities

• Give students a manageable amount of words each week:– Anywhere between 5 and 7 words per week is

suggested by most vocabulary experts.– According to the Education Development

Center (2008), teachers should focus “On a small number of important words”.

– Giving students groups of related words can help to further deepen concepts you are covering during instruction (EDC, 2008).

• Appeal to multiple learning styles:– Teach new vocabulary in a way that appeals to auditory,

visual, kinesthetic, and all other learning styles.• Collect and assess initial vocabulary

understandings and make corrections promptly:– A good idea is to collect vocabulary charts, correct

them, and hand them back before students leave for the day.

– A good activity to build into vocabulary days – especially in English classes – is “choice novel” reading. Students can transition from vocabulary into choice novel reading, which enables the teacher to correct vocabulary charts as students read.

• Build in expansion activities to use and practice vocabulary between initial instruction and assessment

• Pictionary• Flyswatter

– Words are written on board prior to class; teacher reads definition aloud and two students on competing teams (each with flyswatters) try to be the first to “swat” the correct word.

• Charades• Grammar Punk

• Fill in the blank• Mad-Libs• Songs• Categorize the words• Jeopardy• Wheel of Fortune• PowerPoint Presentations• Matching• Hangman• Synonyms/Antonyms

• Provide students with strategies and opportunities to learn and recognize words and their meanings in various contexts:– Discuss word beginnings (prefixes) and word endings

(suffixes) and how they connect to other related words students may already know

– Make a “big deal” about vocabulary words when you come across them during instruction

– Encourage students to find vocabulary words outside of school and share these experiences with the class

Initially Teaching Vocabulary Words• Adapted from Robert Marzano’s Building

Academic Vocabulary (2005), simple steps can be used to teach vocabulary initially:

1. Provide a description or explanation of each new term both verbally and visually

2. Give several examples of how each term can be used in a sentence

3. Ask students to compose their own sentences using each term

4. Ask students to draw a visual representation of each term’s meaning.

*As this process occurs, students are filling in their ownvocabulary charts (coming up!)

Why a Visual Representation?• As previously mentioned, effective vocabulary

routines integrate strategies that represent multiple learning styles.

• In addition, brain research shows that “When you ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representation of a term, they are forced to think of the term in a totally different way…Pictures […] require students to process information in nonlinguistic ways” (Marzano, 2005, p. 21).

• While most students come to really enjoy creating visual representations (and even say it’s their favorite part of the vocabulary routine), they may seem apprehensive at first. Some suggestions:– Model visual representations (and every part of the

vocabulary process) each time you teach a new set of words. (Marzano, 2005)

– Reassure students that they need not be great artists for the visuals – as long as the meaning of the word is represented, the visual is valuable to understanding and memory.

– If you are not artistically gifted, showing your vulnerabilities in creating visuals can help students to feel more comfortable with their own depictions.

Basic Vocabulary ChartName__________________________________________ Week_______________________________

THIS WEEK’S WORDSVocabulary word and definition Sentence using this word Visual representation

Part of speech: (ex: noun) _______________

Part of speech: (ex: noun) _______________

Part of speech: (ex: noun) _______________

Vocabulary Chart – Variation 1

Sentence

Definition

Part of Speech

Reminder Word

Picture

Sentence

Definition

Part of Speech

Reminder Word

PictureV-Pods

Vocabulary Chart – Variation 2Term Definition Sentence

Part of Speech

PictureRemindingWord

Term Definition Sentence

Part of Speech

PictureRemindingWord

Term Definition Sentence

Part of Speech

PictureRemindingWord

Term Definition Sentence

Part of Speech

PictureRemindingWord

Vocabulary Chains

Vocabulary Chart – Variation 3

Sentence

Part of Speech Definition

Symbol/Picture Reminder Word

Sentence

Part of Speech Definition

Symbol/Picture Reminder Word

Word Word

Vocabulary Squares

Student Sample

Continued on next slide

FAQ’s

• Is spending so much time on vocabulary appropriate?– Yes! According to Marzano (2005), students’

knowledge about a topic depends on their knowledge of topic context, such as relevant terms!

– “The more students understand these terms, the easier it is for them to understand information they may read or hear about the topic” (Marzano, 2005, p. 2).

FAQ’s

• Isn’t creating visuals of the vocabulary words a little “young” for high school students?– Not at all. Even though some students may at first

seem apprehensive, creating a visual representation usually proves to be an activity most students enjoy. In addition, assessment scores will be much higher because of the visuals.

FAQ’s

• How do I choose relevant vocabulary words to use?– Marzano (2005) suggests creating a list of important-

to-know terms from each unit of study.• Words from relevant texts, test language, conceptual words,

etc.

– These terms can then be introduced and practiced before or during the unit in which they appear.

– Teachers of the same classes and content areas should work together to solidify a common list of vocabulary words.

References

• Cartoon Bank. Google Images. http://www.tnellen.com/pics/whatever.gif

• Education Development Center, Inc. (2008). Teachers: Content Literacy. Retrieved from: http://www.literacymatters.org/content/readandwrite/vocab.htm

• Marzano, R. J. (2005). Building Academic Vocabulary: Teacher’s Manual. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

• Texas Reading Initiative. (2002). Promoting Vocabulary Development: Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction. Texas Education Agency.