Primary Literacy Project February 19, 2009

Kathleen Cooke

kathcooke2003@yahoo.com

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

It is clear that a large and rich vocabulary is the hallmark of an educated individual.

(Beck, I. Bringing Words to Life, 2002)

The Bottom Line…

The problem is that there are profound differences in vocabulary knowledge among learners from different ability or socioeconomic (SES) groups, from toddlers through high school.

The issue…

First-grade children from higher SES groups knew twice as many words as lower SES children. (Graves & Slater, 1987)

3-year-olds from professional families use more extensive vocabulary than parents in low income families.

(Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, 1995.)

HART AND RISLEY RESEARCH Over a 2.5 year period, these researchers

recorded naturally occurring conversations in the homes of professional, working class, and welfare families with young children. There was a difference of almost 300 words spoken per hour between professional and welfare parents. The professional families' children at age 3 actually had a larger recorded vocabulary than the welfare families' parents..

Teachers must make effective vocabulary instruction a high priority in the educational system.

What can teachers do?

Research shows that learning new words in context does occur, but in very small increments.

◦ Out of 100 unfamiliar words met in reading, 5–15 of them will be learned (Nagy, 1985).

◦ Students must read widely to encounter lots of words, but students in need of vocabulary instruction do not engage in wide reading (Kucan & Beck, 1996).

USING THE CONTEXT TO FIGURE OUT MEANINGS OF WORDS

Most authors want to tell a story, not convey the meaning of set words in a story.

Many struggling readers don’t read well enough to effectively get word meanings from context.

Depending on wide reading as a source of vocabulary growth leaves at-risk students with a serious deficit.

THE PROBLEM WITH CONTEXT

Research shows that students learn 3-20 words a day for an average of 7 words per day.At-risk students are learning less than 1-2 words per day or none at all.

But there are too many words in the English language to teach!

Not all words call for attention (Beck,2001).

Beck suggests teaching 400 words per year.

Three Tiers of Vocabulary Words

(Beck, 2002)

Rarely require instructional attention. Consist of basic words.

EXAMPLES: baby, clock, happy, walk, jump, hop,slide, girl, boy, dog

Tier One Words

Tier Three words are made up of words whose frequency of use is quite low and often limited to specific domains.

Examples: isotope, lathe, photosynthesis, etc.

These words are best learned when a specific need arises, such as content area instruction.

Tier Three Words

Tier Two words contain words that occur frequently and across a variety of domains.

o Rich knowledge of words in this tier can have a powerful impact on verbal functioning.

o Tier Two words offer students more precise or mature ways of referring to ideas they already know.

Tier Two Words

Work with a partner.Read the paragraph and identify Tier Two

words. Make a list of your words and define them

in student friendly terms.

Teacher Activity

Read the following third-fourth grade paragraph. Johnny Harrington was a kind master who treated

his servants fairly. He was also a successful wool merchant, and his business required he travel often. While he was gone, his servants would tend to the fields and maintain the upkeep of his mansion. They performed their duties happily, for they felt fortunate to have such a benevolent and trusting master.(Kohnke, 2001)

Tier Two Words Practice

A word that cannot be explained in known terms for the students.

For example, even kindergarteners can apply and understand the word “nuisance” to describe a disruptive classmate, whereas “portage” is not worth a lot of instructional time spent in primary classrooms.

What Makes a Word Inappropriate for Instruction?

Vocabulary instruction must be “robust”- vigorous, strong, and powerful in effect.

A robust approach to vocabulary instruction involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought-provoking, interactive follow-up.

The operative principle for effective vocabulary instruction

Choose 3-4 new words to teach. These words must be unfamiliar, but the concept represented by each word is one that children understand and could use in conversation.

Read the story, discuss it, and wrap it up. Return to the story for vocabulary instruction. (If a word is needed to understand the story, stop and briefly

explain it during reading.)

Bringing Words to Life (Beck, 2002)

USING READ-ALOUDS (Trade Books) FOR VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION (K-2)

1. Read the story.2. Contextualize the word within the story.3. Have children say the word.4. Provide a student-friendly explanation of the

word.5. Present examples of the word used in contexts

different from the story context.6. Engage children in activities that get them to

interact with the words.7. Have children say the word again.

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE FOR READ-ALOUDS

Beck, 2002, pp. 63 ff.

EXAMPLE FROM BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE

THREE FEATURES: Frequent encounters with words Richness of instruction Extension of word use beyond the

classroom

INSTRUCTION IN LATER GRADES

1. Brief explanation of new word.2. Non-linguistic representation of new word.3. Students come up with own explanation or

description of new word.4. Students create own nonlinguistic

representation of new word.5. Review and revisit explanations and

representations.

FIVE STEP PROCESS (Marzano, R. Classroom Instruction That Works, 2001)

Use knowledge of stages of language development to plan instruction and select materials.

Encourage parents to read to their children in their home language.

Provide frequent opportunities to use oral language, both conversational and academic language.

WHAT ABOUT ENGLISH LEARNERS?

Introduce about 10 words per week. Present activities around the words daily. By end of the week, each word will have

been the focus of attention some 8-10 times.

Also include words from previous weeks in the activities so those words are maintained.

FREQUENCY

Getting students actively involved in using and thinking about word meanings and creating lots of associations among words.

Begin with the kind of word introduction from the K-mid 2nd grade instructional sequence, providing a student-friendly explanation.

Students keep log sheets of the words and meanings in a vocabulary notebook.

RICHNESS

Throughout the week, provide opportunities for students to:

Use the words. Explore facets of word meaning. Consider relationships among words.

RICHNESS (cont.)

Students create uses for words to ensure that the word is an active part of their vocabularies. So…

Engage students in talking about situations a word would describe.

Have students consider instances when the word would be an appropriate choice.

STUDENTS’ USE OF WORDS

Use knowledge of stages of language development to plan instruction and select materials.

Encourage parents to read to their children in their home language.

Provide frequent opportunities to use oral language, both conversational and academic language.

WHAT ABOUT ENGLISH LEARNERS?

Beck, 2002, pp. 72 ff.

EXAMPLES FROM BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE

OTHER IDEAS

Students gain points by bringing in evidence of hearing, seeing, or using target words outside the classroom.

Kids in Beck’s participating classrooms went wild with this!

Even students’ fabrications accomplished the purposes of the activity.

WORD WIZARD

Word Associations: Associating a known word with a newly learned word reinforces the meaning of the word.

WORD ASSOCIATIONS

• Not synonyms• Students must develop a relationship

between the new word and known word for learning to occur.

“Accomplice” and the known word “crook” can be tied together by a student stating, “An accomplice helps a crook.”

For example,

NOTE: Students must explain their reasoning in

order to process the new word association.

Students are asked to “Describe a time when you might (urge, banter, commend, etc.) someone.”

Describe an animal that is (dangerous, carnivorous, etc.)

Describe a time when you felt (fortunate, ecstatic, etc.)

HAVE YOU EVER…?

Students are asked to “clap” to indicate how much they would like to be described by the target word. (Examples: vain, stern, regal, etc.)

APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE!

Provide students with “sentence stems” that require them to integrate a word’s meaning into a context to explain the word, e.g.,◦I knew he was a novice at skiing

because……◦Kim called Juan a coward when…

IDEA COMPLETIONS

crying sobbingwailing grievinghowling weepingsniveling bawling

(Shades of meaning)

WORD SCALING

How much energy does it take to…◦ Embrace a teddy bear?◦ Flex your little finger?◦ Beckon to someone for five straight hours?

WORD LINES

SEMANTIC FEATURE ANALYSIS

Can a clown be sad? Can a police officer be a criminal? Can a villain be a philanthropist? Can someone recover from a fatal injury? Can toddlers avoid getting the cold?

(For practice and assessment)

YES/NO-WHY?

Word Pair Same Opposite Go Together

No Relation

admire/likedisappointed/gladcoward/kindvillain/accomplice

WORD PAIR ANALYSIS

UNIQUE EXTRAORDINARYMONOTONOUS PECULIAR

“There’s nothing like it in the world!” “It’s fantastic! Better than I could have

imagined!” “That was a weird one.” “It went on and on, the same thing over and

over.”

OVERHEARD CONVERSATIONS

1. Asking, “Does anybody know what _____ means?”

2. Having students look it up in a typical dictionary.

3. Having students use the word in a sentence after #2.

4. Copying each word several times.5. Word searches, fill in the blank, etc. – no deep

processing6. Rote memorization without context7. Incidental (vs. intentional) teaching of words

LESS EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

A walk through your handouts

YOUR TURN