VOCABULARY STRATEGIES

FOR ALL STUDENTS

What every teacher can do to help students improve academic

vocabulary

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

Research shows a student in the 50th percentile in

terms of ability to comprehend the subject matter taught in school, with no direct vocabulary instruction, scores in the

50th percentile ranking.

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

The same student, after specific content-area

terms have been taught, raises his/her

comprehension ability to the 83rd percentile.

CONSIDER THIS…

Background knowledge is more important to the understanding of reading than IQ.

CONSIDER THIS…

Vocabulary instruction in specific content-area

terms builds up student’s background knowledge in content

area

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION It is not necessary for all vocabulary

terms to be directly taught.

Yet, direct instruction of vocabulary has been proven to make an impact.

OXFORD CLASSIFICATION OF LLS (1990)

Language Learning

Strategies

Direct Instruction

Memory Strategies

Cognitive Strategies

Compensation Strategies

Indirect Instruction

Metacognitive Strategies

Affective Strategies

Social Strategies

NEW WORDS PER DAY

How many new words does a LEP or low SES student need to learn EACH DAY in order to catch up to a general education student?

NEW WORDS

17 words per day

or

3000 words per school

year

OWNING IT!

How many times must a student interact with a

word before they “own” it?

OWNING IT!

24 times

SCHEMA

Information is connected and

retained in the brain through “mental

pathways” that are linked to an individual’s

existing schema.

STRATEGIES

Learning Strategies are special thoughts or

behaviors that individuals use to help

them comprehend, learn, or retain new

information.

SELF REGULATING STRATEGIES

Teaching students a variety self regulating strategies improves student learning and

reading.

STAAR The expectation is Metacognition - not

fact regurgitation

More academic & content vocabulary

Greater depth of science content

More “thinking” steps

Must look for best, worst, NOT, etc.

METACOGNITION

We must help our student think about their thinking

We must directly teach them how to do this

ALL teachers need to know and use these techniques

THINK ABOUT YOUR CLASS Picture a class or a group that you gave

a task to but they felt unprepared for it Picture individual students within the

class or group Now think…

What were they doing when you asked them to do something that they don’t know how to do or have never experienced before?

What did they say (word for word in quotes)?

How do you think they were feeling?How were they acting?

THINK ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS

My students

Doing “Saying”

Feeling Acting

VOCABULARY STRATEGIES Vocabulary strategies are good for all

students: LEP, Low SES, students in the Special Education program, GT, general education

Compiled from several conferences presented by Region 10

Researched based

WHERE DO I START?

Polysemous Words

What??? Words with multiple meanings These words must be taught explicitly They cross content areas, even Fine Arts These words cause breakdowns in

understanding on standardized tests

EXAMPLES

The judge asked the defendant to approach the bar.

The man sat in the restaurant’s bar.

He bought a bar of soap.

EXAMPLES

Mary walked along the bank of the river.

Harbor Bank is the richest bank in the city.

POLYSEMOUS WORDSHow many meanings can you come up with for the word:

Measure

SCIENCE - MEASURE

MATH - MEASURE

MUSIC - MEASURE

ELAR - MEASURE

SOCIAL STUDIES- MEASURE

The judge ruled using the full measure of

the law.

ART VOCABULARY

The museum’s Impressionist exhibit didn’t measure up to last year’s.

ACTIVITIES VS. STRATEGIES Activities don’t encourage

Metacognition

Strategies are:

Taught at a very young agePerfected throughout rest of your lifeApplicable across the curriculum and

contents Looking for patterns Graphing Using roots, prefixes, & suffixes

PREFIXESPrefix Meaning % of All

Prefixed WordsExample

un not; reversal of 26 uncover

re again, back, really 14 review

in / im in, into, not 11 insert

dis away, apart, negative

7 discover

en / em in; within; on 4 entail

mis wrong 3 mistaken

pre before 3 prevent

a not; in, on; without

1 atypical

un-, re-, in- (not) account for 51% of total

un-, re-, in- (not), dis- account for 58% of total

SUFFIXESSuffix Meaning % of All

Suffixed Words

Example

-s, -es more than one; verb marker

31 characters, reads, reaches

-ed in the past; quality, state

20 walked

-ing when you do something; quality, state

14walking

-ly how something is

7 safely

-er, -or one who, what, that, which

4 drummer

-tion, -sion state, quality; act

4 action, mission

-able, -ible able to be 2 disposable, reversible-al, -ial related to, like 1 final, partial

-s, -es, & -ing account for 65% of suffixed words

10 suffixes account for 85% of suffixed words:-s, -es, -ing, -er,

-ion, -able, -al, -y, -ness, & -ly

STRATEGY #1Objectives

ContentYou are already doing these well!

Language – based on the ELPSReadingWritingSpeakingListening

STRATEGY #2Use sentence frames to scaffold students’

use of academic vocabulary:

Plants use ________ to make food.

________is the process by which plants make _______from light, water, nutrients,

and carbon dioxide.

This gives them confidence to answer questions when they otherwise wouldn’t. Post generic frames around

room for students to use.

STRATEGY #3Use analogy sentence frame for the

academic word:

Example:The word ____ is related to ______

when…

The word measure is related to music when…

The word measure is related to science when…

STRATEGY #3 CONT.Older students can do more in depth

analogies with a relating factor:

_____ is to ______ and ______ is to ______.

Relating Factor: ____________

EX: Bird is to fly as fish is to _____Relating Factor: mode of transportation

STRATEGY #4Word Meaning #1 Meaning #2

notes Musical symbols that tell me what to play on my instrument

Writing down what the teacher says in my notebook so I can study it later

Shade A color produced by adding black to a pigment

A piece of fabric you pull down over the window or put in your windshield to block out the sun

Call The time established for the actors to report to the theater before a performance

When I say my dog’s name because I want him to come to me

STRATEGY #5 - 4 FOLD VOCABULARYIn this activity, students fold their papers into rows of 4 sections each. The number of row can relate to the number of words to be studied. In the first section, the student writes the word. In the 2nd section, the student writes a definition of the word in their

own words. In the 3rd section, the student draws a picture or symbol to represent

the word. In the 4th section, the student writes a sentence with the word based

on their definition. Students fold the paper and keep as notes.

Word Definition Picture Sentence

beat a steady succession of rhythm

The beat of music is measured in BPM.

STRATEGY #5 What do you see?

Show a picture of the word or concept you are teaching

Cover ½ or more of the picture

Ask students to use their vocabulary to describe what they think the picture is

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

COGNITIVE DICTIONARY Introduce new vocabulary

Done with only the most academic demanding words

ELPS learning strategy

Done over two days for best learning

Metacognitive strategy – helps students think about their thinking

Word Prediction Meaning/Sketch

Sentence

Give them a word that is used in your content area…ask them to predict what the word means without looking the word up

Ask each groups to tell you their predictions…write all their predictions in this column

then…

After the lesson, have groups decide on a definition and draw a visual representation

Add the sentence each group writes using the word, sentence should contain context clues to define the word

Do these on day one Do these on day two

Strategies 1)2)3)4)5)

After each group makes a prediction…ask them HOW they got their prediction, i.e., knew the suffix, same root as another word, knew the word in Spanish, etc. Help them put it in academic terms and write it down.

Keep these posted in your class and refer back to them to help students think about their thinking! Strategies need to be applied across the curriculum.

MULTIPLE REPRESENTATIONS

1. Teacher tells students what the word means.

2. Teacher draws a picture or symbol for the word.

3. Student uses own words to tell what the word means.

4. Student draws or shows his/her own picture or symbol for the word.

5. Student makes connections to the word in writing or orally.

6. Student shares the word with others.

STRATEGY #6

Pictionary with a twist Give student the target word Student draws a picture to elicit the

word BUT the student is explaining the

picture they are drawing using academic vocabulary

The class tries to guess the word Students are practicing using academic

vocabulary in a safe environment

STRATEGY #Marzano’s Building Academic

VocabularyDescribe

the term in kid friendly language

Students restate

description in their

own words

Students engage the

word through an activity: take word

apart, look for root, etc

Discuss terms with each other – tell how the word is relevant in their

own lives

Play games with words

THE KEY:

REPETITION

Students construct a picture…MOST

important step, a symbol only that means

something to them

WORD PARTS

Port-to move

transport

importexport

portable

Give the root word. Ask the students to come up with words that use the root but that they see in other content area classes.

NIFTY THRIFTY FIFTYantifreeze beautiful classify

communities community composer

continuous conversation deodorize

different discovery dishonest

electricity employee encouragement

expensive forecast forgotten

governor happiness hopeless

illegal impossible impression

independence international invasion

irresponsible midnight misunderstand

musician nonliving overpower

performance prehistoric prettier

rearrange replacement richest

semifinal signature submarine

supermarkets swimming transportation

underweight unfinished unfriendly

unpleasant valuable

NIFTY THRIFTY FIFTY The Nifty Thrifty Fifty store of words

contain common roots, prefixes and suffixes.

To help students learn a system for decoding and spelling big words, they learn to read, spell and understand common spelling patterns of the following 50 words.

Once students know the spelling patterns of these words, they can apply that knowledge to help them to spell and build meaning for many other words.

NIFTY THRIFT FIFTY Patricia Cunningham writes that for each

Nifty Thrifty Fifty word a reader knows, she or he can read at least 7 more words.

That means that by mastering the Nifty Thrifty Fifty words listed, students can use at least 350 additional words when reading and writing.

I’M THINKING OF A WORD… Students try to guess which word you

are thinking of from the word wall or set of vocabulary words

You give clues to help them guess

They must write down a word after each clue even if they write the same word each time

I’M THINKING OF A WORDClue #1: Write down the word I am thinking

(don’t give any additional info – they write down any word from the word wall)

Clue #2: Give a feature of the word, i.e. it has a prefix (don’t tell them what the prefix it is)

Clue #3: Give another feature of the word, i.e. it has 3 syllables

Clue #4: Give a definition or description of the word

Clue #5: Give a clue that would make it impossible to miss the word, i.e. it starts with the letter…

I’M THINKING OF A WORD Other ideas for features

A synonymAn antonymDefinition of the rootDefinition of the prefixDefinition of the suffixHow the word relates to another wordA picture or symbol expressing the word

I’M THINKING OF A WORD…

________________Target Word

_________________Clue #1

_________________Clue #2

_________________Clue #3

_________________Clue #4

ROOT WORDSRoot Science Math History

Geo (earth) geography geometry geography

path (feeling) pathology empathyPathos

VERBAL-VISUAL WORD ASSOCIATION No longer the Frayer Model Make personal connection

Vocabulary Term Personal Association

(they must connect the word to themselves or something they already know in order to learn it)

Definition

(students write the definition in their own words)

Non-example

(must be relevant, I tell the students to think about the thing that is opposite of the vocabulary term)

I have the students write the definition in the vocabulary term box and write a sentence in the definition box.

WORD WARM-UPConversational Academic

error

underground

smell

elect

draw

tariff

grief

worry

shape

independent

purchase

down

enemy

SENTENCE PATTERNING CHART Helps teach syntax Basic pattern of sentences Nouns must be plural Color code words Have kids stand up to do this Use words and sing to “Farmer in the

Dell”

SENTENCE PATTERNING CHARTAdjectives Noun Verb Adverb Preposition

al Phrase

Brainstorm multiple words for each category As a group, choose:

2 adjectives 1 noun 1 verb 1 adverb 1 prepositional phrase

This can be the best laugh you will have all week!

TEXAS TWO STEP Use as review of key concepts

Students use a notecard and write a question about a word on the word wall

Students line up facing each other in a lineOne student asks his/her question, trying to

elicit the correct answerThe other student does the same1 person moves to the end of the line (with

Conga or country music)Do the same process with a new partner

until they get through all the words

FAMILY FEUD

To review vocabulary you have been practicing

RELATING FACTOR Each group gets one bubble or

relationship map. Take a vocabulary words you are

working on and write it in the center of the map.

Each person in the group (at the same time) writes how the word relates to the book, paragraph, idea, concept, etc. in the bubble or space closest to them.

Each person in the group then explains what they wrote, justifying their answer.

RELATING FACTOR CONT.

Academic Word

relating factor

relating factor

relating factor

relating factor

NEW USAGE OF FAMILIAR WORDS Put students into small groups. Provide a vocabulary word you have already discussed

(in context) Ask each group to write 5 sentences using the

vocabulary word. Word cannot be used in the way they already learned it

for your lesson. Example: strike 1. I strike the match against the bottom of my shoe.2. The factory workers went on strike for better benefits and hours.3. Strike up the band!4. I was so angry I had to stop myself from striking her.5. Draw a strike through the wrong answers.

POSSIBLE SENTENCEThis is a relatively simple strategy for teaching word meanings and generating considerable class discussion. The teacher chooses six to eight words

from the text that may pose difficulty for students. These words are usually key concepts in the text.

Next, the teacher chooses four to six words that students are more likely to know something about.

The list of ten to twelve words is put on the board. The teacher provides brief definitions as needed.

POSSIBLE SENTENCES INC. Students are challenged to devise

sentences that contain two or more words from the list.

All sentences that students come up with, both accurate and inaccurate are listed and discussed.

Students now read the selection. After reading, revisit the Possible

Sentences and discuss whether they could be true based on the passage or how they could be modified to true.

Stahl8 reported that Possible Sentences significantly improved both students' overall recall of word meanings and their comprehension of text containing those words. Interestingly, this was true when compared to a control group and when compared to Semantic Mapping.

http://www.phschool.com/eteach/language_arts/2002_03/essay.html

EXCLUSION BRAINSTORMING Make a list of words from the unit you

are studying. Add words that do not belong to the

unit. Ask the students to determine which

words should be excluded.

WALK UP AND TOUCH ITGame to reinforce content vocabulary Write content vocabulary words on sentence strips

or large pieces of paper and stick them to the walls, bookshelves, etc. around the room.

Have the words, definitions, parts of speech, and unit name/number written on note cards.

Use the cards to read the definition of a vocabulary word to the teams.

The students standing at the line have 10 seconds to find the vocabulary word and “touch it” after you finish reading the definition.

If no one touches the correct vocabulary word in 10 seconds, the students 2nd in line from each group get a chance to find the word.

WORD FORM CHARTNoun Verb Adjective Adverb

AccuracyInaccuracy

 

  AccurateInaccurate

AccuratelyInaccurately

Prediction Predict PredictableUnpredictabl

e 

Predictably 

Production Produce ProductiveUnproductive

 

ProductivelyUnproductive

ly

DependenceIndependenc

e 

Depend(on/upon)

DependentIndependent

 

Symptom   SymptomaticAsymptomati

c 

 

PLACEMAT AND ROUND ROBIN Form participants into groups of four. Allocate one piece of printer paper or butcher

paper to each group. Ask each group to draw the diagram on the paper. The outer spaces are for each participant to write

their thoughts about the topic. Conduct a ‘Round Robin’ so that each participant

can share his or her views. The circle in the middle of the paper is to note

down (by the nominated scribe) the common points made by each participant.

Each group then reports the common points to the whole group.