Teaching and Assessing Vocabulary Development

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Teaching and Assessing Vocabulary Development

• Chapter 9 Presentation
• EDRG 6350
• Amy Sorensen

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Vocabulary Development

• Most children acquire a vocabulary of over 10,000
  words during the first five years of their life.
• Most school children learn between 2,000 and
  3,600 words each year.

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Types of Vocabularies

• The largest type is the listening vocabulary.
  These are words you hear and understand, but you
  may not use them in your speech.
• The next largest type is the speaking vocabulary
  It consists of words you can hear, understand,
  and use in speech.
• The next largest type is the reading vocabulary.
  It consists of words you can read and understand.
• The smallest vocabulary is the writing
  vocabulary. These are words you can understand
  when listening, speaking, and reading, and you
  can use them in your writing.

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Reading Vocabulary

• Students must first acquire words as part of
  their listening and speaking vocabulary in order
  for them to read and understand the word.
• Effective readers can maintain satisfactory
  comprehension when up to 15 of the words in a
  passage are unknown.
• Readers having weak vocabularies tend to be
  word-by-word readers and are much less able to
  tolerate unknown vocabulary.
• Many words require between five and twenty-six
  minutes to be learned.
• All vocabulary words must be known in such depth
  that they can be recognized and used in a variety
  of contexts and related to a range of
  experiences.
• The direct instruction methods in this chapter
  can be effective in helping students learn
  unknown words.

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Oral Reading Assessment - Assessment
Demonstration, Page 229

• Purpose Problem vocabulary words in print can
  be distinguished by the teacher quickly.
• Materials Two copies each of three or four
  reading passages used in your class at students
  instructional or frustration level. Have a range
  of passages to account for all students.
• Procedure Give the student one copy and keep
  one for yourself. Student reads aloud while you
  note words that student doesnt know or
  mispronounces. Repeat with all of the passages.
  Tally the number of miscalled words and list
  problematic words. Repeat with all students and
  create a master list of problematic words.
  Determine percent of students who had trouble
  with each word and use the more frequent problem
  words as part of your instruction.

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Cubing The Die is Cast! Page 237 Instructional
Activity Demonstration

• Purpose This is a postreading activity
  requiring student to analyze, discuss, and write
  about new terms.
• Materials Foam or wooden cube covered in
  contact paper. Write a direction or question on
  each side.
• Procedure Students roll the cube. Teacher gives
  a set number of minutes for students to record
  answer. Students share responses when cubing has
  ended.

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Vocabulary Cluster, Page 247 Instructional
Activity Demonstration

• Purpose Students are directed to read a passage,
  use context clues, and predict meaning of words
  targeted by the teacher.
• Materials Multiple copies of text and document
  cameras.
• Procedure Select words from the text. Place an
  excerpt of the text on the document camera. Make
  sure it has sufficient context to help students
  know meaning of the word. Delete the target word
  and replace it with a blank line. Come up with
  words together to put in the vocabulary cluster.
  Use these words to introduce the new word in the
  center of the cluster.

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Contextual Redefinition, Page 249 Instructional
Activity Demonstration

• Purpose A method of introducing vocabulary in
  context and promoting use of context clues in
  informational text.
• Materials Chalkboard, projector, or activity
  sheets.
• Procedure
• 1 Choose 5 or 6 unfamiliar words. Introduce the
  topic and words. Students or pairs predict the
  meaning. Record predictions. Discuss why
  students could only predict.
• 2 Share the words written in a contextually
  rich sentence or paragraph. Have them read each
  passage and revise prediction. Students explain
  why they think each word means what it means.
  Record terms and explanations for each word.
• 3 If there are differences, students will find
  the word in the text or glossary and read the
  definition. Students copy the word in their
  notebooks.