Vocabulary Instruction that Builds Comprehension

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Keys to Student Achievement Best Practices in
Teaching
Module Vocabulary Facilitated By Cheryl Harvey
and Rebecca Radicchi
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BEST PRACTICES
This session is based in the Vocabulary Best
Practices module designed by Metro RESA.
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How confident do you feel about your vocabulary
instruction?

• On a scale of 1 9, how confident are you about
  your vocabulary instruction?
• Place a post-it on the scale on the wall 1 is
  the lowest 9 is the highest.

Adapted from Dale, Rasband, Ross, Gardner,
Cunningham, 2004
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Essential Questions

• Why is vocabulary instruction so important?
• What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary
  instruction?

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• A little boy was in a relatives wedding. As
  he was walking down the aisle, he would take two
  steps, stop, and turn to the crowd. While facing
  the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws
  and roar. So it went, step, step, ROAR, step,
  step, ROAR, all the way down the aisle. As you
  can imagine, the crowd was near tears from
  laughing so hard. The little boy was getting
  more and more distressed from all the laughing,
  and he was also near tears. When asked what he
  was doing, the child sniffed and said, I was
  being the Ring Bear!

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What level of vocabulary knowledge is evident in
this childs response?
LEVEL 1 Unknown LEVEL 2 Acquainted LEVEL 3
Established
Beck, McKeown, Omanson, 1987
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How do you teach vocabulary?

• Discuss your response with a partner.
• Group leader should be prepared to share with
  everyone.

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• Word knowledge is much more than word
  identification or even definitional knowledge
• It takes more than definitional knowledge to
  know a word, and we have to know words in order
  to identify them in multiple reading and
  listening contexts and use them in our speaking
  and writing. (Allen, 1999)

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Research on the importance of vocabulary
instruction
There is an estimated 4,700 word difference in
vocabulary knowledge between high- and low- SES.
(Nagy and Herman ,1984)
Vocabulary instruction is one of the essential
elements for literacy development for students
at risk. ( RAND Reading Study Group, 2002, NRP,
2000)
For English language learners the achievement
gap is primarily a vocabulary gap. (Carlo,
et.al., 2004)
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Word Knowledge is Multifaceted
Know it well, can explain it, use it Know something about it, can relate it to a situation Have seen or heard of the word Do not know the word
schema
prosody
morpheme
schwa
automaticity
diphthong
dyslexia
Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002
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Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction

• Rich language learning environment
• ( including Read-Alouds)
• Wide and Varied Independent Reading
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction

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Reading Aloud

• Students retain more vocabulary when the teacher
  explains critical vocabulary terms in context
  during the reading.
• Reading a book several times leads to more word
  learning than reading several books once each.

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Reading Aloud

• "The single most important activity for building
  the knowledge required for eventual success in
  reading is reading aloud to children."
• (Becoming a Nation of Readers, 1985)

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Collaborative Pairs

• What are the advantages of reading aloud to
  students?
• How do read-alouds support vocabulary development?

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Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction

• Rich language learning environment
• (including Read-Alouds)
• Wide and Varied Independent Reading
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction

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Reading Volume of 5th-grade Students of Different
Levels of Achievement
Achievement Percentile Minutes of Reading Per Day Words Per Year
90th 40.4 2,357,000
50th 12.9 601,000
10th 1.6 51,000
(Allington, 2001 Adapted from Anderson, Wilson
and Fielding, 1988.)
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Independent Reading Accounts for one-third or
more of vocabulary growth.

• How do you show your students that independent
  reading is great joyful?
• How do you make independent reading time
  meaningful?
• What obstacles do you need to overcome?

Center for the Study of Reading, Urbana, IL
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Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction

• Rich language learning environment
• ( including Read-Alouds)
• Wide and Varied Independent Reading
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Direct teaching of vocabulary can help improve
  comprehension when we follow these guidelines
  (Cooper, 1993)
• A few critical words are taught.
• The words are taught in a meaningful context.
  (including nonlinguistic representations)
• Students relate the new words to their background
  knowledge.
• Students are exposed to the words multiple times.

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The Marble Effect
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You Try It!

• Using the text provided, collaborate with group
  members and decide on the most important words to
  teach.
• Provide a rationale for your selection.
• Share!

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Which words should I teach?

• Which words are most important to understanding
  the text?
• How much prior knowledge will students have about
  the word/concept?
• Is the concept significant and therefore requires
  previewing?
• Which words can be figured out from the context?
• How can I make repeated exposures to the
  word/concept enjoyable and meaningful?

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What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary
instruction?
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Before Reading Strategies
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Background Knowledge

• The relationship between vocabulary knowledge
  and background knowledge is explicit in
  research.
• (Nagy Herman, 1984 Marzano, 2004 Hart
  Risley, 1995)

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herd
Serengeti
migration
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predators
Powerful Zebras
camouflage
fingerprint
HO
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Word Sorts
temperature
cold front
barometer
meteorologist
hurricanes

• Provide students with a set of vocabulary word
  cards (related to a specific concept or topic).
• Work in groups to sort the words into categories.
• Encourage students to find more than one category
  for the vocabulary words.
• Students then discuss with teacher peers their
  rationale for categorizing words.

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Schwartz Raphael, 1985
What is it?
What is it like?
To move regularly from one region to another
moving around
relocating
migrate
traveling
people working for seasonal jobs
birds
Nomads
What are some examples?
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Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, Klausmeier,
1969)
Characteristics
Definition

• Group
• Like animals
• Clustered

a congregation of wild animals
herd
Examples
Non-Examples
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Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, Klausmeier,
1969)
Definition
Characteristics

• 2 is the only even prime number
• 0 and 1 are not prime
• Every whole number can be written as a product of
  primes

A whole number with exactly two divisors (factors)
Prime
Examples
Non-Examples
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, . . .
1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10. . .
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During Reading Strategies
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Words Context Predicted Definition Confirm
Nutrition Ballyhoo cereal box billboard Important ingredient in food ? To advertise in loud manner
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• MATHEMATICS

NAME SYMBOL LABEL KEY WORD DEFINITION (OWN WORDS)
Plane .B .A .C 2-D or Flat A plane is a flat surface like the top of my desk.
Point . .M Dot A point has no dimension, just a location. Group together to make lines.
Line .K .L Straight A line is a set of points determined by any 2 points.
Line Segment
CRISS (2004) pg. 146
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Reading with Word Explanation

• Read the book/text once with minimal explanation.
• After an initial reading, we can interrupt up to
  8-10 times to explain words while rereading
  (possibly less, depending on length)
• With very young children, dont interrupt more
  than once per page.
• Keep explanations simple explain only what is
  needed to understand the content being read in
  everyday language.

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After Reading Strategies
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Four Square Response
Term
Illustration
humidity
Definition a degree of wetness especially of the
atmosphere
Connection
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Concept Circles
Which word does not belong?
Rectangle
Hexagon
Cone
Trapezoid
Why? _____________________________________________
______
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racism
stereotyping
Church bombing
violence
Concept Civil Rights Movement
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Vocabulary Strategies for ELL

• Preview texts for unfamiliar or difficult words
  and the use of idiomatic language. To reduce
  students frustration, such words and expressions
  can be taught prior to the lesson.
• Use extensive modeling and visual
  representations e.g., pantomime, graphic
  organizers, pictures, hands-on materials.
• Emphasize meaning rather than pronunciation

CORE, 2000
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4-2-1 Summarizer
Four
Two
One
Rogers, et.al (1999). Motivation and Learning. .
.
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PictionaryUsing only a piece of paper and pen,
draw and get your partner to say these words.
Los Angeles New York Miami Chicago
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Assessing Vocabulary Instruction

• Ongoing
• Varied, Meaningful Authentic
• Use word wall
• Do you see them using words in writing and
  speaking?

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How do you keep words you teach directly fresh in
their minds and internalized?

• Vocabulary word review tub
• Center with former words
• Keep ongoing list of words with guided reading
  groups
• Use words in classroom talk
• Word wall

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• Finding definitions and writing those words in
  sentences have had little apparent impact on
  their word knowledge and language use.

Janet Allen, 1999
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Assessing Integration Meaningful Use

• Sample test questions
• One of our target words for this week was
  preposterous. What kind of in-school behavior
  would the principal think was preposterous?
• Describe a time when you felt liberated. What was
  the reason for that feeling?
• The concept we have been studying this week is
  stereotyping? Give an example of what you think
  is stereotypical behavior. Why do you think the
• behavior was stereotypical?

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Dictionary Use

• When students have been provided dictionary
  definitions and asked to create sentences or
  answer brief questions about the words, research
  has shown
• 63 percent of the students sentences were judged
  to be odd (Miller Gildea, 1985)
• 60 percent of students responses were
  unacceptable (McKeown, 1991 1993)

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3 x 3 Vocabulary



word knowledge
direct instruction
dictionaries
reading with explanation
background knowledge
strategies
Nonlinguistic representations
Frayer
assessment
Adapted from Guilford County Schools, 2002
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Essential Questions

• Why is vocabulary instruction so important?
• What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary
  instruction?

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Web Resources for Vocabulary Practice

• Vocabulary.com
• Vocabulary Builders
• Super Kids Word Scrambler
• Online Vocabulary Games
• Quia (Insert your words)

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Resources

• Best Practices Research Metro RESA
• Clipart Jeff Shelly and Google Images