Nonlinguistic Representations

Using Nonlinguistic Representations

Background knowledge Direct instruction Group practice Application

Vocabulary Development Essential for Comprehension

Why Teach Vocabulary? Prepare students to read and understand text. Develop understanding of concepts.

Students encounter 85,000 different words in print during their school years.

How do students acquire vocabulary? Systematic vocabulary instruction Vocabulary acquisition through reading

Systematic Vocabulary Instruction If you teach 10 words a week, you have taught about 400 words a year. Students may actually learn 200-300 of those words. 13 years of school equals 2600-3900 words learned.

Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading If you read 200 words per minute for 25 minutes each day for 200 days a year, you will encounter just over a million words. Approximately 15,000 to 30,000 of these will be unknown. If you learn 1 out of every 20 or 30, you will learn 750-1500 words per year. If you began reading at 200 words per minute in 4th grade, this would equate to 6750-13,500 words learned. Out of the million words you read in one year, up to 90% of those new words may only occur one time.

Chances of Learning New Words in Context

Generalizations • Students must encounter words in context more than once to learn them. • Instruction in new words enhances learning those words in context. • One of the best ways to learn a new word is to associate an image with it. • Direct vocabulary instruction works. • Direct instruction on words that are critical to new content produces that most powerful learning.

Types of Words Important Words Useful Words Difficult Words

What does this mean? When planning vocabulary instruction, identify terms and phrases that are critical to a topic and provide direct instruction on those terms and phrases.

Vocabulary instruction should present multiple exposures of words to students in a multiple of ways.

Instructional Sequence Step 1. Present students with a brief explanation or description of the new term or phrase. Step 2. Present students with a nonlinguistic representation of the new term or phrase. Step 3. Ask students to generate their own explanations or descriptions of the term or phrase. Step 4. Ask students to create their own nonlinguistic representation of the term or phrase. Step 5. Periodically ask students to review the accuracy of their explanations and representations.

Step 1 dromedary Present students with a brief explanation or description of the new term or phrase.

Step 2 Characteristics Definition (in own words) one hump heavy eyebrow a camel with one hump Dromedary Example (Synonym) Image camel Present students with a nonlinguistic representation of the new term or phrase.

Step 3 The Phoenix Zoo ….. Dora the Explorer rode a dromedary as she crossed the desert in last Saturday’s show…. Animal Planet…. I rode one in Quartzite…. Ask students to generate their own explanations or descriptions of the term or phrase.

Step 4 Brainstorming web Mind mapping Desert picture Word map Word pyramid Semantic map Ask students to create their own nonlinguistic representation of the term or phrase.

Word Pyramid Dromedary Word Antonyms Synonyms Adjectives describing the word Write a sentence using the word.

Step 5 Periodically ask students to review the accuracy of their explanations and representations.

Physical Characteristics Habitat one hump up to 7 feet tall thick eyebrows desert Dromedary Uses Relatives travel hair makes cloth racing Bactrian camel alpaca llama

Definition Sentence Word Antonym Synonym

What is it? Comparisons Properties Word Examples

Vocabulary Development and the Implications for Reading Instruction Vocabulary should be taught both directly and indirectly. Repetition and multiple exposures to vocabulary items are important. Learning in rich contexts is valuable for vocabulary learning. Vocabulary tasks should be restructured when necessary. Vocabulary learning should entail active engagement in learning tasks. Computer technology can be used to help teach vocabulary. Vocabulary can be acquired through incidental learning. How vocabulary is assessed and evaluated can have differential effects on instruction. Dependence on a single vocabulary instruction method will not result in optimal learning. National Reading Panel

WARNING Visual tools are not working in your classroom if… • You find yourself running to the copy machine throughout the year with blackline masters that students could create on their own. • You find yourself handing out the same graphic organizer without the students ever going outside the lines, or if most of the organizers are of one type. • You find that there is no coordination of organizers, then your students may never see how different patterns work together. • You find that students have been given too many organizers – in too many different content areas – they will begin to see that these are not their tools to learn in depth but templates to fill in.

Visual tools are not working in your classroom if… • Your students continuously have to go back to the organizer for instructions, it may be that there are too many actions required for making sense of the information (break it down). • You find that the instructions for the graphics are that students fill in the information and turn it in as part of their assignment without discussion; or if you lead a classroom discussion and there is one right answer. • Students are not being asked: How did this graphic help or hinder your performance? How could you have created a different graphic to meet your needs? Did this graphic constrain your thinking?

Nonlinguistic Representations