Designing an Academic Vocabulary Program for Comprehensive Implementation

1. Designing an Academic Vocabulary Programfor Comprehensive Implementation Ellen Levy Monterey County Office of Education Curriculum Council December 5th, 2008

2. Vocabulary Vitae • As a table group or in pairs, describe • your district according to the following • criteria: • the vocabulary workshops you’ve attended or hosted • the books or articles you’ve read or recommended • the vocabulary website you use or recommend • the best practices you incorporate into vocabulary instruction

3. Building on What We Know • Marzano • West Ed • Kinsella • Beck • Fisher • Dutro • role of prior knowledge • skill words • context clues • cognates • word walls • graphic representation • beyond definitions • semantic mapping • word forms • wide reading

4. Eliminate Obfuscation • Vocabulary Acquisition: Implications for Reading Comprehension • Literacy Matters: A Focus on Vocabulary • Vocabulary Frontloading to Promote Comprehension Across the Subject Areas • Narrowing the Language Gap: The Case for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction • English Language Literacy, Academic Language, and Content Area Literacy • The Literacy Dictionary: The Vocabulary of Reading and Writing

5. The importance ofVocabulary Across the Content Areas  Although the opportunities for vocabulary instruction are especially pronounced in language arts and reading, vocabulary instruction properly belongs in all subjects of the curriculum.  Teaching vocabulary in the content areas of mathematics, science, history, and English is not a separate entity from teaching the core understandings of each domain.

6. Analogies, anyone? Vocabulary is to literacy as __________ is to ___________.

7. Today’s Goal improve our ability to evaluate the effectiveness of vocabulary programs and instruction

8. Title IIILocal Excerpts • We will work with staff on strategies to help them prepare • students in using language specific to particular courses. • We will implement a six-step vocabulary instruction plan for all • teachers. • Increase academic language, particularly vocabulary development through use of systemic routines. • Develop list of tier 1and 2 words to be presented by proficiency • and grade level. • Teachers will receive training and ongoing support to develop • knowledge of academic language development. • A team of teachers at different grade levels will develop • high-frequency academic vocabulary lists in ELA & math.

9. Following Expert Advice

10. Making Sense of aComplex Process

11. Essential Components of aComprehensive Vocabulary Program • Wide Reading • Strategic Word Choice • Explicit Research-Informed Instruction • Structured Oral and Written Practice • Meaningful Assessment • Ready Stakeholders

12. 1. Wide Reading • Vocabulary grows as a consequence of independent reading and increasing reading volume(Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998; Nagy, Herman & Anderson, 1985). • The largest influence on a student’s vocabulary is the sheer volume of reading they do, especially wide reading that includes a rich variety of texts.

13. 2. Strategic Word Choice Without careful analysis of the lexical demands of a text, a teacher can squander vital instructional time on words that may be unfamiliar but have little bearing on comprehension of the focal concepts (Kinsella & Feldman, 2004).

14. 3. Explicit Research-Informed Instruction • Students learn new words via various teacher-directed instructional strategies (Beck, McKeown,& Kucan, 2002). • Numerous studies have documented the positive impact of direct, explicit vocabulary instruction on both immediate word learning and longer-term reading comprehension (Baker, Kame’enui, & Simmons, 1995; Biemiller, 2004; Marzano, 2004)

15. 4. Structured Oral & Written Practice • All too often, the teacher is the only individual in the classroom who uses actual academic language, while students are allowed to passively listen or use casual, daily vernacular. • If one of our instructional priorities is significantly narrowing the lexical divide, we must structure daily classroom contexts so that all students are accountable for using newly introduced terminology in their speaking and writing. Kinsella & Feldman, 2004

16. 5. Meaningful Assessment • Researchers such as Baker et al. (1995) and Marzano (2004) have documented the importance of incorporating vocabulary assessment into the instructional process. • Assessment of vocabulary involves both formative, quick informal checking for understanding during the lesson, and summative evaluation as students subsequently take a formal quiz or test.

17. 6. State of Stakeholders • Blending leadership processes with knowledge of adolescent literacy development will allow all members within a school to work together to strategically develop a plan to achieve your literacy goals. - Taylor & Collins Literacy Leadership

18. Using a Planning Tool toRefine our Approach How well does your vocabulary program address these criterion?

19. Best laid plans requireFocused Implementation

20. Informed Implementation

21. Where do we go from here? • Cross-district collaboration • County-wide initiative • Develop local leadership • Share resources and best practice