Inquiry into Vocabulary Instruction

1. Inquiry into Vocabulary Instruction Beyond the Basal Mysty Vaughn

2. Why teach vocabulary? • A large vocabulary is • associated often with a higher level of education • often linked to higher reading levels and performance in school (text comprehension) • Children from lower SES groups tend to have lower vocabulary knowledge • “First-grade children from higher-SES groups knew about twice as many words as lower SES children (Graves, Brunetti, & Slater, 1982; Graves & Slater, 1987)

3. Vocabulary Instruction Through Context? • Requires much repetition • Children need to read enough to be exposed to appropriate context • Children must know how to infer word meaning from context • Types of context: • Misdirective: opposite meaning • Nondirective: doesn’t help or hurt understanding • General: provides just enough information • Directive: helps to lead thinking to get ideas across

4. Continued • Children from lower SES groups are not exposed to the amount of reading materials needed for vocabulary development to come only from contextual reading • “…it must be acknowledged that relying on wide reading for vocabulary growth ads to the inequities in individual differences in vocabulary knowledge. Struggling readers do not read well enough to make wide reading an option. To acquire word knowledge from reading requires adequate decoding skills, the ability to recognize that a word in unknown, and the competency of being able to extract meaningful information about the word from context.” (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, p. 6)

5. Direct Vocabulary Instruction • Tier I words: do not need direct instruction in schools (familiar words) • Tier II words: these are high frequency words for mature language users (approximately 7,000 words) • Tier III words: low frequency words that are domain specific. These are best learned when the specific need arises

6. continued • Range of vocabulary knowledge • Fast Mapping: only word meaning • Extended Mapping: full understanding and use • Stage 1: Never saw the word before • Stage 2: Heard the word before, but doesn’t know what it means • Stage 3: Recognizes the word in context as having something to do with the topic • Stage 4: Knows the word well and can apply • Current assessments have difficulty determining Stage 4 vocabulary understanding when they often use matching or true/false

7. What does bad direct vocabulary instruction look like? • Look up the word in a dictionary and write a sentence (DULL!) • This does not allow kids to be interested and aware of words around them • Dictionary definitions can be very confusing • Only teach grade-level vocabulary • It is ok to teach higher level vocabulary as long as kids can relate the word to known terms and the word is useful to their everyday life • With younger students they do not typically get higher vocabulary words from the materials they read. Those are mostly Tier I words because of their reading ability • Teachers need to use teacher read trade books that have rich vocabulary or use additional enriching vocabulary to make connections to the stories • “…they can understand much more sophisticated content presented in oral language than they can read independently.” (p. 48) • Wouldn’t this occur with not just younger readers, but struggling readers as well?

8. What does good direct vocabulary instruction look like? • Give student-friendly explanations! • Share the word and how it is typically used • Explain the meaning in everyday language that kids can understand (these definitions are usually much longer than typical dictionary definitions) • Use instructional contexts that have the word in it after it is introduced to build a stronger connection between the word and its meaning.

9. continued • Engaging Activities • Word Associations: provide a list of possible associations and students choose which go together and then explain why • Have you Ever: describe a time when you might, how might you, why might you… • Applause, Applause: clap to show how much you would like to be described by the word and why • Idea Completions: provide students with part of a sentence they have to complete (The skiing teacher said Maria was a novice on the ski slopes because…)

10. Additional Vocabulary Instructional Resources Vocabu-Lit by Perfection Learninghttp://www.perfectionlearning.com/vocabu-lit-program Copied from website • Step 1: Ten targeted words are introduced in the context of an excerpt from a fiction or nonfiction book, short story, essay, or poem. Students practice • using prior knowledge • determining meaning from context • Step 2: Students complete several exercises that teach strategies and reinforce word meanings. Activities include • finding correct dictionary definitions • inferring meaning • recognizing word associations and relationships • using targeted words in new contexts • word play • Step 3: Chapter tests and unit reviews monitor student progress. Literature-based vocabulary program

11. continued Word Wisdom by Zaner-Bloser http://www.zaner-bloser.com/vocabulary/word-wisdom-overview Copied from website • discover the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, use context clues, analyze meaningful word parts, and consult reference materials. • demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. • acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases for reading, writing, speaking, and listening. • unlock the meaning of new words in context with key strategies. • process new words through activities that reinforce meanings. • apply new words through activities that access higher thinking skills. Article on the need for vocabulary instruction and its correlation to the CCSS Word Wisdom: An Effective, Research-Based Vocabulary Program by Jerry Zutell, PhD http://www.zaner-bloser.com/media/zb/zaner-bloser/pdf/d633adab2db745b497fc7f5bd0c5d5db2.pdf

12. Recent Classroom Vocabulary Activities • Cartoon Creator • VoiceThread • Tagxedo.com • Xtranormal.com

13. Resources • Beck, McKeown & Kucan, (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press. • http://www.perfectionlearning.com/vocabu-lit-program • http://www.zaner-bloser.com/vocabulary/word-wisdom-overview