VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT Primary Literacy Project February 19, 2009 Kathleen Cooke kathcooke2003@yahoo.com

The Bottom Line… • It is clear that a large and rich vocabulary is the hallmark of an educated individual. (Beck, I. Bringing Words to Life, 2002)

The issue… • The problem is that there are profound differences in vocabulary knowledge among learners from different ability or socioeconomic (SES) groups, from toddlers through high school.

First-grade children from higher SES groups knew twice as many words as lower SES children. (Graves & Slater, 1987) 3-year-olds from professional families use more extensive vocabulary than parents in low income families. (Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, 1995.)

HART AND RISLEY RESEARCH • Over a 2.5 year period, these researchers recorded naturally occurring conversations in the homes of professional, working class, and welfare families with young children. There was a difference of almost 300 words spoken per hour between professional and welfare parents. The professional families' children at age 3 actually had a larger recorded vocabulary than the welfare families' parents..

What can teachers do? Teachers must make effective vocabulary instruction a high priority in the educational system.

USING THE CONTEXT TO FIGURE OUT MEANINGS OF WORDS Research shows that learning new words in context does occur, but in very small increments. • Out of 100 unfamiliar words met in reading, 5–15 of them will be learned (Nagy, 1985). • Students must read widely to encounter lots of words, but students in need of vocabulary instruction do not engage in wide reading (Kucan & Beck, 1996).

THE PROBLEM WITH CONTEXT • Most authors want to tell a story, not convey the meaning of set words in a story. • Many struggling readers don’t read well enough to effectively get word meanings from context. • Depending on wide reading as a source of vocabulary growth leaves at-risk students with a serious deficit.

Research shows that students learn 3-20 words a day for an average of 7 words per day. At-risk students are learning less than 1-2 words per day or none at all. • But there are too many words in the English language to teach! • Not all words call for attention (Beck,2001). • Beck suggests teaching 400 words per year.

Three Tiers of Vocabulary Words (Beck, 2002)

Tier One Words • Rarely require instructional attention. • Consist of basic words. • EXAMPLES: baby, clock, happy, walk, jump, hop,slide, girl, boy, dog

Tier Three Words Tier Three words are made up of words whose frequency of use is quite low and often limited to specific domains. Examples: isotope, lathe, photosynthesis, etc. These words are best learned when a specific need arises, such as content area instruction.

Tier Two Words Tier Two words contain words that occur frequently and across a variety of domains. • Rich knowledge of words in this tier can have a powerful impact on verbal functioning. • Tier Two words offer students more precise or mature ways of referring to ideas they already know.

Teacher Activity • Work with a partner. • Read the paragraph and identify Tier Two words. • Make a list of your words and define them in student friendly terms.

Tier Two Words Practice Read the following third-fourth grade paragraph. Johnny Harrington was a kind master who treated his servants fairly. He was also a successful wool merchant, and his business required he travel often. While he was gone, his servants would tend to the fields and maintain the upkeep of his mansion. They performed their duties happily, for they felt fortunate to have such a benevolent and trusting master.(Kohnke, 2001)

What Makes a Word Inappropriate for Instruction? • A word that cannot be explained in known terms for the students. • For example, even kindergarteners can apply and understand the word “nuisance” to describe a disruptive classmate, whereas “portage” is not worth a lot of instructional time spent in primary classrooms.

The operative principle for effective vocabulary instruction • Vocabulary instruction must be “robust”- vigorous, strong, and powerful in effect. • A robust approach to vocabulary instruction involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought-provoking, interactive follow-up.

USING READ-ALOUDS (Trade Books) FOR VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION (K-2) • Choose 3-4 new words to teach. These words must be unfamiliar, but the concept represented by each word is one that children understand and could use in conversation. • Read the story, discuss it, and wrap it up. Return to the story for vocabulary instruction. (If a word is needed to understand the story, stop and briefly • explain it during reading.) Bringing Words to Life (Beck, 2002)

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE FOR READ-ALOUDS • Read the story. • Contextualize the word within the story. • Have children say the word. • Provide a student-friendly explanation of the word. • Present examples of the word used in contexts different from the story context. • Engage children in activities that get them to interact with the words. • Have children say the word again.

EXAMPLE FROM BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE Beck, 2002, pp. 63 ff.

INSTRUCTION IN LATER GRADES THREE FEATURES: • Frequent encounters with words • Richness of instruction • Extension of word use beyond the classroom

FIVE STEP PROCESS (Marzano, R. Classroom Instruction That Works, 2001) • Brief explanation of new word. • Non-linguistic representation of new word. • Students come up with own explanation or description of new word. • Students create own nonlinguistic representation of new word. • Review and revisit explanations and representations.

WHAT ABOUT ENGLISH LEARNERS? • Use knowledge of stages of language development to plan instruction and select materials. • Encourage parents to read to their children in their home language. • Provide frequent opportunities to use oral language, both conversational and academic language.

FREQUENCY • Introduce about 10 words per week. • Present activities around the words daily. • By end of the week, each word will have been the focus of attention some 8-10 times. • Also include words from previous weeks in the activities so those words are maintained.

RICHNESS • Getting students actively involved in using and thinking about word meanings and creating lots of associations among words. • Begin with the kind of word introduction from the K-mid 2nd grade instructional sequence, providing a student-friendly explanation. • Students keep log sheets of the words and meanings in a vocabulary notebook.

RICHNESS (cont.) Throughout the week, provide opportunities for students to: • Use the words. • Explore facets of word meaning. • Consider relationships among words.

STUDENTS’ USE OF WORDS Students create uses for words to ensure that the word is an active part of their vocabularies. So… • Engage students in talking about situations a word would describe. • Have students consider instances when the word would be an appropriate choice.

WHAT ABOUT ENGLISH LEARNERS? • Use knowledge of stages of language development to plan instruction and select materials. • Encourage parents to read to their children in their home language. • Provide frequent opportunities to use oral language, both conversational and academic language.

EXAMPLES FROM BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE Beck, 2002, pp. 72 ff.

OTHER IDEAS

WORD WIZARD • Students gain points by bringing in evidence of hearing, seeing, or using target words outside the classroom. • Kids in Beck’s participating classrooms went wild with this! • Even students’ fabrications accomplished the purposes of the activity.

WORD ASSOCIATIONS Word Associations: Associating a known word with a newly learned word reinforces the meaning of the word. • Not synonyms • Students must develop a relationship between the new word and known word for learning to occur.

For example, “Accomplice” and the known word “crook” can be tied together by a student stating, “An accomplice helps a crook.” NOTE: Students must explain their reasoning in order to process the new word association.

HAVE YOU EVER…? • Students are asked to “Describe a time when you might (urge, banter, commend, etc.) someone.” • Describe an animal that is (dangerous, carnivorous, etc.) • Describe a time when you felt (fortunate, ecstatic, etc.)

APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE! • Students are asked to “clap” to indicate how much they would like to be described by the target word. (Examples: vain, stern, regal, etc.)

IDEA COMPLETIONS • Provide students with “sentence stems” that require them to integrate a word’s meaning into a context to explain the word, e.g., • I knew he was a novice at skiing because…… • Kim called Juan a coward when…

WORD SCALING crying sobbing wailing grieving howling weeping sniveling bawling (Shades of meaning)

WORD LINES • How much energy does it take to… • Embrace a teddy bear? • Flex your little finger? • Beckon to someone for five straight hours?

SEMANTIC FEATURE ANALYSIS

YES/NO-WHY? • Can a clown be sad? • Can a police officer be a criminal? • Can a villain be a philanthropist? • Can someone recover from a fatal injury? • Can toddlersavoid getting the cold? (For practice and assessment)

WORD PAIR ANALYSIS

OVERHEARD CONVERSATIONS UNIQUE EXTRAORDINARY MONOTONOUS PECULIAR • “There’s nothing like it in the world!” • “It’s fantastic! Better than I could have imagined!” • “That was a weird one.” • “It went on and on, the same thing over and over.”

LESS EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES • Asking, “Does anybody know what _____ means?” • Having students look it up in a typical dictionary. • Having students use the word in a sentence after #2. • Copying each word several times. • Word searches, fill in the blank, etc. – no deep processing • Rote memorization without context • Incidental (vs. intentional) teaching of words

A walk through your handouts

YOUR TURN

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT