Building Background Building Background Knowledge Knowledge

throughthrough Academic VocabularyAcademic Vocabulary

“…Vocabulary is the single, strongest

predictor of academic success for second language students.”

(Kinsella, 2005)

“…the research literature supports one

compelling fact:

what students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well

they learn new information relative to

the content.”

(Marzano,1)

Let’s Make a Vocabulary List

1. across

2. meadow

3. analyze

4. synonym

5. conjunction

6. media

7. parabola

8. hypothesis

9. legislative

10. executive

11. judicial

12. congruent

13. conclusion

14. acid

Why does it matter?• Read the following definition:

– A charizard is a final evolution in an RPG. It is bipedal and omnivorous and flies with HM02. Unlike the charmeleon, it will almost never be found in the wild. In contrast to the charmander, charizards can command pyrokinetics and their loyalty may waiver under neglectful conditions. Its name is a portmanteau.

Now let’s take a quiz:1. Which evolution is the Charizard?

a) First

b) Second

c) Third

d) Last

2. The Charizard is able to fly at ________.

3. Compare the Charmeleon, Charmander, and Charizard.

4. Explain the importance of a Charizard to both offense and defense.

Why does it matter?

• Compare your score on the quiz to what you feel you really understand about a Charizard. – Were some questions easier than others?

Why?– Is your grade an accurate reflection of your

understanding? Why or why not?

To understand information… "students must be familiar with the terminology of a given topic and have some general idea as to the terms’ meanings.” (Marzano, 32)

This knowledge of terms and ideas regarding the topic of

study is called…

Ways to Build Background Ways to Build Background KnowledgeKnowledge

• Direct Experiences– Field Trips– Mentors

• Indirect Experiences– Sustained Silent Reading– Direct Vocabulary Instruction

Ways to Build Background Ways to Build Background KnowledgeKnowledge

• Direct experiences– Field trips

• Students must know what to look/listen for and how dialogue (put into words) about the experience

– Mentoring relationships• Mentor takes on responsibility to build and

maintain a relationship with student and family to enhance experiences and provide opportunity to dialogue about them.

Ways to Build Background Ways to Build Background KnowledgeKnowledge

• Indirect experiences– Sustained silent reading

• Students experience through fiction and nonfiction, in unlimited textual formats (Internet, magazine, linguistic & nonlinguistic texts) AND dialogue about their experiences

• The difference between students who read silently and those who don’t is the 50th to the 81st percentile on norm-referenced tests.

Ways to Build Background Ways to Build Background KnowledgeKnowledge

• Indirect Experiences– Direct Vocabulary Instruction

• Shape the meaning of the new word through many experiences

– Graphic or nonlinguistic representations– Descriptions– Parts and connections– Various applications– Games– Dialogue and discourse

Why does it matter?Why does it matter?

• Please draw a picture (no words) of the following vocabulary:

– Love– Hate– Divorce– Allegiance– Egregious– Détente– Ephemeral

Depth of UnderstandingDepth of Understanding

• Background knowledge does not have to be detailed and thorough to be useful.– The deeper our understanding the faster we

remember, but we do not think in broad, general knowledge terms anyway…

– Connections (similarities, contrasts, etc) with what we already know helps clarify what we are learning.

• Referents (points of reference) allow our memory to make connections.

Three Functions of Memory

PermanentMemory

WorkingMemory

SensoryMemory

Sensory Memory—temporary storage of sensory information, filtered for processing

Permanent Memory—permanently stored information for active (conscious and unconscious) retrieval

Working Memory—processing of conscious, active memory, retrieved from both sensory and permanent memory storage

Let’s revisit our definition:Let’s revisit our definition:• Read the following definition:

– A charizard is a final evolution an in RPG. It is bipedal and omnivorous and flies with HM02. Unlike the charmeleon, it will almost never be found in the wild. In contrast to the charmander, charizards can command pyrokinetics and their loyalty may waiver under neglectful conditions. Its name is a portmanteau.

See if this helps…

• RPG means a “Role Playing Game” where the player pretends to be a character in the game itself and other characters create a team or world with which the player will interact.

• The characters in this game evolve through phases, gaining strength and powers, but maintaining their connection to the player.

• A portmanteau is a word created by combing two words.

A charizard is…

• Kind of like a dragon, with fire on its tail and a strong competitive spirit

What might memory processing look like?

• “Information must make it to permanent memory to be part of our background knowledge...”

• To make it to permanent memory, information must effectively be processed in working memory…– through multiple times over time– with details added to elaborate the information– with associations to other information from

permanent memory

Questions?

Ways to Build Background Knowledge

• Direct Experiences– Field Trips– Mentors

• Indirect Experiences– Sustained Silent Reading– Direct Vocabulary Instruction

• Children of poverty come to school with significantly fewer academic background experiences than other children.– Field trips– Mentors– Sustained silent reading– Direct vocabulary instruction

A little more about why it matters…

Words Heard in an Hour

Words heard on average in one hour based on the income level…

• Poverty: 615• Middle class : 1,251• Professional: 2,153

Louisa Moats (2001) refers to this as “Word Poverty.”

Correlation between

achievement

and

academic background knowledge

is .66.66

More about why it matters…

A middle class student gains approximately 5,000 words each year…

…an economically disadvantaged student gains 3,000 in the same time period.

What about second-language learners?

• “Language learners often don't connect their prior knowledge to the content matter they are learning in English. They may assume that their native languages and prior knowledge are too different to be relevant.” (Dong 2009)

• “…the dimension of vocabulary depth has been shown to be as important as vocabulary breadth in predicting the performance of ELLs on academic reading.” (Wallace, 2008)

A high-performing first grader knows about twice as many words as a low-

performing one; by 12th grade, the high performer knows

about four times as many words as the low performer.

What does it mean?

• Based on what you know about how background knowledge impacts understanding and how poverty impacts background knowledge, what might the correlations be between these two factors and…

• Success on test scores• Reading comprehension• Study behavior• Student engagement• Student behavior

Traditional Vocabulary Traditional Vocabulary InstructionInstruction

Ever heard (or said) this:“Class, here is this week’s (chapter’s) vocabulary. Look them up in the dictionary (or glossary or chapter) and write down the definitions. Write a sentence with each word. We will have a test on Friday (or at the end of the chapter).”

Direct Vocabulary Instruction

is a process that enables students

to develop in-depth knowledge

of important words .

Direct Vocabulary Instruction

• Choose what words are important…

• Determine what students need to know in order to really “understand” the word…(think relationships, relationships, relationships!)

• Start the process of storing the vocabulary word in long term memory.

Let’s Look Back at Our List…

What’s the first thing we need to do in order to turn a

traditional vocabulary lesson into an opportunity for struggling

students to build

academic background academic background knowledgeknowledge?

Marzano’s Six Steps to Effective Academic Vocabulary Instruction

Teacher…1. Introduce the vocabulary using description,

images, stories, or examples

Student… (with teacher to guide and facilitate)

2. Write a definition based on the introduction3. Create a nonlinguistic representation of this

understanding4. Develop layers of meaning through activities to

interact with the vocabulary5. Clarify understanding through dialogue and

discussion with peers and teacher6. Enrich understanding through vocabulary games

over time

{vocabulary word}

• Describe it. (what does it look like? feel like? sound like?)

• Tell a story about it. (How do you remember it? When did you learn it? Where does it show up in real life?)

• Give an example of it. (Where have I seen it before? What’s it like? What’s it NOT like?)

Marzano’s Six Steps to Effective Academic Vocabulary Instruction

Teacher…1. Introduce the vocabulary using description,

images, stories, or examples

Student… (with teacher to guide and facilitate)

2. Write a definition based on the introduction3. Create a nonlinguistic representation of this

understanding4. Develop layers of meaning through activities to

interact with the vocabulary5. Clarify understanding through dialogue and

discussion with peers and teacher6. Enrich understanding through vocabulary games

over time

Things to Remember about Step 1

• Teacher must…– Present carefully chosen vocabulary words– Use student friendly descriptions (not

definitions initially)– Use explanations with multiple examples– Use both verbal and nonverbal (visual,

auditory, kinesthetic) means of explanation

Things to Remember about Step 2

• Students must…– Create a definition, description, or explanation of

the term

• Teacher must…– Monitor accuracy of student work– Allow partially-correct definitions to stand– Use questions/prompts to promote student

thinking without providing the “answer.”– Not provide a written definition.

Things to Remember about Step 3

• Students must…– Know you’re not looking for artistic excellence– Use nonverbal representations they can explain– Be creative in making a connection between the

vocabulary and their existing background knowledge– After step 3, rate their current level of understanding

to self-assess learning

• Teacher must…– Check accuracy of illustration.– Help students enhance their understanding through

explanation and extension

Definition Characteristics

Three Examples Three Non-Examples

How is it like a paperclip?

Word

The first 3 steps are the initial teaching of the word and

developing initial understanding;

the second 3 steps are for reinforcing the word and

developing a rich understanding.

Term

What category could I put this word in?

Property/Characteristic

Property/Characteristic

What do I need to remember most about this term? (draw it)

Property/Characteristic

Things to Remember about Step 4

• Student must…– Manipulate the vocabulary words through a variety or

activities– Deepen understanding through dialogue and

discussion

• Teacher must…– Create/Determine the appropriate activities.– Balance paper/pencil and hands-on activities– Use various student groupings (pairs, small groups,

whole class, individual)

Things to Remember about Step 5

• Student must…– Interact with the word periodically over time– Enrich understanding through dialogue and discussion– Reflect on previous interactions and revise understanding

• Teacher must…– Provide a context for the discussions– Model (at least initially) the thinking process involved in

discussions– Monitor discussions ensuring everyone participates– Provide opportunities for enriching understanding

Things to Remember about Step 6

• Student must…– Play with new and old vocabulary to reinforce

understanding– Encounter (at least periodically) new uses for

previously studied words

• Teacher must…– Develop (or steal) games to play with

vocabulary– Manage the class effectively during play

Having Fun with Words on a Minute’s Notice…

• Charades

• Scrabble

• Pictionary

• Hangman

• Scattergories

• “Stump the Teacher”

• Mix-and-Match word parts

Play as a team

Practice with meanings

Make connections

Be creative

Ask why…

&

Can you name this term?

Can you name this term?

Twenty Questions Subject:

Twenty Questions (1-10 only!)

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20

1. What is the opening part of a story called?

2. A person in a story is a what?

3. Which property lets you move around numbers in an addition problem but still get

the right answer?

4. The “inverse” of a fraction means you did what to it?

5. What’s a Punnet Square?

6. In a Punnet Square, what do the letters stand for?

7. Soldiers who used their money to protect their legs

were using it as what?

8. What did both North and South soldiers call the Civil War enemy they all battled because of their

lack of proper hygiene?

9. What were the Spanish explorers who came to North, South, and Central America

called?

10. How is a “secondary color” different from a “primary color”?

Things associated with__________________Shakespeare

Inventive Spelling

SonnetsIambic Pentameter

Queen Elizabeth

Romeo & Juliet

Globe Theater

A website for Vocabulary games

http://www.jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab

In closing…

• Background knowledge matters for student learning because…

• Mazano’s six-steps to vocabulary instruction are (in order)…

• What are at least two other ways to build background knowledge to increase student learning?

• Bonus: what’s a charizard?

In closing…

• http://sde.state.ok.us/Curriculum/BAV.pdf(online guide to Oklahoma’s Building Academic Vocabulary program)

• http://ClassTools.net (online templates and games you can create for your classes)

• http://www.jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab(online templates for vocabulary games)

Graphic Organizerswww.freeology.comwww.teachervision.fen.comhttp://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm