tools for teaching academic vocabulary
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TRANSCRIPT
TOOLS FOR TEACHING ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
from “Inside Words” by Janet Allen
Forest Park Middle School
January 9, 2008
How confident do you feel about your vocabulary instruction?
On a scale of 1 – 9, how confident are you about your vocabulary instruction?
Place a post-it on the scale on the wall– 1 is the lowest & 9 is the highest.
1 95
Adapted from Dale, Rasband, Ross, Gardner, & Cunningham, 2004
• Discuss your response to this question within your group.
• Choose a group leader and record your responses on an index card.
• Group leader should be prepared to share with everyone.
How do you teach vocabulary?
Essential Questions:
Why is vocabulary instruction so important?
What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary instruction?
Word knowledge is much more than word identification or even definitional knowledge–
“It takes more than definitional knowledge to know a word, and we have to know words in order to identify them in multiple reading and listening contexts and use them in our speaking and writing.” (Allen, 1999)
Finding definitions and writing those words in sentences have had little
apparent impact on their word knowledge and language use.
Janet Allen, 1999
Dictionary Use!
• When students have been provided dictionary definitions and asked to create sentences or answer brief questions about the words, research has shown:
• 63 percent of the students’ sentences were judged to be “odd” (Miller & Gildea, 1985)
• 60 percent of students’ responses were unacceptable (McKeown, 1991; 1993)
When the horse you are riding dies, Dismount!
Some dead horses for vocabulary instruction……
1. Do not give students isolated words of weekly spelling words to look up in the dictionary and write sentences. This is a deadly useless activity that is boring, not good instruction, and only teaches student how boring it is to learn new words.
2. Do not use the dictionary as punishment.
3. Move away from fill in the blank, or matching word definitions in isolation.
Reading Aloud
• Students retain more vocabulary when the teacher explains critical vocabulary terms in context during the reading.
• Reading a book several times leads to more word learning than reading several books once each.
Reading Aloud
"The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
(Becoming a Nation of Readers, 1985)
Vocabulary InstructionDirect teaching of vocabulary can help improve comprehension when we follow these guidelines (Cooper, 1993):
• A few critical words are taught.
• The words are taught in a meaningful context. (including nonlinguistic representations)
• Students relate the new words to their background knowledge.
• Students are exposed to the words multiple times.
What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary instruction?
TAKE A LOOK
Vocabulary Strategies
Background Knowledge
The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and background knowledge is explicit in research. (Nagy & Herman, 1984; Marzano, 2004; Hart & Risley, 1995)
“Our inner-city student might have little background knowledge related to camping trips but a lot related to getting around the city on the subway. Consequently, he would have difficulty learning and integrating new information about camping trips but would find it easy to learn new information about transportation via subway systems”.
(Marzano, 2004)
Organizing Words Into Categories
Word Sortscold front
meteorologist
temperature
barometer
hurricanes
Word Sorts
• Provide students with a set of vocabulary word cards (related to a specific concept or topic).
• Work in groups to sort the words into categories.
• Encourage students to find more than one category for the vocabulary words.
• Students then discuss with teacher & peers their rationale for categorizing words.
cold front
meteorologist
temperature
barometer
hurricanes
Concept Circles Assessment: Westward Movement
hardship
trail
wagon
food h
unting
learning
Describe the meaning and relationships between and among the words in the sections of the concept circles.
Traveling west had many hardships. One of the many hardships were diseases that the people had without medical help. Wagons would need to hold many delicacies. For instance, food you’d need to eat and live on were carried in them. The trails could have bad terrain, or could be all flat. Hunting was important and learning how to hunt for buffalo, elk, deer, and birds was learned while on the trail and served as good food for all.
terrain
disease
Concept Circles Assessment: Circulatory System
Veins
Large
intestines
Heart
Arteries
Salivary Glands
Blood
carbon dioxid
e
Oxyg
en
Describe the meaning and relationships between and among the words in the sections of the concept circles. (Which word does NOT belong?)
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Concept Maps
migrate
Schwartz & Raphael, 1985
To move regularly from one region to another
people working for seasonal jobs
birds Nomads
traveling
relocating
moving around
What are some examples?
What is it like?What is it?
Word Map
What is it?
Fence
What are some examples?
What is it like?
Word Map
What is it?
Culture
What are some examples?
What is it like?
Word Map
What is it?
Disease
What are some examples?
What is it like?
Your Turn
Frayer Diagram 1
Definition Characteristics
Examples Non-Examples
First, last week of school. Sitting on the porch reading
Unexpected guests for dinner Bubble bathFour projects due Lounging by the pool
Stress, anxiety, tension, hostility,Tears, physical symptoms
An extreme state of agitation.
SWIVET
Frayer Diagram
Definition Characteristics
Examples Non-Examples
What is a Noun?
Fryer Model
Term Visual Representation
Definition Personal Association
sphere
A round 3-D shape My ball is the shape of a sphere.
Definition Characteristics
Non-ExamplesExamples
Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969)Content for this example taken from Baron & Heideima, (2002) Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (Supplement), McRel.
herd
• Group
• Like animals
• Clustered
a congregation of wild animals
Definition Characteristics
Non-ExamplesExamples
Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969)Content for this example taken from Baron & Heideima, (2002) Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (Supplement), McRel.
Prime
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, . . .
1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10. . .
• 2 is the only even prime number
• 0 and 1 are not prime
•Every whole number can be written as a product of primes
A whole number with exactly two divisors (factors)
Your Turn
Contextual Redefinition Work with a group to make predictions for definitions of each of the following words.
The words included here are found in Notes on the Space We Take. Remember that some words which look familiar will probably have new meanings in this context. WORD Predicted
DefinitionDefinition Based
on ContextContext Clues
Used
hiss
exoskeleton
Vulnerability
Semantic Feature Analysis
FDR JFK Nixon Reagan Clinton
Democrat + + - - +
War time
President + - + - -
Congress(same party)
Re-elected
Served in Congress
Won majority of popular vote
Semantic Feature AnalysisConvex Equilateral Equiangular 4 sided Opposite
sides parallel
square x x x x x
rectangle x x x x
triangle x
quadrilateral x
Regular
polygonx x x
rhombus x x x x
trapezoid x x
Your Turn
VVWA (Verbal & Visual Word Association) Readence, Bean, &
Baldwin, 2001Term Visual Representation
Definition
a degree of wetness especially of the atmosphere
Personal Association
humidity
Vocabulary Notebooks• Students keep a log or journal to record what they are learning
•Teacher provides a concept or word.
•Students write quickly & spontaneously (free write/quick write) everything they know about the word.
•Peer and/or teacher response.
Concept Circles
Why? ___________________________________________________
Which word does not belong?
Cone
Rectangle
Trapezoid
Hexagon
Concept Circles
Why? ___________________________________________________
Which word does not belong?
England
Cuba
Japan
Hawaii
racism stereotyping
Churchbombing
violence
Concept: Civil Rights Movement
Migrant Dust Bowl
Hobo Hoovervilles
Concept: The Depression
What Are Your Thoughts?
Word
Know it well, can explain it, use it
Know some-thing about it, can relate it to asituation
Have seen or heard the word
Do not know the word
tyranny
serendipity
grapnel
purport
sensitive
dubious
4-2-1 summarizer (TPR)
Four Two One
Rogers, et.al (1999). Motivation and Learning. . .
Collaborative Pairs!
• Reflect on the strategies used today.
• With which strategies would dictionary use seem most appropriate and inappropriate?
• Justify your response!