Game to teach vocabulary

Module: Vocabulary
Facilitated By:
Cheryl Harvey
and
Rebecca Radicchi
Keys to Student Achievement:
Best Practices in Teaching
BEST PRACTICES
This session is based in the Vocabulary “Best Practices” module designed by Metro RESA.
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.

Adapted from Dale, Rasband, Ross, Gardner, & Cunningham, 2004
Essential Questions:
Why is vocabulary instruction so important?

What are exemplary
strategies for vocabulary
instruction?

A little boy was in a relative’s wedding. As he was walking down the aisle, he would take two steps, stop, and turn to the crowd. While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar. So it went, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR, all the way down the aisle. As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard. The little boy was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing, and he was also near tears. When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, “I was being the Ring Bear!”
LEVEL 1 Unknown
LEVEL 2 Acquainted
LEVEL 3 Established
Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987
What level of
vocabulary knowledge is evident in this child’s response?
Discuss your response with a partner.

Group leader should be prepared to share with everyone.
How do you teach vocabulary?
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)
There is an estimated 4,700 word difference in vocabulary knowledge between high- and low- SES. (Nagy and Herman ,1984)
Research on the importance of vocabulary instruction:
For English language learners the “achievement gap” is primarily a vocabulary gap.
(Carlo, et.al., 2004)
Vocabulary instruction is one of the essential elements for literacy development for students “at risk.” ( RAND Reading Study Group, 2002, NRP, 2000)
Word Knowledge is Multifaceted
Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002
Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction
Rich language learning environment
( including Read-Alouds)

Wide and Varied
Independent Reading


Direct Vocabulary
Instruction
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)
Collaborative Pairs
What are the advantages of reading aloud to students?



How do read-alouds support vocabulary development?
Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction
Rich language learning environment
(including Read-Alouds)

Wide and Varied Independent
Reading


Direct Vocabulary Instruction
Reading Volume of 5th-grade Students of Different Levels of Achievement
(Allington, 2001; Adapted from Anderson, Wilson and Fielding, 1988.)
Independent Reading:
Accounts for one-third or more of vocabulary growth.
How do you show your
students that independent
reading is great & joyful?

How do you make
independent reading
time meaningful?

What obstacles do you
need to overcome?
Center for the Study of Reading, Urbana, IL
Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction
Rich language learning environment
( including Read-Alouds)

Wide and Varied Independent Reading

Direct Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary Instruction
Direct 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.
The Marble Effect
You Try It!
Using the text provided, collaborate with group members and decide on the most important words to teach.

Provide a rationale for your selection.

Share!
“Which words should I teach?”
Which words are most important to understanding the text?
How much prior knowledge will students have about the word/concept?
Is the concept significant and therefore requires previewing?
Which words can be figured out from the context?
How can I make repeated exposures to the word/concept enjoyable and meaningful?
What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary instruction?
Before Reading Strategies
Background Knowledge
“The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and background knowledge is explicit in research.”

(Nagy & Herman, 1984; Marzano, 2004; Hart & Risley, 1995)
herd
migration
predators
Serengeti
camouflage
40
fingerprint
Powerful Zebras
HO
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

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?
Definition
Characteristics
Non-Examples
Examples
Frayer Model
(Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969)
herd
Group
Like animals
Clustered
a congregation of wild animals
Definition
Characteristics
Non-Examples
Examples
Frayer Model
(Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969)
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)
During Reading Strategies
MATHEMATICS
CRISS (2004) pg. 146
Reading with Word Explanation
Read the book/text once with minimal explanation.
After an initial reading, we can interrupt up to 8-10 times to explain words while rereading (possibly less, depending on length)
With very young children, don’t interrupt more than once per page.
Keep explanations simple~ explain only what is needed to understand the content being read in everyday language.
After Reading Strategies
Four Square Response
Term
Illustration
Definition

a degree of wetness especially of the atmosphere
Connection
humidity
Concept Circles
Why? ___________________________________________________
Which word does not belong?
Cone
Rectangle
Trapezoid
Hexagon
racism
stereotyping
Church
bombing
violence
Concept: Civil Rights Movement
Vocabulary Strategies for ELL
Preview texts for unfamiliar or difficult words and the use of idiomatic language. To reduce students’ frustration, such words and expressions can be taught prior to the lesson.
Use extensive modeling and visual representations– e.g., pantomime, graphic organizers, pictures, hands-on materials.
Emphasize meaning rather than pronunciation
CORE, 2000
4-2-1 Summarizer
Four
Two
One
Rogers, et.al (1999). Motivation and Learning. . .

Pictionary
Using only a piece of paper and pen, draw and get your partner to say these words.
Los Angeles
New York
Miami
Chicago
Assessing Vocabulary Instruction
Ongoing
Varied, Meaningful & Authentic
Use word wall
Do you see them using words in writing and speaking?
How do you keep words you teach directly fresh in their minds and internalized?



Vocabulary word review tub
Center with former words
Keep ongoing list of words with guided reading
groups
Use words in classroom talk
Word wall


Finding definitions and writing those words in sentences have had little apparent impact on their word knowledge and language use.
Janet Allen, 1999
Assessing Integration
& Meaningful Use
Sample “test” questions:
One of our target words for this week was preposterous. What kind of in-school behavior would the principal think was preposterous?
Describe a time when you felt liberated. What was the reason for that feeling?
The concept we have been studying this week is stereotyping? Give an example of what you think is stereotypical behavior. Why do you think the
behavior was stereotypical?


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)
3 x 3 Vocabulary
word
knowledge
reading with explanation
strategies
direct instruction
Nonlinguistic
representations
Frayer
dictionaries
background
knowledge
assessment
Adapted from Guilford County Schools, 2002
Essential Questions:
Why is vocabulary instruction so important?

What are exemplary strategies for vocabulary instruction?

Web Resources for
Vocabulary Practice
Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary Builders
Super Kids Word Scrambler
Online Vocabulary Games
Quia (Insert your words)
Resources
Best Practices Research: Metro RESA

Clipart: Jeff Shelly and Google Images