Vocabulary Strategies for Struggling Students South Todd Elementary April 19, 2013 Betsy Madison

The role of Vocabulary in Schema (prior knowledge) Every child comes to school with a “frame” made of their experiences since birth. Some students have a frame that looks like garden lattice. Some students have a skinny little frame.

All day long, we throw “dirt clods” at their frames.

New Knowledge has to have Prior Knowledge to “stick” to. Which frame will more dirt clods stick to?

The Role of WORDS in Schema By age 3, kids from well off families have a working vocabulary of 1116 words. Kids from working class families have 749 words. Kids from welfare have a mere 525 words. Word poverty leads to idea poverty. You have to know stuff to make meaning of the stuff you read (New Knowledge has to have Old Knowledge to stick to.)

You should suspect vocabulary problems if…. A student comes from a working class family A student comes from a poverty family situation A child speaks in short, unelaborated phrases

A child does not consistently use adjectives, adverbs, and specific nouns A child is reading below grade level A child is writing below grade level A child struggles with comprehension of text read silently as well as read-aloud

Vocabulary is the greatest single indicator of IQ. Better vocab. = Greater comp. = Greater knowledge

Vocabulary Screeners

In other words….

Three Tiers of Words Tier –One –Basic words that rarely require instruction in school. Tier-Two Academic Vocabulary –Occur frequently in language, are central to comprehension, and are understood by most mature language users. –The best candidates for explicit instruction. Tier-Three – Domain Specific –Low-frequency “specialized” words. Teach these as needed. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan, 2002

Word Strips Tier II word student friendly definitions Nonlinguistic Representations

Marzano’s Six-Step Approach for Classroom Vocabulary Instruction 13

Step 1 The teacher provides a description, explanation or example of the new term. 14

Step 2 Students restate the explanation of the new term in their own words. Longman online dictionary 15

Step 3 Students create a nonlinguistic representation of the term. 16

Students periodically engage in activities that help them add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms. 19 Step 4

Step 5 Frequently have students discuss important terms with one another. 21

Step 6 Periodically engage students in games that allow them to play with the terms. 23 Games

How much is enough ? The cognitive level of a student is a factor in the number of exposures required for word recognition. Dr. Bonnie Armbruster of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Vocabulary Should Be Taught Directly Indirectly

What We Know from Research Students develop vocabulary through: 26 explicit vocabulary instruction wide reading reading a lot (time) reading different types/levels of text fiction and non- fiction read-alouds focusing on specific words and their meanings teaching independent word learning strategies

Write 3 things that all 3 pictures have in common

The Power of Reading to Build Vocabulary Reading 14 minutes a day means reading 1,000,000 words a year. Preschool and children’s books expose students to more challenging vocabulary than prime-time television. For vocabulary development, children should have text that is 3 years above their age/grade level.

“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” Ludwig Wittgenstein What can you do, at STES, to combat WORD POVERTY?

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