Vocabulary: The Levels of Knowing A Word EDC 448: Dr. Julie Coiro

Today’s Objectives 1.Review key ideas about relationship between vocabulary and readability 2.Connect importance of “student directed” activities with “explicit instruction” in key vocabulary 3.Learn how and why to select key vocabulary concepts for explicit instruction 4.Develop a short set of “engaging vocabulary activities” around a challenging concept in your discipline

We all know that teaching vocabulary is important, yet ….. It’s not THAT we teach vocabulary, it’s HOW we teach vocabulary.

Five Statements from current research about Vocabulary Students need to be exposed to a word at least six times in context before they have enough experience with the word to ascertain its meaning and make it perdurable. 2. Even superficial instruction in new words enhances the probability that students will understand the words when they encounter them. Jane K. Doty, MCREL

Five Statements from current research about Vocabulary One of the best ways to learn a new word is to associate a mental image or symbolic representation with it. CentralizationDecentralization

Baghdad Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term or phrase.

Income tax is the money we pay to the government that they use to provide things we all need, like roads. The money is taken out of our paychecks. Pay day!!

Concept Definition Mapping

Comparisons/ Contrasts discriminant

Frayer Model

Frayer Model: Guess the Concept

Visualizing (Simmons, 2002)

Five Statements from current research about Vocabulary Direct vocabulary instruction works. Teaching new vocabulary directly increases student comprehension of new materials. 5. Direct instruction on words that are critical to new content produces the most powerful learning.

Building Your Essential Vocabulary Lists

Building your Essential Vocabulary Lists: Not ALL terms are critically important! How will you decide which words you will select? How many words will you identify as “critical” or “essential” for each topic? for your discipline? for your grade level??

So how do you decide what words to put on your list? Divide your words into three categories: Tier 1 (or General words): Commonplace words students typically learn from interacting with others or reading Tier 2 (or Specialized words): Words that have different meanings depending on the discipline used. These are high-frequency. Tier 3 (or Technical words): Words that are specific to a content area or discipline. Might occur infrequently but can be barriers to understanding content. Beck & McKeown; Buehl (p. 175)

Examples for Women’s Suffrage Unit YOUR TURN

Select words from George Washington General (Tier 1) Specialized (Tier 2) Technical (Tier 3)

Selected words from George Washington

Selecting the semi-finalists…. you must strategically choose the words for formal instruction 1.Representation: essential or root word (yes) 2.Repeatability: used often in text/discipline (yes) 3.Transportability: used in discussions, writing tasks, other subject areas/topics (yes) 4.Contextual Analysis: use context clues? (no) 5.Structural Analysis: use word parts? (no) 6.Cognitive Load: too many words? (no) Fisher & Fry (2008) YOUR TURN

The Six Finalists and Why We Chose Them Tier 2: Held/hold; occupied; and possession (conceptually related and would help transfer into knowledge base) Tier 3: Colony and continent (essential to early U.S. history – roles of leaders could be learned later in a more specific unit)

So, how do we TEACH these words? Develop student friendly explanations –Look up definitions and translate into ideas from a student’s point of view –Characteristics – what is it like? (Think of the Word Map organizer); examples and non-examples –Root words or affixes: What other words have the same root word?

Concept Definition Mapping

So, how do we TEACH these words? Actively engage students in dealing with word meanings –Word Associations (Which word goes with…?) –Have You Ever? (associate in context) –Idea Completion (use to explain a situation) When might you? How might you? Why might you?

Try It Out Work with 1-2 partners to skim one of the “challenging content area texts” in your handout. List Tier 1, 2, and 3 words from the selection on the handout organizer Highlight a Tier 3 word and discuss ways to teach and engage students with the CONCEPT (not just the word) – work through the categories of activities in your handout

Summarizing Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction 1.Provide description, explanation or example of the new term 2.Students restate the explanation of the new term in their own words 3.Students create a nonlinguistic representation of the term 4.Students periodically do activities that help them add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms 5.Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another 6.Periodically engage students in games that allow them to play with the terms

Homework and Next Week 1.Thursday 10/28: Critical Reading and Questioning Strategies –Read Beuhl Activities (especially QAR on p. 133; RAFT Model – p. 144) –Vocabulary Activity Blog Post #7 –Work on Lesson Plan Outline (use handout) Tuesday 11/2: Critical Reading on the Internet –Read Kajder – Chapter 4 –Read Coiro (2005 and 2009) –Blog Post #8 –ATTEND MEETING WITH DR. COIRO (please come prepared with completed Lesson Plan Outline and questions)