Opening Exercise Read - Pair – Share Read what research has to say about vocabulary instruction. Mark three findings that resonate with you. Share/discuss these findings with a partner

Plan for this hour Familiarize self with research What we’re doing Why we’re doing it Selecting vocab. Watch video (25 minutes) Practical approaches Walking through steps 1,2,3 Playing with steps 4,5,6 For more information: Marzano’s Building Academic Vocabulary

What findings support what we’ll be looking at today? The first reason that vocabulary instruction often fails to produce measurable gain in reading comprehension is that much of the instruction does not produce a sufficient depth of word knowledge. (Nagy, 1988, as cited in Honig et al, 2000) A reader has about a 5 percent chance of learning a new word fully from encountering it only once in print. Therefore, when specific words are key to understanding a concept, intentional, explicit instruction in word meanings is efficient and productive. (Nagy, Anderson and Herman, 1987)

More research “[L]earners can very quickly get a sense of a word’s meaning…But full understanding…occurs only over time and multiple encounters.” (Beck et al, 2002).

From “Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices.” US Department of Education. Recommendations for providing explicit vocabulary instruction Dedicate a portion of regular classroom lessons to explicit vocabulary instruction. Provide repeated exposure to new words in multiple contexts, and allow sufficient practice sessions in vocabulary instruction. Give sufficient opportunities to use new vocabulary in a variety of contexts through activities such as discussion, writing, and extended reading. Provide students with strategies to make them independent vocabulary learners.

What do you think … What does it mean to really know a word? What does it take to really know a word?

Which words to teach? Ideally… Process used by committee to generate district-wide (or school- wide) list of terms is divided into five phases. Decide on number of words to be taught at each grade level and, by extension, across a grade-level interval (K-2, 3-5, 6-8,or 9-12) or a multi-grade span (e.g. K-6 or K-12). For each academic content area in program, create a rank- ordered list of words important to grade-level interval or multi- grade span by selecting words from list. Add words that reflect local standards and curriculum materials. Based on length of these lists, determine how many terms should be taught in each academic area. Generate final list of terms for each academic area by making additions, deletions, or other alterations.

Which words to select? Building Academic Vocabulary Teacher’s Manual lists 7,923 terms in 11 subject areas extracted from national standards documents, organized into four grade-level intervals: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

Which vocabulary do I teach? Useful and interesting words Target words for instruction that are –Necessary for understanding the text AND –Essential to understanding topic not just

Developing your own selection criteria (in a pinch) Interesting Hawaiian Words you might like to know Words necessary and essential to teachers who might like to work in Hawaii Aloha Humuhumunukunukuapua’a Hokunaho’oikaika Ulalena Huli Haole Kama aina Mahalo Hana Pau kokua Keiki Da kine Shishi Mahalo Hana Pau Keiki Kokua Haole Da Kine

25 minutes

Our words Mahalo Hana Pau Keiki Kokua Haole Da Kine

Step One: Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term Teacher provides and explanation or example What do students know or think they know about the term? What do students know about parts of the word? (roots, prefixes, suffixes) Offer explanation or example in common, everyday language NOT a dictionary definition

Step Two: Ask students to restate the description, explanation or example in their own words Students put in into their own language – this allows students hook the new learning with what they already know Write a description – put in own language so you can remember and understand it This engages students and helps them retain the meaning and help them use it later Check for understanding If student has only a partial understanding, clarify the concept

Step Three: Ask students to construct a picture, symbol or graphic representing the term Idea is to have them transfer the learning to a different modality and translate their understanding of the word into images Rate how well they know the word

First three steps Gives them a chance to reflect on it and see where their learning is. Process does not take a lot of time if it’s done on a consistent basis Gives kids enough time to absorb the terms

Next three steps Deepen understanding Games Discussions Activities Student Draws Student explains Teacher describes

Categories of Instructional Strategies That Affect Student Achievement Identifying similarities and differences 45 Summarizing and note taking 34 Reinforcing effort and providing recognition29 Homework and practice 28 Nonlinguistic representations 27 Cooperative learning 27 Setting objectives and providing feedback 23 Generating and testing hypotheses 23 Questions, cues, and advance organizers 22 % RateCategory

Step 4: Engage students periodically in activities that add to their knowledge of the term Teacher engages students in activities that allow them to add to their knowledge of the word Move the student from superficial to deeper understanding of the term. If we exposed to it multiple times, the understanding sharpens. Teacher has to plan activities that allow students to go back and re-experience the words –

Engaging activities that help students process their learning Classify words into categories Make analogies Creating metaphors Free association

For our purposes Classify the words Put them into at least two different categories based on what you know Be prepared to explain why you did what you did

Step 5: Ask students to discuss terms with one another Give groups of students questions about words Students talk to others, explain what they know, compare what they know with what others know This allows for multiple exposures and the social aspect of learning Pair up with students with similar background experiences (ESL) How do students interact with others? Students ask each other questions to understand they know the vocabulary for themselves Students automatically work through meaning and ask, “How has my understanding of this word changed?” Make notes as they revise their understanding of the terms and re-rate their understanding Their notebook entries can help you identify who needs further instruction or review

Question to answer in groups What are the words that would be used by students? Why? What are some words that would be used by teachers? Why? What are some words that would be used by staff? Why?

Step 6: Involve students in games that allow them to play with terms. Students are asked to play Games – students are experiencing words over and over again They are also associating fun and enjoyment with the word

Vobackulary I hold up a word behind a student’s back People in the class try to give you clues as to what the word is so you can figure it out.

What do you need to implement six-step process Time! If time is invested on front end, you don’t have a lot of review at the end The process is designed to meet needs of students as you go along, not a lot of review All six steps together allows you to introduce words in a non-threatening ways and allows students to process words multiple times in a multitude of ways and have fun with the words

The Book… Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert Marzano