1. VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION
The focus of our afternoon session will be vocabulary instruction in your intervention classroom.
The primary goal is to provide you with some additional tools and activities that are proven to help struggling students with deep processing of new or challenging words.

2. Essential Questions What are the CODE vocabulary principles?
What are Marzano’s six steps to effective vocabulary instruction?
How do the CODE and Marzano steps help struggling students add to their word knowledge?
How can I implement both the CODE principles and Marzano process into daily intervention instruction?
Read the Slide

3. Learning Targets
I can explain the CODE Vocabulary Principles and Marzano’s Six-step Vocabulary Instruction.
I can implement CODE and Marzano into daily classroom planning and instruction.
The learning targets for this afternoon are…(read the slide).

4. As you watch the video think about the impact words make in your daily life.

5. –Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953)
“Acquiring the vocabulary we use for thinking and communicating is a linguistic achievement of nearly incomprehensible importance and complexity.”
--Phythian-Sence and Wagner (2007)
“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.”
–Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953)
Give time to read slide.
Briefly discuss how vocabulary acquisition is important.

6. anticipation/Reaction Guide
Statement
Agree
Disagree
Vocabulary knowledge is the single most important factor in reading comprehension.
Explanation:
Socioeconomic status can drastically affect vocabulary development in children.
Students must have multiple exposures to a word and its meaning to deeply process it.
Vocabulary has to be taught through direct and indirect means.
Read the following statements. Place an X in the appropriate column according to whether you agree or disagree with the statement. Leave the explanation section blank for now. We will revisit this guide at the end of this session.

7. Vocabulary Acquisition
Read the Slide
According to research, the development of vocabulary is significantly impacted before a child enters school. The words that a child has both heard and spoken make up the base of their comprehension when they begin to read.  If a child has been limited in any way in their oral language process, reading instruction can be hampered. 
Many factors can negatively affect a child’s oral language exposure: poverty, hearing or learning disabilities, attention deficits, relatively low educational attainment of the child’s parents, and living in a family where English is not the primary language.
When considering vocabulary acquisition through incidental means, let’s review the findings of a study conducted by Betty Hart and Todd Risley. The team wondered why, despite best efforts in preschool programs, children from low-income homes remained well behind their more economically advantaged peers. The next few slides are a summary of their findings.
Hart, Betty & Risley, Todd R. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.

8. (Review the Slide with participants)
Words Heard Per Hour: Families Receiving Welfare: 616; Working Class Families:1,251; Professional Families: 2,153
Hart, Betty & Risley, Todd R. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.

9. This chart represents the same families but is based on Words Heard in a 100-hour week. For Families Receiving Welfare: 62,000; Working Class Families: 125,000; and Professional families: 215,000.

10. This chart represents the same families but is based on Words Heard in a Year. For Families Receiving Welfare: 3 Million words heard; Working Class Families: 6 Million words heard; Professional Families: 11 Million heard words heard per year.

11. This chart represents the words children hear in four years
This chart represents the words children hear in four years. For Welfare families: 13 million; Working Class families: 26 million; and Professional families: 45 million. The cumulative affect of oral language interaction is amazing over the extended 4-year period.
Think about the make-up of the students in your school or classroom and make connections with your school population. What conclusions might be drawn based upon this research?
Allow for short discussion and comments from group.

12. The Gap continues….. 1,000,000 words 100,000 words
The news is not surprising, but very discouraging for these children who begin school with vocabulary deficits. Studies show that they struggle with vocabulary and reading comprehension through grade school, middle school and finally into high school. Consider this: the average high school student possesses 1 million words. The high school struggling reader averages 100,000 words. (Nagy and Anderson, 1984).
100,000 words

13. Recognizing the need to teach vocabulary is important…….
But HOW you teach vocabulary makes all the difference in a student’s actual word acquisition.
Read Slide

14. “It is imperative to be mindful of the serious limitations inherent in
the three most common vocabulary
teaching practices in K-12
classrooms.” Kevin Feldman & Kate Kinsella
(Read Quote)
Unfortunately, vocabulary instruction is not always taught effectively. According to research, many teachers use the same ineffective practices. What do you think these ineffective practices are?
Allow time for guesses.
1. Advance slide 2x. Looking up words in the dictionary.
According to Dr. Timothy Shanahan, a member of the National Reading Panel, the most common practice for teaching vocabulary is to have students look up words in the dictionary and write the definitions. Research indicates that this is actually the least effective practice.
2. Advance slide. Using written context to figure out word meanings.
Another common vocabulary practice is when a teacher tells students to figure out the meaning of an unknown word by using contextual clues. Although determining meanings of unknown words from context can be a very effective practice, simply instructing students to do it is not enough. Research indicates that the odds of a student deriving the intended meaning of an unknown word from written context is, unfortunately, extremely low, varying from 5% to 15% for both native speakers and English-language learners (Beck et al. 2002; Nagy et al, 1985). This is true because students do not know how to use context clues effectively, and many times, they are never taught this skill.
Refer to handout on context clues.
3. Advance slide. Unplanned vocabulary teaching.
Finally, vocabulary instruction must be well-planned with research-based instructional principles in mind. According to Robert Marzano, teaching specific terms in a specific way is the strongest action a teacher can take to ensure students understand the content. Some practices really do yield consistently better results than others. You will learn more about these effective vocabulary-building tools later.

15. Too often, we leave vocabulary acquisition to chance.

16. Effective vocabulary instruction requires:
Active and positive student participation
(Carr & Wixson, 1986)
Personal engagement with a new word
(Dole, Sloan &Trathen, 1995)
Opportunities for students to discuss new words
Teaching vocabulary before reading
(National Reading Panel 2000)
Learning in rich contexts, incidental learning, and the use of computer technology
National Reading Panel 2000)
Providing multiple exposures to a word (Marzano., 2003)
Let’s take a moment to review some additional research relating to vocabulary instruction.
Read Slide

17. Vocabulary Should Be Taught ....
Directly
Indirectly
Vocabulary acquisition happens as a result of both indirect and direct instruction.
Direct instruction includes those times when a teacher systematically demonstrates how to determine the meanings of words or when the teacher leads the students to specific tools for discovering meaning.
Indirect instruction happens when teachers purposely expose students to a wide variety of literary sources by creating a literate-rich learning environment, and occurs naturally when students read, write, talk, and listen to each other on a daily basis.

18. Direct Vocabulary Instruction Works
Let’s take a closer look at how direct vocabulary instruction impacts student learning.
The bar on the left-hand side of the figure depicts a student who is at the 50th percentile in terms of ability to comprehend the subject matter taught in school with no direct vocabulary instruction. This means that the teacher has made no efforts to help the student process the new words that they encounter or to broaden their understanding of words they already know.
The middle bar shows that the comprehension level increases 62% with direct vocabulary instruction: for example, this includes the use of the teaching tools for vocabulary or direct instruction in using context clues.
The bar on the far right-hand side shows the comprehension level of the same student after specific content area terms have been taught as they relate to the content being learned. As you can see, the student’s comprehension ability has increased to the 83rd percentile. This dramatic increase provides a strong argument for teaching academic terms with specific tools AND in the context of real learning.
Source: Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement by Robert J. Marzano page 69
Building Academic Vocabulary, 2

19. Making Vocabulary Memorable )
C O D E
Richard Strong, Harvey Silver, Matthew Perini and Gregory Tuculescu have identified the CODE vocabulary acronym to help you remember the critical steps in making difficult or unfamiliar vocabulary memorable for your students …
Advance slide - Connect the new vocabulary to what students already know.
Advance slide - Organize the vocabulary because students remember unfamiliar information better when it is clearly organized or contextualized for them.
Advance Slide - Deeply process the vocabulary using visual, auditory, physical an/or emotional experiences and then practice it frequently.
Advance Slide - Explore core vocabulary; students internalize new vocabulary when given time and opportunity to think about, examine and reexamine it in a variety of ways.

20. Basic Principles of Vocabulary Instruction Principle C
Students remember vocabulary when the word is strongly Connected to what they already know and have experienced.
(Using the Note-taking Using Both Sides of the Brain reading comprehension tool, have interventionists take notes over the CODE Principles. As you present the information, have them take brief notes about important ideas in the Words and Phrases column. Then, have them draw a diagram, picture or other visual in the Visuals and Pictures column that captures the main idea in the words and phrases column. Instruct them to summarize the notes in one or two sentences in the “Summary” section. Share summaries.)
Say:
You will be using a comprehension tool called Note Taking Using Both Sides of the Brain. Using the template in your binder, take brief notes over the CODE principles. In the Words and Phrases column, write down important ideas. In the Visual and Pictures column draw anything that captures the main ideas you noted. Summarize the notes in one or two sentences in the Summary section at the bottom. This strategy is very useful for connecting new knowledge to make meaning, evaluating understanding, creating images of what is being read, summarizing and organizing information into manageable chunks. Students can work individually or in small groups to complete this comprehension tool.
Begin script below:
According to Reading for Academic Success (Strong and Silver), there are 4 basic principles for teaching vocabulary effectively.
(Read Slide)
Because so many words that students encounter in secondary classrooms are new and unfamiliar, students need as many “handles” as possible to give them a pre-comprehension grip on new terms and concepts. These tools help students connect with new vocabulary by activating their prior knowledge and by helping build an increasing sense of comfort and familiarity with new vocabulary.

21. Principle O Students remember more information when it is
clearly Organized.
(Read Slide)
When vocabulary is organized, specific words are easier to identify, recall quickly, and be remembered over longer periods of time. Students who have no system of organizing new vocabulary find it difficult to manage and remember the many individual and unconnected bits of information. When words are categorized by common threads and linked to the over-arching structure of a unit, students see how the terms fit together to form a bigger picture.

22. Principle D Students remember vocabulary when it is Deeply
processed through visual,
auditory, physical, or
emotional experiences.
(Read Slide)
The processes of storing vocabulary in long-term memory and quickly retrieving words and their definitions are closely related. However, retrieving words quickly is refined through practice, but storing vocabulary for the long term is attained through deep and active thought.
Most common teaching tools for vocabulary focus on quick retrieval and rely on rote memory techniques, such as writing out definitions, finding synonyms and antonyms, using flash cards, or solving analogies.
Although these tools can be helpful at times, Marzano’s research shows that well-constructed memory-teaching practices engage deeper thinking processes. In other words, students must be encouraged to actively process vocabulary and to examine it from multiple angles to strengthen their understanding of it, thus making retrieval easier and practicing more productive.
Using visual, auditory, physical or emotional experiences allow for deep and active thought, which also help students master difficult vocabulary.

23. Explore or think about it in a
Principle E
Students remember
vocabulary when they are
given the opportunity to
Explore or think about it in a
variety of ways.
(Read Slide)
The most important vocabulary words need to be explored at length by students. When students have the opportunity to focus their attention on core vocabulary -- to examine, refine, and revise their understanding of central ideas and concepts -- they are able to develop powerful generalizations and navigate more easily through the discipline.
As you have experienced, Note-taking on both sides of the brain helps students to explore vocabulary with non-linguistic figures, which helps them to remember what is important.
You can stop taking notes with this tool for now, but we’ll revisit your experience with note-taking on both sides of the brain and CODE a little later.

24. Daily Classroom Instruction for Vocabulary
Marzano’s Six-Step Approach
Using the CODE principles as the overarching idea for vocabulary instruction, the six-step approach developed by Marzano will give even more guidance as you plan for daily vocabulary instruction in your intervention class. This six-step approach can be found in Building Background Knowledge for Academic Success.

25. Step 1
The teacher provides a description, explanation or example of the new term.
Read Slide
Marzano’s first step to effective vocabulary instruction is to provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term. Students benefit when they rely on descriptions instead of definitions. Teachers can help students build an initial understanding of the word by introducing direct experiences, telling a story that integrates the term, using a video or computer image, asking small groups to investigate, describing his/her own mental picture, and finding or creating a picture that represents the term.

26. Students restate the explanation of the new term in their own words.
Step 2
Students restate the explanation of the new term in their own words.
(Read Slide)
We know that research tell us that looking up words in a dictionary is the least effective vocabulary practice.
Marzano’s second step to effective vocabulary instruction offers an alternative to this ineffective practice.
It is much more effective to have students state or restate the explanation of a new term in their own words and to interact with the word in a meaningful way.
It is often necessary to remind learners not to copy from the dictionary or another text, but use their own words to explain or define a new term. Teachers also must monitor student responses carefully to determine if any confusion exists.
Then, provide more descriptions, explanations, or examples, if necessary.

27. Students create a nonlinguistic representation of the term.
Step 3
Students create a nonlinguistic representation of the term.
(Read Slide)
Marzano’s third step to effective vocabulary instruction is having students create nonlinguistic representations of the term.
For optimal results, students need to represent knowledge of words in linguistic (with words) and nonlinguistic (without words) ways.
At times, having students create nonlinguistic representations of a term is very powerful. Creating graphic representations; drawing pictures, symbols, or pictographs; generating mental images; making physical models; and engaging in kinesthetic activities are all examples of nonlinguistic representations.
It is great for students to share examples of their drawings. This can really broaden or clarify word meanings. It is also a good practice to allow students to work in teams to help those who struggle or claim that they cannot draw very well.

28. Step 4
Students periodically engage in activities that help them add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms.
The fourth Marzano step to effective vocabulary instruction is to have students periodically do activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms.
Many of the teaching tools for vocabulary that we have included in the KCL model address comparing terms, classifying terms, and generating metaphors or analogies. Word sorts are another activity you can use with students to actively engage them with content-related words.
Remember that it is often very powerful to have students revise their initial description or nonlinguistic representations of a term or concept as their knowledge deepens throughout a unit of study. This can be done through the revision of graphic organizers or vocabulary journal entries.

29. Step 5
Frequently have students discuss important terms with one another.
The fifth Marzano step to effective vocabulary instruction is to periodically ask students to discuss terms with one another. Discussion could occur in a variety of ways (e.g., large group, small group, partners).
Discussion of terms helps deepen a student’s understanding of a term as they learn from one another’s experiences and perspectives. This should occur as a regular part of instruction. Meaningful conversations can occur when the teacher or student poses a question to stimulate discussion or when questions or issues about terms are raised.
Facilitating meaningful discussion will be the focus of an upcoming module this week.

30. Step 6
Periodically engage students in games that allow them to play with the terms.
The sixth Marzano step to effective vocabulary instruction is to periodically engage students in games that allow them to play (or have fun) with the terms. Examples of games might include Password, Memory, or Most Important Word. Source: Building Academic Vocabulary Teacher’s Manual by Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering
Password: This game is based on the television game show. Hand teams a set of index cards that have one vocabulary word written on each card. Player #1 looks at the first word and begins saying words associated with this vocabulary word. The goal is for the other player to guess the word.
Memory: Some cards have individual vocabulary terms on them and others have their definitions. Cards are placed face down. Students turn cards over and match words to definitions. To maximize effectiveness, provide students with a sheet listing all the vocabulary words and their definitions.
Most Important Word: After having students read a portion of text, ask them to choose the three most important words and describe why they chose the words, using examples from the text to support their answer.
Games

31. Revisiting CODE
Without using your notes, think back to the discussion of the CODE vocabulary principles. On a piece of scrap paper, jot down what you remember.
Turn to a partner and see if you can fill in any gaps.
The 6 Steps of Effective Vocabulary instruction along with the principles of CODE can yield amazing results for student word acquisition.
Let’s revisit the principles of CODE now.
After everyone is finished, review CODE with notes.

32. C C D ODE CODE ODE Marzano CODE
Teacher provides description, explanation, or example of new term.
Students restate explanation of the term in their own words.
Students create nonlinguistic representation of term.
Students periodically do activities that help them add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms.
Periodically, students are asked to discuss terms with one another.
Periodically, students are involved in games that allow them to play with the terms. C C D
ODE
Making Connections: How do the Marzano steps connect to the CODE Vocabulary Principles? Using your notes, identify the CODE principle that best connects to each of Marzano’s six steps in vocabulary instruction. Be ready to explain your answer.
Discuss as a group the connections the interventionists see between the two.
CODE
ODE

33. Let’s Revisit the Guide
Statement
Agree
Disagree
Vocabulary knowledge is the single most important factor in reading comprehension.
Explanation:
Socioeconomic status can drastically affect vocabulary development in children.
Students must have multiple exposures to a word and its meaning to deeply process it.
Vocabulary has to be taught through direct and indirect means.
Now that we have explored vocabulary instruction in some depth, let’s revisit the statements from the anticipation guide and your early impressions.
Take a moment or two to reflect on your first impressions. Do you still feel the way that you did before the session?
As you look back over the statements, write in the “explanation” sections how your thinking changed/did not change as a result of your learning.

34. Reflective Journal “Many teachers see vocabulary as
necessary for better reading. Few, however, realize its long-term effect on learning, achievement, thinking, & communication.”
--Bromley, 2002; Watts, 1995
Learning Targets
I can explain the CODE principles of vocabulary instruction and Marzano’s six steps.
I can implement CODE and Marzano into my daily classroom planning and instruction.
As we close this section, it is important to remember:
Read slide.
Reflect on the quote, the session and the learning targets in your journal.

35. Bibliography
Wagner, Richard, Andrea E. Muse and Kendra R. Tannenbaum. Vocabulary Acquisition: Implications for Reading Comprehension. Guilford Press: New York, 2007.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations, 1953.
Hart, Betty & Risley, Todd R. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Paul H. Brookes Publishing: Baltimore, 1995.
Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). “How many words are there in printed school English?” Reading Research Quarterly, 19,
Feldman, Kevin & Kate Kinsella. “Narrowing the Language Gap: The Case for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction”. Scholastic, 2005.
Dole, Slone, and Trathen. “The Cornerstones of Reading Comprehension: Teaching for Vocabulary and Text Understanding.” (2002) Retrieved from the World Wide Web (June, 2010).
Marzano, Robert. Building Backgraound Knowledge for Academic Achievement. ASCD: 2003.
Carr, E., & Wixson, K.K. (1986). Guidelines for evaluating vocabulary instruction. Journal of Reading, 29, 588–595.
National Reading Panel. Put Reading First. National Institute for Literacy, 2001.
Silver, H., Strong, R., Perini, M. (2007). The Hidden Skills of Academic Literacy.
Alexandria.: Thoughtful Education Press.
Bromley, K. (2004). Rethinking vocabulary instruction. The Language and Literacy
Spectrum, 14(Spring), 3-12.