+ Vocabulary
Instruction that
Supports
Capacity for
Increasingly
Complex Texts
and Tasks Elfrieda H. Hiebert
TextProject, Inc
www.textproject.org
Vocabulary Instruction that Supports
Capacity for Increasingly Complex Texts and
Tasks
I.
What’s important to know about English vocabulary
II.
Core vocabulary: The core of Increased Capacity
III.
The vocabulary of content-areas
IV.
The vocabulary of narratives
What’s
+ I.important
to
know about
English
vocabulary
1. Vocabulary is fundamental to
comprehending text.

Even in the context of district- wide literacy reform
initiatives, which raised all children’s potential for success,
children’s vocabulary skills at the beginning of first grade
made a critical contribution to later achievement in reading
achievement.
(Hemphill & Tivnan, 2008)
2. Text is where vocabularies are extended.
Printed Text
Abstracts
Newspapers
Popular Magazines
Adult books
Comic Books
Children’s Books
Preschool Books
Rare Words per
1,000
128.0
68.3
65.7
52.7
53.5
30.9
16.3
Television Texts
Popular adult shows
Popular children’s shows
Cartoons
Mr. Rogers & Sesame Street
22.7
20.2
30.8
2.0
Adult Speech
Expert eyewitness testimony
College graduates to friends
28.4
17.3
(from Hayes & Ahrens,1988)
3.  Discrepancy in students’ vocabulary on
school entry is huge.
Hart & Risley, 2003
4. Words in English texts appear with
substantially different frequencies.
100%
90%
6=135,473
80%
5=13,882
70%
4=2980
60%
3=1676
50%
2=620
40%
1=203
30%
0=107
20%
10%
0%
Zeno et al., 1995
5. English/Language Arts standards operate
as if each word was an island
Content Area
Sample Words
Civics
abuse of power, campaign, elected representative,
geographical representation, individual liberty, Labor Day,
national origin, patriotism, school board, Uncle Sam, welfare
English
Language Arts
abbreviation, capitalization, e-mail, genre, illustration, learning
log, paragraph, reading strategy, table, verb
Geography
billboards, discovery, fall line, harbor, Japan, land clearing,
national capital, Pacific rim, rain forest, technology, vegetation
region
Mathematics
addend, capacity, equation, gram, improbability, mass, obtuse
angle, quotient, sample, unit conversion
Science
bedrock, Earth’s axis, gases, inherited characteristic, magnetic
attraction, ocean currents, recycle, technology, water capacity
From Marzano (2004)
Standard Documents
Content Area
Sample Words
Civics
abuse of power, campaign, elected representative,
geographical representation, individual liberty, Labor Day,
national origin, patriotism, school board, Uncle Sam, welfare
English
Language Arts
abbreviation, capitalization, e-mail, genre, illustration, learning
log, paragraph, reading strategy, table, verb
Geography
billboards, discovery, fall line, harbor, Japan, land clearing,
national capital, Pacific rim, rain forest, technology, vegetation
region
Mathematics
addend, capacity, equation, gram, improbability, mass, obtuse
angle, quotient, sample, unit conversion
Science
bedrock, Earth’s axis, gases, inherited characteristic, magnetic
attraction, ocean currents, recycle, technology, water capacity
From Marzano (2004)
Targeted Vocabulary from 3 stories in a
Mid-2nd Grade Unit of a Core Reading Program
Story 1
apartment
delivery
handcarts
restaurant
market
celebrations
tai chi
graceful
cobbler
arrive
favorite
medicinal
herbal
musty
herbs
seafood
sizzles
crackle
woks
clang
barely
furious
kung fu
develop
Story 2
bushy
costume
disguise
handsome
mirror
mustache
sarape
sword
sombrero
soldiers
tough
grown-up
kindergartner
hola
disappeared
bigote
apron
retraced
discovered
polish
smeared
creation
solve
cereal
buenos días
fist
gracias
grinned
Story 3
booth
plaque
station
subway
token
mayor
worry
halfway
tile
blending
collection
swoosh
Assessment
40
30
20
10
0
PPVT: Gr. 4
Zones 0-2
Zone 3
Zone 4
Zone 5
Zone 6
(from Calfee & Drum, 1981)
Greek/Latin
Specialized words used mostly in science
EX: thermometer, geography
New Words through compounding of word parts: thermosphere, geopolitical
Romance
1066 (Norman Conquest)-1399 (Henry IV, a
native Anglo-Saxon speaker assumes throne):
French is spoken by upper classes; English by
lower-classes. French loan words remain. EX: frigid, perspiration, soil
New Words through derivations: frigidity,
frigidness, refrigerator Anglo-Saxon
Common, everyday, down-to-earth words
EX: cold, sweat, dirt
New Words through compounding: cold-blooded, cold-natured,
cold-drink, cold-running
Origins of
School
Vocabularies
[Adaptation of
Calfee & Drum,
1981]
Greek/Latin
origins
2.  Contentspecific words
3. General Academic words
1. Words of
school
tasks
Romance
origins
4. Literary Words
5. Core Words
Anglo-Saxon
origins