Lindamood-Bell®
Professional Learning Community
Vocabulary Development
Visualizing and Verbalizing® Instruction
Kathryn Winn
March 26, 2014
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
“We all have in our conscious minds a great vocabulary
of images, and I think all human communication is
based on these images, as our dreams.”
~ Tennessee Williams
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Page 55
Vocabulary
Vocabulary refers to the words we use to communicate and
our knowledge of the word meanings.
Four Types
Listening: what we hear being read or spoken
Speaking: oral language
Writing: written language
Reading: printed words we read/understand, but do not
necessarily use in spoken language
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary is often taught as part of content areas in the
classroom.
• This is not enough for some students.
Children typically begin first grade with a 6,000 word
spoken vocabulary.
Word recognition and vocabulary are essential skills for
struggling readers.
Research has shown that after decoding skills, a child’s
vocabulary is one of the most important factors in fluent
and easy reading.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Page 55
Imagery for Oral Vocabulary
Oral vocabulary is necessary for comprehension, but it
is not sufficient—many V/V students have adequate
vocabulary, yet language goes in one ear and out the
other.
Weakness in imagery is a contributing factor to weak
oral vocabulary.
V/V instruction develops the underlying and necessary
imagery skills to garner oral vocabulary.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
“We cannot think about something of which we are not
consciously aware, and we cannot be aware of
something not perceived sufficiently at the sensory
level to come to consciousness.”
~ Karl Pribram, Brain and Perception
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
We cannot visualize sentences without the imagery for
the parts within the sentences—the words.
Your student needs rapid, accurate imagery for the
words within the sentences in order to create a
comprehensive mental representation of the whole.
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Drive the Sensory Bus
Concept Imagery
“What do you picture for,
‘The black and white cat’?”
“I see...”
Teacher
Student
Your language activates sensory input for concept imagery.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary
Goal: To help your student develop the ability to image the meaning
of a word, to store that imaged meaning, and to access and retrieve
the meaning more rapidly.
Check images for key words in stories, or from a
vocabulary list.
The student creates a picture for an unknown word.
Look for signs of imagery as you wait for her to visualize
and then ask a few questions to be sure she was imaging.
May show a picture from a picture dictionary, or Google
images, if needed.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
Use sensory language: “What do you picture for a
skyscraper?” vs. “What is a skyscraper?”
Put the word in a high imagery sentence for the student
to image.
The student creates sentences, with the word, that
demonstrate meaning and imagery.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
Example: Student does not have an image for carriage.
Teacher: “Let’s picture that word you weren’t sure about.
Picture this for the carriage: a big, fancy wagon, with a
top, that people ride in. It has big wheels and it is pulled
by horses.”
Look for signs of imagery as you wait a bit for her to
visualize, then ask a few questions to be sure she was
imaging.
Teacher: “What did you picture for the top of the
carriage… the wheels… the… ?”
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
If student is still struggling with the meaning/image of a
word:
Anchor your description by showing the student a picture
for the word, and discussing.
Helpful Resources: Google, Picture Dictionaries, Giant IT!
Picture Index.
For Low-Level Students: Talkies® Picture Vocabulary!
Book, Picturing Vocabulary! Cards. Others?
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Vocabulary Challenge
Pick “words of the week” for your group or class, and
put them on a word wall.
The challenge is to use those words, throughout the
week, a certain number of times.
The students earn points for each time a word is used
appropriately.
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Vocabulary Activity
Unknown Word: garden
Visualize and verbalize the word—students visualize the
word.
Each word has a definition and high imagery sentence.
Question for imagery, do not assume it.
1. What are some good example sentences?
2. How will you question for detailed imagery with the
following sentence?
“The garden was filled with ripe tomatoes, strawberries,
and flowers.”
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
If your student needs vocabulary development: continuing
to expose her to new vocabulary will result in a significant
increase in her knowledge of word meaning.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Vocabulary Development
The grade level of paragraphs should be appropriate for the
student’s oral vocabulary level, but there may still be words
within the sentence that are not in your student’s oral
vocabulary, or words you want to be certain she is
visualizing.
In either case: help your student
create mental representations for a word.
©2014 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes