Marie Westman EN 311
K
What do I already know?
Having students look up
definitions from the
dictionary is widely used in
classrooms
Building vocabulary helps
make better readers and
writers
Students can learn
synonyms and antonyms
Some students have a
harder time learning
vocabulary than others
A learner needs to see a
word many times before
they understand what it
means
A learner should be able to
use a word in many ways
Meanings of words can be
guessed from context
clues
Words can be compared
and contrasted together
W
What are some questions I
have?
What are other ways to teach
vocabulary besides writing
looking up words in the
dictionary?
How do I know that a student
has mastered a word?
At what rate do students learn
vocabulary?
What research has been done
about students learning
vocabulary?
Should vocabulary still be
taught at the middle school
and high school level?
Should differentiated
instruction be used when
teaching vocabulary?
L
What am I learning?
Children learn words in a variety
of ways- from hearing, speaking,
reading, and instruction. (Word
Power Stahl and Kapinus, 11)
Once students read fluently,
they are likely to learn most of
their new vocabulary through
frequent and varied reading.
(Word Power, Stahl and Kapinus,
11)
Research indicates that one
powerful way for students to
leanr words and build
vocabulary is to read frequently
and widely.
Students become familiar with
new words by encountering
them repeatedly as they read.
(Word Power Stahl and Kapinus
11)
Choice Reading- time during day
to read books that they choose.
Examples are ssr. Younger
children who are not yet able to
read may “pretend read” (point
out pictures , make up stories,
etc) Make books that cover a
range of topics, formats nad
reading levels available in
classrooms. Model reading.
Help students who are struggling
find something to read during
choice reading. Guide more
advanced readers toward
appropriate texts.
Take time at the end to let
students tell about their books.
Share about your own
reading(Word Power 12)
Teach words directly. Effective
vocabulary instruction helps
Marie Westman EN 311
students understand what they
must do and know in order to
learn new words on their own.
(Word power 13)
Vocabulary in math, science and
social studies should be words
that are critical in understanding
the content and concepts for
that area. For English and Lang.
Arts help: low frequency words
that have very specific
application such as “legato, nova
and crustacean. Lang arts
should make sophisticated
words the center of their
vocabulary instruction (Word
power 13)
How to teach: gain ownership of
words, provides multiple
exposures through rich and
varied activities, includes both
definitional and contextual
informations, and involves
children more actively (Word
Power 14)
Ownership- available for
communicating. Having the
students use the word in a
rangle of thiking promotes
ownership (word power 14)
Multiple encounters- different
assignments for vocabulary
lessons, word pairs (word power
pg 15)
Anticipation guides- have
children rate their knowledge of
words prior to reading a story.
This sets them up for reading.
Can be followed by a postreading instruction. (word power
16)
Definitional and contextual
Marie Westman EN 311
information. Know how the
meaning of a word varies
according to the context of the
sentence it is used in. know
definition also. Know how the
word relates to other words.
Difinitions are difficult to use in
leanring word meanings because
there is little context instruction.
(word power 16)
Definitional information- use
synonyms, antonyms, examples
and nonexamples, use concept
maps. (word power 18)
Context information- context
comparisions, scenarios,
possible sentences. (word power
19)
Involving students activelyconstruct links between new
information and already known
information. Children remember
more information when they are
actively relating it to known
information, transforming it in
their own words and generating
examples and nonexamples, and
thinking of antonyms and
synonyms. (word power 20)
Semantic mapping- use graphic
representations to show
connections between words.
This is highly adaptable to grade
levels, topics. Examples are
brainstorming, developing the
map, four-square vocabulary
(word power 23)
Word wizard- hang up large
graphic of a wizard. Each student
is assigned a vocabulary word.
As the student sees or hears the
word in context, either the
student or teacher writes the
Marie Westman EN 311
word and its context on a post it
and puts it on the chart. After a
period of time (2 weeks) the
student who found the most
words becomes the word
wizard. (word power 24)
Vocabulary notebooks- have
words with information incuding
context such as stories,
paragraphs, poems, songs.
Pictures of the words, synonyms,
and antonyms. They can be
electronic (word power 27)
Dictionaries effectively- research
has shown that traditional
vocabulary instruction that
involves loking up words in the
dictionary is not effective in
imporoving compreshension for
the following reasonsmemorizing definitions does not
require the student to make
connections between the new
word and alredy known
information, a word’s meaning is
more than what is contained in a
definition. Words subtly change
in different contexts rather than
maintaining a strick meaning,
children can have a difficult time
understanding definitions. They
often make judgments based on
one part or another of the
definition, missing the
connotations of the word (word
power 28)
Dictionaries should be usedafter a student reads a word in
context. This way they have the
context and can use the
definition to understand what
the word means, teach students
about dictionary defitions. Teach
them how that word differes
from other members of the
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category, have students analyze
dictionary definitions, also
rewrite definitions in their own
words, try some nontracitional
dictionaries such as cobuild
English dictionary, have fun with
definitions. Have a word of the
day osford English dictionary
web stie
www.oed.com/cgi/display/wotd)
traces how words have been
used through the years and gives
the word in various contexts.
Have activies or games to use
the word that day. (word power
28)
Understanding word partsprefixes, suffixes and root
words. (word power 29)
Question connections- make up
questions for a list of words by
using the words in pairs.
Example: can a actuary be a
herbalist? Can a hermit be a
herbalist? And discuss why and
why not. (word power 34)
Thumbs up or down- activity, for
each word taught, use the words
in a sentence. Have the students
decide whether the word is used
correctly. (word power 35)
“The difference between the
right word and the nearly right
word is the same as that
between lightning and the
lightning bug” – mark twain
English lexicon already contains
more than twomillion words.
(Johnson 15)
Three separate tasks are
required to learn word
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meanings. The first is naminglearners must make the
discovery that certain sequences
of speech sounds that they hear
serve as the names or labels.
The second is that words git
together. The third is figuring
out how different words relate
to one another within and across
categories (Johnson 15)
Teachers should provide
opportunities for children to
engage in talking such as in small
group discussions, project work,
informal conversations,
language games, role playing,
creative dramatics,
improvisation, and drama
(Johnson 20
Word webs- synonyms,
antonyms, hyponyms,
meronyms, slang, attributes,
examples homophones,
homographs (multiple
meanings), functions (Johnson
45)
A reader needs to recognize
words asnd assign meanings to
them, a writier must choose
words to convey ideas (Johnson
53)
For writers- show examples for
words being used to convey
specific meanings (Johnson 56)
Referential words connect the
writer with the topic. Chose for
the precision with which they
represent the meanings,
htoughs, and feelings the writer
watns to convey. Writers
choose most words for their
referential meanings. For
example, governments choose
Marie Westman EN 311
words like executive, legislative
and judicial branches (Johnson
58)
Interpersonal words connect the
writer with th reader. Selected
based on what the writer
assumes the readers do or do
not dknow., the degree of
formality, the attitudes.
Directive words are chosen to
help relate the readers to the
topic. They facilitate
understanding (Johnson 59)
55-fiction. Students have to
choose the setting, characters,
conflict, and resolution and can
only use 55 words to do so. They
have to really think about the
words that they use. (Johnson
66)
Provide students opportunities
to write for a specific audience
this sill help with referential,
interpersonal and directive
words. (Johnson 67)
Single- dictionaries. Acronyms
and abbreviations, aphorisms
(worded truths or opinions),
catchphrases, changes in
meaning, clichés, confusables,
cultural literacy, doublespeak,
English language, eponyms and
toponyms (words derived from
the names of people, words
derived from the name sof
places), etymology, euphenisms,
first names, foreign words,
rammar, idioms, linguistics,
literacy, place names, proverbs,
quotations, slang, surnames,
word games, word origins
(johnson 83
Dictionary hung- give students a
Marie Westman EN 311
word and have them look up the
word in various dictionsaries.
Them, have a discussion on what
the word means and talk about
the history, synanums, etc.
(Johnson 84)
On Monday the teacher gives
students a fixed number of
vocab words related to tsoe unit
of study. Sometimes teacher
supplies definitions, but usually
they have to look them up.
During the week, students
memorize the definitions and
possibly use them in a sentence.
On Friday the teacher gives a
test and by Friday afternoon the
students forget the words. This
is labor intensive for teachers,,
some schools result to using
vocabulary workbooks. They
begin new cycles of words each
mondya. (greenwood 3
“not everything that matters can
be counted; not everything that
can be counted matters” –albert
Einstein
Standardized tests- teach
students how to take these
tests, get them used to the
context that will be covered,
teach them how to use
vocabulary-learning strategies
and engage in language play,
introduce them to different
cultures or written material
(greenwood 140)
Gather a rang eo fdata, usuing
an array of instructional
tecdhniques in order to
determine how their students
are doing. watch, collect
information, use graphic
organizers such as maps, webs,
Marie Westman EN 311
semantic feature analysis and
etc. look at these measures
before and after reading, the
teacher can scertain what a
student knew in vocab and what
he presently knows. This helsp
the teacher to keep tabs on
word learning without obtrusive
testing of vocabulary and plan
for further instruction
(greenwood 142)
Word maps- (webbing), give
students a partial map before
you teach a unit. to see what
they already know, have them
fill in the “fingers” in each
categories. The fingers can have
vocabulary headings. At the
end, give them the same map
and see what they know. Design
this so that you are looking at
their vocab knowledge for a
spedivid genre (greenwood 144)
Word cards- students keep
cumulative records of words
encountered and learned.
Present words in contect and
then reuse them in games and
on the word wall. (student
owndership)
Teacher record keepingchecklists- focus on a few kids at
a time. Do a single student
thumbs up-thumbs down.
Anecdotal records- (greenwood
148)
Context learning- wide exposure
is powerful force. For youngershow and tell, for older discuss
current events and cooperative
grouping, use illustrations to
express and clarify meanings,
use new words in questions,
Marie Westman EN 311
involve students in creating
images for new words, read and
reread favorite books and
recommend that students thake
them homw to be read for and
by parents (blachowicz 20)
Classroom labeling- label
classroom objects these context
clues in the form of a lebeled
picture provides ontextualized
information (blachowicz 23)
Technology- captioned tv,
current events, newscasts,
president addresses in caption,
computerized and cd-rom books
and computer word processing
programs so they can see
context clues, (blachowicz 24)
Cloze procedure- give them a
sentence or paragraph, and they
have to guess what the word
missing is (blachowicz 30)
Core book- all students read the
same novel or have it read to
them. Literature unit has a
unifying theme which might
inclue particular authors or
genres or a theme from social
studies or science. Individual
reading is used as the main form
of instruction rather than a core
book. In core book – teacher
picks vocabulary selection
American Educational Research Association www.aera.net
International Reading Association www.reading.org
National Eduation Association www.nea.org
Word Power what every educator needs to know about teaching vocabulary by Steven Stahl and
Barbara kapinus. Isbn0810620502 copyright2001 june, national education associationg of the united
states.
Marie Westman EN 311
Vocabulary in the elementary and middle school 2001 0205298621
Words count effective vocabulary instruction in action, scott c greenwood 0325006482
Teaching vocabulary in all classrooms 0130418390
1. Which is not a component of effective vocabulary program?
a. wide or extensive independent reading to expand word knowledge
b. instruction in specific words to enhance comprehension of texts containing those
words
c. memorization of word definitions
d. instruction in independent word-learning strategies
e. word consciousness and word-play activities to motivate and enhance learning
2. To develop vocabulary intentionally, students should be taught:
a. How to look up words and the history of many words.
b. Specific words and word-learning strategies
c. Specific words and how those words are used in sentences
d. How to use context clues when reading
3. The process of deriving a word's meaning by analyzing its meaningful parts is called:
a. contextual analysis
b. cognate awareness
c. fostering word consciousness
d. morphemic analysis
4. How is most vocabulary learned?
a. incidentally through indirect exposure to words
b. intentionally learning words
c. through morphemic analysis of words
d. by using a variety of word-learning strategies
5. What is not a way to help English Language Learners develop a better vocabulary?
a. taking advantage of students' first language if the language shares cognates with English
b. teaching the meaning of basic words
c. providing sufficient review and reinforcement
d. surround the student with only the English language