Accountable Talk
Accountability to Knowledge
1. Students make use of specific and accurate knowledge.
a. Students make specific reference to a text to support arguments and assertions.
b. Students make clear reference to knowledge built in the course of discussion.
c. Examples or claims using outside knowledge are accurate, accessible, relevant.
2. Students provide evidence for claims and arguments.
a. Unsupported claims are questioned and investigated by discussion participants.
b. Requests are made for factual information, elaboration, rephrasing and examples.
c. Students call for the definition and clarification of terms under discussion.
d. Students challenge whether the information being used to address a topic is
relevant to the discussion.
3. Students identify the knowledge that may not be available yet which is needed to address
an issue.
Vocabulary Development: A Continuing Need
Vocabulary development is a natural part of a child’s growth in language and general cognitive
ability. As children learn labels for concrete things and abstract concepts, they begin to
manipulate these labels – or words – in their minds. Words are major tools for thought.
Teaching vocabulary enhances thinking. The significant aspect 0f vocabulary development is in
the learning of concepts, not just words.
The Three Tiers of Vocabulary Learning
Tier One Words- Consists of basic words and rarely require instructional attention in school.
These words are highly frequent in life. Examples: clock, baby, ball, happy, walk, run, etc.
Tier Two Words- High frequency words used by mature language users that can be utilized
across many content areas. Examples: community, contrast, coincidence, fortunate, etc.
Tier Three Words- Low frequency words that are used in specific content areas. Examplesisotope, lathe, peninsula
Why teach vocabulary?
There is a strong relationship between the knowledge of vocabulary and achievement. The goal
of vocabulary instruction is the acquisition of the concepts represented by words as well as the
ability to recognize and analyze words. To achieve this goal, teachers must guide students
through different opportunities to master words. Success in vocabulary instruction is affected by
the amount of practice with new words and the degree of active processing of words and their
meanings.
Vocabulary is as unique to a content area as fingerprints are to human beings. A content area is
distinguishable by its language, particularly the special and technical terms which label the
underlying concepts of its subject matter. No wonder Dale (1975) noted that to master a content
area “is to learn its key concepts; that is, its language.”
Experiences, Concepts, and Words
Words are labels – nothing more, nothing less – for concepts. A single concept, however,
represents much more than the meaning of a single word. It might take thousands of words to
explain a concept. However, answers to the questions, “What does it mean to know a word?”
depend on how well we understand the relationship among personal experiences, concepts, and
words.
Concepts are learned through our acting upon and interaction with the environment. Students
learn concepts best through direct, purposeful experiences. Learning is much more intense and
meaningful when it is first hand. However, in place of direct experience (which is not always
possible), we develop and learn concepts through various levels of contrived or vicarious
experience. Learning a concept through oral or written language is especially difficult because it
is so far removed from direct experience.
Concepts provide mental images. These images may represent anything that can be grouped
together by common features or similar criteria – objects, symbols, ideas, processes, or events.
We invent categories (or form concepts) to reduce the complexity of our environment and the
necessity for constant learning. For example, every feline need not have a different name to be
known as a cat. Although cats vary greatly, the common characteristics that they share cause
them to be referred to by the same general term. Thus, in order to facilitate communication, we
invent words to name concepts.
Vocabulary Reinforcement and Extension
As a general rule of thumb, vocabulary reinforcement activities should be completed individually
by students and then discussed either in small groups or in the class as a whole. The oral
interaction in team learning situations gives more students a chance to use terms. The
increased volume in participation creates an atmosphere for reinforcement. Students can
exchange ideas, share insights, and justify responses in a nonthreatening situation.
Extending and Reinforcing Relationships
When students manipulate technical terms in relation to other terms, they are thinking
critically. Vocabulary activities can be designed to give a class the experience of thinking about,
thinking through, and thinking with the technical vocabulary of a subject. Working with
relationships among technical terms provides this opportunity.
Teachers in content areas can capitalize on the four basic cognitive operations associated with
learning concepts and words:
1. The act of joining, or “bringing together.” Comparing, classifying, and generalizing are
possible through the act of joining. Teachers who ask students to explain how words are
related or have them sort through word cards to group words together are involving them
in the act of joining.
2. The act of excluding. Students must discriminate, negate, or reject items because they do
not belong within the conceptual category. When a student must decide which word does
not belong in a set of other words, the process involves exclusion. Students would search
through their background knowledge to distinguish examples from non-examples or
relevant attributes from irrelevant attributes.
3. The act of selecting. Students simply learn to make choices and to explain why based on
what they experience, know, or understand. Synonyms, antonyms, and multiple-meaning
words lend themselves well to the act of selecting.
4. The act of implying. Are your students able to make decisions based on if-then, causeeffect relations among concept and words? The most common form of vocabulary activity
using implication is analogy. The act of implying is such complex cognitive activity that it
requires the use of joining, excluding, and selecting processes.
Through the aid of vocabulary reinforcement and extension activities, students will sense the
acts of joining, excluding, selecting, and implying. They will recognize that they can classify and
categorize words which label ideas, events, or objects. In short, they study words critically and
form generalizations about the shared or common features of concepts in an instructional unit.