Sally Martin, EKU Writing Project
sally.martin@eku.edu
Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science, and Technical Subjects, 6–12
Anchor Standard in Reading
Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a
text, including determining technical, connotative, and
figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word
choices shape meaning or tone
At Grades 6-8
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they
are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to
domains related to history/social studies.
Madison County Middle School Social Studies Cadre
March,2011
The purpose of the two classroom activities is to address
the teaching strategy of building complex understanding
of content vocabulary through creating relationships
between vocabulary words and multiplying students’
experiences with the words through complex
communication activities. For students to really
understand a word, beyond simple regurgitation of a text
definition, he or she must connect that word with existing
schema—make relationships between what she already
knows and the new word(s)—as well as use the new
words in talking and writing. The production of language
in class will allow students to practice for the expected
assessments, which are usually written.
.
Anchor Standard in Writing
2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the
narration of historical events, scientific
procedures/experiments, or technical processes.
At Grades 6-8
2. a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to
follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into
broader categories as appropriate to achieving purpose;
include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g.,
charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding
comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts,
definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other
information and examples.
c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to create
cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and
concepts.
d. Use precise language and domain-specific
vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective
tone.
f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows
from and supports the information or explanation
presented.
Having already looked at how to use the context
structures and styles used by text authors to explain
concepts/vocabulary in one text used in Madison County
middle schools, now we turn to refining and reinforcing
those concepts for students’ memory, recall and use in
communicating what they have learned.
Word: a symbol—auditory or written—that represents a
concept or concepts.
Concept: an understanding based on multiple
experiences and instances of an idea. These
experiences are gathered in networked structures called
schema.
Sally Martin, EKU Writing Project
sally.martin@eku.edu
Madison County Middle School Social Studies Cadre
March,2011
Concept of Definition Maps
Rationale:
Research shows that there is a strong relationship
between understanding vocabulary and comprehension
(Beck & McKewown, 1991). Word maps and charts help
students analyze word meanings and discover
relationships. They also help students develop
elaborated definitions of words rather than simple one or
two word definitions. In addition, they provide students
with a way to learn vocabulary independently. Many also
serve as effective pre-writing strategies, gathering
students’ knowledge prior to writing about what they
have learned
Vocabulary instruction must include elaboration of
definitions, discussion, and writing (Beck & McKewown,
1991). A logical place to begin vocabulary instruction is
to teach students the qualities of a definition. However,
there are several challenges in teaching vocabulary.
How many words can a teacher teach? And, how
important it is to teach essential words well? Teachers
do not need to teach every unknown word, but we
should teach the words that are important to the
understanding of the text or words students are likely to
encounter again. This is in contrast to the popular grade
level word list method that treats all words as if they are
integral to the understanding of the text (Nagy, 1988).
Schwartz (1988) suggests that for some situations, it is
helpful to include comparisons on the map to help
students come up with and evaluate their categories,
properties, and illustrations. Hence, the reason why
Concept Definition Map illustrates a valuable tool for
concept development. It requires the student to not only
provide what the word is, but it also requires the student
to provide descriptive words and examples.
Steps:
Choose a word or concept, which is essential to the
topic of study and write it in the center of the map. Ask
the following questions:
1. What is a larger group under which the central
word, concept, research question, or problem
belongs, for example:
o Republic
2. What are the descriptive words or definitions
that characterize the concept, topic, research
question or problem? For example:
o All segments of society are enfranchised
o the state’s power is constitutionally limited
o operates through a representative assembly,
chosen by the citizenry
3. What are some examples of the concept?
o Name examples: Ancient Rome
4. Explain to the students that to understand new
vocabulary, they need to know what makes up a
definition of a word.
According to the "Concept of Definition" strategy, there
are 3 relationships essential to analyze a concept for a
rich definition:
1. What is it? (Category) [may also include a
contrasting concept]
2. What is it like? (Properties/Characteristics)
3. What are some examples?
Some helpful hints:


Students can use their map for a guide to note
taking, both from discussion and content texts.
Students also use blank maps to evaluate one
another's written definitions, using a
"backwards" approach.
Ideas for Assessment:
If the essential concept map elements are concepts and
relations, then the basic assessment elements would be:


Concepts--are the more important concepts in
the map?
Relations--do relations connect concepts
correctly?
Sally Martin, EKU Writing Project
sally.martin@eku.edu
Madison County Middle School Social Studies Cadre
March,2011
Semantic Feature Analysis
What Is It?
With a Semantic Feature Analysis chart or grid, one can
examine related concepts but make distinctions between
them according to particular criteria across which the
concepts can be compared.
Steps
1. Identify key concepts that are conceptually
related, concepts that your students can
compare and contrast, or that are difficult to
distinguishing from one another.
2. Identify key features of these concepts
3. Create a chart with concepts in the first column
and features across the first row.
4. Ask students to consider the cells in the chart to
decide whether each feature applies to each
concept. If their answer is yes, students put a +
in the cell, if no, a -. Students may also enter a
? and find the answer later.
5. Facilitate a classroom discussion using these
types of questions to lead into writing. Follow
the discussion by assigning students write
summaries of the chart information in answer to:
o Which columns are similar to each other?
What characteristics do the features in these
columns have in common? Is there a name
for the grouping of these features? Could
you make one up?
o Which rows are similar to each other? What
concepts are tagged in the same way in
those rows? What does this similarity tell
you about these features?
o Which cells are still blank? Where can I go
to find the information I'll need to complete
those cells?
Reigning Royalty
Elected
Representatives
Constitution
Rationale
We learn concepts best by direct, purposeful
experiences. When this is not possible, we learn
concepts through levels of vicarious or contrived
experience. According to Dale (1965) learning a concept
though oral or written language is especially difficult
because this kind of learning is so far removed from
direct experience. Concepts hardly ever stand alone;
instead, a concept is situated within a hierarchy of
relationships. Understanding these relationships helps
us develop our understanding of the concepts. For any
concept, we organize all of our experiences and
knowledge into conceptual hierarchies according to
class, example, and attribute relations.
Example
Citizens vote
Johnson & Pearson, (1984)
Republic
+
+
+
-
Democracy
+
+
+
?
Dictatorship
-
-
-
-
Monarchy
?
+
?
+
Features
Concepts
Modifications



Allow student to brainstorm feathers.
Create larger cells for direct notetaking
Jigsaw more difficult concepts and let each
student complete one cell and report to the class