Vocabulary in the Content
Areas
EDRD 7715
Dr. Alice F. Snyder
Standards for Reading Professionals
as Related to Chapter Five (Vocabulary)
Standard 6: Word Identification, Vocabulary,
and Spelling
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Use effective strategies to foster ongoing
development of independent vocabulary
acquisition
Teach students to use context to identify &
define unfamiliar words
Teach students to monitor word identification
through syntactic, semantic, & graphophonemic cues
Teach students to recognize & use spelling
patterns to aid in word identification
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“Types” of Vocabularies
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Listening Vocabulary—words a child hears and
understands but may not use in his everyday speech
or writing
Speaking Vocabulary—words he learned initially by
imitating others--he hears, understands & uses in
speech but not in writing or recognizes in reading
Reading Vocabulary—words a child recognizes in
print form & understands simple meanings
Writing Vocabulary—learned mainly in school-words child recognizes in print form in reading, uses
in speaking, understands when he hears, & uses in
his writing---smallest vocabulary b/c doesn’t use
same # of words in writing that are used in L, S, R
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Other Vocabularies
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Potential Marginal Vocabulary—all words child might
be able to determine meanings of by using context
clues, analyzing morphemes (meaningful word parts,
such as prefixes, suffixes, root words), or knowing word
derivations
Receptive Vocabulary--listening & reading
Expressive Vocabulary--writing and speaking
Concept—general idea, an abstraction derived from
particular experiences with a phenomenom, often
abstract; develop slowly over time [democracy, gravity,
truth, integrity]
Label—a name for a concept [often all we do is teach
labels for concepts, but kids aren’t given time to develop
understanding of concepts behind© 2004
the
labels!]
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To KNOW a word…
The process of learning a word to really KNOW a
word involves “establishing relationships
between concepts, organization of concepts,
and expansion and refinement of knowledge
about individual words”(Beck & McKeown,
1996, p.790).
Therefore, children must be given opportunities to
make words part of their personal knowledge.
It requires providing multiple exposures in a
variety of contexts & opportunities for children
to work with words, to encourage them to use
words in their everyday speech at home &
school
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Dale’s Four Stages
of Word Knowledge (1965)
Stage 1:
(Unknown) Never saw the word before.
Stage 2:
(Acquainted) Have heard it but do not know
what it means.
Stage 3: (Established) Recognize it in context and
know it has something to do with...
Stage 4: (In-depth) Know the word well. Can use it in
variety of ways and contexts both in writing
and speaking & understands it in reading and
when heard in variety of contexts
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Graves’ Six Tasks of Learning Words
Task 1: Learning to read known words. (bicycle)
Task 2: Learning new meanings for known words. (sound,
change, train)
Task 3: Learning new words that represent known concepts.
(round=rotund, spherical, circular)
Task 4: Learning new words that represent new
[most difficult word learning task]
concepts.
(cataract)
Task 5: Classifying and enriching the meanings of known
words.
Task 6: Moving words from the receptive to the
expressive vocabulary.
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Vocabulary and Cognition
Two cognitive tasks related to vocab learning
1. Establishing associations between words
--hearing new labels for known concepts, using
it multiple times, engaging in a few activities
that expose the student to the new label for
that concept
2. Developing conceptual knowledge about words
--learning new conceptual knowledge and new
labels for that concept; requires more
extensive, deliberate instruction with multiple
exposures to the word best presented in
frameworks that show how they are related to
other concepts and st’s BK
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Seven Guiding Principles for
Classroom Vocabulary Instruction
1.
Building experiential background—provide a variety of rich
experiences with learning words- talking over experiences; learning
concepts vs. learning labels;
2.
Relating vocabulary to background—relate new words to any
experiences students may have; schema (Pearson, 1984; Thelen, 1986file folders in the brain)
3.
Building relationships—showing how new words are related to other
words (Henry, 1974)-joining, excluding, selecting, & implying [4 basic
cognitive operations associated with building relationships among wds]
4.
Developing depth of meaning—in place of writing definitions, have
students finish sentence stems; examine subtle shades of meaning with
words; use context clues; pre-teach difficult words and their meanings
before reading; teach multiple meanings of words
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Seven Guiding Principles for Classroom
Vocabulary Instruction, cont.
5.
Presenting several exposures—students should build on multiple
sources of information to learn words through repeated exposures.
(10+ times to learn words at a more in-depth level of word meaning
[Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987])
6.
Create an interest in words—kids genuinely love to learn new
words, especially big words…it makes them sound “grown up”; give
them opportunities to become “Word Wizards” (Beck & McKeown,
1983) to learn new words, use them outside the classroom, in the
home, etc., and then come back the next day and report to the class
how they used the word; Blachowicz & Fisher, 2004)
7.
Teaching students how to learn new words—help them become
independent learners of words by teaching morphemes and what they
mean as well as teaching various types of context clues, and other
ways to determine word meanings so they don’t have to rely on
others to tell them
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How Do You Know
Which Words to Focus On before
You Begin the Reading or Discussion?
(Graves, 2000)
1.
Is understanding the word important to
understanding the selection in which it appears?
2.
Are students able to use context or structural
analysis skills to discover the word’s meaning?
3.
Can working with the word be useful in furthering
students’ context, structural analysis, or dictionary
skills?
4.
How useful is this word outside of the reading
selection being currently taught?
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Three Tiers of Words (Beck,
McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)
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Tier 1: most familiar words; about 8000 word
families; known by average 3rd grader; learned
incidentally without formal instruction (i.e. sad,
go)
Tier 2: about 7000 word families; important to
academic success; not limited to content area
words (i.e. privileged, ridiculous)
Tier 3: relatively rare, make up an additional 73,
500 word families students may encounter
between K-12; include content area words (i.e.
isotope, estuary)
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Strategies for Teaching
Vocabulary
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Read, read, read!--once children can decode, they
are empowered to read, read, and read, with greater
fluency, vocabulary, and word knowledge byproducts of such reading, all of which contribute to
comprehension skills.
Reading as little as 10 minutes a day helps with
word acquisition, general language development,
increased understanding of world around them, &
reinforces goal of developing lifelong readers. 20
minutes a day doubles the results!
Teacher Reading Aloud (Shared Reading)—Helps
develop struggling readers’ vocabulary knowledge
along with others
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Strategies, cont.
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Sight Word Banks/High Frequency Word Banks—
use children’s literature as source, esp. useful for ELL
students in grades 3-5
Context Clues—useful in the process of reading a
text, but not the only strategy to use in order to learn a
word’s meaning in-depth; types of context clues (see
next 2 slides)
**When teaching children to use context clues, explain value of using
context clues, find good examples in children’s literature that STs
will be reading, model how to derive meaning from various types of
CCs, provide opportunities for STs to practice in class activities &
encourage independent application
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Types of Context Clues
1.
2.
3.
4.
Definition/explanation– Brownies are omnivores.
Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
Appositive—On a clear summer morning, a pod, or
group, of close to 50 dusky dolphins moves toward
deeper water.
Synonyms—Next day he had a little chill and a
little fever. Ma blamed the watermelon. But next she
had a chill and a little fever. So they did not know
what could have caused their fever “n” ague.
Function indicators—The derrick lifted the glider
into the sky.
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Types of Context Clues, cont.
5.
Examples—Only 5 percent of cheetah cubs live to
become adults. The remainder die from disease,
starvation, or attacks from other predators, such as.
lions.
6. Comparison-Contrast—You should always know
where on the field your teammates and opponents
are.
7. Classification—Gordie was born on March 31,
1928, in the town of Floral, in the province of
Saskatchewan.
8.
Experience—Suddenly the hedge clippers caught a
branch, and my left index finger was pulled into the
blades. I felt an excruciating pain. The tip of my
finger was hanging by a thread. © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Strategies, cont.
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Learning Synonyms and Antonyms
**synonyms-words that have similar meanings
**antonyms-words that have opposite meanings
Using a Thesaurus and Dictionary—What do students need to
know (skills, concepts) in order to use a thesaurus and dictionary
effectively in grades 3-5? Brainstorm…
Semantic Word Maps—based on our understanding of
cognition…that we learn by categorizing and classifying; can be
pictorial first, then move to word only—Best type of semantic word
map is Schwartz & Raphael, 1985 Concept of Definition Map—for
words that represent Concepts; see examples:: See Schwartz
Concept of Definition Map—for a more conceptual approach to
developing word meanings and concept understanding
[See Snyder’s Word Analysis Map (SWAM)—for a more
definitional approach to developing word meanings]
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Strategies, cont.
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Word Webbing—graphically illustrates how to
associate words with each other to build a concept in
meaningful ways by making connections between what
child knows about words & how words are related
Vocabulary Venn Diagram- 2-4 circles for one word
with 2-4 different meanings
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)—relates words and
concepts or features associated with the words, placed
on a grid or matrix; students determine whether each
feature is or is not related to the word or term being
studied; STs code with (+) if yes, (-) if no and (?) if not
sure; becomes great study guide afterwards b/c STs
see common features of variety of the terms,
uncommon features, etc.
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Strategies, cont.
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Morphemic Analysis—morphemes are the smallest unit of
meaning in words
*prefixes (come before root words)
*suffixes (come after root words)
*roots words (can’t stand alone; other words are created from
them; often originates from other languages)
*base words (can stand alone; have no smaller meaning
parts)
*inflectional endings—’ing’, ‘ed’, ‘s’, ‘es’, ‘ies’, ‘ied’, ‘ier’, ‘est’,
etc., these don’t carry meaning…they are more functional, they
alter the case, gender, number, tense, form of the word
*compound words—two or more base words put together;
new word may have literal, concrete meaning or may be
concrete but not touchable or have implied meaning
*contractions—shortened forms of words where letter(s)
removed & replaced by apostrophe
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Strategies, cont.
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Independent Word Knowledge Learning--VSS
*Word Knowledge Rating Scale-good for teacher to
determine students’ prior knowledge of words before instruction
*Word Walls—Thematic Word Walls
*Playing with Words-make it a daily activity- Word of the
Day; Sesquipedalian Words (such as:
hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianist;
hippopotomonstrosequipedaliophobia)
*Homophones—words that sound the same but are spelled
differently & have different meanings [sea/see; night/knight]*Homographs—words that are spelled the same but have
different meanings and are pronounced differently
*Figurative Language—idioms, similes, metaphors, etc.
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Diverse Learners & Vocabulary Acquisition
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Biggest inhibiting factor in ELL STs’ ability to read &
understand English is their lack of vocab knowledge—often
know concepts but not labels for concepts in English;
cognates (words that are similar in English and the second
language)
Ways to help build vocab knowledge for ELL, & disabled
readers; hearing impaired
*personal word files of essential vocab words [ for good list
of critical words STs should know & understand; survival
words]
*environmental print word packets [cut out from everyday
objects, i.e. cereal boxes, cleaning items, etc. along with their
pictures]- STs can manipulate them in many ways
*word walls (thematic word walls)
*sniglets—for gifted & above average readers
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Technology and Vocabulary
Instruction
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Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page
Education4Kids:www.edu4kids.com/
Enchanted Learning Dictionary:
www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html
Merriam-Webster Word Central:
www.wordcentral.com/
Wacky Web Tales: www.eduplace.com/tales/
Word Play: www.wordplays.com
Vocabulary University: www.vocabulary.com
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.