Closing the Vocabulary Gap
Effective Strategies for
Vocabulary Development
October PDL Training
Syracuse City School District
Participant Outcomes
• Understand the importance of direct
vocabulary instruction
• Become aware of research-based
practices for vocabulary instruction
• Gain instructional strategies that will
enhance vocabulary instruction and
student comprehension of informational
text
How Words are Learned
How Words are Learned
• Read it in a book, figured it out from
context or looked it up
• Read it or heard it and figured out it’s
meaning from it’s parts
• Learned it in a conversation
• Heard it on the television
• Learned it in a class
• Heard it from a family member
How Words are Learned
Indirect Vocabulary Learning
Direct Vocabulary Learning
• Students learn vocabulary
indirectly when they hear and
see words used in many
different contexts; for
example, through
conversations with adults,
through being read to, and
through reading extensively
on their own.
• Students learn vocabulary
directly when they are
explicitly taught both
individual words and wordlearning strategies. Direct
vocabulary instruction aids
reading comprehension.
Research Shows:
Indirect Vocabulary Instruction
• Speak Content Language
• Give students ample opportunities to read on their
own
• Engage students in discussion around content
• Active participation/engagement with text (Reader’s
Theatre, discussion protocols) creates better
vocabulary gains than passive listening to text
Direct Vocabulary Instruction
What the Research Shows
Research Shows
…Marzano
• Effective Vocabulary Instruction:
– Multiple exposures
– Previewing words helps
– Image association
– Direct instruction works
– Focus on most important words
Research Shows:
…Heidi Hayes-Jacobs
• Immersion in Grouped Words
• Teach the right words
– High-Frequency Words
– Specialized Terminology
– Embellishments
Research Shows:
…Janet Allen
• Build background knowledge
• Teach words critical to comprehension
• Develop conceptual frameworks for
themes, topics, and units of study
• Assess students’ understanding of
words and concepts
Research Shows:
…Beck, McKeown, and Kucan
• Frequent encounters with the words
• Richness of instruction
• Extension of word use beyond the
classroom
Putting it all Together
Choosing Words
Words Matter
• You can’t pre-teach every hard word
– Critical to meaning
– Not defined in context
– Likely to be seen again
– High utility
– Figurative speech or idiomatic expressions
What Words to Teach
•
•
•
•
•
Tier Two Words (Beck)
Larry Bell’s Twelve Words
Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Marzano’s Academic Vocabulary
Common Sense
Reflection…
• Think about the words teachers (or the
reading series) typically identify as
important vocabulary words.
• How can you support your teachers in
choosing the most appropriate words for
direct vocabulary instruction?
Cracking Vocabulary’s Code
Harvey Silver
C: Connect
O: Organize
D: Deep Process
E: Exercise
Connect:
Making Connections
• Students define word in context
• Provide examples and non examples
• Identify places, events, people or
situations where you would find the
word
• Make personal connection as well as
academic connection to the word
When and Why
• Enhances vocabulary learning in all
content areas when critical words will
assist in understanding the concept.
• Making connections to the academic
word and how the word is used in real
world events builds on students
background knowledge
Organize:
Categories and Labels
• Focused on students’ organization of
information
• Clusters words by concepts
• Exposes and creates patterns of
meaning
How Does It Work?
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Provide each student with a copy of key concepts and
critical vocabulary.
Read each of the terms aloud as students match
pronunciation to print.
Allow students to ask questions and remind them of
places where they can find additional information
about the words (if necessary).
Assign student groups.
Ask groups to discuss the words and decide on how
to categorize the words into logical groups.
Direct students to give each category a label.
Ask students to justify their word groups and labels.
multiple exposures
prosody
feedback
formative assessment
predicting
rate
high-utility accuracy
specific
strategy
metacognition background knowledge scaffold
comprehension benchmark
guided practice
buddy reading
connections inferencing
When and Why?
• Students access and gain background
knowledge related to the topic.
• Through discussion around grouping, students
create attributes of the words in relation to each
other and the topic being studied.
• In labeling the words, students create a
structure for remembering the words and the
information they have gathered.
Deep Process:
Concept Circles
• Adapted from Vacca, Vacca, and Gove
1987
• Builds on relationships between words,
creates conceptual understanding
• Can work for a variety of instructional
and assessment purposes
How Do They Work?
• Put words or phrases in each section of the circle and
ask students to write about the connections they see
between the words and phrases. Why are these words
together?
• Put vocabulary words in three sections. Ask students
to choose a fourth and justify in writing.
• Ask students to choose four vocabulary words from
their study of a topic or a text and use those four words
to write about what they have learned about the topic.
(Teacher can generate list)
• Ask students to shade either the words that go together
or the word that doesn’t fit with the others. Students
can then talk or write about what attributes caused a
word to be included or excluded.
Concept Circles
instruction
understanding
high-utility
vocabulary
questioning summarizing
inferring
Concept Circles
Glaciers
Transform
Extend
simplify
modify
Retract
equation
solve
abhor
pride
Othello
When and Why?
• When you want students to think
conceptually about content.
• Can be used to focus students’
discussions, to review word meanings
and word families, or to support students’
writing.
• Can be a simple assessment tool of what
students have learned about a concept or
topic of study.
Exercise:
NCAA Board
• Work with your shoulder partner.
• Together, come up with eight important
words associated with vocabulary
instruction.
• # and write your words on the far left
side of a sheet of paper.
• Listen for directions.
When and Why
• Provides opportunities for students to
evaluate importance of vocabulary
words
• Students have to discuss all of the
words in order to make decisions
• Multiple exposures to the words!!
Classroom Application
• Think of a topic, concept, theme, or unit
of study where this strategy could
support students’ vocabulary
development or overall understanding of
the content.
• Talk with your shoulder partner about
how using these strategies could benefit
your students.
A Cool Web Site!!
• www.freerice.com
Thank you!
Rhonda and Kathy