Getting the Best Out of Students


Presented by Marie Flood and Amy Pope





How Much Do You Really Need To Know?
LTLL’s (Another Acronym)
Biggest Bang For Our Buck
Vocabulary
Context Clues
Learning, as a language based activity, is fundamentally
and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge
(Baker, Simmons, & Kame’enui, 1998).
How Many Words Do Students Need to Know to Understand
Content?
Please read the passage from Harris, C. H. Curriculum Based
Assessment: A Primer
Possessing the capacity to learn unfamiliar words requires a
student to know almost all the other words in the text.
Indeed, if students don’t know at least 95% of the words in a
text, comprehension of the main points is likely to be
inadequate (Strategic Education Research Partnership,
2008).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag
e&v=qRRiWg6wYXw#t=98
Brain has an intrinsic mechanism for
shutting down input when it
needs to (Eric Jensen 2008)
Teaching is not easy!!!!!
Not only that our students forget information….
Using textbook material in a study of 3,605 6th grade students,
H. Spitzer found that the rate of forgetting:
o After one day
o After seven days
o After 14 days
o After 21 days
46% forgotten
65% forgotten
79% forgotten
82% forgotten
Students need processing time. Teaching new content may
require processing time of 2-5 minutes every 10-15
minutes.
10:2 Lecture (Brechtel, 2001)
After every ten minutes of instruction students spend two
minutes discussing what they have learned.
Elbow Up!
Tell us What You have Learned So Far-


What happens first in a period of time and what happens
last are usually the longest remembered.
What happens just past the middle is often the 1st to be
forgotten.
Beginning
End
Research for Better Teaching – www.rbteach.com

At the beginning of class, review important ideas.

Get students actively involved in the middle.

Select important ideas from the middle of the period and
include them in the summarizing at the end.
Research for Better Teaching – www.rbteach.com
This passage has 16 occurrences of six unknown words, or
93% known words, making it impossible to comprehend.
Therefore, teaching unknown vocabulary to students is
imperative!
Known Words
Unknown Words
7%
93%
Vocabulary is essential to students’ academic success but
what words should we choose and what strategies should we
use to teach them?






Shift 1:
Shift 2:
Shift 3:
Shift 4:
Shift 5:
Shift 6:
Balancing Informational & Literary Text
Knowledge in the Disciplines
Staircase of Complexity
Text-based Answers
Writing from Sources
Academic Vocabulary




L.CCR.4:
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiplemeaning words and phrases by using context clues,
analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general
and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
L.CCR.5:
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word meanings.


L.CCR.6:
Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic
and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for
reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and
career readiness level; demonstrate independence in
gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word
of phrase important to comprehension or expression.


L.CCR.4:
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiplemeaning words and phrases by using context clues,
analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general
and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.



Match the Clue
Please read your cards and decide what type of context clue
helped you to understand the meaning of the underlined
word.
Place the cards under the appropriate headers: Definition,
Synonym, Antonym, Example, General, or NCAA (No Clue At
All).
Adapted from the Florida Center for Reading Research, 2007






Definition:
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Example:
General:
NCAA:
6
3
4
5
2
1

Students work with
partners or small groups

They arrange words
with similar meaning in
a continuum from least
to most

Students share their
final results with the
class and explain their
reasoning
Most
Least
Sand
Granule
Boulder
Cobble
Clay
Silt
Pebble
Boulder
Cobble
Pebble
Granule
Sand
Silt
Clay
Calm
Fresh
Winds
Storm
Hurricane
Strong
Winds
Violent
Storm
Near
Gale
Light
Winds
Moderate
Winds
Gale
Strong
Gale
Hurricane
Violent Storm
Storm
Strong Gale
Gale
Near Gale
Strong Winds
Fresh Winds
Moderate Winds
Light Winds
Calm
http://vimeo.com/27077248
http://www.schooltube.com/video/f5579f0c03224cc48
7b7/
According to Isabelle Beck, words may be categorized into three
levels:

Tier 1: High Frequency

Tier 2: General Academic - frequently occurring words across
a variety of domains

Tier 3: Domain Specific - specialized vocabulary
Most commonly used words:
Tier 2: General Academic
Tier 3: Domain Specific -
- frequently occurring words
across a variety of
domains:
specialized vocabulary. Words
typically associated with a
content area or topic:

complex

evaporation

identify

peninsula

coincidence

isotope

absurd

refinery

With your partner, please place the following words under
the appropriate Tier:
come
analyze
could
relative
lava
expectation
impressionism
there
circumference
itemize
photosynthesis
book
legislature
vary
establish

Tier 1: come, there, book, could

Tier 2: relative, analyze, establish, expectation, vary,
itemize

Tier 3: impressionism, lava, photosynthesis, legislature,
circumference




L.CCR.6:
Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and
domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing,
speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge
when considering a word of phrase important to comprehension
or expression.
General academic: Tier 2 words
Vessel:
 a ship or large boat (Social Studies)
 a hollow container, esp. one used to hold liquid (Science)
Domain – specific: Tier 3 words
 photosynthesis
 peninsula





A sheet of paper is divided into a given number of boxes.
Students individually fill in two or three of the boxes with
ideas they want to remember, key points, etc.
Afterwards, they get out of their seats and walk up to
someone to “give an idea away” and get an idea.
After the exchange, students move on to another partner to
share their idea and to collect a new one.
Students return to their desks for a whole class discussion.

Students need repeated exposures and repeated
opportunities to connect and authentically use the new
words over time – in writing, in reading, and in talking and
listening. Lasting learning needs cohesion and
reinforcement. As a student once asked, “Once you know a
word, then what?” We must teach students how to use the
word (Zwiers and Crawford, 2011).

Most typically developing children need to encounter a word
about 12 times before they know it well enough to improve
comprehension (Biemiller; Nagy, & Anderson).
How much do students retain from instruction?
Average Retention Percent after 24 hours
Lecture
Reading
5%
10%
Audio-Visual
20%
Demonstrations
30%
Discussion Groups
50%
Practice by Doing
75%
Teach Others
90%
How the Brain Learns, Dr. David A. Sousa