 Please sit at a table in groups of
four.
Vocabulary!
Workshop 1: Why Teaching Academic & Content Vocabulary is Necessary

At Your Tables of 4. . .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Each person should take one of the sheets of paper from the middle.
Each paper has a word and an explanation/description sentence printed
on it.
One person should read the word and the sentence out loud to the
group. If someone doesn’t understand the description sentence, ask
the group and discuss the meaning.
List three examples of that word on the sheet. Pass your sheet to the
next person.
Write a sentence using the word that shows you understand the
meaning of the word. Pass the sheet.
Sketch a picture to illustrate the meaning of the word or to help you
remember it. Pass the sheet.
Rate your understanding of your word from level 1 (low) to level 4
(high).
Choose the elements you think are the best/most accurate from the
group work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l4g5QWEgVI
Monty Python – Language Lab
Just like we have different registers for different
social situations . . .
Monty Python – Language Lab
. . . we have very different sets of vocabulary for
different academic situations.
Have you ever . . .
. . . felt like your students organize their idea library randomly, like colour coding? It
looks tidy, but they can’t find what they’re looking for? Or, maybe the ideas in their
library are just shells – like someone made a bunch of cardboard book covers that
looked vaguely like the originals and stuck them, empty, up on the shelf. It looks good
at first, but when they want to take an idea off the shelf, it crumples in their hands.
http://www.yofx.org/?cat=1
For our students, all problems are word problems.
Why Teaching Academic AND Content
Vocabulary is Necessary
“Academic background knowledge affects more
than just ‘school learning’” (Marzano 3)
It also affects occupation, income, status, power.
More importantly, the ability to learn and make
decisions in highly verbal contexts is defined by
the amount of academic background knowledge
one has.
information in our permanent memories
(fluid, innate, natural intelligence)
2.The number and frequency of our
academic experiences (crystalized,
learned intelligence)
(Marzano 4-5, 13)
High
Medium
1.Our ability to store and process
Low
Through the interaction of two factors:
Information-Processing Ability
How do we get
Background
Knowledge?
Access to Academically Oriented Experiences
Low
Medium
High
Delbert
Barbara
Allen
Gina
Ian
Calvin
Iris
Hilda
Frank
(Marzano 6)
At school, we can affect
BOTH a student’s fluid
and crystallized
intelligence.
1.We provide them with
direct (real) and virtual life
experiences in all subject
areas.
2.We provide them with
the tools to learn how to
learn.
Permanent
Memory
Working
Memory
We experience stuff through our senses all the time.
We choose to pay attention to and make sense of the stuff we
have had the most experience with.
The more often we encounter stuff with which we are familiar,
the more often our associated memories are activated, settling
that information more and more into our permanent memory.
Voila! Background Knowledge!
(Marzano 22)
Making it
STICK.
Basically, the more often a student has
experiences with a concept, the more likely it will
be to become permanent memory.
Sensory
Memory
Permanent
Memory
Working
Memory
Sensory
Memory
(Marzano 35)
Making it
STICK.
The best way to increase
background knowledge
is through a high
quantity of high quality,
direct experiences.
Provide a Framework:
Community & Service:
Coal Bank
Christmas Service Week
Fundraising
Noori
Direct
Experiences Create
General Background
Knowledge
Academic Experiences:
Field Trips
Visiting Experts
But schools are limited in their
ability to provide these.
1. Educational Television
2. Language Interaction:
Virtual
Experiences Create
General Background
Knowledge
“When we describe our camping trip to
a friend, that friend translates our
words into working memory
representations. The more we talk to
our friend about our camping trip, the
more our friend’s background
knowledge of camping trips
expands. . . . The more students talk
and listen to others, the more virtual
experiences are generated” (Marzano
39).
3. Wide Reading:
“our sensory memory is filled with
images . . . we create a virtual
representation of the camping trip in
working memory. . . . for all practical
purposes the same as the direct
experience” (Marzano 36).
Less reading =
less vocabulary =
less reading =
less background knowledge
average 5th grade reader = 650,000
Avid 5th grade reader = 5,850,000
Extremely avid readers encounter 200
times more words than disinterested
readers.
staggering individual differences in the
volume of language experience, =
fewer opportunities to learn new
words = less desire to read = fewer
opportunities
(Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding in Marzano 37).
.
How else can
we help our
students bulk
up their
internal
encyclopedia?
LABEL
Direct
Vocabulary
Instruction
Creates General
Background Knowledge
Positive Effects of Direct Vocabulary Instruction
83
62
50
(Stahl & Fairbanks in Marzano 69)
The Differences between
Academic and Content
Vocabulary
1. Academic Vocabulary – test-taking
words. The kinds of words that
often appear in the instructions for
an assessment task in multiple
subject areas: analyse, illustrate,
identify, expose, explain, prove,
compare, contrast, examine, etc.
2. Content Vocabulary – words
peculiar to one subject area:
metaphor, parliament,
trigonometry, photosynthesis,
puberty, etc.
Choosing Academic Vocabulary
Sit with your grade level team.
Read through several on-line lists for terms you and
your team often use in class and on assignments.
http://www2.elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/eap/wordlists.htm
www.englishcompanion.com/pdfDocs/acvocabulary2.pdf
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/sublists.
aspx
Record these words on the handout on Googledocs.
Indicate for which grade level you are recording these.
Choosing Academic Vocabulary
Move to a reading centre that interests you:
1.Academic terms found on external standardized assessments
Read through the International Schools’ Assessment (ISA), PSAT, and other
examples of standardized tests. Write a list of academic terms students
encounter there.
2. Academic terms found on internal assessments and materials
Read through in-school, grade level assessments (teachers bring these with
them) to find academic terms students need to know for their grade level.
Take a look at your textbooks and test-generating resources.
3. Academic terms found in the MYP Subject Aims and Objectives
Read through the MYP Course Aims and Objectives to find academic terms
Record these words on the handout on Googledocs.
Indicate, when possible, for which grade level they seem most appropriate.
The Googledoc will
remain open to all of
you after the
workshop, so feel free
to keep adding to the
lists until the next
workshop.
How Many Words?
400 words
(less for ELLs!)
per school year
become part of their
working vocabulary
(Julie Adams).
Choose WISELY.
How Many Words?
Rule of Thumb:
For each subject area
The number of words
equal to the student’s
grade in school.
Students max out at 10
words.
Choose WISELY.
How Many Words?
Rule of Thumb:
Grade 6:
6 words per subject
per week.
But some subjects have
many more words than
others
Choose WISELY.
What about Content
Vocabulary?
...
That’s a discussion
we’ll
save for Workshop #2!
How Do I Teach This
Stuff?
According to Marzano,
there are 6 Steps to Direct
Vocabulary Instruction.
...
That’s a discussion
we’ll
save for Workshop #3!
Marzano, Robert J.
Feldman, Kevin, & Kate Kinsella
http://www.fcoe.net/ela/pdf/Vocabulary/Narr
owing%20Vocab%20Gap%20KK%20KF%201.pd
f
Works Cited:
Adams, Julie