Literacy in Action
Module 3 - Vocabulary
Based on 6 Chapters of the book,
What Content-Area Teachers Should Know
About Adolescent Literacy
National Institute for Literacy
US Department of Education
And on
Strategies and Protocols found to be successful
Literacy in Action
Based on 6 Chapters of the book,
What Content-Area Teachers Should
Know About Adolescent Literacy
National Institute for Literacy
US Department of Education
The Six Modules of
Literacy in Action


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Vocabulary
Writing Fluency
Text Comprehension
Reading Fluency
Close and Critical Reading
Reading and Writing Assessment
What is different about Literacy
in Action from other literacy
professional development?
Evidence
Your turn…


Talk with your tablemates about what
“evidence” you currently use to measure
your students’ growth in your content
area.
Share
Evidence
You get credit for the module when you
show the “evidence” that the strategy you
used produced improvement in student
learning.
The first module will be Vocabulary.
You will bring to the January 21st meeting
“evidence” of the vocabulary strategies
you used in your classroom.
Passport
You received a passport.
This will be the way we can keep track of
evidence of your progress.
 It is also a way for you to make sure you
complete all six modules.

When you have completed all modules,
we will:
Issue you a certificate and
 Put you on a list of teachers who have successfully
completed the professional development.

LIA Module 3: Vocabulary
Participants will learn how to provide instruction
and activities for students to acquire General
Academic Vocabulary (tier two words) in content
areas.
1. Learn the research and background for
vocabulary development.
2. Learn to implement Marzano’s
Six-step vocabulary instructional plan.
3. Engage in activities to extend word knowledge.
4. Develop a plan to teach General Academic
Vocabulary pertinent to your content area.
Your turn…


At your table talk about research,
instructional lessons, strategies, activities,
and protocols you use to accelerate your
students’ vocabulary acquisition.
Share
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
1 Million___________________________________________________
$500,000___________________________________________________
$250,000___________________________________________________
$125,000___________________________________________________
$64,000___________________________________________________
$32,000___________________________________________________
$10,000___________________________________________________
$8,000____________________________________________________
$4,000____________________________________________________
$2,000____________________________________________________
$1,000____________________________________________________
$500____________________________________________________
$300_____________________________________________________
$200_____________________________________________________
$100_______________________________________________
Vocabulary
“It is widely accepted among researchers
that the difference in students’ vocabulary
levels is a key factor in disparities in
academic achievement but that vocabulary
instruction has been neither frequent nor
systematic in most schools.”
Common Core Standards Appendix A, pg. 32
Vocabulary
“…Research shows that if students are truly
to understand what they read, they must
grasp upward of 95 percent of the words.”
Common Core Standards Appendix A, pg. 32
Common Core Vocabulary
Anchor Standards
Reading - Craft and Structure
R4. 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.
Language – Knowledge of Language
L3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language
functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for
meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading
or listening.
Common Core Vocabulary
Anchor Standards
Language – Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L4. 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.
L5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances
in word meanings.
L6. 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 or phrase important to comprehension or
expression.
Tiers of Words
Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan
(2002, 2008) have outlined a useful model for
conceptualizing categories of words readers encounter in
texts and for understanding the instructional and
learning challenges that words in each category present.
Tiers of Words
Tier One

Words of everyday speech usually learned
in the early grades albeit not at the same
rate by all children.
Tiers of Words
Tier Two

General academic words, which are far
more likely to appear in written texts than
in speech.
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
Subtle or precise ways to say relatively simple
things. (Saunter instead of walk)
Examples of Tier Two Words:
relative, vary, formulate, specificity, accumulate
 calibrate, itemize, periphery
 misfortune, dignified, faltered, unabashedly

Tiers of Words
Tier Two


Are not unique to a particular discipline
and are not the clear responsibility of a
particular content area teacher.
Are frequently encountered in complex
written texts and are powerful because of
their wide applicability to many sorts of
reading.
Academic (Tier 2) Vocabulary
Lists



Jim Burke
Robert Marzano
Smarter Balanced
Tiers of Words
Tier Three

Domain-specific words that are specific to
a field of study and key to understanding
a new concept within a text.



Examples: lava, carburetor, legislature,
circumference, aorta
More common in informational texts
Often explicitly defined by the author,
repeatedly used, and heavily scaffolded.
Vocabulary – Identifying Tiers
In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formed or why they spouted redhot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study volcanoes.
They still don’t know all the answers but they know much about how a
volcano works.
Our planet is made up of many layers of rock. The top layers of solid rock
are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is so hot
that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called magma.
Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the crack in
Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma pours forth
on the surface, it is called lava.
Simon, Seymour. Volcanoes. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. (2006)
Vocabulary – Identifying Tiers
In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formed or why they spouted
red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study volcanoes.
They still don’t know all the answers but they know much about how a
volcano works.
Our planet is made up of many layers of rock. The top layers of solid rock
are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is so
hot that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called magma.
Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the crack in
Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma pours forth
on the surface, it is called lava.
Simon, Seymour. Volcanoes. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. (2006)
Vocabulary – Identifying Tiers
In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formed or why they spouted
red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study
volcanoes. They still don’t know all the answers but they know much about
how a volcano works.
Our planet is made up of many layers of rock. The top layers of solid rock
are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is so
hot that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called magma.
Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the crack
in Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma pours
forth on the surface, it is called lava.
Grade 4-5 Text Complexity Band
Simon, Seymour. Volcanoes. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. (2006)
History of Jazz
Historically the journey that jazz has taken can be traced with reasonable accuracy. That it ripened most fully in New Orleans seems beyond dispute although
there are a few deviationists who support other theories of its origin. Around 1895 the almost legendary Buddy Bolden and Bunk Johnson were blowing their
cornets in the street and in the funeral parades which have always enlivened the flamboyant social life of that uncommonly vital city. At the same time, it must
be remembered, Scott Joplin was producing ragtime on his piano at the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri; and in Memphis, W.C. Handy was evolving his
own spectacular conception of the blues.
Exactly why jazz developed the way it did on the streets of New Orleans is difficult to determine even though a spate of explanations has poured forth from the
scholars of the subject. Obviously, the need for it there was coupled with the talent to produce it and a favorable audience to receive it. During those early years,
the local urge for musical expression was so powerful that anything that could be twanged, strummed, beaten, blown, or stroked was likely to be exploited for its
musical usefulness. For a long time the washboard was a highly respected percussion instrument, and the nimble, thimbled fingers of Baby Dodds showed sheer
genius on that workaday, washday utensil.
The story of the twenties—in Chicago—is almost too familiar to need repeating here. What seems pertinent is to observe that jazz gravitated toward a particular
kind of environment in which its existence was not only possible but, seen in retrospect, probable. On the South Side of Chicago during the twenties the New
Orleans music continued an unbroken development.
The most sensationally successful of all jazz derivatives was swing, which thrived in the late thirties. Here was a music that could be danced to
with zest and listened to with pleasure. (That it provided its younger auditors with heroes such as Shaw, Sinatra, and Goodman is more of a sociological enigma
than a musical phenomenon.) But swing lost its strength and vitality by allowing itself to become a captive of forces concerned only with how it could be sold,
not how it could be enriched. Over and over it becomes apparent that jazz cannot be sold even when its practitioners can be bought. Like a truth, it is a spiritual
force, not a material commodity.
During the closing years of World War II, jazz, groping for a fresh expression, erupted into bop. Bop was a wildly introverted style developed out of a certain
intellectualism and not a little neuroticism. By now the younger men coming into jazz carried with them a GI subsidized education, and they were breezily
familiar with the atonalities of Schonberg, Bartok, Berg, and the contemporary schools of music. The challenge of riding out into the wild blue yonder on a
twelve-tone row was more than they could resist. Some of them have never returned. Just as the early men in New Orleans didn't know what the established
range of their instruments was, so these new musicians struck out in directions which might have been untouched had they observed the academic dicta adhering
even to so free a form as jazz.
The shelf on jazz in the music room of the New York Public Library fairly bulges with volumes in French, German, and Italian. It seems strange to read in
German a book called the Jazzlexikon in which you will find scholarly résumés of such eminent jazzmen as Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole. And there are
currently in the releases of several record companies examples of jazz as played in Denmark, Sweden, and Australia. Obviously, the form and style are no
longer limited to our own country. And jazz, as a youthful form of art, is listened to as avidly in London as in Palo Alto or Ann Arbor.
Your Turn…
Select from the list of words
from “History of Jazz”
Six words that meet the following criterion:
- 2 important for text comprehension
- 2 for word analysis (parts, scalability, map
using tree, unusual or unique form or rule)
- 2 academic vocabulary (Tier 2)
History of Jazz
Vocabulary
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traced
deviationists
enlivened
flamboyant
uncommonly
vital
spate
twanged
strummed
gravitated
retrospect
probable
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

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
derivatives
zest
auditors
sociological
enigma
phenomenon
introverted
intellectualism
neuroticism
atonalities
contemporary
bulges
Analyze the words using the SelfAwareness Chart.
WORD
+

?
EXAMPLE
DEFINITION
Directions:
•Examine the list of words you have written in the first column
•Put a “+” next to each word you know well, and give an accurate example and definition of the word. Your definition and example must
relate to the unit of study.
•Place a “” next to any words for which you can write only a definition or an example, but not both.
•Place a “?“ next to words that are new to you.
You will use this chart throughout the unit. By the end of the unit should have the entire chart completed. Because you will be revising
this chart, write in pencil.
Determine how you
will learn the word:



Look back at the “History of Jazz “ for
context clues
Make a personal connection to the word
Find dictionary definition
Independent Word Learners
Self-Awareness Inventory
Self-Selection of Words
In addition to teacher-selected words
Words in Context
Connect Known to the Unknown
From Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms by Blachowicz and Fisher, Merrill
Prentice Hall, 2009.
Allen, J., Words, Words, Words
Teaching words in context with
synonyms or definitions.
Guided Highlighted Reading for Vocabulary is
a way to help students navigate a text that has
many unknown words that need to be defined
before they can read and comprehend the
text.
Example of Guided Highlighted Reading
for Vocabulary
THE HISTORY OF JAZZ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
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
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Historically the journey that jazz has taken can be traced with reasonable accuracy. That it
ripened most fully in New Orleans seems beyond dispute although there are a few
deviationists who support other theories of its origin. Around 1895 the almost legendary
Buddy Bolden and Bunk Johnson were blowing their cornets in the street and in the funeral
parades which have always enlivened the flamboyant social life of that uncommonly vital
city. At the same time, it must be remembered, Scott Joplin was producing ragtime on his
piano at the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri; and in Memphis, W.C. Handy was evolving
his own spectacular conception of the blues.
In line 2 find and
In line 2 find and
(deviationists)
In line 5 find and
In line 7 find and
In line 7 find and
highlight the word that means disagreement. (dispute)
highlight the word that means one who departs from the norm
highlight the word that means flashy. (flamboyant)
highlight the word that means developing. (evolving)
highlight the word that means idea. (conception)
Teaching Individual Words
To assist teachers in making word-choice decisions,
researchers have proposed several criteria. In general
terms, these criteria focus on two major considerations:
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
Words that are important to understand a
specific reading selection or concept.
Words that are generally useful for students to
know and that they are likely to encounter with
some frequency in their reading.
From The Vocabulary Book by Michael Graves
From Vocabulary at the Center by Amy Benjamin
See Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Biemiller & Slonim, 2001; Hiebert, in
press; Nation, 2001).
Why Not Teach All Unknown
Words in a Text?
• The text may have a great many words that are
unknown to students – too many for direct
instruction.
• Direct vocabulary instruction can take a lot of class
time; time that teachers might better spend having
students read.
• Students might be able to understand a text without
knowing the meaning of every word in the text.
• Students need opportunities to use wordlearning strategies to independently learn the
meanings of unknown words.
Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2001
Word Selection for Explicit
Instruction
Strategically select a relatively small number (3-10 per
reading selection) of words for explicit instruction.
Select words that
•are unknown
•are critical to the meaning
•will likely be encountered in the future
(Archer, 2008)
Marzano’s Six-Step Process for
Vocabulary Acquisition
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

Step 1: Provide a description, explanation, or
example of the new term.
Step 2: Ask students to restate the description,
explanation, or example in their own words.
Step 3: Ask students to construct a picture,
symbol, or graphic representing the term.
Marzano continued



Step 4: Engage students periodically in activities
that help them add to their knowledge of the
terms in their notebooks.
Step 5: Periodically ask students to discuss the
terms with one another.
Step 6: Involve students periodically in games that
allow them to play with the terms.
From Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering
Step 1: Provide a description,
explanation, or example
of the new term
neuroticism: noun
Comes from the word neurotic, an adjective
describing an over anxious or overly concerned
person; or a noun representing a person who is
over anxious or overly concerned. The suffix
“ism” refers to a system of belief.
Example: Her neuroticism regarding feline health
kept her veterinarian expenses very high.
Step 2: Ask students to restate the
description, explanation, or example in
their own words.

Turn to a neighbor and put the
explanation or example of neuroticism in
your own words.
Step 3: Ask students to construct a
picture, symbol, or graphic
representing the term.

Draw a picture or symbol for the word,
“neuroticism.”
Step 4 - Engage students in
activities
Vocabulary Tree
To
gain knowledge of Greek and
Latin roots and prefixes and
suffixes
neuro
“nerve,” “nerves,”
“nervous system”
malevolent
malicious
maladjusted
malaria
malaise
malnourish
maltreatment
malign
Mal“bad…”; “badly…”
Vocabulary
Tree
To gain use
knowledge of Greek
and Latin roots and
prefixes and suffixes
Step 4 - Engage students in activities
Word Sort Strategy
This is a strategy that focuses on meaning and develops deep
discussion with students.
•Choose 12 – 16 words from the content that you are studying or
about to study.
•Write words on a 3 X 4 grid or 4X4 grid. Cut out.
•Hand out sets of vocabulary cards to pairs or groups of students.
•Ask students to sort (or categorize) into any kind of grouping.
•Groups share results.
1) Which words did you group together?
2) Why did you group them that way?
•Discuss relevance to the chapter.
•Go over definitions or explanations of concepts. Does this change
the way you sorted?
Step 4 - Engage students in activities
Word Sort: Look over the list and with your
group write down all the ways you can
categorize the following words.
derivatives
zest
auditors
sociological
enigma
phenomenon
introverted
intellectualism
neuroticism
atonalities
contemporary
bulges
Step 4 - Engage students in
activities
Jim Burke’s Vocabulary Squares
Word
neuroticism
Part(s) of Speech
noun
Variations, Synonyms,
Antonyms
Synonyms: turbulence,
uneasiness, tension
Antonyms: calm or calmness
Symbol, Logo, Icon
Definition(s)
anxious state
Sentence
Her neuroticism regarding feline health kept her veterinarian
expenses very high.
Step 4 - Engage students in activities
Linear Arrays
Linear arrays are visual representations of degree. An activity like this helps
students examine subtle distinctions in the words. Linear arrays may be more
appropriate for displaying other types of relationships among words. For
example, many sets of words differ essentially in degree:
annoyed, angry, enraged, and furious; or
lukewarm, warm, hot, scalding.
The relationship among such words can be illustrated visually by arranging
them in a line. This is a graphic organizer for depicting graduations between
two related words:
freezing– cool – tepid – hot –boiling
minute – small – average – huge – immense
private – sergeant – captain – lieutenant – colonel
past – yesterday – present – tomorrow – future.
See Words, Words, Words written by Janet Allen (See pages 52-53)
See Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading Comprehension by William Nagy (pages 16-20)
Step 4 - Engage students in
activities
Linear Array
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Neuroticism
Paranoia
Nervousness
Fluctuation
Alertness
Concern
Carefree
Calmness
Step 4 - Engage students in activities
Frayer Concept Attainment Model
Definition in your own
words
Examples
Facts/Characteristics
neuroticism
Non Examples
Marzano continued


Step 5: Periodically ask students to discuss
the terms with one another.
Step 6: Involve students periodically in
games that allow them to play with the
terms.
From Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering
Your Turn



Work in content-area groups of five
people.
Select five words that are important to
your content area and grade level.
Be sure to select two words that have
either a prefix or a suffix or both (for use
in Vocabulary Trees, and Word Sort
activities).
Your Turn

Decide which of the five vocabulary activities
goes best with each word.
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

Vocabulary Tree
Word Sort
Jim Burke’s Vocabulary Squares
Linear Array
Frayer Concept Attainment
Divide up the words so that each group member
writes a plan for teaching one of the words.
Be sure that all five activities are covered by
your group.
Share with other team members.
Taking it to the Classroom




Select 8 words from the Smarter Balanced
General Academic Vocabulary list.
Direct students to fill out a Self-Awareness
Vocabulary Chart by analyzing their knowledge
about the assigned words.
Use Marzano’s Six Step Instructional Plan for
vocabulary acquisition to teach each word.
Implement Steps 3– 6 with word sorts,
vocabulary squares, vocabulary trees, Frayer’s
model, and linear arrays.
Evidence of Vocabulary
Acquisition
1. Record the number of words each student
knows to the fullest extent from their SelfAwareness Chart. This is your pre- instruction
assessment data.
2. Determine the number of words the students
know to the fullest extent (+) after instruction
and activities using 8 blank Vocabulary Squares
as a post-instruction assessment (quiz). Use
your judgment.
3. Tally the difference between pre- and postassessment. This is the evidence of your work.
Vocabulary Data
Class___________________________
Student
PreDate
Assessment
PostAssessment
Grade_______
Date
Percentage of
gain or loss
Required Evidence for
January 21, 2013



List of words you used with the students
Vocabulary Pre and Post Assessment data
and gain and loss percentages
Vocabulary activities that promoted the
vocabulary acquisition