Keys to Student Achievement:
Best Practices in Teaching
Module:
Vocabulary
Facilitated By:
Cheryl Harvey
and
Rebecca Radicchi
This session is based in the Vocabulary “Best
Practices” module designed by Metro RESA.
How confident do you feel about
your vocabulary instruction?
On a scale of 1 – 9, how confident are
you about your vocabulary instruction?
Place a post-it on the scale on the wall–
1 is the lowest & 9 is the highest.
1
5
9
Adapted from Dale, Rasband, Ross,
Gardner, & Cunningham, 2004
Essential Questions:
Why is vocabulary instruction so
important?
What are exemplary
strategies for vocabulary
instruction?
A little boy was in a relative’s wedding.
As he was walking down the aisle, he
would take two steps, stop, and turn to
the crowd. While facing the crowd, he
would put his hands up like claws and
roar. So it went, step, step, ROAR, step,
step, ROAR, all the way down the aisle.
As you can imagine, the crowd was near
tears from laughing so hard. The little
boy was getting more and more
distressed from all the laughing, and he
was also near tears. When asked what he
was doing, the child sniffed and said, “I
was being the Ring Bear!”
What level of
vocabulary knowledge is
evident in this child’s response?
LEVEL 1
Unknown
LEVEL 2
Acquainted
LEVEL 3
Established
Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987
How do you teach vocabulary?
• Discuss your
response with a
partner.
• Group leader should
be prepared to share
with everyone.
Word knowledge is much more than
word identification or even definitional
knowledge–
“It takes more than definitional
knowledge to know a word, and we have
to know words in order to identify them
in multiple reading and listening
contexts and use them in our speaking
and writing.” (Allen, 1999)
Research on the importance of
vocabulary instruction:
There is an estimated
4,700 word difference in Vocabulary instruction is
vocabulary knowledge
one of the essential
between high- and lowelements for literacy
SES. (Nagy and Herman ,1984) development for students
“at risk.” ( RAND Reading Study
Group, 2002, NRP, 2000)
For English language
learners the
“achievement gap” is
primarily a vocabulary
gap.
(Carlo, et.al., 2004)
Word Knowledge is Multifaceted
Know it
well, can
explain it,
use it
Know
something
about it, can
relate it to a
situation
Have seen or
heard of the
word
Do not know
the word
schema
prosody
morpheme
schwa
automaticity
diphthong
dyslexia
Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002
Comprehensive Vocabulary
Instruction
 Rich language learning environment
( including Read-Alouds)
• Wide and Varied
Independent Reading
• Direct Vocabulary
Instruction
Reading Aloud
• Students retain more vocabulary
when the teacher explains critical
vocabulary terms in context
during the reading.
• Reading a book several times
leads to more word learning than
reading several books once each.
Reading Aloud
"The single most important
activity for building the
knowledge required for
eventual success in
reading is reading aloud
to children."
(Becoming a Nation of Readers, 1985)
Collaborative Pairs
• What are the advantages of
reading aloud to students?
• How do read-alouds support
vocabulary development?
Comprehensive Vocabulary
Instruction
• Rich language learning environment
(including Read-Alouds)
 Wide and Varied Independent
Reading
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction
Reading Volume of 5th-grade Students of
Different Levels of Achievement
Achievement
Percentile
Minutes of
Reading Per
Day
Words
Per
Year
90th
40.4
2,357,000
50th
12.9
601,000
10th
1.6
51,000
(Allington, 2001; Adapted from Anderson, Wilson and Fielding, 1988.)
Independent Reading:
Accounts for one-third or more of
vocabulary growth.
• How do you show your
students that independent
reading is great & joyful?
• How do you make
independent reading
time meaningful?
• What obstacles do you
need to overcome?
Center for the Study of Reading, Urbana, IL
Comprehensive Vocabulary
Instruction
• Rich language learning
environment
( including ReadAlouds)
• Wide and Varied
Independent Reading
Direct Vocabulary
Instruction
Vocabulary Instruction
Direct teaching of vocabulary can help improve comprehension when we follow
these guidelines (Cooper, 1993):
• A few critical words are taught.
• The words are taught in a meaningful
context. (including nonlinguistic
representations)
• Students relate the new words to their
background knowledge.
• Students are exposed to the words
multiple times.
You Try It!
• Using the text provided, collaborate
with group members and decide on
the most important words to teach.
• Provide a rationale for your selection.
• Share!
“Which words should I teach?”
• Which words are most important to
understanding the text?
• How much prior knowledge will students
have about the word/concept?
• Is the concept significant and therefore
requires previewing?
• Which words can be figured out from the
context?
• How can I make repeated exposures to
the word/concept enjoyable and
meaningful?
What are exemplary strategies
for vocabulary instruction?
Background Knowledge
“The relationship
between vocabulary
knowledge and
background
knowledge is
explicit in research.”
(Nagy & Herman, 1984; Marzano, 2004; Hart & Risley, 1995)
Powerful Zebras
HO
Word Sorts
hurricanes
• Provide students with a set of
vocabulary word cards (related to a
specific concept or topic).
• Work in groups to sort the words into
categories.
• Encourage students to find more than
one category for the vocabulary words.
• Students then discuss with teacher &
peers their rationale for categorizing
words.
Schwartz & Raphael, 1985
What is it?
What is it like?
To move regularly from one
region to another
moving around
relocating
traveling
migrate
people working
for seasonal jobs
birds
Nomads
What are some examples?
Frayer Model
(Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969)
Definition
a congregation of wild
animals
Characteristics
• Group
• Like animals
• Clustered
herd
Examples
Non-Examples
Frayer Model
(Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969)
Definition
Characteristics
• 2 is the only even prime number
A whole number with
exactly two divisors
(factors)
• 0 and 1 are not prime
Prime
Examples
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17,
...
•Every whole number
can be written as a
product of primes
Non-Examples
1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10. . .
Words
Nutrition
Ballyhoo
Context
Predicted
Definition
cereal box Important
ingredient in
food
Confirm
billboard
To advertise
in loud
manner
?
MATHEMATICS
NAME
SYMBOL
Line
Line Segment
CRISS (2004) pg. 146
KEY WORD
.B
Plane
Point
LABEL
.A
.C
Dot
.M
.
.K
2-D or Flat
.L
Straight
DEFINITION
(OWN WORDS)
A plane is a flat
surface like the
top of my desk.
A point has no
dimension, just a
location. Group
together to make
lines.
A line is a set of
points determined
by any 2 points.
Reading with Word Explanation
• Read the book/text once with minimal
explanation.
• After an initial reading, we can interrupt
up to 8-10 times to explain words while
rereading (possibly less, depending on
length)
• With very young children, don’t interrupt
more than once per page.
• Keep explanations simple~ explain only
what is needed to understand the content
being read in everyday language.
Four Square Response
Term
Illustration
humidity
Definition
a degree of wetness
especially of the atmosphere
Connection
Concept Circles
Which word does
not belong?
Rectangle
Cone
Hexagon
Trapezoid
Why? ___________________________________________________
racism
stereotyping
Church
bombing
violence
Concept: Civil Rights Movement
Vocabulary Strategies for ELL
• Preview texts for unfamiliar or difficult
words and the use of idiomatic language.
To reduce students’ frustration, such
words and expressions can be taught
prior to the lesson.
• Use extensive modeling and visual
representations– e.g., pantomime, graphic
organizers, pictures, hands-on materials.
• Emphasize meaning rather than
pronunciation
CORE, 2000
4-2-1 Summarizer
Four
Two
One
Rogers, et.al (1999). Motivation and Learning. . .
Pictionary
Using only a piece of paper and pen, draw
and get your partner to say these words.
Los Angeles
New York
Miami
Chicago
Assessing Vocabulary
Instruction
• Ongoing
• Varied, Meaningful
& Authentic
Use word wall
• Do you see them
using words in
writing and
speaking?
How do you keep words you teach
directly fresh in their minds and
internalized?
•Vocabulary word review tub
•Center with former words
•Keep ongoing list of words with guided reading
groups
•Use words in classroom talk
•Word wall
Finding definitions and writing
those words in sentences have
had little apparent impact on
their word knowledge and
language use.
Janet Allen, 1999
Assessing Integration
& Meaningful Use
Sample “test” questions:
• One of our target words for this week was
preposterous. What kind of in-school behavior
would the principal think was preposterous?
• Describe a time when you felt liberated. What was
the reason for that feeling?
• The concept we have been studying this week is
stereotyping? Give an example of what you think is
stereotypical behavior. Why do you think the
behavior was stereotypical?
Dictionary
Use
When students have been provided dictionary
definitions and asked to create sentences
or answer brief questions about the words,
research has shown:
• 63 percent of the students’ sentences were
judged to be “odd” (Miller & Gildea, 1985)
• 60 percent of students’ responses were
unacceptable (McKeown, 1991; 1993)
3 x 3 Vocabulary
word
knowledge
dictionaries
direct
instruction
reading with
explanation
background
knowledge
strategies
Frayer
Nonlinguistic
representations
assessment
Adapted from Guilford County Schools, 2002
Essential Questions:
Why is vocabulary instruction
so important?
What are exemplary
strategies for vocabulary
instruction?
Web Resources for
Vocabulary Practice
•
•
•
•
•
Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary Builders
Super Kids Word Scrambler
Online Vocabulary Games
Quia (Insert your words)
Resources
• Best Practices Research: Metro RESA
• Clipart: Jeff Shelly and Google Images