Vocabulary Instruction Explicit Instruction of New Words

1. Vocabulary Instruction Explicit Instruction of New Words Why? What? How? Jen Madison Lenny Vermaas jmadison@esu6.orglvermaas@esu6.org June 10, 2010

2. Updates on Twitter! • www.twitter.com/ESU6LA

3. Creating a Name Tent • Fold the paper in half hamburger style • On the open end, approximately 1 inch from the bottom, fold the paper to the middle or inside. (This creates the bottom.) • On one side write your first name in large letters (2 inches tall).

5. Word Power • 2006 Nebraska Volleyball National Champions • Each Husker selected a word as a guide during the 2006 season. • Belief, Presence, Love, Fearless, Trust, Impact, Discipline, Serve, Intensity, Impact, Moxie, Passion

6. Jordon Larson, passion:“I want to come into every match showing the love for the game, how much I want to play it.” • Sarah Pavan, impact:“I wanted to make a bigger impact both on and off the court this year in terms of leadership and my play.”

7. Vocabulary Emphasis • Vocabulary is so important in any subject. • Think of a term that describes you and be able to provide a reason. • My math term is trapezoid. • Write that term on the other side of the name tent. • Be ready to share your term and reason.

8. Facets ofPurposeful Vocabulary Instruction • Provide rich and varied language experiences • discussion, focused attention on words, being read to, wide and frequent reading • Teach word-learning strategies • Using context, using morphology (word parts), using a dictionary • Foster word consciousness • Awareness, interest in words and their meanings, understanding of communicative power of language • Teach individual words (Graves, 2006)

9. Essential Questions • Why should I teach some words explicitly? • What criteria should I consider when choosing words? • How might I introduce different kinds of terms most effectively? • How might I encourage lasting and deep understanding of important vocabulary?

10. Why should I teach some words explicitly? Explain why teaching individual words explicitly is important.

11. Reflections & Forward Thinking

12. Run the Tournament: Most Compelling Reasons • Use a “tournament bracket” to decide which research snapshot is most compelling: • Line up (or deal) the research snapshot cards in random pairs. • For each pair, decide which should advance between the two cards based on the degree of importance and relevance toward the question: Why should I teach some words explicitly? • Once the winner and runner up are decided, choose one consolation card from any of the others.

13. Why should I teach some words explicitly? • Which reasons are most compelling to you? • What concerns or questions must be addressed?

14. Explicit vocabulary instruction “can deepen students’ knowledge of word meanings” to help them “understand what they are hearing or reading” and well as “help them use words accurately in speaking and writing.” (National Institute for Literacy, 2003, p. 36)

15. What criteria should I consider when choosing words? Understand criteria for selecting words to teach explicitly. Evaluate words from a unit or reading material based on appropriate criteria.

16. Reflections & Forward Thinking List 5 to 10 words that you currently teach (or are planning to teach) explicitly.

17. Vocabulary instruction should focus on critical words. National Reading Panel (2000)

18. Purpose for Teaching • To understand a specific text better • To learn a specific concept and its label • To improve comprehension of texts in general • To increase one’s understanding of some aspect of generative word knowledge • To improve writing Nagy & Heibert, 2007, presentation

19. Word Learning Tasks • Learning a basic oral vocabulary • Learning to read known words • Learning new meanings for known words • Learning new words representing known concepts • Learning new words representing new concepts • Clarifying, enriching the meanings of known words • Moving words into expressive vocabularies • Building English learners’ vocabularies

20. Word Knowledge prior knowledge necessary understanding Frequency & Distribution rate of occurrence in English text Importance reading comprehension (particular selection, general comprehension) content-specific achievement Utility outside of particular school context instructional potential generativity morphology (word parts) semantic-relatedness (categories of meaning) Conceptual difficulty Criteria for Word Selection

21. Word Knowledge • Word Knowledge Continuum • Rich, decontextualized knowledge of meaning, relationship to other words, extension to metaphorical uses • Knowledge, but inability to recall readily enough for application • Narrow, context-bound knowledge • General sense • No knowledge Depth of Understanding (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

22. Types of Words • Literary • Found in reading and sophisticated speaking • relatively low frequency • flustered, rambunctious, yelped • General academic • words found in academic discourse (text & speech) • relatively high frequency, wide distribution • specific, analysis, method, achieve • Content-specific • necessary for content achievement • relatively low frequency • electoral college, algorithm, gerund, photosynthesis • School-task • labels for academic tasks • Venn diagram, journal, learning log (Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008)

23. Word Hierarchy (Beck, McKeown, 1985)

24. Conceptual Difficulty • Known concept that can be expressed with a one-word synonym or familiar phrase • Often found in narrative text • Often can be learned from context or understand essential meaning of text without deep word knowledge • altercation (fight) • apologize (to say you’re sorry) • Unknown concept that can be learned from available experiences & information (background knowledge) • naive • independence • embarrassment • nostalgia • elation (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987 adapted from Hiebert, 2008, presentation)

25. Conceptual Difficulty • Unknown concept requiring learning of new factual information or related system of concepts • Less likely to be learned from context • Understanding meaning often necessary for comprehension of academic text • Often more abstract • Often polysemus (having multiple meanings) • divide (as boundary between drainage basins) • democracy • periodic sentence (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987 in Hiebert, 2008, presentation)

26. Morphological Families • Morpheme – smallest unit of meaning • bases, roots • prefixes • suffixes "Morphological knowledge is a wonderful dimension of the child's uncovering of "what's in a word," and one of the least exploited aids to fluent comprehension" (Wolf, 2007, p. 130). (http://www.wordworkskingston.com/)

27. Semantic-Relatedness • Words that fit into categorical clusters cognitive/affective/communication prepare confused accomplished groan healed winced motions associated with objects (sometimes living things) bouncing gusted ignite crammed overturned nicked Verbs physical movements of people/animals chasing grip grasped raid burrowed straining (Hiebert, 2008, presentation)

28. Word Knowledge prior knowledge necessary understanding Frequency & Distribution rate of occurrence in English text Importance reading comprehension (particular selection, general comprehension) content-specific achievement Utility outside of particular school context instructional potential generativity morphology (word parts) semantic-relatedness(categories of meaning) Conceptual difficulty Criteria for Word Selection

29. Questions Worth Asking • Is this word unknown? • Is this word critical to understanding (the particular text, the particular subject matter)? • Is this a word students are likely to encounter again (in sophisticated language use, in this particular subject, in other domains)? • Is this word conceptually difficult (abstract, new concept, multiple meanings)? • Does this word have high instructional potential (morphology, connections to other words, word learning)?

30. Reflections & Forward Thinking Review your list of words. • Does each match your purpose? • Based on the appropriate criteria, does each merit instructional time and energy?

31. How might I introduce different kinds of terms most effectively? Know (and ultimately use) different types of instruction to explicitly teach different types of words.

32. Reflections & Forward Thinking How do I currently introduce new words?

33. Effective Vocabulary Instruction • Vocabulary instruction should focus on critical words • Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions. • Teaching word parts enhances understanding. • Different types of words require different types of instruction. • Active engagement improves learning. • Repeated exposure is essential.

34. Characteristics of Effective Direct Vocabulary Instruction (Marzano, 2004) • Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions. • Students must represent their knowledge of words in linguistic and nonlinguistic ways. • Effective vocabulary instruction involves the gradual shaping of word meanings through multiple exposures. • Teaching word parts enhances students’ understanding of terms.

35. Characteristics of Effective Direct Vocabulary Instruction (Marzano, 2004) • Different types of words require different types of instruction. • Students should discuss the terms they are learning. • Students should play with words. • Instruction should focus on terms that have a high probability of enhancing academic success.

36. Rate Your Practice • Rate your current vocabulary instruction according to the characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction.

37. TIME! For the strongest possible results… • Include both definitional and contextual information. • Involve students in active and deep processing of the words. • Provide students with multiple exposures to the word. • Review, rehearse, and remind students about the word in various contexts over time. • Involve students in discussions of the word’s meaning. • Spend a significant amount of time on the word. (Graves, 2006)

38. “Often, it will be necessary to teach words in ways that do not consume large amounts of time and do not produce the strongest possible results…

39. …In these cases, think of your initial instruction on a word as just that—initial instruction, an initial experience that starts students on the long road to learning a full and rich meaning for the word.” (Graves, 2006, p. 70)

40. Quick Introduction • Learning new words for known concepts in text • During read-aloud • Before students read text • Read-aloud • Provide known synonym/descriptive phrase after the word (without disrupting the narration) • Prior to student reading • Display or quick note with target word and known synonym/descriptive phrase • Preview descriptions provided in textbooks (supplement as necessary)

41. Reception Check Full Bars…Decent Reception…Dropped Call?

42. Context-Relationship • Learning new words representing known concepts • Create a brief paragraph that gives the meaning of the word. • Follow the paragraph with a multiple-choice item that checks students’ understanding of the word.   • Show the paragraph, read it aloud, and read the multiple-choice options. • Pause to give students a moment to answer the item, provide the correct answer, and discuss the word and any questions they have.

43. Indolence Fortunately, none of my English 9 R students could be described as indolent. Whereas an indolent student would try to sleep during class, slouch in her seat, procrastinate, and generally avoid exerting any effort, my students are diligent, hard-working, eager, and achievement-driven. I would be worried if someone described an English 9 R student as indolent, because it is worse than just occasional tiredness or laziness. Indolence implies a tendency to be lazy much of the time.

44. Indolent means • often lazy • sometimes lazy • often hardworking • sometimes hardworking

45. Reception Check Full Bars…Decent Reception…Dropped Call?

46. Introducing Specific Words • Student Friendly Explanations • Characterize word and typical use • Explain meaning in everyday language • Teacher-Created Contexts • Develop instructional contexts that provide strong clues to meaning • Active Engagement with Words • Short, playful, lively opportunities for students to interact with words and meanings right away (Beck et al. 2002 in Diamond & Gutlohn, 2006)

47. Observe:Vocabulary Instructional Routine What instructional steps were used to introduce each of the words? For which kinds of words / word learning tasks would this routine be most appropriate? What other effective instructional practices are worth noting?

48. Vocabulary Instructional Routine (Anita Archer, http://www.scoe.org/pub/htdocs/archer-videos.html)

49. Observe:Vocabulary Instructional Routine • What instructional steps were used to introduce each of the words? • For which kinds of words / word learning tasks would this routine be most appropriate? • What other effective instructional practices are worth noting?

50. Vocabulary Instructional Routine • Learning new words representing known concepts • Introduce the word • Present a student-friendly explanation • Illustrate the word with examples • Check understanding • Review a group of words