Words Count

1. Words Count Teaching Vocabulary for Meaning

2. What I saw….

3. Lots of Text

4. Our wiki • www.literacytcs.wikispaces.com Welcome to our wiki: Literacy for The Columbus School! "The biggest risk in education is not taking one."Seymour Sarason

5. “Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.” -- Blippitt

6. FACT or FICTION? • An effective strategy for developing vocabulary skills is having students look words up in the dictionary and write sentences. • An effective strategy for developing vocabulary is playing vocabulary games with students. • If students have poor vocabularies, it’s important that they have long lists of words to memorize. • Vocabulary is a result of wide reading.

7. Assign, Define, Test

8. Appeal • Dictionary definition: attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates.

9. Appeal • Dictionary definition: attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates. • Student sentence: Shawna appeal to me from her good looks.

10. And you?

11. 5 Principles • Vocabulary instruction matters! • Growing vocabulary is a complex process. • So many words, so little time. • Effective vocabulary instruction moves beyond the dictionary. • Teach towards student independence.

12. Vocabulary instruction matters! “Vocabulary knowledge is the building block of all learning.” Rick VanDeWeghe

13. Study of College Freshmen • ONLY variable that counted • Students with weaker vocabulary • Fail to question text • Fail to recognize loss of meaning

14. Even 5% matters Never mind that the song contends you can’t rhummilove – science says you don’t actually jeentedo to. It takes all of a fifth of a second for that truly, madly, deeply gigeieff to register, says a new report. That’s faster than your average resting heartbeat. Given the heart’s popular role in ecmanromd, it may be a surprise that falling and being in love are actually more of a cerebral upheaval. Philteryinto the wonders of passion has found that a concert of chemicals act on about a dozen parts of the brain all told to create that intense rush experienced as reboth.

15. Levels of text • Independent level: 98-100% • Instructional level: 95 – 97% • Frustration level: below 95%

16. Principle 2 Growing vocabulary is a complex process.

17. Right • I insist on the right to rebut his argument. • She held it in her right hand. • Right the boat, please. Right now! • She went right to the end of the road. • He is a card-carrying member of the far right.

18. What does it mean to “own” a word?

19. Incidental Learning

20. Adapted from Anderson, Wilson and Fielding from Allington

21. Richard Allington • All students need to engage in lots of reading every school day. Most of this reading should be self-selected reading. Skip the worksheets, skip the low level interrogations, and provide the time to read and the books that kids want to read and can read. While the kids are reading, move about the room and engage readers in literate conversations about what they are reading. Literate conversation focus on thoughtful dialogue about the characters, the plot, and the responses the reader is having as he/she reads.

22. Rule of Thumb • Ideal: read 30 – 50 books a year (approx. 1 book a week) • Most books should be “easy” reads • An easy read: 1 page/minute

23. If your students are not very adept at selecting books they can read and want to read it may simply indicate that they are relatively unpracticed at this activity. So help them by blessing 3 or 4 books every day. Blessing books is easy. Just hold up the book and tell the readers something about the book. Perhaps read a page or two aloud to allow them to hear what the book sounds like.

25. But it’s not enough • Intentional

26. Goal • Own the word

27. Multiple exposures

28. Wiki How well do I know these terms? Literacytcs.wikispaces.com

29. “Ultimately, academic vocabulary development is as much about problem solving as it is about acquisition.”

30. Principle 3 • So many words, so little time.

31. Tier 1 words • General words • Commonplace • Often learned in the process of living

32. Tier 2 • Specialized • Different meanings based on context • High frequency • Often can be defined with other words

33. Chaos Plot Function Organic Appeal

34. Tier 3 • Specialized • Technical • Infrequently used

35. Blepharospasm hexene Deus ex machina??? Hegemony Cyclical alophatic

36. Keep the list narrow • 8 – 10 maximum/week

37. Questions to ask in selection • Is this word critical for understanding key concepts? • Will this word help students build a rich representation or develop a more precise understanding of the concepts under study? • Does it appear in a variety of domains? • Will it be used throughout the year? Will the word be used in student writing?

38. By the late Middle Ages, England’s feudal lords had lost much of their power to the its king. The new class of townspeople supported a strong king. A single system of laws and courts and a larger army of soldiers helped strengthen the king. In addition, as the country prospered, more taxes were paid to the king.

39. Familiarity Principle • Word family? • Common features or patterns Word, wordy Family, familiarity

40. Cognates Cognatus – blood relative • Night/nuit • Apotik/apothecary • Parkir/parking lot • Taksi/taxi

41. Morphology 60% of academic words can be taught morphologically collate collaborate cohere colleague

42. Your turn • Look through your text and select a few words to teach: • Useful • Important • Transferrable • Familiarity

43. Principle 4 Effective vocabulary instruction moves beyond the dictionary.

44. "Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world." Steven Stahl

45. 3 principles • Integration—connecting new vocabulary to prior knowledge • Repetition—encountering/using the word/concept many times • Meaningful use—multiple opportunities to use new words in reading, writing and soon discussion. 

46. McREL’s 6 Step Process • Teacher explains the term. • Students restate. • Students create a nonlinguistic representation. • Students engage with the word(s). • Students use the terms in discussion. • Class plays games with the terms.

47. Your turn • Select one of these words: • Tier 1 • Tier 2 • Incidental • Morphology • Cognate • Word family

49. Wiki check-In for Step 4 (Engagement) • What are some activities that you could use to have students engage in the word?

50. Step 5 • Talk! • Create word maps • Collaborate on a semantic feature analysis • Seminars • Talk a Mile a Minute