ACTIVITY 3 – Designing Lessons Vocabulary & Concepts

1. ACTIVITY 3 – Designing Lessons Vocabulary & Concepts

2. ACTIVITY 3 – Designing Lessons The information contained in this presentation is taken from the research and work of Dr. Anita Archer, Dr. Charles Hughes, John Hollingsworth, and Silvia Ybarra. Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Designing Lessons: Skills and Strategies. In Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching (pp. 23-52). New York, New York: Guilford Press. Hollingsworth, J., & Ybarra, S. (2009). Explicit direct instruction (EDI): The power of the well-crafted, well-taught lesson (pp. 12-14). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.

3. The Truth About Vocabulary • Vocabulary is a prerequisite of reading comprehension because readers must know what most of the words mean to derive understanding about the text (Reid & Ortiz-Lienemann 2006). • Struggling readers or students with disabilities often come with less in the way of vocabulary which severely limits their ability to understand the text (Reid & Ortiz-Lienemann 2006). • When students do not understand the meaning of the words they read, the process becomes meaningless decoding (Fountas & Pinnell 1996). • Understanding a word not only requires the student to know when a vocabulary word should be used, but when it shouldn’t (Archer & Hughes 2011). • Students should be learning about 3,000 new words a year just to maintain grade level status (Fountas & Pinnell 1996).

4. Vocabulary Instruction... • It goes without saying that vocabulary instruction that has students writing down words from a list, looking up words in a glossary or dictionary, and studying definitions is really static, ambiguous and ineffective for increasing students vocabulary comprehension. (Archer & Hughes 2011). • In order for vocabulary instruction to be effective, the student must be exposed to the new vocabulary term a minimum of 10 times. This must also include clear presentation of the terms with contextual examples and non-examples of usage (Archer & Hughes 2011). How does a teacher prepare for an explicit vocabulary lesson?

5. Selecting Appropriate Vocabulary for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Guideline 1 Guideline 2 Guideline 3 Guideline 4 The Guidelines

6. Guideline 1 – Select Words That Are Unknown • Research suggests not teaching more than 10 new vocabulary terms in depth for each specific story, portion of a chapter, or body of knowledge. This is due to the limited capacity of working memory. Vocabulary terms should also receive repeated exposures (minimum of 10 times). • If students know the term to be taught, then doing more than an added exposure is wasting instructional time. • Ex. A fourth grade reading text may suggest that the word “secret” be targeted for vocabulary instruction. By fourth grade, most students have been exposed to this word several times throughout their lives. This word should not be stressed as a vocabulary word and should receive little to no instructional time. • Ex. A seventh grade science word might include the word “resistant.” This word would be targeted, because it can be used beyond the subject of science and is probably unknown to many 7th graders.

7. Guideline 2 – Select Words That Are Important to Understanding the Passage or Unit • Vocabulary instruction is generally used to aide students in comprehending narrative or expository passages. Importance to the passage or body of knowledge should be considered. • For instance, if you knew you were going to teach a lesson on the water cycle, it might be imperative to teach a lesson on the terms associated with this process. • Precipitation • Condensation • Transpiration • Evaporation • Transport • Ground Water • Runoff • Some of those terms may not need as much explicit instruction, while others may need to be elaborated upon.

8. Guideline 3 – Select Words That Students Will Hear, Read, Write and Say in the Future • Choose those vocabulary terms that students will need later as well as now. • Example: If a kindergarten teacher was going to read the story “The Grouchy Ladybug” by Eric Carle, they may choose the terms friendly, ladybug, aphids, and grouchy. Which terms would fall into this criteria? • The terms friendly and grouchy will be used frequently throughout that student’s life. This makes them strong words to teach. • The terms ladybug and aphids are less likely to be used regularly. They are still important to the student for understanding the text, but do not need as much time focused upon them. Showing a picture of each should suffice for these terms.

9. Guideline 3 – Select Words That Students Will Hear, Read, Write and Say in the Future • Middle and High School Teachers will have similar situations to the kindergarten teacher. They will need to trim the amount of vocabulary given in a text to the most important due to limitations on time. • Example: After reviewing the text “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a literature teacher determines the following terms need preteaching: feign, incredulous, imitation, reciprocal, supercilious, conscientious, wan, complacent, anon, contiguous, facet, interpose, apathetic, languid, imply, strident, deft and clad. • As you can see there are just too many terms associated with this text to handle in one lesson. It might be wise for this teacher to break this text down by chapters. Addressing those terms associated with each chapter with repeated exposure of terms throughout subsequent lessons.

10. Guideline 3 – Select Words That Students Will Hear, Read, Write and Say in the Future • Different words have different levels of utility. • Tier 1 words – common words such as food, chair, run, jump, table, etc... Most of these words are known by students and require very little if any instructional time. • Tier 2 words – words that are used frequently by mature speakers and readers but are most likely unknown to students. They may have the concept, but the word is new. • In an elementary classroom these words might include jubilation, defraud, arrange, innocent. • In elementary classrooms or those serving students with disabilities, tier 2 high-utility words must be stressed to optimize generalizations to other settings and times. • At the secondary level, these words may include analyze, fundamental, contrast, equivalent, etc... • Secondary teachers may find a useful tool to be Academic Word List of 570 High-Incidence, High-Utility Words

11. Guideline 3 – Select Words That Students Will Hear, Read, Write and Say in the Future • Different words have different levels of utility. • Tier 3 words – these words are generally low-frequency vocabulary terms. They are often only used in one domain and taught in content area classes. • These words may include judicial review, diameter, chord, angioplasty, totalitarian, etc... • Although these words are used less often than Tier 2 words, they are important to strengthen background knowledge for content-area learning. Tier 2 Words Tier 3 Words

12. Guideline 3 – Select Words That Students Will Hear, Read, Write and Say in the Future Instructional Focus Tier 3 – Low Frequency, Content Specific Vocabulary Tier 2 – High Frequency, Multiple Meaning Vocabulary Tier 1 – Very High Frequency, Basic Vocabulary

13. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words that label unknown concepts • If the target word labels an unknown concept or idea and/or the students do not have a synonym that can easily replace the term, then instructional time on the word will be much longer. • Example: The term “crockery” – Students have synonyms for this word that are easily accessible such as plates, fork, cups, etc... [use the known synonyms to help students understand the meaning of the new term] • Example: The term “residence” – Students have the most likely concept at their disposal as the place where one lives. [use the known concept to help students understand the meaning of the new term] • Often words that do not have a known concept or a single word synonym fall in specific content areas and are considered to be Tier 3 words. • Example: checks and balances, momentum, lactose intolerance, denominator, impressionistic art. These concepts, terms and ideas are not easily defined or readily known outside of the content area, therefore they need explicit instruction within that content area.

14. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words not addressed fully in a passage with context clues • If a term is critical to the comprehension of the text, but is not given adequate context, then that term should be explicitly taught.

15. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words related to abstract rather than concrete concepts • A term that is defined or refers to something in thought is much harder to learn and understand than one that can be illustrated in a concrete fashion. • Example: Terms such as “feminism (most –ism words),” “democracy,” “success,” and “moral” are all ideas and do not exist in the physical world, therefore they may be difficult for students to understand. These terms should be explicitly taught to develop understanding.

16. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words that reflect complex concepts • Look at the term’s complexity of meaning • There are three areas to look for as to the complexity of a term • The number of attributes* in the definition of the term. • The number of concepts in the definition that need to be understood • The number of related concepts needed to understand the vocabulary term • *Attributes – the parts of the definition that need to be in place in order for the term to represent the concept.

17. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words that reflect complex concepts • Look at the following math terms and consider the level of complexity for each. • Example: Variable and Ordered Pair Variable • A letter or symbol • Stands for one or more numbers Ordered pair • A pair of numbers • To locate a point • On a coordinate plane • First number tells how far to move horizontally • Second number tells how far to move vertically

18. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words that reflect complex concepts • The term “variable” has few attributes and those attributes have known concepts. This makes this a relatively simple concept. • The term “ordered pair” has numerous attributes with other concepts that need to be understood for meaning, such as point, coordinate plane, horizontally, and vertically. • Complexity of a term is also increased when there is an increase in related concepts such as in the term “branches of government.”

19. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words that reflect complex concepts • When teaching the term “branches of government,” there are only a few attributes, but the amount of related material that must be understood prior to reading a passage is vast. Branches of Government • Established in the U.S. Constitution • Divides the power of government • Separated into the legislative, executive and judicial branches Students will need to understand the concepts in the definition’s attributes (constitution, legislative, executive, judicial). They will also need to understand some related concepts such as Presidency, Congress, Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court, checks and balances, separation of power, veto, legislation, democracy, etc...

20. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words that are difficult to pronounce • Some words are difficult to pronounce. • This can include words in which the letters do not sound the way that they appear. • These terms can also be difficult to pronounce physically. • If the words are difficult to pronounce, students will be focused more on saying or reading the word and attention is taken away from the meaning. This will make the word’s meaning hard to attain. • It is important to work with students on pronunciation of the term. • First model the pronunciation. • Next practice with the students. • Finally have the students produce the word’s pronunciation. Entrepreneur hyacinths Remuneration fastidiously

21. Guideline 4 – Select Words That Are Difficult to Learn and Need Interpretation • Words requiring additional interpretation • Terms that have multiple meanings, idioms, phrases, or expressions that have different meanings from their literal interpretations. • Example: The term “staff” might have different meanings to different groups. For the student studying music it is the five lines and four spaces that separate musical pitch. To others, it could be a large walking stick, and still to others it is a group of people working in a common business. • Normally this word would be considered a tier 1 word, but if the text is using the term in a non-traditional way, it is important to spend time on the meaning of the word. • Example: The term “nest egg” might lead students to believe they are reading about birds instead of financial investment. This can cause the meaning of the passage to be confusing, therefore not understood.

22. Once you have determined the words to be explicitly taught you need to think about how the meaning will be presented to students. Determining How the Word’s Meaning Will Be Conveyed Student-Friendly Explanation Critical Attributes Word Breakdown ELL Cognates Communicating Meaning

23. Present a Student-Friendly Explanation for the word • When working with Tier 2 words, it is important to use definitions that have only known words and indicate how the words are used. • A great strategy is to use a dictionary for English-language learners. They usually present terms with easily understood words within the definition. • Here are a few websites that are wonderful resources • The Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary • The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English • Heinle’s Newbury House Dictionary of American English • Think of some terms for an upcoming lesson and look them up using the resources above.

24. Critical Attributes • When working with Tier 3 words, it is helpful to have students identify the term in the text or in the text’s glossary. • Have students break out the critical attributes of the term and record them in their vocabulary logs. • Example: If students are working with the math term “perimeter,” have them identify the definition in the text or the glossary. • Perimeter – The measurement of distance around a shape or object. • Measurement • Of distance • Around a shape or object • All three attributes need to be in place for something to be considered a perimeter. • This will allow students to critically analyze the definition while determining examples and non-examples. 3. Around a shape 1. Measurement 2. Of Distance X X 

25. Word Breakdown • Another strategy that is helpful in teaching new words is focusing on the morphemes*. • Using prefixes are easy ways to determine the meaning of words. • Prefixes are easy to identify at the beginning of words • They have consistent pronunciation and spelling • They consistently change the meaning of a word • Twenty-three prefixes account for 97% of prefixed words (un, re, in, dis, en, em, non, im, il, ir, over, mis, sub, pre, inter, fore, de, trans, super, semi, anti, mid, bi,& under) *Morphemes – meaningful units within the word (root word, suffix, prefix, base words etc...

26. Word Breakdown • Using suffixes is a bit more complicated because they are abstract and confusing. • Example: The suffix –ment can mean the condition of, quality of, or state of. • The base word “banish” means to send away • The suffix –ment when added to banish makes the word “banishment” which means to the condition of being driven out of an area. WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN? • When teaching derivational suffixes, it is more important to teach how the suffix changes the part of speech of the word. • In the example above, “banish” is a verb, and by adding the suffix –ment it becomes a noun.

27. Word Breakdown • When teaching the Greek & Latin roots of words has several challenges. • Many Greek and Latin roots appear in only a small number of words. • The meaning of the original word and the modern usage can be different or obscure. • The spelling of the root can be slightly different from the word being taught. • Teaching secondary students these roots would be more valuable than teaching them to elementary age children due to the above stated challenges. • Often these roots show up in Tier 2 and 3 words at the secondary level. • By teaching this method, generalizations can be made for many words that rely on these roots. • Example: The root “chron” means time. This can be applied to several words which can begin students on the path to the meaning of the full word. (i.e. chronology, synchronize, anachronism, etc...)

28. Cognates • Teachers can guide student through the use of cognates. It is estimated that there are between 20-30 thousand shared cognates between English and Spanish words. • As students progress into the secondary level, the use of cognates becomes more important due to the increase of Latin word roots in both English and Spanish.

29. Cognates • Teacher direction and explicit instruction is necessary when teaching cognates. Spanish speakers may not readily recognize the similarities. • It is also necessary to watch for false cognates. These are words that look similar but have completely different meanings.

30. Just presenting a student friendly definition is not enough for adequate vocabulary attainment. Students will require examples of the word’s usage. For more complex terms, non-examples are also helpful. Developing Examples and Non-examples Designing Examples Designing Non-Examples Creating Further Understanding

31. Designing Examples • Using concrete examples is extremely powerful whenever possible. • Example: When describing the word “vine,” bringing in an actual vine for students to see and touch is much more powerful than showing them a picture of a vine. • Example: Acting out various terms is helpful to students to gain further understanding for the terms being taught. Disgusted Ecstatic Angry Happy Click boxes to see a picture of the vocabulary term.

32. Designing Examples • Using visual cues can be very helpful when concrete examples are not available. • Giving verbal scenarios and cues can be used in conjunction with concrete and visual cues. • The more senses that we touch when teaching new vocabulary terms, the more powerful the meaning becomes for the students in regards to examples.

33. Designing Non-Examples • When introducing vocabulary that is more challenging or when checking the understanding of a term, non-examples can be beneficial. • This will help clarify the boundaries of the vocabulary term or concept. Step 1: Examine the definition given for the term, and determine the critical attributes or parts of the definition. • diameter: • a line • passing through the center point of a circle • endpoints on the circle

34. Designing Non-Examples • When introducing vocabulary that is more challenging or when checking the understanding of a term, non-examples can be beneficial. • This will help clarify the boundaries of the vocabulary term or concept. Step 2: Design examples in which all attributes are present. • diameter: • a line • passing through the center point of a circle • endpoints on the circle    EXAMPLE

35. Designing Non-Examples • When introducing vocabulary that is more challenging or when checking the understanding of a term, non-examples can be beneficial. • This will help clarify the boundaries of the vocabulary term or concept. Step 3: Design non-examples in which some, but not all, critical attributes are missing. • diameter: • a line • passing through the center point of a circle • endpoints on the circle  x  NON-EXAMPLE

36. Explicit Vocabulary Instructional Routine Once preparation for vocabulary instruction is done. WORD SELECTION MEANING CONVEYANCE DETERMINED EXAMPLES & NON-EXAMPLES MADE Instruction can begin

37. Explicit Vocabulary Instructional Routine • Step 1: Introduce the word – (I Do – We Do – You Do) • The teacher pronounces the word and/or guides students in the decoding of the word. • Students and teacher pronounce the word together. • Check that all students can pronounce the word. • If students have difficulty pronouncing the word, continue practice. If students cannot pronounce the word it is difficult for them to garner meaning in later parts of the instruction.

38. Explicit Vocabulary Instructional Routine • Step 2: Introduce the meaning of the word • Option 1 – Provide a student-friendly definition. • Option 2 – Guide students in analyzing the meaningful parts. • Option 3 – Have students determine the critical attributes embedded in the text or glossary. • Option 4 - Assist ELL students in recognizing cognates and transferring meaning from their native language to their emerging language. • Be aware of false cognates so as not to confuse the meaning of terms being taught.

39. Explicit Vocabulary Instructional Routine • Step 3: Illustrate with examples • Here we illustrate the concept with concrete, visual and/or verbal examples. • It is important to include all critical attributes in each example.

40. Explicit Vocabulary Instructional Routine • Step 4: Check student(s) understanding • Option 1 - Have students distinguish between examples and non examples. • Make sure that within each scenario that all attributes are accounted for with examples and where attributes are missing in non-examples • Option 2 - Ask students to generate their own examples and then check. • Option 3 - Ask questions that require deep processing of the word’s meaning beyond just copying the definition. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

41. References Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Designing Lessons: Skills and Strategies. In Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching (pp. 23-52). New York, New York: Guilford Press. Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children (pp. 165-166). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Hollingsworth, J., & Ybarra, S. (2009). Explicit direct instruction (EDI): The power of the well-crafted, well-taught lesson (pp. 12-14). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press. Reid, R., & Lienemann, T. (2006). Strategy Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities (pp. 150, 219-223). New York: Guilford Press.