Redefining Vocabulary Instruction in a Workshop Classroom

1. Redefining Vocabulary Instruction in a Workshop Classroom SWP 2011 Laurin Baker Landrum High School

2. Sadlier Oxford and other Nightmares Think about the ways you’ve learned and/or taught vocabulary or spelling in the past: consider how authentic these methods are in contrast to the authenticity of a teaching method like Writing Workshop. How authentic are those orange Saldier Oxford workbooks if all the students do is copy each others’ answers? Have your experiences been REAL to you or to your students?

3. My own struggle After 13 years as a teacher and more than that as a student, I am still struggling with making vocabulary instruction what I want it to be. I am searching for my own best way to do this because WORDS matter– and in a real workshop, the learning and the products of learning shouldn’t be pre-determined, cookie cutter, same in every class every semester

4. What the research says about vocabulary In What a Writer Needs, Ralph Fletcher says that “Words remain the most important tool the writer has to work with” (32). In The English Teacher’s Companion, Jim Burke declares that “knowledge about words and language grants students access to the larger world of ideas and power. We cannot really understand things for which we have no words” (121). Burke also states that “Careful study and discussion of language benefits all students” (103).

5. What research says about workshop classrooms Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar describe workshop classrooms in Methods that Matter: “The classroom workshop is the pedagogical embodiment of constructivist learning theory; in a workshop, students and teacher together reinvent whatever field of study the are engaged in” (130).

6. What all of this research says to me A. If I am a believer in constructivist theory, B. If I believe that words have power, C. If I want my students to have power, D. And if I am sick of feeling like my vocabulary instruction is just another test-prep strategy, THEN, I need to apply the WORKSHOP approach even to my WORD STUDY.

7. My first step The first way that I have tried “workshop” ideology to my vocabulary instruction is by working with parts of speech with vocabulary words. So for example, after introducing a new vocabulary list, I will ask students to choose three words from the list of twenty and begin to work with manipulating them into multiple parts of speech. The idea is that students will be more likely to use new words in their own writing and speaking if they can maneuver them within sentence structure and for different purposes. Here is how that looks.

9. A natural extension of this activity is to keep a class list on a tear sheet of common suffixes for changing the parts of speech that we encounter through out the semester (I have outlawed –ed and –ing in my classroom, but you could use those, too).

10. But that one step is not enough! So now, I am trying to find new ways to make my vocabulary PROGRAM more like a word study WORKSHOP! Here are some of the ideas I have so far: • Creating ABC word lists for “Overused Words” • Using the DIDLS Diction and Language portions to create personal Words Study lists that relate to our reading • Using an SAT Question of the Day each week to create a word list • Using the Tonal Scale to create a word list

11. Creating ABC word lists for “Overused Words” Create a list of VERBS to replace “Like” in our writing Admire Hail/ Hanker O V B Incline Praise W Covet/Cherish Jump up and down Q X Dote/Dig Kill for Relish Y Exalt/Envy/Eat up/esteem Long for Savor Z Fancy/ Fawn over M Tip my hat/ Treasure Gush over N U

12. DIDLS Diction Use the “Diction” portion of a DIDLS analysis from a text the class is currently studying and let THOSE loaded trigger words become the fodder for this week’s word study. Language http://www.kisd.org/khs/english/help%20page/DIDLS%20Breakdown.htm

13. SAT Question of the Day Hoping to ------ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ------ to both labor and management. Example (A) enforce..useful (B) end..divisive (C) overcome..unattractive (D) extend..satisfactory (E) resolve..acceptable

14. Tone Scale

15. What I would love to see happen in student writing as a result In Lessons that Change Writers, Nancie Atwell has a chapter called “How A Thesaurus Can Help” in which she demonstrates how something as simple as workshop word study can impact student writing. Let me show you her example since I don’t have an example of my own! (Chapter 19)

16. What are the IDEAS that you are now considering? If words really are the most important tools that readers and writers rely on, then how can you change/improve/enhance/overhaul the word study in your workshop classroom? Disclaimer: I don’t yet have a clear sense of how I will assess “workshop” vocabulary. To be continued!

17. Ideas from SWP 2011 Word Study notebook with entries and a conference to assess (Dawn) Dolch word list, let each student choose 5 words that they don’t already know, keep testing until they learn them all but never studying more than 5 at a time (Donna) Personal dictionary where they collect their own words and assess their collections periodically (Merianna) Integrate revision tasks and/or reading response with personal dictionaries (Tasha) Concept cards (words, part of speech, model sentence on front side; short definition with picture on back) (Phyllis) Word Study notebook with prefix-suffix and roots, parts of speech, picture, concept map, compose sentences: common word list) (Karen)