Teaching Vocabulary: It's Worth the Effort



Teaching Vocabulary: It's Worth the Effort!

Ann Masur

Marilyn Zion

Understanding the Problem

Dyslexic students have unique challenges that impede their ability to learn vocabulary:

• Decoding

• Fluency

• Poor ability to use context clues

• Difficulty learning sequences

Our capacity to learn new words:

• 5th graders learn from 1,000 to 5,000 new word meanings per year

• Average H.S. student knows 40,000 distinct words

• Readers in the top 90th percentile read 1.8 million words per year

• Readers in the 50th percentile read 300,000 words per year

• Readers in the 10th percentile read 8,000 words per year

For most students, reading improves vocabulary:

• The more students read, the richer their vocabulary

• Dyslexic students read less, more slowly, and usually less challenging material

• Dyslexic students need "rich instruction" to learn vocabulary

Effective Vocabulary Instruction

FEWER WORDS, MORE DEPTH

1. Careful word selection

• Fewer than 10 words per week

• Useful words

• Words that students will meet again

2. Provide exposure to different definitions

3. Integrate new information with prior knowledge

4. Provide illustrations in natural contexts, not just texts

5. Build a conceptual foundation and semantic relations

6. Plan activities for multiple re-exposure to words

7. Provide opportunities for meaningful use of words, orally and in writing.

8. Teach ways to remember word meanings

9. Builds links among members of word families

10. Teach students how to derive meaning from context

Adapted from J.F. Carlisle, “Selecting Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction for the Reading Disabled” in Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 8(2), 97-105.)

Rich Instruction (Beck, McKeown, Omanson)

• Associates words with definitions but moves beyond by having students manipulate words in rich and varied ways

o Describing how words relate to other words

o Relating words to their own familiar experiences

o Unusual contexts

o Associating new words with consequences

• How to choose words (Tiers 1-3)

o Tier 1 words are most basic words (e.g., clock, happy, walk)

o Tier 2 words are high frequency words for mature language users found in many subjects (e.g., coincidence, absurd, fortunate, solitary)

o Tier 3 words are low frequency words limited to specific subjects (e.g., isotope, lathe, astrolabe)

• Semantic groups

Moods: jovial, indignant, enthusiastic, blissful, melancholy, fatigued, meek

• Webs

[pic]

• Words should be encountered frequently (at least 10 times in a week's time)

• Examples:

o Idea completion

A sleuth helped the police by _____.

The skiing teacher said Maria was a novice on the ski slopes because ____.

(continued next page)

o Unusual context

When her father heard that Lisa had ripped up the letter from Steve, he commended her for it.

o Words and their consequences

fatigued (Karen flew all night to Europe. She found it difficult to sleep on the plane. How do you think she felt the next day?)

o Relationship between words

Would a blissful winner of the lottery feel melancholy?

Would you berate someone who inspired you?

o Questions, reasons and examples

If you were walking around a dark room, you need to do it cautiously. Why? What are some other things that need to be done cautiously?

o Choices

If you get your clothes ready to wear to school before you go to sleep, would that be sensible or raucous?

• Applause, applause!

o Students clapped their hands loudly or softly to show how much they would like to be described as: vain, raucous, benevolent, generous

• Word wizard (extension of word use beyond classroom)

• Examples and non-examples

o tropical (examples: jungle, Hawaii, Florida; non-examples: Alaska, desert, autumn)

Word walls

Isabel Beck et al, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction

Visualization and Vocabulary (Nanci Bell)

• If you can't picture something, you can't understand it

[pic]

• Vocabulary Boxes

o Materials: index card box, index cards

o Write the word on the front of the card:

[pic]

o To help child figure out the meaning of the word, use it in a sentence. See if the child can figure out the meaning of the word by context. If not, offer another sentence. If child cannot figure out the meaning after the second sentence, tell him the meaning.

[pic]

o Have the child write the word and definition on the back of the card. Then the child thinks up his own sentence, writes it on the card and draws a picture. These cards are stored in his box for frequent review. (Ideas borrowed from Lindamood, Vanilla Vocabulary).

• Story Game

o Materials: Student’s vocabulary box with current vocabulary words

[pic]

o Set out 4 - 9 cards on a table. The teacher and student take turns using the words in sentences to make up a story. The words can be used in any order. Encourage the student to use different forms of the same word (e.g., fascinate, fascination, fascinating, etc.)

Visual Organizers and Visual Homonyms

[pic]

(continued next page)

[pic]

Roots and Affixes

Ject

This root means ______________________

Questions for discussion:

1. Would a square apple be a reject?

2. Might you feel dejection if you were about to have an injection?

3. When could a meatball be a projectile and have a trajectory?

4. What is something that you would not like to be subjected to?

5. Do you have any objection to the projection of having school start at 4 A.M.?

6. Why might a teacher eject a student from class?

7. Can an interjection be rude?

Fluency and Vocabulary

• Word Family (am, cam, ram, dam, ham, yam, jam, scram, telegram)

• Multiple meaning of “jam”

• Word web

[pic]

• Sentences

"The dog barked at the stranger."

"The birch tree had white bark."

"The teacher barked at the students who arrived late."

• Riddles

"What is an animal that rhymes with jam?"

Teaching Context Clues

“I could see that Rainie was paralyzed with fright. His mouth and eyes were wide open, and his face was white as chalk.”

← Key idea: use more than one sentence

“The Eskimo children of the more prosperous families were sent to the mainland for further schooling, something which Aunt Martha could not afford.”

← Key idea: contrast

“Wol would scoot around to the front of the house and raise such a ruckus that is sounded like two dogfights and a cat fight all happening at once.

← Key idea: comparison

References:

Books and articles:

1. Allen, Janet (1999). Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

2. Beck, I., Mckeown, M. & Kucan, I. (2002). Bringing words to life. New York: Guilford

3. Press.

4. Bell, N. (1986). Visualizing/Verbalizing for language comprehension and thinking.

5. Paso Robles, CA: Academy of Reading Publications.

6. Bell, N. & Lindamood, P. (1993). Vanilla vocabulary. Paso Robles, CA: Academy of Reading Publications.

7. Bender, W. & Larkin, M. (2003). Reading difficulties for elementary students with learning difficulties. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

8. Bryant, D. P., Ugel, N. & Thompson, S. (1999). Instructional strategies for content-area reading instruction. Intervention in School and Clinic 34 (5), 293-302.

9. Carlisle, J.F. (1993). Selecting approaches to vocabulary instruction for the reading disabled. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 8 (2), 97-105.

10. Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. (1987). London: Collins.

11. Cross, T. E. (1990). Essential roots word book. Lincoln, NE: Educational Tutorial Consortium.

12. Dedrick, S. and Lattyak, J. (1987). Multiple meanings (several levels). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

13. Gwynne, F. (1970). The king who rained. NY: Simon & Schuster.

14. Gwynne, F. (1976). A chocolate moose for dinner. NY: Simon & Schuster.

15. Johnson, M.R. & Johnson, W.T. (1988). Spelling patterns: Structure—sight—sound. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service.

16. Kessler, J. (1999). An alternative approach to teaching biological terminology. American Biology Teacher 61 (9), 688-690.

17. King, D. H. (2000). English isn’t crazy: The elements of our language and how to teach them. Baltimore, MD: York Press.

18. Lundquist, J. (1989). English from the roots up. Medina, WA: Literacy Unlimited Publications.

19. McCarr, D. (1995). Multiple meanings for the young adult. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

20. McKeown, M.G. & Curtis, M.E. (1987). The nature of vocabulary acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

21. Monroe, E. E., Panchyshyn, R. (1995). Vocabulary considerations for teaching mathematics. Childhood Education 72 (2), 80-83.

22. Morgan, K. (2001). Dynamic Roots. Albuquerque, NM: Morgan Dynamic Phonics, Inc.

23. Robb, Laura. (1999). Easy mini-lessons for building vocabulary: Practical strategies that boost word knowledge and reading comprehension. NY: Scholastic Books.

24. Stahl, S. (1999). Vocabulary development. Newton Upper Falls, MA: Brookline.

25. Stevenson, N. (1978). Stevenson language skills program: Beginning I, teacher-student manual. Attleboro, MA: Stevenson Learning Skills, Inc.

26. Vurnakes, C. (1998). Words on the vine: 36 vocabulary units on root words. Grand Rapids, MI: Instructional Fair.

Games:

Rummy roots (card game) (1992) Eternal Hearts.

Available through Greenleaf Press,

3761 Highway 109N, Unit D

Lebanon, TN 37087

Semantically Speaking (game) available from ProEd or 1-800-897-3202

Websites:

Lesson plans:

users/Ackley/lessons

indiana.edu/~eric_rec/bks/lhome (by grade level)

Word Study and Games:

A Word a Day: awad/

Wordly Wise Word Games: in.on.ca/~hoad/

Wordsmyth: wysiwyg://126/

Word Puzzler’s Corner: ~wrdpuzlr/default.html

Verbivore: com/~rlederer/index.htm

:

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Janet Allen, Words, Words, Words

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