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You will: Understand characteristics

of effective vocabulary instruction, and

Apply a six-step process for direct instruction in vocabulary.

Incorporate various vocabulary teaching strategies.

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Impact of Direct Vocabulary Instruction•Research shows a student in the 50th percentile in terms of ability to comprehend the subject matter taught in school, with no direct vocabulary instruction, scores in the 50th percentile ranking.

•The same student, after specific content-area terms have been taught in a specific way, raises his/her comprehension ability to the 83rd percentile.

there is a 38,000,000 word gap, by age 4, between impoverished and middle-class children

the majority of our students live at or below the poverty line

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9-12% increase on standardized tests for students living in poverty

15-21% increase on standardized tests for ELL students

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0102030405060708090

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What influences whether students are paying attention to the teacher or the lesson?energyaffect/emotions interest/curiosity challengeWhat influences students’ beliefs about the importance what they are learning or doing?perceptions of learning long term goals short term goals perception of relevance /usefulnessWhat influences students’ sense of efficacy related to the task or learning perceptions of intelligence past experiencesLevel of autonomy perceptions of access to knowledge and resources.

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What It Means to Us…•It is not necessary for all vocabulary terms to be directly taught.

•Yet, direct instruction of vocabulary has been proven to make an impact.

Tier One consists of words such as clock, baby, and happy whose meanings students are likely to know.

Tier Two is made up of words such as fortunate, maintain, and merchant that are “likely to appear frequently in a wide variety of texts and in the written and oral language of mature language users” (2002, p. 16), but whose meanings students are less likely to know.

Tier Three is made up of words such as irksome, pallet, and retinue that appear in text rarely. Although these rare words are often unknown to students, their appearance in texts is limited to one or two occurrences, and because they are often specific to particular content, students can use the context of texts to establish their meaning.

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Six-Steps for Teaching New Terms

•First 3 steps – introduce and develop initial understanding.

•Last 3 steps – shape and sharpen understanding.

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Step 1

•Provide a description, explanation, or example of new term.

•Our term for today is:

“equation”

Step 2

•Students restate explanation of new term in own words.

Step 3

•Students create a nonlinguistic representation of term.

Internet Clipart Resources:Internet Clipart Resources:

•Madrid Teacher

•Vocabulary Quiz Using Images

Step 4

•Students periodically do activities that help add to knowledge of vocabulary terms.

A list of activities can be found at:  TeachNet, GameAquarium, quizlet.com, sedl.org, Word Scrambler, myplick.com and the cmsdmathcoaches.pbworks.com.

Review Activity Solving Analogy Problems•One or two terms are missing. Please think about statements below, turn to your elbow partner and provide terms that will complete following analogies.

Inch is to ruler as word is to ______.

Decibel is to sound as _____ is to _____.

Step 5

•Periodically students are asked to discuss terms with one another.

“Talk a Mile a Minute” Activity•Teams of 3-4

•Designate a “talker” for each round.

•Try to get team to say each word by quickly describing them.

•May not use words in category title or rhyming words.

WavePacific

Tropical fishAlgaeMoonShip

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MeasurementInch

Foot

Centimeter

Millimeter

Yard

Meter

GeometryRadius

Congruent figures

Pi

Similar figures

Reflection

Vertex

Segment

Step 6

•Periodically students are involved in games that allow them to play with terms.

A variety of games are available at this A variety of games are available at this website:  PowerPoint Games, Word Game website:  PowerPoint Games, Word Game Boards, Excel Games, WORDO, Twister, Fly Boards, Excel Games, WORDO, Twister, Fly Swat.Swat.

  

Vocabulary CharadesGame Activity•Please stand.

•Using your arms, legs, and bodies, show the meaning of each term below:

–radius

–diameter

–circumference

Keeping Track of Student ProgressLevel 4: I understand even more about the term than

when I was taught.

Level 3: I understand the term and I’m not confused about any part of what it means.

Level 2: I’m a little uncertain about what the term means, but I have a general idea.

Level 1: I’m very uncertain about the term. I really don’t understand what it means.

Management•1, 2, 3 terms per week for 30 weeks to teach target terms.

•Set aside time periodically to engage students in vocabulary activities, adding to knowledge base.

•Allow students to discuss terms.

•Encourage students to add information to notebooks.

5 Components for Scaffolding Formal Mathematical VocabularyThe AISD Elementary Mathematics Department lists 5 components for scaffoldingstudents’ understanding and use of informal vocabulary with formal mathematicalvocabulary:

pentagon

polygon5 sides

5400 House shape

Final Thoughts•Teachers, schools, and districts that embrace a comprehensive approach of building academic vocabulary will see impressive results in classrooms and on achievement tests.