Vital Vocabulary Instruction: Your Life Line to Content Area Comprehension

Presented by Jamea Elzy and Michelle Wrona

Opening Activity:

1. Open the envelope on your table and

empty its contents.

2. Follow directions on the envelope.

3. Work with a partner if you like.

4. When you are done, flag one of us down

to check your answers!

ObjectivesAt the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• understand how active learning strategies increase student understanding of content area vocabulary

• gain practical examples of resources and strategies to use in content areas.

Tried, but not so true vocabulary strategies:

1. Definition Copying2. Context Clues

Why those strategies aren’t successful:

•Utilizes the lowest levels of cognitive processing from Bloom’s Taxonomy

•Fail to develop relational knowledge (Blachowicz & Fisher, 1996).

True but Less Tried• Vocabulary instruction should

involve students in deep processing of words (Irvin, 1990)

• More active engagement on the part of students

• Higher level cognitive processing in the sense of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Strategies We’ll Be Talking About:

• Connect Two• Word Sorts• Vocabulary

Knowledge Rating• Word Webs

Strategy #1: Connect Two

This vocabulary strategy allows them to connect words that they may have slight knowledge of or have never heard of to words they already know.

Connect Two

Benefits:• Students learn vocabulary best by

connecting new words to their existing schema.

• Provides teacher with formative assessment.

• Higher level thinking

Strategy #2: Word Sorts

• An active learning strategy that requires students to think critically about the relationships between words or concepts.

• An activity that requires students to classify.

• A before, during, or after learning activity.

What is it?

Different Types of Sorts:

1. Words and Definitions2. Word with Example3. Categorize

Geometry Word Sort

Pop Quiz:

What type of sort

is this?

Word SortsTips for Creating Word Sorts:• Focus on key vocabulary• Laminate so you can keep them FOREVER!• Make the categories a different font or style to

avoid confusion• OR have the students create their own

categories• Keep width and length of sort pieces consistent• Color coded sets• Keep the table as a key

Now Take Some Time to Reflect…• How can you use Connect Two or Word

Sorts in the next few weeks? • What terms from your curriculum

would work best with these strategies?

Strategy #3:

Vocabulary Knowledge Rating• Beck and McKeown (1988) argue that

“‘word knowledge is not an all or nothing proposition. Words may be known at different levels” (as cited in Allen, 1999, p. 6).

• Stages of word knowledge:– Stage Four: students know the word and can

use it comfortably– Stage Three: students know the word but

rely on context to define it – Stage Two: students have seen the word but

do not know the definition– Stage One: students have never

encountered the word before

(Beck et al., 2002: Dale, 1965).

Vocabulary Knowledge Rating Continued

Benefits :• requires students to access their prior

knowledge• word consciousness: "an awareness of an

interest in words and their meanings…[which] involves both a cognitive and an affective stance towards words” (Graves,2009 p. 7).

• Helps students make an emotional connection (Spranger)

• allows students to preview or predict• works as a formative assessmentNote: this strategy is used WITH your

normal vocabulary instruction

Strategy #4: Word Webs

• Students should learn specific roots, prefixes, and suffixes (Beers, 2003).

• It is better if the word part is chosen from a word in context.

Word

Word Webs ContinuedHow to teach word parts:

1. Choose which word part you want your students to study Ex. Multi

2. Write it in the center of the web3. Under the word part, write its definition

(KISS) Ex. many4. Write an example word that you provide

that uses that word part Ex. Multilingual5. Under that word, students write its

definition using the KISS definition Ex. Speaking many languages

6. In the branches of the web, students write other words that use that root and define using KISS definition

Name ____________________________________ Date _______________________ Period____________________ Directions: For each word, write a definition in your own words using tiny or very small.

Micro-

(tiny, very small) Microscope- An instrument for producing a magnified visual image of a small object

Intervention Options

Connect Two, Word Sorts, and Word Webs, can be used for a student who may need additional support.

Additional References

Scholarly Journals: Phillips, D., Foote, C. J., & Harper, L. J. (2008). STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION. Reading Improvement, 45(2), 62-68.

Ebbers, S. M., & Denton, C. A. (2008). A Root Awakening: Vocabulary Instruction for Older Students with Reading Difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice (Blackwell Publishing Limited), 23(2), 90-102. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5826.2008.00267.x

Book Titles:

When Kids Can’t Read by Kylene Beers

50 Content Area Strategies for Adolescent Literacy by Fisher, Brozo, Frey, and Ivey

• Identify a course in which you plan to use one or more of these strategies.

• What unit of study from this course will you focus on?