Vocabulary for Lcs 1

Vocabulary:Defining Best Practice in Reading First SchoolsPart 1Georgia Reading First

Todays Goals Learn about how children acquire word meanings Examine research findings on vocabulary instruction Learn about vocabulary instruction during read-alouds

What are some ways elementary-school children learn new vocabulary?

What are some ways your teachers typically teach new vocabulary?

What is vocabulary? Speaking vocabulary Listening vocabulary Reading vocabulary Writing vocabulary General vocabulary Technical vocabulary Meaning vocabularyModality

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Vocabulary levels diverge greatly during the primary years, and virtually nothing effective is done about this in schools. (p. 29)Biemiller, A. (2004). Teaching vocabulary in the primary grades.In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 28-40). New York: Guilford.Andy Biemiller

Oral vocabulary at the end of first grade is a significant predictor of comprehension ten years later.

Cunningham, A.E., & Stanovich, K.E. (1997). Early reading acquisition and its relation to experience and ability 10 years later. Developmental Psychology, 33, 934-945.

Four Obstacles to Acquiring a Large Vocabulary

The number of words in English is very large.Academic English differs from the kind of English used at home.Word knowledge involves far more than learning definitions.Sources of information about words are often hard to use or unhelpful. Stahl & Nagy (2005)

How do we learn words from experiences?

gavagaiAn aborigine points to a running rabbit and says Gavagai. Can you infer the words meaning?

Each encounter with a word helps a child narrow its meaning. For example, if he next hears the word gavagai used to refer to a sitting rabbit, the child will infer that running is not connected with the meaning.

Young children learn word meanings from one-on-one interactions with parents and siblings. These interactions may be rich or poor. Consider two examples based on Hart and Risleys (1995) comparison of families of different socioeconomic levels.

Do I have to eat these?Yeah.

Do I have to eat these?Yes, because they have vitamins that will help you grow and get stronger.Motherese

Echo student talk, using richer vocabulary.I wrote this.Wonderful. I hope you told me exactly what you saw on your trip to the zoo.

What are some strategies we can use to increase childrens access to rich oral language during school?

What does it mean to know a word?

A Continuum of Word Knowledge

No knowledge

A vague sense of the meaning

Narrow knowledge with aid of context

Good knowledge but shaky recall

Rich, decontextualized knowledge,connected to other word meanings

The Reading System (Adams)

Reading WritingSpeech MeaningProcessorPhonological ProcessorOrthographicProcessorContextProcessorLexicon

lexicon

That part of long-term memory devoted to word knowledge

How is a word stored in the lexicon?

cat/kat/c-a-t

cat/kat/4 legsmeowc-a-tpet

cat/kat/4 legsmeowc-a-tanimalpetlion

cat/kat/mammal4 legsmeowc-a-tanimalpetlion

cat/kat/dogmammal4 legsmeowc-a-tanimalpetlion

Dual Coding TheoryTwo systems are involved in learning words. One contains verbal information, the other non-verbal (images). When we learn a word, real-world images that we associate with the concept are also stored. Accessing a word in the lexicon therefore involves both the verbal system and non-verbal (imagery) system.

~ Moral ~When teaching new words, use pictures and other images where possible.

cat/kat/dogmammal4 legsmeowc-a-tanimalpetlion

The Nonverbal (Imagery) System

New meanings and even new pronunciations of a word may be added to a childs lexicon over time.produceprduceRaw veggiesprodceto make

Biemiller, A. (2004). Teaching vocabulary in the primary grades.In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 28-40). New York: Guilford.K 1 2 3 45678 leanTo rest oneobject againstanother To rely on anotherperson forsupport

Is wide reading enough?

Why Wide Reading Why Wide Reading Is Enough Is Not EnoughVocabulary size andthe amount a child reads are correlated.

Direct instruction cannot possibly account for the number of word meanings children acquire.Context is generally unreliable as a means of inferring word meanings.

Most words occur too infrequently to provide the number of exposures needed to learn them.Marzano, R.J. (2004). The developing vision of vocabulary instruction. In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 100-117). New York: Guilford.

There is no obvious reason why direct vocabulary instruction and wide reading cannot work in tandem. Marzano (2004, p. 112)

The Vocabulary Catch-22

Children need to learn more words to read well, but they need to read well to learn more words.

McKenna, M.C. (2004). Teaching vocabulary to struggling older readers. Perspectives, 30(1), 13-16.

Perhaps one of the most important reasons why teachers need to pay attention to vocabulary is that vocabulary knowledge is cumulative. The more words you know, the easier it is to learn yet more words. Stahl & Nagy (2005)

What about context clues?

Four Types of Contexts

Directive (provides powerful clues)Sue was talkative but Bill was taciturn.2. General (helps categorize a word)Shed had measles, mumps, and varicella.3. Nondirective (offers very little help)The dress was taupe.4. Misdirective (can be misleading)He was huge, muscular, and adroit.

Beck & McKeown (2004)

Teaching Students about Context

Remind them that context does not always provide strong clues. Remember that many students may have difficulty making inferences about words from context. Model the process when possible.


Some Types of Semantic CluesDefinitionThe vole, a small rodent, has a short tail.AntonymSue was adroit but Bill was clumsy. SynonymThe soup was hot scalding, in fact.ExamplePeriwinkle was her favorite color.GeneralThe room was disheveled. Clothes and dirty dishes were everywhere. Chairs were overturned, and trash littered the floor.SeriesWould you like cake, peach pie, or a flan?MoodThe day was dull and dark. Clouds hung low and a feeling of melancholy was everywhere.ExperienceA pair of crows cawed raucously.Expression He was as famished as a bear.Edwards, E.C., Font, G., Baumann, J.F., & Boland, E. (2004). Unlocking word meanings: Strategies and guidelines for teaching morphemic and contextual analysis. In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 159-176). New York: Guilford.

How do I know which words to teach?

Two characteristics that make a word inappropriate for teaching:

We cant define it in terms that the students know.

The students are not likely to find the word useful or interesting.


Beck and McKeowns Three TiersTier 3 Rare words 73,500 word families K-12 Often content-area related Examples: isotope, estuaryTier 2 Important to academic success 7,000 word families Not limited to one content area Examples: fortunate, ridiculous Tier 1 The most familiar words 8,000 word families Known by average 3rd grader Examples: happy, go

Beck and McKeowns Three TiersTier 3 Rare words 73,500 word families K-12 Often content-area related Examples: isotope, estuaryTier 2 Important to academic success 7,000 word families Not limited to one content area Examples: fortunate, ridiculous Tier 1 The most familiar words 8,000 word families Known by average 3rd grader Examples: happy, go Goldilocks Words Stahl & Stahl, 2004

How intensive should vocabulary instruction be?

Three Types of WordsTo TeachGraves, M.F. (1986). Vocabulary learning and instruction, In E.Z.Rothkopf (Ed.), Review of research in education (Vol. 13, pp. 49-91). Washington: AREA.

1. Words already in the students oral vocabulary, which he or she needs to learn to recognize in print.

These are words that a child needs to learn to decode or recognize by sight. (Stahl & Nagy, 2005)

2. Words not in the students oral vocabulary, but which are labels for concepts already familiar to the student.

The student may need to learn that apologize means to say one is sorry, or that elaborate means pretty much the same as complicated. These words may represent different shades of meaning from their synonym, but knowledge of the more frequent synonym will usually get a reader through a text containing that word. The different shades will be learned through continued exposure. Less intensive instruction may suffice. (Stahl & Nagy, 2005)

3. Words not in the students oral vocabulary that refer to concepts new to the student.

For example, the student may not know the word osmosis, or feudalism, or exponential. In such a case, it is not simply a matter of not knowing the word: The student is likely to be totally unfamiliar with the concept. In this case, a definition or other brief explanation is unlikely to help. Rather, a teacher would need to spend a great deal of time examining such concepts. (Stahl & Nagy, 2005)

Words in OralVocabularyKnown Concepts not Yet Associated with New WordsW3 W2 W1

What are some of the guiding principles of teaching vocabulary?

Preteach key words to improve comprehension.Guiding Principle

In 1367, Marain and the settlements ended a seven-year war with the Langurians and Pitoks. As a result of this war, Languria was driven out of East Bacol. Marain would now rule Laman and the other lands that once belonged to Languria. This brought peace to the Bacolean settlements. The settlers no longer had to worry about attacks from Laman. The Bacoleans were happy to be part of Marain in 1367. Yet a dozen years later, these same people would be fighting the Marish for independence, or freedom from United Marains rule.

In 1763, Britain and the colonies ended a seven-year war with the French and Indians. As a result of this war, France was driven out of North America. Britain would now rule Canada and the other lands that once belonged to France. This brought peace to the American colonies. The settlers no longer had to worry about attacks from Canada. The Americans were happy to be part of Britain in 1763. Yet a dozen years later, these same people would be fighting the British for independence, or freedom from Great Britains rule.

Provide more than definitions.Guiding Principle

WORD =DEFINITION

StimulusResponse

truncateto cut off

She truncated the lights.

Combine definitions and contextual examples.Guiding Principle

Minimize rote copying of definitions.Guiding Principle

Introduce new words in related clusters.Guiding Principle

wingantennaelegabdomenthoraxIn content areas, clustering words is natural!

Provide brief, periodic review.Guiding Principle

To what extent does our core facilitate these guiding principles?

What did the National Reading Panel conclude about teaching vocabulary?

NRP Findings on VocabularyTeaching vocabulary improves general comprehension ability.Preteaching vocabulary helps both word learning and comprehension of a selection.Much vocabulary is acquired through incidental exposure.Repeated exposures in a variety of contexts are important.

NRP Findings on VocabularyA combination of definitions and contextual examples works better than either one alone.Many instructional methods can be effective in teaching vocabulary.Instructional methods should result in active engagement.Both direct and indirect methods should be used.

NRP Findings on VocabularyThe more connections that are made to a word, the better the word tends to be learned.Computer applications can be effective.The effectiveness of some instructional methods depends on the age or ability of the children.

What the NRP said they didnt know about vocabulary instruction

Which methods work best with students of different ages and abilities?How can technology best be used to teach vocabulary?How is vocabulary best integrated with comprehension instruction?What combinations of instructional methods tend to work best? What are the best ways to assess vocabulary?

To what extent do you see these findings reflected in your core materials?

Read-Alouds

Adding three root words a day is the average daily number of words learned by primary age children with the largest vocabularies. (p. 37)Biemiller, A. (2004). Teaching vocabulary in the primary grades.In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 28-40). New York: Guilford.

Adding three root words a day is the average daily number of words learned by primary age children with the largest vocabularies. (p. 37)Biemiller, A. (2004). Teaching vocabulary in the primary grades.In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 28-40). New York: Guilford.3 words x 140 days 400 words per year

Planning a Read-Aloud Choose engaging, well-illustrated books. A number of words should be unknown to about half the students. Choose 3 target words that are important for comprehension but likely to be unfamiliar. Keep track of the words you choose. Plan to repeat the read-aloud. Plan for small-group sessions (2-5 students). Plan multiple exposures in the days following.

Conducting a Read-Aloud Be performance oriented; read with expression. Include rich, dialogic discussion. Activate prior knowledge. Link the story to experiences of students. Elicit responses from students. Give direct, clear, and simple instruction in word meanings before the read-aloud. Give a sentence context from the story in advance. Discuss words before and after the story. Ignore rare words. (Biemiller) Embed quick definitions while reading. (Biemiller) Do not display pictures while reading (Beck et al.)

Storybook InterventionCoyne, M.D., Simmons, D.C., & Kameenui, E.J. (2004). Vocabulary instruction for young children at risk of experiencing reading difficulties: Teaching word meanings during shared storybook readings. In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 41-58). New York: Guilford.

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Book 1Intro &1st Read-AloudBook 2Intro &1st Read-AloudBook 1

2nd Read-AloudBook 2

2nd Read-AloudVocabularyActivities

Three Read-Alouds per DayBiemiller, A. (2004). Teaching vocabulary in the primary grades.In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 28-40). New York: Guilford.

BookInterruptionsNew BookNoneOld Book 1Some, to remind students of wordsOld Book 2Some, to remind students of words

Warning!

Spending too much time discussing read-alouds may detract from valuable reading practice. Stahl (1998).

Stay Tuned! We have many additional strategies to show you; today, though, we are going to focus on vocabulary instruction tied to read alouds.

****Meaning vocabulary is an umbrella term that refers to all the words we know the meanings of.*Studies of high school seniors allow us to project an ever-widening gap as children pass through school.

(Note that the 12th-grade figures are not from Hart and Risley. This graph is simply a composite to illustrate the Matthew Effect in vocabulary development.)*Biemiller is a professor at the University of Toronto. His studies of Canadian children probably generalize to American children.

He maintains that the biggest gaps occur in the primary years and that the rate of learning is about the same for the highest- and lowest-achieving children thereafter. This second contention has been disputed.*This stark finding indicates the true importance of vocabulary. Of course, there are many other predictors as well.*Re the 2nd point, the differences in home and school English are very important. At home, utterances might be clipped and not even involve complete sentences. Moreover, they are always contextualized and are therefore filled with pronouns (You gonna eat that?). The context makes the meaning clear. But school English is far different, relying on complete sentences and much richer vocabulary usage.

Re the 4th point, Stahl and Nagy refer to dictionaries and other tools that may trouble older students.*Imagine an out-of-school context in which you must attempt to learn the meaning of a new word you hear someone else use.*This example, recounted by Stahl and Stahl (2004), illustrates how limited a single encounter with a new word is likely to be. Does gavagai mean rabbit? Running? Running rabbit? Wild game? Something entirely different?**Many of the children in their study tended to ask the question (next slide) regardless of whether their parents were well educated. Note the differences in how their parents responded!

Imagine the long-term effects of such responses on vocabulary growth!***Make a habit of rephrasing and elaborating on what students say, using complete sentences and rich vocabulary.***Beck, McKeown, and Kucan suggest a continuum of word knowledge.

The ideal is a thorough appreciation involving decontextualized understanding. That is, even without a specific context, the word alone calls to mind an abundance of useful associations.*In between the extremes, our knowledge of a particular word may be relatively weak or strong.*We might add that reading requires us to draw upon stored knowledge of words as we encounter them in print.*The lexicon is the term psychologists use to refer to our memory of word meanings. It might best be thought of as a vast, interconnected network.

When we read the word cat, this word is accessed in the lexicon, along with the various connections we have associated with it.

This process is sometimes called lexical access.*Lets take a closer look at that vast, interconnected network of words and what they mean.*The word cat is not stored by itself. That would not help us!*It calls to mind a visual image (perhaps many), a spelling, and a pronunciation.*We may also have learned features associated with cats the sound they make, how many legs they have, and the fact that many people keep them as pets.*We might also learn that cats belong to a larger category (animals) and that there are specific types of cats, including lions.*As our sophistication grows, we might learn that cats belong to another category (mammals) that is smaller than animals. This knowledge helps refine our understanding of the word.

Keep in mind that two people with different levels of knowledge can still communicate about cats. A vet can speak with a child, for example, but the difference in their lexicons (deep versus superficial) can be vast.*Our specific experiences with particular cats are also tied to the lexicon.*Lets branch out a bit. The word dog is also in the lexicon.*It belongs to the same category (mammals) and shares some, though not all, of the same features*Visual images for dog are also stored, together with many other images. The images are thought to work together in a separate but connected system. *Marzano describes our learning a new word as dual coding.

Images work together with verbal information. This may be theoretical, but the lesson for teachers is simple and practical!

*Take another look at our snippet from a childs lexicon. Lets remove the verbal network.*What remains is the image system.

In a world without language, this system alone would be available to help us interpret the world.

*As a child matures, new words are added daily rtio the lexicon.

In addition, new meanings and sometimes new pronunciations of previously learned words are added.**Heres an example. The word lean is initially learned around fourth grade as the act of allowing one object to rest against another. It is typically not until eighth grade that children learn that one person might lean on someone else for emotional support.*We obviously know thousands of words that were never formally taught to us in school.

We picked up their meanings through incidental exposures.

If this is the case, why bother teaching vocabulary at all? Why not provide children with opportunities to bump into new words through reading and conversation? Wouldnt that be enough?*Ironically, there are persuasive arguments on both sides.*As Marzano points out, teachers really dont have to make a choice. They can do both!

And in the case of technical vocabulary (science, math, and social studies terms), direct instruction is desirable.*You may recall the novel, Catch-22. It tells of war-weary soldiers in World War II who wanted to leave the army and return home. Some of them considered pleading insanity, since insanity was grounds for discharge. But there was a catch (Catch 22). If you were sane enough to realize that war was horrible, you could not be insane enough to be discharged.

The same reasoning applies to relying only on wide reading to learn new words. The worst readers will be left with little to go on.*Stahl and Nagy put this same idea a bit differently. For our poorest readers, vocabulary development cannot be left to chance.*How useful is context as a tool for inferring the meaning of a new word?

If wide reading is useful, then context must be useful as well.

But how useful?*Beck and McKeown describe for levels of context.

These range from extremely useful to downright misleading.

By the way, I concocted these example from relatively rare words so that adults could better appreciate the power of context (or lack of it).

Taciturn = quiet, tending not to speakVaricella = the technical term for chicken poxTaupe = brownish grayAdroit = agile, dexterous*Because context is not always effective, children need to realize that it cannot be relied upon.

Moreover, some of the poorest readers tend to be poor in their ability to discern meanings from context.**Lets assume that we will not rely exclusively on wide reading to fuel vocabulary growth.

This is a wise decision for our poorer readers!

But is makes another decision necessary which words to teach.*Beck and McKeown offer two common-sense rules of thumb.

Theyre common mistakes, however.

I observed a fourth-grade teacher as she violated the first rule. She anticipated that her students might not know the word scrubbed, which appeared in the story they were reading. So she wrote the dictionary definition of scrub on the board prior to reading : to wash vigorously.

The second rule is routinely violated as well. Some teachers feel they must preteach every unknown word, even rare ones. Biemiller and others recommend ignoring such words.*Tier 3 includes all other words. Most of these are extremely rare. They include content-area words.

By the end of high school, students are likely to have encountered 73,500 families.

But are they all worth teaching? No!*These words are not too familiar and not too rare.

As Goldilocks might have said, Theyre just right!**Research into vocabulary has led to valuable suggestions for teachers. Lets consider the major principles.*********Research into vocabulary has led to valuable suggestions for teachers. Lets consider the major principles.*At first, this idea seems self-evident. If a teacher ensures word knowledge in advance, comprehension will improve when the students actually read.

But experts are split on how far to go. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan recommend limited preteaching, preferring to handle most unfamiliar words on the fly, at the moment they are encountered in shared reading or during a read-aloud. Stahl and Nagy believe that more detailed preteaching is worthwhile.

And of course, when older students are expected to read a selection independently, there is no chance to define words as they are encountered, and preteaching is more critical.

Now lets consider a famous example from a research study . The following paragraph is from a fifth-grade social studies text. Read it and see if you have any comprehension difficulties.*As you might have suspected, theres a trick involved. Some of the key terms have been replaced by nonsense words. Even the four digits of the date were scrambled.

Take a look at the original text.*No doubt you found this a little easier.

But the participants in the study were not teachers. They were fifth graders. Surprisingly, they found both versions equally difficult!

This little experiment illustrates how powerful an effect preteaching important words can have on comprehension.**Definitions are only a start.

Some teachers fall into the trap of assuming that if a child can match a word to its definition, the words meaning has been acquired.**To really understand a word, an assortment of contexts is needed, plus multiple exposures over time.

These contexts might come from wide reading, read-alouds, or direct instruction.

(Note how the examples I provided for truncate might have helped you appreciate its meaning.)*Children gain little very little from this tedious exercise.

It keeps them occupied, however, and probably serves a classroom management function for some teachers.*Most of the effective teaching strategies are based not on teaching a list of unrelated words. They are based on groups of words that have connections in meaning.*In content subjects, clustering is natural.

Ironically, this fact gives teachers an edge in teaching technical terms.

Note how the labeled diagram of an insect presents a group of words in a way that illustrates their relationships.*This notion is one of the most reliable principles of learning. It always works. In fact, some psychologists speak of it not as a principle, but a law.**Now lets examine the Panels findings.*The NRP looked at the effects of vocabulary instruction on comprehension. They looked at 2 very different issues:

Whether overall comprehension ability is improved.Whether comprehension of a particular passage is improved.

The answer to both questions is yes!

They also found that many words are learned through incidental exposures and that these exposures must be numerous and in a variety of contexts to be effective.*The panel stressed the importance of combining definitions with contextual examples.

Fortunately, there is no one best way to teach vocabulary effectively. Many approaches have been validated. All of them actively engage students in learning words.

The panel recommended that direct and indirect approaches be combined. (Youll recall Marzanos echoing of this idea.)*Think of a word as a hub, with spokes leading to all of our associations with that word. The more spokes, the better developed our knowledge of the words meaning.

The panel was not very specific about technology, saying only that some software had shown promise.

It is also well to remember that certain instructional techniques may be more appropriate for some ages and ability levels. This would be true, for instance, in the case of techniques that require strong decoding ability.*We still need to research which methods are most appropriate at particular ages and with students of different ability levels.

Software applications are also not very well researched at this point.

It is probable that some instructional approaches work well in tandem, but theres little evidence as to which ones. Nor is there evidence about how vocabulary and comprehension instruction are best integrated.

A lingering problem is how best to assess vocabulary. Existing formats, such as multiple-choice synonyms and pictorial representations of word concepts, leave much to be desired.***Biemillers main approach to ensuring that these words are taught is the read-aloud. In a moment, well look at the specific program he developed and researched.*His math is based on the fact that about 40 days in the school year are probably not going to permit business as usual since other demands will be present.*Its not possible to gauge with precision how many words in a potential book are not known by half the students. We just use this as a target based on subjective analysis.

Keeping track of the words selected for instruction is important so that later exposures can be planned.

It may seem unusual to do a read-aloud with less than the whole class. This will require that the teacher repeatedly deliver it to small groups. It may be that the smaller numbers help ensure greater attentiveness.*These suggestions are drawn from research summarized by several authors.*This system was researched using two books in a 6-day cycle. Each book is read aloud twice, on alternate days.

Could the cycle be reduced to 5 days? If so, how?*Biemillers system cycles three books at a time. He does not recommend interrupting the read-aloud with vocabulary instruction during the initial read-aloud. There are three read-alouds a day.*Stahls caveat is a good reminder that a balance must be struck in the primary years between vocabulary instruction and the other components of learning to read, such as decoding and fluency.*

Vocabulary for Lcs 1

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