Academic Vocabulary

Athena MSMarch 19, 2013

Our Agenda:

• Understand the tiering of words• Distinguish between Tier 2 and 3 words• Explore Tier 2 words in greater depth• Activity

Some Food for Thought…

• Most children enter first grade with 6,000 words in spoken vocabulary• Students will learn 3,000 more words per year

through third grade

(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

Some Food for Thought…

•Socioeconomic status has a huge impact on vocabulary:

• First grade students from higher-SES groups have twice as many words as lower-SES children

• High school seniors near the top of their class know 4 times as many words as lower-performing students

• High-knowledge third graders have vocabularies equal to lowest-performing 12th graders

With so many words to learn, and such a huge vocabulary gap, how do we know which words to teach???

(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

Tiers of Words

Helpful lens through which to consider words for instructional attention

From: Bringing Words to Life (2002) by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, & Linda Kucan

3

2

1

From: Bringing Words to Life (2002) by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, & Linda Kucan

Tier 1•Most basic words

•Rarely require instructional attention(baby, happy, clock)

From: Bringing Words to Life (2002) by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, & Linda Kucan

Tier 3•Low frequency•Content-specific

(isotope, peninsula)

From: Bringing Words to Life (2002) by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, & Linda Kucan

Tier 2•High frequency for mature language users

•Found across a variety of domains•Have a powerful impact on verbal functioning

•Mostly found in written language(Coincidence, absurd, industrious, fortunate)

**Instruction of Tier II words can be most productive.**

For example…

“Stuart Little, the small mouse with big parents, had nothing on baby marsupials. Marsupials (“mar-SOUP-ee-ulz”) are special kinds of mammals. Even the biggest ones give birth to babies that are incredibly small. A two-hundred-pound six-foot mother kangaroo, for instance, gives birth to a baby as small as a lima bean. That’s what makes marsupials marsupials. Their babies are born so tiny that in order to survive they must live in a pouch on the mother’s tummy. The pouch is called a marsupium. (Don’t you wish you had one?)”

From: Montgomery, Sy. Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

For example…

“Stuart Little, the small mouse with big parents, had nothing on baby marsupials. Marsupials (“mar-SOUP-ee-ulz”) are special kinds of mammals. Even the biggest ones give birth to babies that are incredibly small. A two-hundred-pound six-foot mother kangaroo, for instance, gives birth to a baby as small as a lima bean. That’s what makes marsupials marsupials. Their babies are born so tiny that in order to survive they must live in a pouch on the mother’s tummy. The pouch is called a marsupium. (Don’t you wish you had one?)”

From: Montgomery, Sy. Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

For example…

“Stuart Little, the small mouse with big parents, had nothing on baby marsupials. Marsupials (“mar-SOUP-ee-ulz”) are special kinds of mammals. Even the biggest ones give birth to babies that are incredibly small. A two-hundred-pound six-foot mother kangaroo, for instance, gives birth to a baby as small as a lima bean. That’s what makes marsupials marsupials. Their babies are born so tiny that in order to survive they must live in a pouch on the mother’s tummy. The pouch is called a marsupium. (Don’t you wish you had one?)”

From: Montgomery, Sy. Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Tier 3 vs. Tier 2 Words

•Marsupials

•Mammals

•Lima bean

•Marsupium

•Incredibly

•For instance

•SurviveWhich words

will give you the biggest bang for

your buck???

Which words will give you the biggest bang for

your buck???

Criteria for Selecting Tier 2 Words Importance & utility

Instructional potential

Conceptual understanding

(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

“The final decisions about which words to teach may not be as important as thoughtful consideration

about why to teach certain words and not others.”

(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

Building Academic Vocabulary

Where do I begin???

Trade books

Text books

Complex text

Building Academic Vocabulary

When do I infuse this type of instruction?• During reading• On the spot, brief explanations to avoid

comprehension barriers

• After reading• Direct, rich, lively instruction of several story words• Direct=explain meaning• Rich=requires processing• Lively=“not boring”

(Beck, 2003)

For more information…

• Bringing Words to Life• Building Academic Vocabulary, Teacher’s

Manual• Monroe 2 BOCESlive binder:

http://www.monroe2boces.org/professionalDev.cfm?subpage=2388

Activity