Teaching academic vocabulary, part 2

November 2, 2009

Check out the wiki athttp://southwestmedia.pbworks.com/Southwest-Vocabulary-Instruction

• Vocabulary acquisition has … been found to be a high predictor of reading comprehension. Biemiller and Slonim (2001) reported that students who were behind in vocabulary knowledge in third grade would remain behind throughout the duration of their schooling.

• Biemiller and Slonim found that students in grade 2 in the highest quartile of vocabulary knowledge acquired an average of 7,100 root words and students in the lowest quartile an average of 3,000 root words. The authors noted that the lower quartile children could be brought up to grade level, but to do so would take extensive vocabulary instruction and most schools do not promote such programs.

Some scary facts…

from “Instruction of Metacognitive Strategies Enhances Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Achievement of Third-Grade Students” by Regina Boulware-Gooden, Suzanne Carreker, Ann Thornhill, and R. Malatesha Joshi Reading Rockets (2007)

More scary facts…

DOTS chart

• Fill in topic: “Vocabulary”• Think about terms, ideas, associations you

have with this topic. As you think of them, fill them in in the appropriate space—e.g. “words” goes under “w”.

• You have about 2 minutes. GO!!• Now look at your neighbor’s paper. See

anything you like? Write it down on your paper!

Topic:________________________

AB

CD EF

GH

IJ KL

MN

OP QR

ST

UV WXYZ

extended mapping

unknown

acquainted

expressive

receptive

deep knowledge

established

Do you see any connections you can make to words you have written and these target words? Draw lines between them, and be prepared to draw more as we read on.

And now to the reading

• As you read, draw more connections on your DOTS chart.

• When finished reading, talk with your neighbor about the connections you made to the parts of the chart.

• Then write a few sentences using one or more of the target words.

DOTS

• Determine what I know (before lesson)

• Observe and make connections to what I am learning from teacher/text (during)

• Talk to peers (during)

• Summarize what I have learned (after)

Dale’s levels of knowing words

• I’ve never seen the word before

• I’ve heard the word, but I don’t know what it means

• I recognize it in context and know that it is connected to _______ (words or concept) [I think the word is related to…]

• I know the word and can use it appropriately. [I know the word…]

Ideas from Blachowicz et al.

• Receptive vocabulary exceeds expressive vocabulary

• 2 stages of word learning:– Assign word to broad semantic category– Make distinctions within semantic category

• Goals of vocabulary program: – Expand receptive and expressive vocabularies– Move words from receptive to expressive– Provide opportunities to acquire deep knowledge

Ideas from Beck et al.

• Goal of vocabulary instruction:– Students know target words when reading

them in a text– Students can recall words well enough to use

them in speech or writing

• Measuring word knowledge: synonym matching or multiple choice is not enough and may indicate only a superficial knowledge

Ideas from Partnership for Reading

• Four types of word learning– Known word, new meaning (“branch”)– Known concept, new word (“sphere”)– New concept, new word (“photosynthesis”)– Known word, enriched meaning (“jogging”)

• These types all fit in with Tier 2-kinds of words!

Back to Tier 2 words…

• High frequency—high utility—found across a variety of domains

• Good instructional potential—can work with them in a variety of ways

• Students already have a general idea of the concept—you’re giving them a more precise term for it

• …and now that you know what you now know about “knowing” a word…

• What would be your Tier 2 words for that science curriculum area from last time?

What a wonderful world!

Just imagine—everyone working together to teach target words to our kids!

• Other studies (Baumann, Kamme’enui, & Ash, 2003; Ryder & Graves, 1994) have found that basal reader series are providing students with definitional and contextual knowledge for words. But the selected words are often already known by the students, and instructional recommendations fail to provide opportunities for depth of processing.

• Scott et al. (2003) found that classroom vocabulary instruction was generally superficial and that students had minimal opportunities to actively engage in elaborative processing. Students were not situated to form relationships between known and unknown words, to relate them to prior or novel experiences, to develop concept maps, or to build semantic connections. (Stahl, 1999a; Stahl & Nagy, 2005).

From “ Improving the asphalt of reading instruction: A tribute to the work of Steven A. Stahl” by Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl © 2005 International Reading Association (pp. 184–192)

• One study showed that explicit instruction of vocabulary in the third, fourth, and fifth grades occurred on average for 1.67 minutes a day, or about 100 seconds of vocabulary instruction.

“

from “Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together: How Systematic Vocabulary Instruction and Expanded LearningTime Can Address the Literacy Gap” by Claire E. White and James S. Kim, Center for American Progress, May 2009http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/pdf/elt_may09.pdf

…with these results…

• Third grade: low-income kids reading at or above grade level in all reading areas

• By the end of fifth grade: one grade level behind in word meaning (GE = 4.8).

• By seventh grade, the mean score on word knowledge was nearly three grade equivalents below the national norm of 7.9 GEs.

…downright terrifying…

The decline in vocabulary scores may underlie the difficulties thatlow-income children and English language learners confront onstandardized tests of reading comprehension in the upper elementaryand middle-school grades. It may be safe to say that a great part of theliteracy gap on assessments such as NAEP is in fact a vocabulary gap.Children can appear to be good readers because they are able to decodewords, but they are unable to answer comprehension questions. This is because they have not learned or been taught the kinds of words that are essential for understanding texts and tests.

from “Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together: How Systematic Vocabulary Instruction and Expanded LearningTime Can Address the Literacy Gap” by Claire E. White and James S. Kim, Center for American Progress, May 2009http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/pdf/elt_may09.pdf

What can we do?• Systematic vocabulary instruction throughout the

school day, in every content area– Interventions that specifically target vocabulary

learning have shown promising results for at-risk children

• Assess student knowledge and target the right words during instruction– Educators can’t teach the sheer number of words

struggling readers need to know. So we must carefully target words and explicitly teach them across content areas.

from “Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together: How Systematic Vocabulary Instruction and Expanded LearningTime Can Address the Literacy Gap” by Claire E. White and James S. Kim, Center for American Progress, May 2009http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/pdf/elt_may09.pdf

How many words to teach?

• Beck et al. suggest around 400 per year

• How does that average out per week, across content areas? Talk to your neighbors about this.

And on to math vocabulary…

• How would you teach these terms:– Even if it rains tomorrow, our football team will

face the opponent. The two teams are pretty even. One difference is that their team was last year’s state champion. We think that the weather will be an important factor in the game’s outcome.

You can see the problem…

From “Designing Vocabulary Instruction in Mathematics” by Margaret E. Pierce and L. Melena Fontaine. Reading Teacher November 2009

Problems with understanding math

• In order to understand mathematics, students must: – learn many content-specific vocabulary words (quotient, equivalent, divisor). – know the meaning of many complex phrases (least common multiple, greatest common

factor). – understand that many common English words have unique meanings in mathematics (bring

down, tree, face, plane, cone, net, positive, negative). – understand that prepositions (by, with, to, into, from, etc.) are used in a variety of ways in

word problems to signal operations. (divided by vs divided into)– know the meaning of prefixes and suffixes (hept-, tri-, bi-, poly-, -gon, - lateral). – understand unique mathematical sentence constructions (If x = 5, then …). – understand statements and questions that are written in passive voice (twenty is divided by

five) – know that mathematical operations are associated with many different words.

• EXAMPLES: • Addition: add, plus, and, combine, sum, total of, more than, increased by, greater than • Subtraction: subtract, minus, less, less than, fewer than, decreased by, difference, lower, take away,

from, shorter • Multiplication: multiply, times, product, as a factor, twice, double, triple, groups of • Division: divide, divided by, quotient, separated into equal groups, shared equally, over, into, how

many groups • Equal: is, are, result, make

from “Mathematics and English Language Learners in Elementary School: A Review of the Literature” by Jo Lynn Suell, Rebecca Miller, Paul R. Province. http://www.tsusmell.org/downloads/Conferences/2005/Moore-Harris_2005.pdf

…not to mention…

• Lack of context

• No attention paid to background knowledge of student

from “Just what is the academic language of math?” by Suzanne Irujohttp://www.coursecrafters.com/ELL-Outlook/2007/may_jun/ELLOutlookITIArticle1.htm

• Francis et al. (2006), after an extensive review of the literature on teaching math to ELLs, arrived at this conclusion:

from “Just what is the academic language of math?” by Suzanne Irujohttp://www.coursecrafters.com/ELL-Outlook/2007/may_jun/ELLOutlookITIArticle1.htm

Academic language is as central to mathematics as it is to other academic areas. It is a significant source of difficulty for many ELLs who struggle with mathematics. ... [T]he oral and written language of mathematics—or the mathematics register—should be ... explicitly integrated into the curriculum. (pp. 37-38)

From Burns: steps in teaching math vocabulary

1. Identify vocabulary to be taught2. Introduce after developing understanding of math

concepts3. Explain by linking meaning to students’ learning

experiences4. Have students pronounce words5. Write new vocabulary on a class “math words” chart6. Have students keep their own lists of math words7. Use vocabulary repeatedly8. Encourage student use of vocabulary

From About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource, 3rd Edition by Marilyn Burns, 2007

Final activity: Magic books!

• Take smaller paper (1/2 of a regular sheet of construction paper). Fold hot dog, cut in half.

• Larger paper: Fold hamburger-hamburger-hamburger-hamburger (total of 16 squares when finished). Open all the way.

cr

ease

s

center fold

cut on red lines•Fold once hamburger. •From the fold, cut along the 3 creases towards the crease that parallels the fold line. •Stop at this crease.

• Open paper. • Weave 2 strips through the

slits.

• Write a term in a square on the top line.

• Write the definition in the next square. • Write an example in the third.

addJoin 2 numbers together

2 + 3 = 5

subtract

…and now for the magic…

• Accordion-fold the book to make an “m”.

• Flip it over so that it’s a “w”.

• Carefully pull apart the middle peak of the w—open and—it’s magic! The words have disappeared!

How to use the magic books

• Have students study with each other—buddies can call out terms and definitions to each other.

• Play quiz-quiz-switch once they’ve got the definitions under control: take turns quizzing, then switch partners.