Best Practices for Teaching Vocab to ELL students

This resource includes … • Best practices for teaching vocab to ELL students (in an ELL resource, or content setting)

When and Why should I use this? • When you plan for the year, a unit or a lesson if you have English Language Learners in your

classroom.• When you are struggling with vocabulary strategies specific to ELLs• If you need some extra context about why learning new words is so challenging for ELLs

How should I use this? • Start by doing the self reflection, which will guide you to different parts of the resource. Then

skim the table of contents to see what else you may be interested in learning more about!Additional Notes (if needed)•All strategies and ideas were taken from the following sources, which you can access if you

would like to learn more:• http://www.colorincolorado.org/ • Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners: Essential Strategies for Middle and High School by

Nancy Cloud, Judah Lakin, Erin Leininger & Laura Maxwell. This book is primarily geared toward 9-12 ELL. Publisher site: http://caslonpublishing.com/publication/teaching-adolescent-english-language-learners/.

• Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners: A Teacher’s Guide to Research Based Practices by Nancy Cloud, Fred Denesee and Else Hamayan. This book is primarily geared toward K-8 ELL. Publisher website: http://www.heinemann.com/products/E02264.aspx .

• http://www.u-46.org/roadmap/files/vocabulary/acadvoc-over.pdf

Self-Reflection: Where should I start within this document?

How to use: Skim though this self reflection to see where you should start within this document. All the hyperlinks are linked to places within this document so you can easily come back to the quiz if you need to.

1. Do you need to learn more in general about ESL instruction?If YESstart at Part 1If NO Move to question 2

2. Do you know what academic vocabulary is?If YESMove to question 3If NO Read “What is academic vocabulary”

3. Do you know the difference between high and low frequency words?If YESMove to question 4If NO Read “Why is academic vocabulary so hard”

4. Are you having trouble knowing which words to teach?If NOMove to question 5If YESRead “Simple Rules”, “Identifying high frequency words”, “Analyze words by tiers” and “Teaching with Tiers”

5. Are you having a hard time deciding how many words to teach in a lesson?If NOMove to question 6If YES Read “How many words to teach”

6. Are you a push in ESL teacher and need a hard and fast rule for knowing which words to teach when you’re given an unfamiliar passage seconds before your students see it?

If NO-Move to question 7If YESRead “Hard and Fast Rule”

7. Are you looking for general strategies and ideas to teach vocabulary to ELL students?If YESRead “Best ways to increase retention and comprehension”

8. Do you need some concrete lessons, strategies and ideas for teaching vocabulary to ELLs?If YESSkim the appendix for a listing of different resources, who they are appropriatefor and how you should use them.

Table of ContentsPart 1: How are words learned?

• The ways that students learn words• The difference between direct and indirect vocabulary instruction• Research based best practices for learning vocabulary

Part 2: Academic Vocabulary• Definition and facts about academic vocabulary• Reasons why academic vocabulary is so challenging• The difference between high and low frequency words• How to find high frequency words• How to teach high frequency words• The definition of what it truly means to know a word

Part 3: Strategies and best practices for increasing comprehension and retention of vocabulary words

• How many words to teach in a lesson• The hard and fast rule for which words to pre-teach• Strategies:

o Preview words with multiple meaningso Teach idiomso Use native languageo Word Wheels and flash cardso Collocations and word connectionso Vocabulary Journalso Student friendly dictionarieso Shades of meaning and intensityo Labels and categories

Appendix: Resources already on the Resource Exchange specific to vocabulary (see appendix for description)

• Vocabulary Development of ELLs• Elementary Strategies for ELLs• Secondary Strategies for ELLs• ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (elementary)• ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (middle)• ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (high)

Part 1: How are words learned?

How many ways can a student learn words?• Read it in a book, figured it out from context or looked it up• Read it or heard it and figured out it’s meaning from it’s parts• Learned it in a conversation • Heard it on the television• Learned it in a class• Heard it from a family member

What is the difference between direct and indirect vocab teaching?• Indirect: Students learn vocabulary indirectly when they hear and see words used in

many different contexts; for example, through conversations with adults, through being read to, and through reading extensively on their own.

• Direct: Students learn vocabulary directly when they are explicitly taught both individual words and word-learning strategies. Direct vocabulary instruction aids reading comprehension.

What does the research say about the way students can learn vocabulary?• Marzano:

o Effective Vocabulary Instruction: Multiple exposures, Previewing words helps, Image association, Direct instruction works, Focus on most important words

• Janet Allen:o Build background knowledgeo Teach words critical to comprehensiono Develop conceptual frameworks for themes, topics, and units of studyo Assess students’ understanding of words and concepts

Part 2: What is academic vocabulary?

What is academic vocabulary?• Academic vocabulary is the vocabulary critical to understanding the concepts of the

content taught in schools. In identifying academic vocabulary for instruction teachers must remember that not all terms are of equal importance.

Why teach Academic Vocabulary? • According to Marzano (2005) the strongest action a teacher can take to ensure that

students have the academic background knowledge to understand the content they will encounter is providing them with direct instruction in these terms. When students understand these terms, it is easier for them to understand the information they will read and hear in class.

Facts about academic vocabulary• Vocabulary assessed in first grade predicted over 30% of reading comprehension

variance in 11th grade (Cunningham and Stanovich, 1977). • While four encounters with a word did not reliably improve reading comprehension, 12

encounters did (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, and Pople, 1985). • One of the most critical services a teacher can provide, particularly for students who do

not come from academically advantaged backgrounds, is systematic instruction in important academic terms (Marzano and Pickering, 2005).

• The same student placing at the 50th percentile in reading comprehension, with no direct vocabulary instruction, placed at the 83rd percentile when provided specific instruction in academic vocabulary (Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986).

Why is academic vocabulary so hard?• High frequency and low frequency words

o High frequency: words that appear most often (see this list)o Low frequency: content specific or words that are necessary to comprehend one

aspect of a text• New usage of familiar words (multiple meaning words)• Idioms

I know I should teach both high and low frequency words….HOW?• Some simple rules:

o Teach the words that occur most frequently (in your content or in a text)o Teach the words that are most important to the text that you’re studyingo DO NOT TEACH the most challenging, rarely encountered words (usually the

“glossary” words identified by the text book). Students need frequent and authentic exposure to learn and understand new words- if you try to teach those words plus other high frequency words, your students will be confused.

How do I know what the “high frequency” words are?• http://www.lextutor.ca/ : If you run the program, it will give you average sentence

length, total unique words and academic words lists (across the curriculum)• http://www.wordsift.com/ : If you type or copy a text into the tool, it will scan for

repeated words and automatically make the most frequent words the biggest (see below for example). You can show your students this to preview a text and also just use for yourself.

• http://tagcrowd.com/ : Same as above, but you can also upload files to this website.Once I find the high frequency words, what do I do?

• You can analyze the words by tiers.• ELL students can be expected to master Tier 1 and Tier 2 words in order to aid in

comprehension and understanding content.

Tiers:Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

-ELLs may know concept in primary language, but not the label in English (ex: desk) which can easily be defined with a picture-Words that can be easily acted out (ex: march)

-Words that appear in grade level texts-Words that are important to understanding the text, such as: character, setting, plot, even numbers, and country.-Words that have connections to other words and concepts, such as: between, among, by, combine, and estimate.-Words for which students understand the general concept, but need greater precision and specificity in describing a concept or a person, such as: sets, tables (for math or science, or for a table of contents), shy, ashamed, and stubborn.

-low frequency, subject specific words

• Then, you can use these strategies to teach the different tiered words:Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

-simple explanation or translation (if applicable)-explicit teaching of idioms and everyday expressions-explicit teaching of cognates (family/familia) The teacher can state the English cognate and have students give Spanish cognate (if applicable)-explicit teaching of false cognates (rope/ropa (clothing)

-easy demonstrations/picture maps with multiple meaning words (ex:: trunk, which can be taught by using gestures to show that it is part of an elephant, part of a tree, part of our body, and the back of a car)-explicit teaching of harder cognates (ones that are high frequency words in Spanish and low frequency words in English). Spanish-speaking ELLs will have a head start with these words (such as coincidence/coincidencia) because they will know both the concept and an approximation of the label in English. -explicit pre-teaching of words that cannot be demonstrated and that are not cognates.

-unless a word is needed for understanding of a text or concept, there is no need to teach these words explicitly. -You should have ELL Student dictionaries in your room (Longman Learner Dictionaries are excellent for ELL students)

What does it mean to know a word?• In order for a student to truly “know” a word, they must…

o The ability to define a wordo The ability to recognize when to use that wordo Knowledge of its multiple meaningso The ability to decode and spell that word

Part 3: What is the best way to teach words in my lessons?

How many words should I teach in a lesson?• You can teach between 3-5 high frequency words and 3-5 low frequency words from the

material/reading• On average, ELL students can learn 6-10 new words a day with the right exposure. You

will likely repeat your high frequency words throughout the year.• Each lesson should have a language goal (how students will use the words they are

learning) and a content goal (the typical SWBAT)

I know I should look at Academic Vocabulary and Tiered words. But is there a hard and fast rule to consider when I’m looking at a passage?

• You can’t pre-teach every hard word. That said, some “hard” words take priority: o Critical to meaningo Not defined in contexto Likely to be seen againo High utilityo Figurative speech or idiomatic expressions

What are the best ways to increase retention and comprehension of vocabulary words for ELL students?

• Preview words with multiple meaningso You can do this by you specific content area, by the unit you’re teaching or the

book you’re reading. It’s better to teach multiple meanings up front so students don’t lock into what one specific meaning means.

o Example: if you a teaching a book and the word phrase “strike it rich!” comes up, you should teach that phrase as a idiom, but also go over the other definitions of strike (strike a match in science, strike three in PE, labor strike in social studies). You can do this by giving students a concept map, a list or just a quick explanation.

• Teach Idiomso Teach idioms in context- don’t skip over them! Students will generally run into

them over and over again and will continue to be frustrated if you don’t explicitly teach them.

o Front-load content specific idioms for your students (ex: preview the history text book for every time a word or phrase is used to mean “freedom”, such as “Lady Liberty” and “Old Glory”. While these are not exact translations, the approximate ones are good enough. Give students this list ahead of time- then you only need to teach “freedom”.

o Assign 3-5 idioms a week for students to look up for extra credit and have an idiom wall in addition to your word wall

• Use native languageo Allow students to translate words into their native language so they understand

the conceptual meaning of the word.o If your students are literate in their native language, teach cognates and help

your students recognize them. Also, if there is a cognate that easily translates, use that word instead of another word (example: If a sentence reads “Did you encounter anyone new today?” you may be tempted to replace “meet” with “encounter”. However, remember that the English word “encounter” has a Spanish cognate “encontrar” so if your students know the words in Spanish, use cognates to help them understand the English!

It is estimated that in romance languages, 30-40% of English words have a cognate. Don’t be afraid to use these cognates

o A note about native language: many teachers are hesitant to use native language if they have a group of students who speak many languages. The mindset may be if I can’t speak Arabic to my Arabic speakers, I shouldn’t speak Spanish to my Spanish speakers. YES YOU SHOULD! You should also help your Arabic students by obtaining student dictionaries in their language and pairing them up with students who speak both their language and English.

• Word Wheels and Note Cards:o Word Wheels (word in the middle and then illustration, student definition,

synonym/antonym, native language translation and example/sentence around the wheel.

o Note cards/ Flash Cards: Be sure to always include the same information. Idea for what to include: pronunciation, translation, definition, picture, sentence, related words, synonyms/antonyms.

• Teach collocations (words that are frequently associated or used together) and word connections

o Example: Let’s say one of your new vocab words is “time”. Teach students that other uses are “hard trial” but not “rigid time or stiff time”. Another use is “high time” but not “lofty time or soaring time”.

o Example: the word “pay” can be used to mean to purchase goods, but can also be linked to words and phrases like “pay attention”, “pay a visit” or “pay a compliment”. The meanings are all slightly different, but if you teach the idea that pay is generally associated with words that mean “to give”, you can easily make the connection that explains why all the words are similar (to give money, to give attention, to give a visit, to give a compliment).

o Provide examples and non examples (as noted above) so students know when and when not to use the word

o Identify places, events, people or situations where you would find the word. In talking to an ESL science teacher, this was apparent. He was trying to

teach his students the digestive system, but in order for students to learn that, they needed to learn “stomach”, “esophagus”, etc. Teaching all of these words together will build context and vocabulary for the students.

If one of the new vocabulary words for the week is “compassion”, you might discuss the places where students might see compassionate people (hospital), where they might hear about compassion (church) and family members they have that are compassionate.

o Help students make personal connection as well as academic connection to the word

• Vocabulary Journalso Give students a notebook at the beginning of the year that will serve as their

vocabulary journal. They can organize the words by day, by topic, by unit or alphabetical. The entries can include definitions, sentences, usage, and if words have positive or negative connotations.

• Invest in student friendly dictionaries.o This is a great tip, shared by Judah Lakin (author of one of the books cited above)o Example: Let’s say students are reading an article about a landlady in an

apartment building. They look up the word “landlady” in your Webster’s dictionary and see “a woman who is a landlord”. Students then go to look up “landlord” and read “the owner of property (as land, houses, or apartments) that is leased or rented to another; the master of an inn or lodging house”. At this point, students may not understand the definition of the word. Longman’s, a student friendly dictionary lists “landlady” as “a woman who owns a building and rents it to others” and “landlord” as “someone who owns a building and rents it to others”. A lot easier for students to understand!

• Teach shades of meaning/intensityo Scales of meaning (boilingfreezing). It’s best to give students images of how

these words relate to each other.o Shades of meaning: intensity. Explicitly teach students the difference between

“upset” and “frustrated” and all the words in between. You can easily use a gradation chart to explain these words.

• Organize words by labels and categorieso Focused on students’ organization of informationo Clusters words by conceptso Exposes and creates patterns of meaning

Appendix: ELL Vocabulary Resources already on the Resource exchangeThis is separated into two different columns. For those of you with ELL students in your classrooms, and a limited knowledge of ESL terminology, sort by the ‘What grade level is this good for.’ This will give you a quick idea of what you should be using with your students that have a limited proficiency in English

For those of you that teach ESL, or that are familiar with ESL terminology, use the “What level of ESL student is this good for’ section.

Resource Summary of the Resource What grade level is this good for?

What level of ESL student is this good

for? Vocabulary Development for ELLs

A couple of strategies for teaching vocabulary to ELLs. Pretty simple and short. Nothing is fleshed out.

This is good for jumpstarting vocabulary ideas for all content areas and grade levels.

All. This is good for jumpstarting vocabulary ideas for all levels of proficiency.

Elementary Strategies Various language acquisition cards, called RISE cards, for varied types of vocabulary instruction. The Frayer Model and Mad Three Minutes are two popular standouts. Browse the rest for ideas.

K-5. These strategies are good for all content areas and for all levels of proficiency in elementary school settings.

Beginner-Intermediate. This is best for lower level students.

Secondary Strategies Various language acquisition cards, called RISE cards, for varied types of vocabulary instruction. Each card is a different strategy aimed at secondary students. Highlights include the Mental Connections Strategy, and the content vocabulary quadrant.

6-12 These strategies are good for all content areas and for all levels of proficiency.

Intermediate – Advanced/High. These are great for all levels of students above Beginning proficiency.

ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (Early Elementary)

Rhyming words and some sound parts.

K-3. This is very low level stuff, and should only be used for lower elementary or students who are in their first days in an English classroom.

Beginners – Low Intermediate. These are only good for newcomers or lower elementary students.

ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (Middle School)

Vocabulary quilts and word maps. (Graphic organizers for gathering thoughts and lesson plan for looking things up in the dictionary)

4-8. This is applicable for any content area.

Beginner-Intermediate.

These are good for newcomers, to those with a little bit higher proficiency.

ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (High School)

Vocabulary quilts and word maps. (Graphic organizers for gathering thoughts and lesson plan for looking things up in the dictionary)

8-12. Intermediate to Advanced students and is applicable for any content area.

Intermediate – Advanced/High.

This is great for students who have a solid foundation in English.