Vocabulary Instruction is not…

1. Having students look up words in the dictionary so they can copy the definition down verbatim even though they still don’t know what it means.

2. Overwhelming students with 50 new words per week especially when they couldn’t possibly retain everything.

3. Telling students the definitions to words without giving them adequate practice using them.

4. Believing that because a student does well on a vocabulary test that knowledge transfers immediately and remains permanent.

5. Getting through a vocabulary unit so we can check it off our list.

Vocabulary CasseroleIngredients Needed:

20 words no one has ever heard before in his life1 dictionary with very confusing definitions1 matching test to be distributed by Friday1 teacher who wants students to be quiet on Mondays copying words

Put 20 words on the board. Have students copy then look up in dictionary. Make students write all the definitions. For a little spice, require that students write words in sentences. Leave alone all week. Top with a boring test on Friday.

Perishable. This casserole will be forgotten by Saturday afternoon.

Serves: No one. Adapted from When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers

EIGHT RESEARCH-BASED CHARACTERISTICSOF EFFECTIVE VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

1. Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions.

2. Students must represent their knowledge of words in linguistic and nonlinguistic ways.

3. Effective vocabulary instruction involves the gradual shaping of word meanings through multiple exposures.

4. Teaching word parts enhances students’ understanding of terms.

5. Different types of words require different types of instruction.

6. Students should discuss the terms they are learning.7. Students should play with words.8. Instruction should focus on terms that have a high

probability of enhancing academic success. (Adapted from Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering, 2005)

3 Tiers of Words Tier 3 – Highly specialized, subject-specific;

low occurrences in texts; lacking generalization◦ E.g., lava, aorta, legislature, circumference

Tier 2 –Abstract, general academic (across content areas); encountered in written language; high utility across instructional areas◦ E.g., vary, relative, innovation, accumulate, surface,

layer Tier 1 – Basic, concrete, encountered in

conversation/ oral vocabulary; words most student will know at a particular grade level◦ E.g., clock, baby, color Common Core State Standards, Appendix A, page 33

Choosing words

Jose avoided playing the ukulele. Which word would you choose to

pre-teach?

Which word?

Avoided

Why? Verbs are where the action is

Teach avoid, avoided, avoids Likely to see it again in grade-level text Likely to see it on assessments We are going to start calling these useful words

“Tier 2 words” Why not ukulele?

Rarely seen in print Rarely used in stories or conversation or

content-area information

Implications for Instruction

Teach fewer words. Focus on important Tier 2 (high utility,

cross-domain words) to know & remember. Simply provide Tier 3 (domain-specific,

technical) words with a definition. Increase independent reading time. Facilitate read-alouds. Keep vocabulary in circulation. Keep vocabulary interactive. Use graphic organizers.

Vocabulary Treat: Partner Task

Ingredients Needed:

Directions:

Serves: Many

Idea #1: Morphology

Teaching morphology (the study of roots) to students is beneficial because when you teach a root, you give the students the meaning to hundreds of words in the process.

Idea #2: Semantic Word Analysis

Semantic word analyses can be used to teach students the nuances of words and really get them thinking about how one word differs from another.

Semantic word analyses leads to a powerful discussion about the way we tend to view people that we don’t know. This works well for topics that have complicated issues and themes.

Idea #2: Semantic Word Analysis

Student Example

Family Friends Strangers People We THINK We

KnowAcquaintances

Prejudice - - - - -

Hatred - - - - -

Judgment - - + + -

Negative Bias

- - - + -

Dislike - - - + -

Stereotype - - + + -

Idea #3: Pictures

Use pictures when teaching vocabulary so that students can have a visual that aids them in remembering what the word means.

Have students draw three pictures/contexts where the word could be used and then include the meaning of the word on the back of the page. You can hang up their pictures on a classroom word wall so students can refer to them later.

Idea #4: Word Sorts

Once you’ve taught students a word, you can use word sorts to help review the words to ensure students remember them and to deepen understanding.

Divide the words you’re working with into two separate piles—let students choose what two categories in which to put the words.

After talking about the sorts as a class, have students re-sort the same words into two different categories without using any categories that we talked about as a class. This forces my students to think about the words in a different way each time.

Idea #4: Word Sorts

1. Chided2. Surreptitiously 3. Mortified4. Chagrined5. Lucrative6. Insatiable7. Gouged8. Prodigious9. Defunct10. Insidious11. Tipple

Students sorted these words into categories such as:

helpful/non helpful descriptive/non-descriptive scary/ not scary good/bad loud/ not loud describes ninjas/ doesn’t

describe ninjas.

Idea #5: Review Activity Solving Analogy Problems

One or two terms are missing. Please think about statements below, turn to your elbow partner and provide terms that will complete following analogies.

Inch is to ruler as word is to ______.

Decibel is to sound as _____ is to _____.

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Vocabulary Websites http://www.wordsift.com/ Word maps, word

clouds http://quizlet.com/ Make flash cards & games http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/ Academic

vocabulary games http://www.vocabulary.com/ More games,

including games using Latin & Greek roots www.worldwidewords.com Definitions, history

and short essays on words http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ Visual

thesaurus www.vocabgrabber.com www.wordle.com