systematic vocabulary instruction shared by rhoda coleman, ed.d. april 12, 2011

Systematic Vocabulary Instruction

Shared by Rhoda Coleman, Ed.D.

April 12, 2011

05/14/23

Agenda

Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Selecting Words to Teach (Beck, McKeown

& Kukan; Marzano) Step-by-Step Instruction (Kinsella) Guidelines for structuring verbal and written

tasks (Kinsella) Morphemic Analysis More strategies!!

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Research Basis• Vocabulary knowledge correlates with comprehension.• Comprehension depends on knowing 90% to 95% of the words in a text.• To build vocabulary we need to teach it explicitly and daily.• A high achieving twelfth grader learns 15 words a day, over 5000 words a year. • In grades 4-12, there is about a 6000 word gap between students at the 25th and 50th percentiles on standardized tests (Nagy & Herman, 1984).

05/14/23Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G. & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life.

New York: Guilford Press.

Research Basis• Providing word meaning is only the first

step in building word knowledge. Just providing information, even rich meaningful explanation will not result in deep sustained knowledge of a word.

• Multiple encounters over time are called for to achieve more than a temporary surface-level understanding of a word and if new words are to become permanently and flexibly represented in a student’s vocabulary repertoire.

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Cited in Classroom Instruction that Works

…student achievement will increase by 33 percentile points when vocabulary instruction focuses on specific words that are important to what students are learning.

McKeown, M. G., & Curtis, M.E. (1987). The nature of vocabulary acquisition. Hillsdate, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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The criteria for identifying tier one words are:

– Basic words known by English-only speakers– Concepts and labels in Spanish but English labels

are needed (e.g. find, tooth)– Simple idioms (e.g. make up your mind, let’s hit

the books, or once upon a time)

Choosing words to teach…Tier 1 words

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Vocabulary knowledge is the single best predictor of second language learners’ academic achievement across subject matter domains.

Saville-Troike, M. What really matters in second language learning for academic achievement?TESOL Quarterly 18: 199-219.

The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge for ELs

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Low frequency, high utilityFairly general but sophisticated words. They are not

the most basic or common ways of expressing ideas, but they are familiar to mature language users as ordinary as opposed to specialized.

Mention for tellBenevolent for kindHaunting for scary


Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G. & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life. New York: Guilford Press.

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Importance and utility: Words that appear frequently across a variety of domains. Essential, potential

Instructional potential: Words that can be worked with in a variety of ways. Dilemma, conflict

Conceptual understanding: Words for which students understand the general concept but they provide precision and specificity describing the concept. Fortune, haunting.



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Tier three words are:1. Lowest frequency2. Domain specific3. Often critical for specialized content

lathe, isotope, peninsula, protagonist



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Create student friendly definitions.What everyday language might you use?Activism - the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or

involvement as a means of achieving political or other goals, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc.

Boycott to combine in abstaining from, or preventing dealings with, as a means of intimidation or coercion: to boycott a store.



Why examples?

Concepts are the basis of vocabulary and content learning. (Marzano. 2010) Words are names or labels for concepts, which are groups (categories or classes) that contain examples with similar characteristics.

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Word(label)

Concept (the meaning behind the name)

Example1Example 2Example 3Example 4Share common characteristics

Why examples?

New concepts cannot be easily learned through definitions alone, especially if they are abstract. Examples ands non examples carefully selected by the teacher play a critical role. The more abstract the concept, the more examples students need to be given.

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Receptive vs. Expressive Word Knowledge

Receptive Vocabulary-Words that are recognized and understood when wehear or see them; typically much larger than expressivevocabulary, and may include many words to which weassign some meaning, even if we don’t know their fulldefinitions and connotations, or ever use them as wespeak and write.

Expressive vocabulary-Words we can use comfortably in speaking and writing

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Explicit Teaching Routine with Structured Verbal Task

Word Meaning Examplesapotheosis The best and most

____________example of something

Out of all the ________shows on television, __________is the apotheosis.

a•poth•e•o•sis Greek: theos= the_____ Coffee connoisseurs in the city of ________ consider __________the apotheosis.

(noun)

Verbal Task Out of all the scenic locations in California, _____________is the _____________.

05/14/23 Kate Kinsella, Ed. D.


Word Meaning Examplestradition A____________;

something that people have done for a long ______ and continue to do so.

There is a tradition in the U.S. to eat _________on Thanksgiving Day.

tra•di•tion A birthday _________ inMy family is (verb+ing)____________________

(noun)

Verbal and/or Writing Task

Our community has some ___________for the _____________holiday. For example, every year there is/are _____________________________.


Think, Pair-share

Think – Make up a sentence using the word

apotheosis.

Pair-share– Partner A tells partner B his/her sentence.– Partner B tells partner A his/her sentence

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Direct Vocabulary Instruction

• Provide descriptions, examples, characteristics, anecdotes and illustrations.

• Have students develop their own descriptions, examples and illustration using their own experiential base.

05/14/23 Robert Marzano


Instructional Sequence

1) Guide students in reading and pronouncingthe word a few times.2) Have students clap/tap out the syllables forpolysyllabic words.3) Direct students to copy the word correctly.4) Explain the meaning using familiar language.5) Provide two examples within students’experiential realm.


Instructional Sequence for English Learners

1) Write the word.2) Write the syllabication; separate with dots.3) Write the part of speech in parentheses.4) Copy the definition and omit one or two words. Choose

the appropriate meaning for the context.5) Copy the example sentence. Omit one word or phrase

and leave blank.6) Design a verbal practice task using another familiar

context. Write a simple response frame. Determine the grammar necessary to complete the frame.


Develop Accurate Oral Fluency with a Sentence Frame

1) Visibly post the sentence frame.2) Write the sentence frame in one color and your

provided content in another.3) Read you model answer aloud with prosody and

have students track.4) Clarify the grammatical and/or vocabulary

target. Use the precise word: purchase vs. buy)5) Chorally read the model response. (oral cloze,

phrase cued, the entire response.)


Word Meaning Examplesundocumented Not having an official

piece of _____ with important ________ on it.

Undocumented students are unable to get financial assistance for college because they are not _________.

un•doc•u•ment•ed Word building:documentdocumentarydocumentation

Workers who do not have papers to prove their ___________are referred to as undocumented.

(noun)

Verbal Task ________ workers often find work as _________.



Word Meaning Examplesprotest The act of showing

publicly that you do not ________of something

Cesar Chavez asked people to _______ California grapes to protest treatment of ____________.

pro•test Related words:boycottwalk outdemonstration

Martin Luther King led marchers in a _______ to protest against racial ___________.

noun (verb)

Verbal Task I want to________ against _________ by_______.


Morphology

• -ize • a verb-forming suffix occurring originally from Greek that have

entered English through Latin or French ( baptize; barbarize; catechize )

• within English, -ize is added to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs “to render, make” ( actualize; fossilize; sterilize; Americanize )

• “to convert into, give a specified character or form to” ( computerize; dramatize; itemize; motorize ),

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Morphology

• -ation

• a combination of -ate and -ion, used to form nouns from stems in -ate 1 ( separation );

• used independently to form nouns from stems of other origin: starvation.

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Related words

• undocumented

documentdocumented

documentationdocumentary

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Whip Around & Reflect

1. What I will remember about today’s session was ________________.

2. The part I am most likely to use was _______.

3. What I am wondering about in vocabulary instruction is ___________.

Strategy:

Whip Around

systematic vocabulary instruction shared by rhoda coleman, ed.d. april 12, 2011

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