Transcript Day 10A Vocabulary FA2010

Vocabulary: The Levels
of Knowing A Word
EDC 448: Dr. Julie Coiro
Today’s Objectives
1.
Review key ideas about relationship
between vocabulary and readability
2. Connect importance of “student
directed” activities with “explicit
instruction” in key vocabulary
3. Learn how and why to select key
vocabulary concepts for explicit
instruction
4. Develop a short set of “engaging
vocabulary activities” around a
challenging concept in your discipline
We all know that
teaching vocabulary is
important, yet …..
It’s not THAT we teach
vocabulary, it’s HOW we
teach vocabulary.
Five Statements from current research about
Vocabulary . . .
1. Students need to be exposed to a word at
least six times in context before they
have enough experience with the word to
ascertain its meaning and make it
perdurable.
2. Even superficial instruction in new words
enhances the probability that students will
understand the words when they encounter
them.
Jane K. Doty, MCREL
Five Statements from current research about
Vocabulary . . .
3. One of the best ways to learn a new
word is to associate a mental image or
symbolic representation with it.
Centralization
Decentralization
Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or
graphic representing the term or phrase.
Baghdad
Income tax is the money we pay to the government that they use
to provide things we all need, like roads. The money is taken out
of our paychecks.
Pay day!!
Concept Definition Mapping
Comparisons/
Contrasts
discriminant
Frayer Model
Frayer Model:
Guess the Concept
Visualizing (Simmons, 2002)
Five Statements from current research about
Vocabulary . . .
4. Direct vocabulary instruction
works. Teaching new vocabulary
directly increases student
comprehension of new materials.
5. Direct instruction on words that
are critical to new content
produces the most powerful
learning.
Building Your Essential
Vocabulary Lists
Building your Essential
Vocabulary Lists:
Not ALL terms are critically
important!
• How will you decide which words you will
select?
• How many words will you identify as
“critical” or “essential” for each topic?
for your discipline? for your grade
level??
So how do you decide what
words to put on your list?
Divide your words into three categories:
Tier 1 (or General words): Commonplace words
students typically learn from interacting
with others or reading
Tier 2 (or Specialized words): Words that
have different meanings depending on the
discipline used. These are high-frequency.
Tier 3 (or Technical words): Words that are
specific to a content area or discipline.
Might occur infrequently but can be barriers
to understanding content.
Beck & McKeown; Buehl (p. 175)
Examples for Women’s
Suffrage Unit
YOUR TURN
Select words from
George Washington
• General (Tier 1)
• Specialized (Tier 2)
• Technical (Tier 3)
Selected words from
George Washington
Selecting the semi-finalists….
you must strategically choose
the words for formal instruction
1. Representation: essential or root word (yes)
2. Repeatability: used often in text/discipline (yes)
3. Transportability: used in discussions, writing
tasks, other subject areas/topics (yes)
4. Contextual Analysis: use context clues? (no)
5. Structural Analysis: use word parts? (no)
6. Cognitive Load: too many words? (no)
Fisher & Fry (2008)
YOUR TURN
The Six Finalists and Why
We Chose Them
• Tier 2: Held/hold; occupied; and
possession (conceptually related and
would help transfer into knowledge
base)
• Tier 3: Colony and continent
(essential to early U.S. history –
roles of leaders could be learned
later in a more specific unit)
So, how do we TEACH
these words?
• Develop student friendly
explanations
– Look up definitions and translate into
ideas from a student’s point of view
– Characteristics – what is it like? (Think
of the Word Map organizer); examples
and non-examples
– Root words or affixes: What other
words have the same root word?
Concept Definition Mapping
So, how do we TEACH
these words?
• Actively engage students in dealing
with word meanings
– Word Associations (Which word goes
with…?)
– Have You Ever? (associate in context)
– Idea Completion (use to explain a
situation) When might you? How might
you? Why might you?
Try It Out
• Work with 1-2 partners to skim one
of the “challenging content area
texts” in your handout.
• List Tier 1, 2, and 3 words from the
selection on the handout organizer
• Highlight a Tier 3 word and discuss
ways to teach and engage students
with the CONCEPT (not just the
word) – work through the categories
of activities in your handout
Summarizing Six Steps to
Effective Vocabulary
Instruction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Provide description, explanation or example
of the new term
Students restate the explanation of the
new term in their own words
Students create a nonlinguistic
representation of the term
Students periodically do activities that help
them add to their knowledge of vocabulary
terms
Periodically ask students to discuss the
terms with one another
Periodically engage students in games that
allow them to play with the terms
Homework and Next Week
1.
–
•
–
–
–
–
–
–
Thursday 10/28: Critical Reading and Questioning
Strategies
Read Beuhl Activities (especially QAR on p. 133; RAFT
Model – p. 144)
Vocabulary Activity Blog Post #7
Work on Lesson Plan Outline (use handout)
Tuesday 11/2: Critical Reading on the Internet
Read Kajder – Chapter 4
Read Coiro (2005 and 2009)
Blog Post #8
ATTEND MEETING WITH DR. COIRO (please come
prepared with completed Lesson Plan Outline and
questions)