Transcript Vocabulary and Concepts

Vocabulary and Concepts
Strategies You Can Use
Vocabulary and Reading
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Students cannot comprehend what they read
unless they know the words they are
reading—they need to understand the
vocabulary.
 There are three levels of vocabulary:
common words (tier 1), words of general
knowledge (tier 2), and words from specific
fields (tier 3).
Music Vocabulary
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Tier 1: Music. This is a word that most
people in general know.
 Tier 2: Harmony. This is a word that cuts
across fields (music, psychology, visual
arts, etc.) that educated people know.
 Tier 3: Allegro. This is a word that is
specific to music and that only musicians
need to know.
Music Vocabulary
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Over time, the level of vocabulary we need to
learn changes.
3
2
1
Tier
K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 college
Music Vocabulary
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What music-related words do students need
to know in Kindergarten?
 What music-related words do students need
to know in 7th grade?
 What music-related words do seniors in
high school need to know?
 List words and estimate whether they are
Tier 1, 2, or 3.
Teaching Vocabulary
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Vocabulary is not a list of
random words.
Most vocabulary words
are interrelated by way of
concepts.
Words need to be taught
conceptually.
Why??? Think about this
as you consider the self
reflection on the next
slide.
Self Reflection
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Think for a minute about how you have
learned vocabulary, particularly the tier 2
and 3 music vocabulary you identified
above. What has worked for you? What
has not worked for you? What strategies
were used to teach it to you? What
strategies did you use to learn it? Write a
drop box page, a discussion thread, or a
private e-mail to me about this.
Thinking about concepts
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Concepts can be organized in many ways.
 Think about using visuals to help students
understand the relationships between words.
 Visuals not only support an understanding of the
complex relationships being taught, they also
support visual learners.
 These visuals are called “graphic organizers.”
Musical Instruments: A
Semantic Map
Musical Instruments
Chordophones
Violin Family
Viol Family
Idiophones
Bells
Kazoos
Maracas
etc.
Aerophones
Woodwinds
Brass
Membranophones
Free reed
Accordian
Bagpipe
Harmonica
I did this with the “organizational chart”
slide template.
Drums
Constructing Graphic
Organizers
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Analyze the vocabulary of the
learning task. List all the words
that you believe are important for
the student to understand.
Arrange the list of words until you
have a scheme that shows the
interrelationships among the
concepts particular to the learning
task.
Add to the scheme vocabulary.
Add terms that you believe the
students understand in order to
show relationships between the
learning task and the discipline as a
whole.
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Evaluate the organizer. Have you
clearly shown major relationships?
Can the organizer be simplified and
still effectively communicate the
idea you consider crucial?
Introduce the students to the
learning task by showing them the
scheme. Tell them why you
arranged the terms as you did.
Encourage them to contribute as
much information as possible to the
discussion of the organizer.
As you complete the learning task,
relate new information to the
organizer where it seems
appropriate. Vacca and Vacca, pp.
166-167
Another Graphic Organizer
Bow
Bridge
F-hole
Fingerboard
Tuners
You could add a clip of
someone playing the instrument
Isn’t it amazing what you can do
on Powerpoint?
Need more ideas?
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Ask your students to help construct graphic
organizers.
 The first time you do this, use the whole group.
After defining terms, consider as a group how they
might be related to one another. You will be able
to correct any misconceptions through developing
the graphic organizer.
 Small groups of students can develop graphic
organizers that can be shared with the whole
group.
Vocabulary Strategies:
Freewrite
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Choose a vocabulary word or phrase that is tier 2.
Tier 3 where there is no possibility of making
good guesses will not work for this activity.
 Allow students to write freely about what they
associate with the word or phrase.
 During freewrites, students are not to worry about
grammar or spelling. They are to write as quickly
as possible without stopping.
 This strategy allows students to explore their ideas
about a new word or phrase.
Vocabulary Strategy:
Brainstorm
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Ask students to generate all the words they can
think of related to a concept. For example, what
are all the musical words you know that are
related to the concept of dynamics?
 From here you can introduce new words
(crescendo/decrescendo) or you can introduce the
idea of “-issimo” intensifies the meaning of the
word in Italian, giving students “fortissimo” and
“pianissimo.”
Vocabulary Strategy:
List-Group-Label
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Create categories and ask students to
suggest words to go under each heading.
Classical
Counterpoint
Symphony
Concerto
Jazz
Lick
Improvisation
Changes
12-bar Blues
Both
Melody
Harmony
Rhythm
Vocabulary Strategy:
Semantic Word Map
Bluegrass
Jazz
Rap
Types of Music
in America
Rock
Classical
Cajun
The simple name for this is “web.”
Reflection:
How might you make a semantic word map of the following terms?
What other terms could you add? What would be the central concept?
Sonata allegro
Minuet and trio
ABA
Sonata
Symphony
Concerto
Rondo
Word Sort
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Give the students the words you are using.
 Ask them to sort the words into categories.
 During discussion, students can justify their
choices. You will be able to assess their
understanding and reteach as necessary.
 You can give them the categories or you can
ask them to come up with their own
categories.
Knowledge Rating
Can
define/play
Have
seen/heard
???
Major scale
Minor scale
Pentatonic
scale
Dorian
Students assess their own knowledge and check the appropriate box
Rich vocabulary learning means students can actually use the knowledge. Standardized tests
only assess recognition (“have seen/heard” column) and don’t test students abilities to use the concept.
Things to Remember
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It takes 8 or 9 meaningful encounters with a word for it to enter our
vocabulary.
Choose concepts that students can immediately use because that will help them
to remember.
Vary your strategies to accommodate students’ interests and abilities.
Remember to address all learning styles.
Try to work with other teachers on tier 1 and 2 vocabulary.
Aim for the rich learning of vocabulary, not merely the ability to recognize a
word.
The lack of vocabulary will significantly reduce a student’s ability to read.
Just because a student is in high school, do not assume the student has a
sufficient tier 1& 2 vocabulary to read what you have assigned. When in
doubt, check it out—find out what the students is understanding during
reading.
Vocabulary Games and
Challenges
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Jeopardy—make a Jeopardy board that requires
students to use vocabulary in constructing
questions.
 Who needs to know this? Ask students which
occupations require knowledge of this word. Give
points only for unique responses and give students
a chance to justify their responses.
 For Tier 1 and 2 vocabulary, give students points
when they hear or read the word outside your
class.
Reference
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Much of the material in this chapter is from
Vacca, R. T. and Vacca, J.L. Content Area
Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the
Curriculum. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
2002.