Transcript What Does It Mean To Know A Word?

Reading First Action Seminar
Los Angeles Unified Schools
January 2005
We have evidence that …
• Skillful teaching creates successful students.
• When the school works from a shared and
explicit vision of academic success, then the
work of the teachers, coaches, and school
leaders is more focused and learning is
more likely to improve.
The school needs to…
• Have an established vision of how to work to
improve achievement based on coherent
instruction.
• Establish methods and systems focused on
academic improvement that are collegial and
collaborative.
• Take intentional, coordinated actions to improve
teaching and learning.
Keep Doing What Matters
• Consistent improvements in achievement
through improvements in teaching must be
our essential focus.
• Develop co-accountability between teacher,
coach, principal, and director as our tool to
improve schools.
• Learn together how to improve teaching in
the room with the students.
Three Goals for Vocabulary Instruction
• Provide students with skills/opportunities to
learn words independently.
• Teach students the meanings of specific
words.
• Nurture a love and appreciation of words
and their use.
-Bauman, Kame'enui, & Ash, in press
Expectations for School Teams
• Coaches’ depth of knowledge and ability to
make the content accessible to every
teacher at any grade-level is paramount.
• Administrators’ depth of knowledge and
follow-up is critical to successful
implementation.
• 75% of professional development should be
aimed at helping teachers apply new
learning in the classroom.
Follow-up Conversation
1. What evidence did you see of strategy
instruction at your school?
2. How did you use the information provided in
the last professional development?
3. How does the data reflect the evidence seen
and actions taken?
4. Share the data collected, evidence seen, and
the actions taken since the last seminar.
Colleagues will give constructive feedback.
Tonight’s Objectives:
1. Identify actions to move the instructional practice of
teachers.
2. Determine how to extend vocabulary instruction
beyond the transparency and dictionary.
3. Recognize meaningful practice as a follow-up to
vocabulary instruction.
During your classroom observations, what evidence do you
have that vocabulary development and instruction is extended
beyond strategy instruction (transparency) and the dictionary?
Understanding the Lesson
Design of Open Court
Unit Theme & Explorations
Concept Question Board
Emer ging Ideas a nd Vocabulary
Preparing to Read
Phonics & Word Knowledge
IWT
Teacher
Re-teach
Sma ll
Groups
Student
Applications
Strategies
Group
Discussion
of Concepts
Sma ll
Group
Discussion
Student
Fluency
Practice
Teacher
Pre-teach
Sma ll
Groups
Comprehension
Skills
Reading and Responding
Vocabulary/Reading Se lections
Language Arts
Lessons
Teacher
Preteach
Sma ll
Groups
Student
Application
Inquiry
Journal
20
minutes
extra
teaching
time
IWT
20
minutes
extra
teaching
time
Student
Fluency
Practice
Teacher
Re-teach
Sma ll
Groups
Teacher
Conference
w/groups
about
Writing
Student Writing Project Using the Writing Process
The required writing tasks are connected to the
theme, reading and language arts lessons, and story
content.
Spelling and
Dictation
Reading
And
Writing
Work
Writing
Tasks and
Seminar
Deepening Rationale
Please read…
1. Introductory Section of Bringing Words to Life
page 1 - top of page 3
Section titled What Does It Mean To Know A Word?
page 9 - page 12
2. Excerpts from The Voice of Evidence in Reading
Research from the handout packet.
Silence is golden!
Table Talk
Discuss the salient points of the
readings with your school team.
Salient Points from the Reading
• Robust vocabulary instruction was found to be effective in
learning word meaning and improving reading
comprehension.
• Students learn words better if they are actively engaged in the
task of inferring vocabulary meanings from context rather
than simply being given the definition.
• Vocabulary can be directly taught and acquired incidentally.
Development can be fostered by structuring learning tasks to
meet students’ needs, employing group learning formats, and
expecting high engagement by all students.
To “Know” a Word
• Receptive Vocabulary: Requires a
reader to associate a specific meaning
with a given label as in reading or
listening.
• Expressive Vocabulary: Requires a
speaker or writer to produce a specific
label for a particular meaning.
Reflect upon the vocabulary and periodic
writing assessment. Which assessment
involves use of more rigorous expressive
vocabulary? Is this consistent with the data?
To “Know” a Word
• Stage 1: never saw it
• Stage 2: heard it, but…
• Stage 3: recognize it in
context. It has something to
do with…
• Stage 4: know it well
(Dale, 65)
• No knowledge
• General sense
• Narrow, context-bound
knowledge
• Having knowledge of a word
but not being able to recall it
readily enough to use it in
appropriate situations.
• Rich, decontextualized
knowledge of a word’s
meaning
(Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987)
+
Word
heuristic
surreptitious
hegemony
canonical
sensitive
dubious
You Try It!
-
Know it well, Know something
Have seen or
can explain it, about it, can relate
heard the word
use it
it to a situation
X
Do not know the
word
Which Words Could We
Use for Vocabulary Instruction?
• Underlined words in the selection
• Words from the vocabulary section of the teacher’s
manual
• Problem words from Clues and Problems or words
needed based on prior knowledge of students
• Words suggested in EL Support Guide
(Words from the assessment come from point 1 and 2.)
Three Tiers of Vocabulary
• Tier 1: The Most Basic Words
cat, mother, go, red, talk, chocolate
• Tier 2: Words of General Utility for mature language users.
Words that exemplify the rich use of language by a good writer.
unique, convenient, influence, ponder
• Tier 3: Low Frequency Words that apply to specific domains
nebula, tidal pool, resistivity
The most productive instructional efforts should be
directed toward the second tier.
Beck, The Effects and Uses of Diverse Vocabulary Instructional Techniques
Vocabulary Tiering Worksheet
Selection: _____________________
Tier 1: High Frequency; everyday basic words (ELL and low language student focus)
EL
cat, mother, go, red, talk, chocolate
Pre-Teach
Tier 2: High frequency for mature language users; general utility words
(Focus instruction on these words)
Word Wall
Concept
Board
unique, convenient, influence, ponder
Tier 3: Low frequency; domain/selection/unit specific
Pre-Teach for Comprehension
Concept
Board
nebula, resistivity
Limited focus for intruction
tidal pool
Where is vocabulary strategy
instruction taught and practiced?
Where is vocabulary developed?
• Unit Opener
• Blending/Word Knowledge
• Transparency
• During Reading
• After Reading
OCR Supplemental Materials
What are the multiple pre-teaching and reteaching opportunities in the support
materials?
What opportunities are there for deeper
learning?
Problems with Dictionary Definitions
• Weak differentiation
– Conspicuous : “easily seen”
• How is this different than visible?
• Lacks element of “inappropriate or out of place.”
• Vague language
– Typical : “being of a type”
• More likely interpretations
– Devious : “straying from the right course, not straight forward”
• Walking a line? Not getting lost?
• Lacks element of “dishonest.”
• Multiple pieces of information
– Exotic : “foreign; strange; not native”
• Lacks element of relationship, i.e., “strange because it comes from far
away.”
Developing Student-Friendly
Explanations
• Characterize the word
– Be as particular as possible.
– Model typical usage.
– Don’t be all inclusive - at least not at first.
• Use everyday language
– Lexicographers eschew verbosity.
– As teachers, we are not limited by the space requirements of the
dictionary. We can talk around the idea until we provide enough
context for it to make sense.
Digging Deeper
Please jigsaw strategies for guided practice…
1. Word Associations (page 44)
2. Have You Ever? (page 45)
3. Applause, Applause (page 45)
4. Idea Completions (page 45)
5. Questions, Reasons, Examples (page 56)
6. Making Choices (page 56)
7. One Context for All the Words (page 56)
8. Facets of Word Meaning (page 74)
Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Personal Connection
- use of background
knowledge/experience
- personal dictionary
- personal thesaurus
- relating the definition to one’s own
experience
Definitional/Contextual
- using dictionary definition to form
own definition
- multiple meanings
- shades of meaning
- prefixes & suffixes
Multiple Exposures/
Opportunities for Use
- levels of specificity
- using word in new contexts
- using word in multiple contexts
Active Learning/ Deep Processing
- analogies
- base word
knowledge
- classification &
categorization
- antonyms
- semantic webs
- concept maps
- discussing
- explaining
- researching
- questioning
- analyzing
Personal Thesaurus
L
known word
New words
target word
antonym
Personal Thesaurus
L
lively
New words
clever
scintillating
intelligent
known word
target word
antonym
dull
Personal Dictionary
New word
Dictionary
definition
Illustration
My own sentence
Definition in own
words
Personal Dictionary
scintillating
We had an exciting, scintillating
discussion about our vacation.
Possessing or
displaying dazzling
liveliness, cleverness,
or wit
Very exciting, smart,
clever
Planning for Multiple Exposures
• Take into account all of the teaching
opportunities and resources available to
extend vocabulary instruction.
• How could the instruction be embedded
into a weekly lesson plan?
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my
career. I have lost almost 300 games. On
26 occasions I have been entrusted to take
the game winning shot, and missed. I have
failed over and over and over again in my
life. And that is precisely why I succeed.”
-Michael Jordan, Former NBA Player
School Team Action Plans
1. What are your objectives?
2. How will your team continue to improve
vocabulary instruction at your school site?
3. What are your plans for following through
on the professional development?
Writing Objectives
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Actionable
R = Realistic
T = Time-bound
An Opportunity to Share
• Pair up with another school team.
• Share your action plan.
Team A
Team B (7 minutes)
Team B
Team A (7 minutes)
“Enabling and monitoring the school
action plan is where ‘the rubber meets
the road.’ Here, action plans are put
into practice - instructional programs
are modified, schedules are changed,
professional development is carried
out - and evaluated on an ongoing
basis to determine their effectiveness.”
-Middle Level Leadership Center (www.mllc.org)