Transcript File - ATA ESL

Sustaining the development of academic
vocabulary
ATA ESL-C: Red Deer
November 2013
[email protected]
Funded in part by (File Number 410-2006-2530)
Goals:
• Define academic vocabulary
• Focus on general academic vocabulary, often
termed ‘Tier 2’ words
• Offer ideas and examples of how to sustain the
development of Tier 2 words in upper
elementary
Academic vocabulary
• Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2002) offer a 3 Tiered
framework for thinking about vocabulary:
• Tier 1: Easy to get vocabulary, from everyday, context
embedded opportunities for acquisition. These words
generally do not need a great deal of instructional
attention.
• Tier 2: Mid to low range words with high utility and
generalizability across subject/disciplinary boundaries
• Tier 3: Subject/discipline specific words that subject area
teachers are generally getting better at teaching (Snow,
2010). e.g. photosynthesis, mitosis
Academic vocabulary
• Bauman & Graves (2010), Cummins, (1982) and Corson
(1997)
• Academic language is associated with ‘the secret
language of books’. It is decontextualized, and abstract;
often involves metaphor, technical uses of common
words and words with Latinate roots. They involve
complex, cognitive constructs: construct vs build; create
vs make; obtain vs get; object vs thing
• It is the Tier 2 words that are the focus of academic
vocabulary instruction. Teachers tend to neglect these
words, focusing instead on Tier 3 words of their subject.
Cummins’ framework: BICS-CALP
Academic vocabulary
• Native speaking children often acquire this vocabulary
from home, especially from their mothers. Sophisticated
input at meal time (Beals, 1997); elaborative and
collaborative talk, story book reading, purposeful play
and open-ended play gives these kids an early
advantage, which they maintain over time. The Matthew
effect: The ‘rich get richer’ (Stanovich,1986).
• These kids often are early readers as well, where they
begin at an early age to learn new vocabulary
independently from extensive exposure to print
materials.
• As early as grade 3, this kind of vocabulary shows up in
their written efforts.
Academic vocabulary in Grade 3 writing: Empty space
Academic vocabulary in Grade 3 writing: Empty space
• There are 86 ‘juicy words’ in the total pool of words that
appeared in the Grade 3 writing samples
• Fewer than 10% of these words are from Bands 1 -5, the
‘tipping point’ for children who are weaker writers
• Nearly 80% of these words are either Off-list known or
‘off list unknown.
• It becomes important to use this list as a place to begin
thinking about vocabulary instruction in Grades 2-3
• The use of these kinds of words accelerates in Grades 3
– 6.
Academic vocabulary in Grade 3 writing: Empty space
• Absolutely Activity Advance Amuse Altitude Approve Attach Balance
Barrier Basics Basically Challenge Collapse Combine Compares
Complain Connected Convince Consider Coordination Create
Decline Depend Design Direction Disappointed Educational
Entertain Environment Excellent Equipment Except Exercise
Exhausted Expensive Expert Fascinating Hilarious Imagine
Imagination Important Improve Include Involve Locate Maximum
Mental Motion Natural Normal Objects Obstacle Original Perfect
Platform Physical Popular Possible Prevent Pretend Protect
protection protective Purpose Regular Related Recommend
Recreation Safety Section Sense Similar Spiral Solution Source
Stimulate Store storage Strategy Strengthen Structure Suggestion
Surface Suspend Technically Various
Academic vocabulary
• ELLs are generally lagging in this type of vocabulary
knowledge. This is evident from their written efforts, at a
young age (Roessingh, 2013).
• What NS youngsters acquire and learn independently
from a young age, ELLs must ‘get’ through direct and
explicit instruction from their teachers (Biemiller, 2001).
• Teachers do not have the luxury of time, or immersion as
a ‘faint hope’ approach. Our efforts must be strategic,
targeted and multi-faceted.
A multi-faceted approach
• Direct and explicit instruction of ‘big bang for your buck’ words
• Word study:
– Morphological analysis: (Nagy et al, 1989). More than 60% of new words in
upper elementary have a transparent morphological structure.
•
•
Prefixes/suffixes/inflected endings →structural analysis of words
→ Root words, Greek and Latin meanings
– Polysemy (one word with many/ ‘poli’ meanings/ ‘semes’ ;
homophones/homographs/homonyms (same spelling/sound, different meanings).
These are common in English, and present difficulty for ELLs.
• Strategy instruction
– Context clues→making inferences
• A reading program to promote reading informational/expository text:
this is where the important words are!
• Academic conversations:
– Teacher-led discussions around topics that are current and of high interest to
children (e.g. RIPQuanto: Death of a service dog).
1. Direct and explicit instruction:
• This involves:
– Definitional and contextual information about a word
– Multiple exposures across modalities: hear it/see
it/say it/ write it (Stahl, 2003).
– Deep engagement: opportunities to manipulate,
transform, and practice → ‘push out’ tasks to move
the word from receptive to productive vocabulary.
Direct and explicit instruction: Frayer model
•
•
•
•
•
The Frayer Model is a graphical organizer used for word analysis and
vocabulary building. This four-square model prompts students to think about
and describe the meaning of a word or concept by . . .
Defining the term,
Describing its essential characteristics,
Providing examples of the idea, and
Offering non-examples of the idea./concept.
•
http://www.readingeducator.com/strategies/frayer.htm
• Useful instructional strategy across all grades,
proficiency levels.
See: www.duallanguageproject.com
‘Family Treasures’
2. Word study: Prefixes and suffixes
• Morphological analysis:
Word study: Root words, Latin meanings
Word study: Do you know your Greek and Latin roots?
Word study: Do you know your Greek and Latin roots?
Latin, Greek roots, Key
Word study: Polysemy
• Poly (many) semes (meanings).
– ELLs often have difficulty with generating many
meanings of the same (sounding) word.
– Many of the meanings involve collocations, idioms/
metaphoric uses:
• e.g. How many different meanings can you generate for the
word ‘BREAK’?
Word study: BREAK
• Break a leg, break a bone, lucky break, break a
promise, break a record, break down in tears,
pee/bio break, break the rules/law, break
ground, break the cycle, he made a break for the
door, break the silence …
• And so on ….
3. Strategy Instruction
• Using context clues to infer meanings:
- Direct definitions, synonyms, antonyms,
examples are often marked by punctuation,
or by discourse markers (in contrast,
similarly, such as .., for example …).
- Teach students to make inferences of
location, agent, time, action, instrument,
cause-effect, object, category, problemsolution, feelings - attitude
Strategies: 5 step teaching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Name the strategy and explain how it works.
Teach, model, demonstrate, talk aloud protocol
Guided practice
Independent work.
Assess.
Students need to be TAUGHT how to be strategic
learners/readers.
4. A reading program for kids
• Research tells us that children do not read
enough, especially those who struggle. Through
vast amounts of exposure to print, children can
develop independent ways of learning new
words. Good readers do this!
• Ideas for building a reading program?
– Build for intrinsic motivation and pleasure of reading.
– Breadth and depth of topic coverage and variation in
genres. The words they need to learn are principally
in non-fiction/information texts.
5. Instructional/academic conversations
• Children who have large vocabularies largely
acquired them from their mothers. Meal time
conversations that are engaging, challenging
and that invite lively exchange (collaborative and
elaborative talk) are a key feature of this kind of
talk (Beals, 1997). At younger ages story book
reading, structured play, and open ended play
were key ways of putting sophisticated, new
words to the kids. How can we reconstruct the
family dinner table in our classrooms?
Informational texts as story starters:
• The newspaper:
– Any given day there are stories in the paper that invite
further discussion. A recent example is the story of
Quanto, the police service dog, who was killed in the
line of duty as he attempted to bring down a fleeing
suspect.
Informational texts as story starters:
• Students can be read a summary or retelling of
the newspaper article. Key words might include:
– The suspect, motivated, apprehend, dedicated,
canine, protective equipment, sympathy
– This story generated a huge amount of social media
activity (hashtag #RIPQuanto). Read together the
messages that people have left.
– Have a discussion with the students about their
opinion related to ‘should the crime of injuring or
killing a police dog be treated as more than just
animal cruelty?’
Informational texts as story starters:
• Boo the grizzly:
Informational texts as story starters:
• There are dozens of stories, videos, photos, etc.
of Boo the bear. These are good for
conversation starters (endangered, orphaned,
dangerous, habitat, etc.). These can lead to
listening exercises, recounts, descriptions (Boo
loves to eat corn: powerful jaws, etc.). Boo has
lived for 10 years in the wildlife reserve in Banff
National Park … this story has a good shelf life!
Kate and Pippin:
•
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/03/kkate-pippin-the-story-of-an-unlikely-pair.html
The new Calgary Zoo:
The Calgary Zoo is going to be completely
rebuilt over the next few years. A committee at
the zoo is accepting proposals for how the ‘new
zoo’ can be rebuilt. Your task is to write a
proposal that will convince the committee that
your ideas are the best way for making the
Calgary Zoo the #1 zoo in the world!
Further prompts:
•
•
•
•
Is it all right for world class athletes to take performance enhancing drugs? Cycling (Lance
Armstrong), short (sprint) distance runners starting with Ben Johnson, swimmers, gymnasts, and
cross country skiers have all been ‘caught’.
Should children be allowed to have digital devices? (Kids get hooked on digital devices, Calgary
Herald, April 27, 2013. Weekend Life Section, p 18). Children as young as just 4 are becoming so
addicted to smartphones and tablet computers that they require psychological treatment for their
compulsive behavior.
Among all our possessions, we usually consider one or two objects to be very precious. Choose
one possession that is very precious and write to describe the object and explain its
meaning/significance to you.
Is it all right to keep wild animals as pets?
Further prompts:
Some resources and references
Bauman, J. & Graves, M. (2010). What is academic vocabulary? Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54(1), 4 –
12.
Beals, D. (1997). Sources of support for learning words in conversation: Evidence from mealtimes. Journal of Child
Language, 24, 673–94.
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G.,& Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York:
Guilford.
Biemiller, A. (2001). Teaching vocabulary: Early, direct and sequential. American Educator, Spring, 2001.
http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/spring2001/biemiller.cfm
Cummins, J. (1982). Bilingualism and minority language children. Toronto, ON: OISE Pres
Corson, D. (1997). The learning and use of academic English words. Language Learning, 47, 671-718.
Edmonton Public School Board (2008). Highest Level Achievement Test (HLAT). ‘Open space’ prompt and marking
rubric.
Gardner, D. (2013). Exploring vocabulary , Language in action. NY: Routledge.
Nagy, W. et al (1989). Morphological families in the internal lexicon. Reading Research Quarterly, 24, 263-282.
Some resources and references
Roessingh, H. (2012). The importance of the prompt for eliciting language samples: Insights from research and
considerations for practice. TexELT: Texas English Language Teaching, 1(1), 37-56. Available online:
http://www.textesolv.org
Roessingh, H. & Douglas, S. (2013). Raising the lexical bar: The potential of teacher talk to support learning academic
vocabulary. In M. Cowart & G. Anderson (Eds.) Teaching and Leading in Diverse Schools. Denton, TX: The Federation
of North Texas Universities.
Snow, C. (2010). Academic language and the challenge of reading for learning about science. Science, 328, 450 – 452.
http://colabradio.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/academiclanguage.pdf
Stahl, S. (2003). How words are learned incrementally over multiple exposures. American Educator, 27(1), 18-19.
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/spring2003/AE_SPRNG.pdf#page=6
Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of
literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360 – 407.
Common prefixes and suffixes: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/writing/handouts/Common%20Prefixes.pdf