Robyn Gartenlaub. Shawna Starck-White , Mayra Delgado,

Courtney Laporta, Jennifer Ciprioni

Grand Canyon University: RDG 512

June 10, 2013

The Power of Words

• Although children are “hard-wired” to acquire language, they require language rich experiences and environments to foster the language skills needed for social and cognitive development.

• When children learn to read and write, they must be able to draw on a rather extensive vocabulary to comprehend what they are reading and writing.

Introduction

Mayra Delgado

“With tens of thousands of words to learn, anything we can do to help students become more proficient independent word learners is an absolute necessity (Graves, 2006).”

• Vocabulary is the use of words when communicating with others through reading and writing.

• It is how we express feels of emotions verbally or writing.

What is Vocabulary

Robyn Gartenlaub

• Vocabulary is the key to understanding what students hear and read.

• The ability to communicate with others.

• When vocabulary improves, comprehension

improves.

• A broad vocabulary can help create academic and

social success in children of all ages.

Why is Vocabulary So Important?

Robyn Gartenlaub

• Race/ethnicity, age, gender or birth order does not affect knowledge of vocabulary.

• What affects the knowledge of vocabulary is socioeconomics.

• Children in low income homes come to school with a smaller range of vocabulary than children of higher socioeconomic homes.

(Baker, 1998)

Facts

Robyn Gartenlaub

Socio-Economics Quantity of Words Heard per Hour

Welfare 616

Working Class 1,251

Professionals 2,100

Statistics

(Baker, 1998)

Robyn Gartenlaub

Socioeconomics Words the First 4 years

Welfare 13 Million

Working Class 26 Million

Professionals 45 Million

Statistics

Cumulative Vocabulary

Welfare 500 words

Working Class 700 words

Professionals 1,100

Robyn Gartenlaub

Intentional Vocabulary Teaching / Specific Word Instruction

– Selecting Words to Teach

– Explicit instruction of vocabulary is highly effective

– To develop vocabulary intentionally, students should be explicitly taught both specific words and word-learning strategies.

– Rich and Robust Text

– To deepen students’ knowledge of word meanings, specific word instruction should be robust. Seeing vocabulary in rich contexts provided by authentic texts, rather than in isolated vocabulary drills, produces robust vocabulary learning.

– Instruction does not begin with a definition.

– Goes beyond definitional knowledge

– Gets students actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating relationships among words.

Components of Vocabulary Instruction

Shawna Starck-White

Word-Learning Strategies–Dictionary Use

Multiple word meanings and the importance of choosing appropriate definitions to fit particular texts

– Morphemic AnalysisThe process of deriving a word’s meaning by analyzing its meaningful parts or morphemes (root words, prefixes, suffixes, etc.).

– Cognate Awareness (ELL)Inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar word by scrutinizing it.

– Contextual AnalysisTeaching students to employ both generic and specific types of context clues.

Components of Vocabulary Instruction

Shawna Starck-White

• “Lexical semantics” is the study of word meanings” (Moats, 2000).

• Multiple Meanings of Words

Run: move the legs in a fast gait;

a flaw in a stocking; the path of a small creek.

• Synonyms: Words with the same meaning.

Cold: cool, chilly, frigid, icy, frosty, freezing.

Word-Study Concepts

Mayra Delgado

• Antonyms: Words that mean the opposite.

Light/heavy, left/right, pretty/ugly, awake/asleep, open/shut, loud/quiet.

• Homonyms: Words with different meanings but are pronounced the same.

There/their, to/too/two.

• Homophones: Words that are spelled alike but are spelled differently.

Air-heir, creak-creek, hour-our, peace-piece.

Word-Study Concepts

Mayra Delgado

• Etymologies: The history of the English language.

democracy [1576, <MF < LL < Gr demokratia, demos (people) + kratia (cracy = strength, power)]

• Figurative Meanings of Words

Literal meaning: The dog chased the cat.

Figurative meaning: It’s raining cats and dogs.

Metaphor: She is blinded by love.

Simile: She is cute as a button.

Word-Study Concepts

Mayra Delgado

What types of words should teachers focus on?

• Three Tiers of vocabulary words for teachers to focus on:– Tier 1: Basic words

– Tier 2: Academic

– Tier 3: Specialized Words

• Word Walls– Post words on the word

wall for students to use in

word activities.

Choosing Your Words Wisely

Courtney Laporta

• Word Posters– Students illustrate a specific

word and write a matching

sentence.

• Word Maps– An organizer to show examples, characteristics, and ideas about a specific word.

• Possible Sentences– Students write a sentence with a vocabulary word before finding out the definition, then go back

and revise it.

• Dramatizing Words– Students act out vocabulary words

Word Study Activities

Courtney Laporta

Word Sorts

– Students have a set of words in which they sort according to two categories

Word Chains

– Students link four words that can go in a sequence. Good for life cycle.

Semantic Feature Analysis

– Teachers give students a group of

words that students use a checklist of

Characteristics to identify them by.

More Word Study Activities

Courtney Laporta

Ways to Teach Word Study Strategies

–Direct Explanation of Strategies

–Transactional Strategies Instruction

–Balanced Strategies Instruction

Word Study Strategies

Jennifer Ciprioni

Procedure to figure out unfamiliar words:

• Re-read the sentence containing the word.

If they haven’t figured out the word then continue to

the next step

• Use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word.

If they still don’t understand , continue

to the next step • Examine the word parts, looking for familiar root words and affixes to aid in figuring out meaning.

If they’re still not successful continue to

the next step

• Pronounce the word to see if they recognize when they say it.

If that doesn’t work then they continue to

the next step• Check the

dictionary or ask for teacher help.

SUCCESS!

Jennifer Ciprioni

(Tompkins, 2010, p. 244)

“For every word known by a child who is able to apply morphology and context, an additional one to three words should be understandable” William Nagy and Richard Anderson, Vocabulary Researchers

When students read and come across an unfamiliar word the can use any of the following strategies to determine the words meaning:

– Use context clues– Analyze word parts – Use a dictionary

Word Study Strategies

Jennifer Ciprioni

• Context clues provide meaning information, about parts of speech and how the word is used in a sentence, helps with inference about meaning of the word and illustrations also help

Word Learning Strategies: Context Clues

SIX TYPES OF CONTEXT CLUES:• Definitions (provided within the text)• Illustration or Example • Comparison or Contrast (to another word within

the text)• Logical (using the rest of the sentence)• Root words and Affixes • Grammar (uses function or part of speech)

Jennifer Ciprioni

For example: Omni means “all” / Carno means “flesh” / Herb means “vegetation”

The common word part vorous comes from the Latin vorare, meaning

“to swallow up.” When students know carnivorous or carnivore, they use morphemic analysis to figure out the other words (Graves, 2006).

Word Learning Strategies: Analyzing Word PartsThree sorts of word parts to assess: • Prefixes• Suffixes• Non-English roots

Jennifer Ciprioni

Word Learning Strategies: Using a DictionaryGuidelines for Using a Dictionary

• When reading a definition, be sure to read all of it, not just part of it.

• Remember that many words have more than one meaning.

• Be sure to check all the definitions the dictionary gives for a word not just one of them.

• Decide which definition makes sense in the passage in which you found the word.

• Often the dictionary works best when you already have some idea of a word’s meaning. This makes the dictionary particularly useful for checking on a word you want to use in your writing (Graves, 2006)

Jennifer Ciprioni

This strategy may require teacher support to: *Provide a sample sentence *Provide a related, comparison or opposite word

– Observations

– Observe students using new words

– Observe students application of word learning strategies

– Observations occur during: word study activities,

mini-lessons, discussions, guided reading and during read alouds.

– Conferences

– Discuss words students use during word study and writing actiivities

– Discuss strategies utilized when students encounter unfamiliar words

– Rubrics

– Incorporate vocabulary component on rubrics to stress its importance

– Emphasize the use of precise vocabulary

– Tests

– Pencil and Paper assessments to monitor vocabulary knowledge

– Close passages, quick write about a word , a word map or word chain or draw a picture to represent a word’s meaning

Word Study: Informal Assessment

Jennifer Ciprioni

• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4) (Dunn, Dunn, & Dunn, 2006)– Individual administered K-8, screens vocabulary knowledge

– Teacher provides a word and pictures, student selects picture that best illustrates the word.

• Expressive Vocabulary Test-2 (ET-2) (Williams, 2006)– Individual administered K-8, screens vocabulary knowledge

– Teacher points to a picture and the student provides a word that best describes the picture or a synonym for a word illustrated by the picture.

• Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs)– Individual administered 2-8

– Assesses vocabulary knowledge through comprehension questions focused on the meaning of words

Word Study: Formal Assessment

• Reading comprehension involves the ability to decode words and to know the words’ meanings and how they are used in the real world as well as in relation to other words.

• Children must know how to use words: when, with whom, and for what meaning. Deep, rich knowledge of words is acquired through using the words many times over and by reading itself.

Conclusion

Mayra Delgado

“The research base on vocabulary is extensive and provides us with the direction we need to make critical decisions about how to help all students learn the vocabulary they need to acquire conceptual knowledge in the various subject matter disciplines (Harmon & Wood, 2008).”

Baker, K. S. (1998). University of Oregon. Retrieved from http://reading.uoregon.edu/.

Duke, N.K. & Pearson, D. (2002). “Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension.” In A.E. Farstrup & S.J.

Samuels (Eds.). What Research Has To Say About Reading Instruction (3rd ed., pp. 205–242). Newark, DE:

International Reading Association

Graves, M.F. (2006). Teaching Word-Learning Strategies. In The Vocabulary Book (pp. 91-118). New York; Newark, DE;

and Urbana, IL: Teachers College Press.

Harmon, J. M., & Wood, K. D. (2008). Research Summary: Vocabulary teaching and learning across disciplines.

Retrieved [date] fromhttp://www.nmsa.org/Research/ResearchSummaries/VocabularyTeaching/tabid/1728/

Default.aspx=

Moats, Louisa Cook. (2000). Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers. Maryland: Paul H. Brookes Publishing

Co., Inc.

NPR. (2000). Retrieved July 7, 2013 from: http://www.nih.gov/publications/pubs/pages/report.aspx.

Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

References