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SOS (Schema Offers Success)Developing Vocabulary to Enrich Writing, Comprehension, and Interest in the Classroom

Shelly CraigPine Creek Elementary SchoolWest Ottawa Public Schools2011 Lake Michigan Writing ProjectWhat Is Schema?

PINE CREEK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLPopulation at a glance

Hispanic 53%Caucasian 24%Asian 16%Black 7%Native American 1%

Free and Reduced Lunch 76% 2009

Second language learners are not a homogeneous group, but are as varied in terms of their background, experiences, and language expectations, values, culture, and socio-economic status as any other group of students. More important, they can longer be thought of as a group apart from the mainstream-in todays culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, they are the mainstream. -Pauline Gibbons

How do I instill the passion in my students for learning new language, new vocabulary?Its kind of a fairyland of language for me hereIts like a whole society is conspiring to teach me Italian. Theyll even print their newspapers in Italian while Im here; they dont mind! They have bookstores here that only sell books written in Italian! I found such a bookstore yesterday morning and felt Id entered an enchanted palace. Everything was in Italian-even Dr. Seuss. I wandered through, touching all the books, hoping that anyone watching me might think I was a native speaker. Oh, how I want Italian to open itself up to me! -Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray LoveI havent felt so starved for comprehension since then. -Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, LoveAcademic success is possible, according to Corson, only if learners cross the lexical bar (Corson 1995). So, if students are to become successful in academic life, they need to get meaning from text, which in turn, means being able to build meaning using the more sophisticated vocabulary of written language. The sophisticated vocabulary of written language =Tier Two Words.

-Isabell Beck: Creating Robust VocabularyTier Two WordsTier 1 Words

CatSky RunSadOrange

Tier 2 Words

GrimaceGazeFortunateSlumpedInterest

Tier 3

PianoAmino acidComputerMesaJournalist

Tier 1, 2, 3 Word Examples

One of the best ways to learn a new word is to associate it. Powell (1980) found that instructional techniques employing the use of imagery producedachievement gains in word knowledge that were 34 percentile points higherthan techniques that did not. -Robert Marzano

Pick up the phone, bastard!1. Turn and talk to a neighbor about the artifacts on each others papers. What are they? What were they used for? Label artifacts.

2. Use the prediction paper to record the predictions you made with your neighbor.Predict if your person was a passenger or crew member on the Titanic.

3. How would you use this in your classroom?Mystery Personal BelongingsAs far as possible, learners need to be engaged with authentic and cognitively challenging learning tasks; it is the nature of the support-support that is responsive to the particular demands made on children learning through the medium of a second language-that is critical for success.-Pauline Gibbons: Scaffolding Language/Scaffolding Learning

Boarding Day!All Aboard!

Today you will board the RMS Titanic! You will be an actual passenger orcrew member from the voyage. You will be reading a short biography on who you are. Your job will be to tell people three facts about you. Read your biography. Look for the information you and your neighbortalked about. Interesting facts are fun too! Jot down your information on your calling card. If you have extra time, you can reread or practice pretending you are telling someone about yourself by using your notes.Turn and take turns with your neighbor telling each other what you found out about your Titanic character.Caf ParisianREFLECTIONWhere are your icebergs?What schema do you need to develop?What could you do differently?How would this benefit the students? You?Beck, I.(2008) Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions &Extended Examples. Guillford Press

Gibbons, P. (2002) Scaffolding Language/Scaffolding Language:Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. Heinemann

Gilbert, E. (2007) Eat Pray Love. Penguin Books

Marzano, R. (2001) Classroom Instruction That Works: Research Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. ASCD Publications

McGregor, T. (2007) Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading. Heinemann

References