THE ROLE OF VOCABULARY IN TEACHING ‘UP’Misty Adoniou

Misty.adoniou@Canberra.edu.au

Plan for this session

■Why vocabulary matters■ How does vocabulary work■ How to teach vocabulary so it sticks

Thanks to Deer Park West

the woods

evilextremely

sparks

brought alive

grievedsurvived

the beast

Teaching vocabulary

■Size of vocabulary is the single best predictor of success in school

But teaching vocabulary is more than glossaries and definitions

Ways to think about vocabulary■ Academic vs Spoken

– E.g. Tier 1, 2 and 3 vocabulary■Multi-word ‘units’

– E.g. depends upon, in spite of, alive and well etc

■ Cohesive devices– E.g. that, yet, so etc

Academic vs Spoken vocabulary

Tiers of vocabulary Beck, McKeown, and Kucan(2013)■ Tier 1 – spoken everyday vocabulary■ Tier 2 – academic vocabulary used across the

disciplines■ Tier 3 – discipline specific vocabulary

However – the differentiation between these tiers is not as simple as the categorisation suggests

Command verbs in a Maths exam paper

■ Determine…■ Give...■ Draw in...■ Show that...■ Sketch...■ Let...■ Use...■ What conclusion can be

made...

■ Complete....■ Consider....■ Calculate...■ Perform...■ Interpret…■ Explain...

Consider how these verbs may require different actions in other disciplines

What Tier are these words?

She wrapped the feather boa around her body. As she did so, her eyes shone.

Multi-word ‘units’

Disasterriskglobally ishighly concentratedinlowandlowermiddleincomecountrieswhereagricultureis heavilyrelieduponasameansofincome

What makes this hard to read?

Multi-word ‘units’How would you break this sentence into ‘meaning units’

Disaster risk globally is highly concentrated in low and lower middle income countries where agriculture is heavily relied upon as a means of income.

Cohesive devices

Vocabulary as cohesive devices

Pathogenic bacteria cause hundreds of diseases, such as whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, impetigo, pneumococcal and meningococcal disease, and typhoid fever.

■ such as = some examples of what I have just said will follow

These are all infectious diseases, because they are caused by infection with pathogenic microorganisms.■ These

– the things I just mentioned■ because

– I am going to give a reason for what I have just said

■ they– those same things I mentioned in the previous

sentence

Your turn

Those that are able to spread rapidly by close contact with an infected person are described as contagious.

Those = I’m talking about a subset of what of I’m been talking about, but you need to read on to find out what this subset is

described as = Now I’m going to give a definition of what I have just said

For this reason, it is commonly known as school sores.

■ For this reason = I’m referring to something I have said in the previous sentence(children) and you will make the inference to school■ It = the condition I defined in the previous sentence

Look at the vocabulary in this text from the discipline of Music through the different

vocabulary lenses.To begin with, the piano establishes the slow moving tempo with heavy use of sustained pedal. This is played in a mellow, smooth tone, contrasting with the nasal tone colour of the bowed strings.

Gradually throughout the piece, a more ominous character is created as the chords and melodies of the piano become more inharmonious, and there is dissonance within the ensemble.

Teaching vocabulary so it ‘sticks’

■ Form – spelling and pronunciation■Meaning – remembering that English words

are ‘polysemous’■ Usage – the context of the word, how it

collocates with other words

Teaching vocabulary so it ‘sticks’■ Go slow – repetition at intervals is more

effective than intensive work■ Go deep – examine the word through multiple

lenses■ Stay contextual – words make their meaning

from the company they keep■ Be systematic■ Teach up

– Robert Bjork’s theory of ‘desirable difficulties’ –meaning sticks better if you’ve had to work at it

In practice…..going deep

Teaching vocabulary across the disciplines through word study

■ Word study involves:– orthographic knowledge (understanding

what is possible in letter order)– semantic knowledge (knowing what

words mean)– etymological knowledge (knowing

where words come from)– morphological knowledge (knowing the

meaningful parts of the word)

Morphological knowledge – the study of meaning within words

■Morphemes are the meaning units within a word

■Morphemes can be base words or affixes.

.

Morphemes help with conceptual understanding.■ six – ty, six – teen■ peri – meter

They build vocabulary.■ peri – scope■ tele – scope

They are foundational to spelling.■ mathematic – ian

They are key to reading comprehension and writing in complex and nuanced ways

What does this word mean?

acyanopsia

Investigating words to build vocabulary■ pathogenic = patho + gen + ic

– patho = suffering■ sympathy, empathy, pathology

– gen = something that produces– ic = adjective suffix

■ colla (glue) gen, carcino (cancer) gen

■ quarantine– quaranta = 40– quarantine = from 1337– ‘Venetian custom of keeping ships from plague-

stricken countries waiting off its port for 40 days’■ Etymonline.com

The ‘stans’ in Geography

Kazakhstan■ stan – land (Farsi – Iran)■ kazakh – the indigenous

people (Cossacks)

Pakistan■ Pak – pure (Farsi and Urdu)■ Also an acronym from

Punjab, Afghani border, Kashmir– Ask any of your Farsi,

Urdu and Arabic speaking students what the names of countries are in their language

In Business and in Health

incorporate■ in = prefix means in■ corp(us) = means

body (both senses)■ orate = suffix making

verbsChallenge: Think about corpse, corpulent, corpuscle

muscle■ mus = mouse!Challenge: explain that!!!

Etymology = the reason for the word

■ Borrowed from other languages– French, Latin,

Greek and many many others!

■ Onomatopoeia – zip, laugh

■ Abbreviations– movies, fridge

■ Acronyms– scuba, laser

■ Portmanteaus– brunch, chortle

■ Eponyms– sideburns,

leotards

Can you explain the spelling of its name?

Morphology and etymology will help you.

SarcophilusHarrisii

Once upon a time…..

King Harald the Bluetooth

A vocabulary activity

■ patronise■ isolated■ calculated

1. Student friendly definition – (is your definition discipline specific)

2. Example sentence - (is your sentence discipline specific?)

3. How does the word make its meaning?

4. Building other words from the same roots

■ Calculus = (Latin) small pebble, limestone■ Calculate = verb, suffix ‘ate’ to make verbs■ Calculation = abstract noun, suffix ‘ate’ + suffix ‘ion’

to make abstract nouns■ Calculator = noun, suffix ‘ate’ + suffix ‘or’ to make

nouns■ Calcium = calc + suffix ‘ium’ for marking metallic

elements■ Calcify = calc + suffix ‘ify’ to make verbs

Systematic vocabulary building across the disciplines

– Paleolithic– Paleo = old, lithic = stone

– So , neolithic is……

– Neo = new, lithic = stone

Words across the disciplines - Science– Lithosphere– Litho = stone, sphere = to be surrounded by, a

circle of

– So atmosphere and stratosphere are …

■ Atmos = steam, air, strato = layer

– Stratify■ Strat = layer, ify = a suffix that turns a noun into a

verbStratification

Strat = layer, ifi = verb, cation = noun

Morphemes in the Arts

■ lithograph– litho – stone, graph – writing/drawing

■ photograph– photo – light

■ choreograph– choreo – dance

Words across the disciplines

Food technologypaleo dietprotein = proto = first

Scienceprotonprotozoic

Technologyprototype

Historyprotocol

Englishprotagonist

From other schools…Choose ONE word that is specific to your learning area. Using the word wall, help your students unpack the word using one of the knowledges. You will need to share this word and what you have found out about it at our next session.

Word Knowledge Activity What I found out

Equilibrium Etymological + morphemic

Students used etymological dictionary and then found other ‘equal’ words- Equaliser- Equality- Equally

Equal- from Latin word ‘aequalis’ meaning uniform,identicalLibra- balance, scale (Latin)ium- common suffix (morpheme) used with borrowed Latin words, most often referring to compounds – magnesium, titanium

Across curriculum approach

routine theory orbit

radius hectares illegally

vigorous experience glacier

queue convenient wreckage

census veterinarian

circumnavigate

Science

Mathematics

HaSSHPE

TechnologiesArts