“Dynamic Vocabulary Instruction”
http://www.scoe.org/pub/htdocs/archer-videos.html
Anita Archer
I was discussing vocabulary with a colleague when she made the comment that she wanted vocabulary lessons that were researched based and that could be embedded in the curriculum. She didn’t want to always dedicate time to a separate vocabulary activity. I began looking at Anita Archer’s speaker notes from a conference she led a few years ago where she discussed “Explicit Vocabulary Instruction”. Much like Kylene Beers, she emphasizes only picking a few words per section, chapter, etc. She also says that teachers should select words students will encounter often and use in the future. This is a great and fairly quick way to embed vocabulary into your lesson.
Before each chapter or unit, pick a few words (5-8) that you as the teacher will use continually. Discuss briefly the meaning of those words when you first begin to use them in class. Then post them in the room, use them in essential questions, put them in journal prompts, model using these words in answers to questions as you lead discussion in class. These are easy ways that I have found to embed vocabulary into my everyday classroom lessons. It takes a little planning to begin with, but then I find that the kids start to use the words as their own.
A few weeks ago, I posted the question, “When is war justifiable?” as a thinking question regarding the civil war. Many students asked what justifiable meant, and I simply told them a brief definition as well as related words such as just, justice, justified. Then as we began a discussion about their thoughts, I kept referring back to this word and I found that most students when speaking to me or each other started to use this word themselves appropriately. I believe that these are the simple, easy, but effective ways we can start to embed necessary vocabulary into our everyday.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
What some experts have to say about vocabulary...
I have found that everyone has an opinion on how to teach vocabulary. I have also found that these opinions change based on how old the students are, what they are learning, if they know anything about that subject ahead of time, how much they read, what their background is, where they live, how much money their parents make, if their parents spoke to them in the womb, the list goes on and on. Out of the many theories out there, I picked a few that I thought were interesting and that seemed to line up with how I see vocabulary working in my own classroom. I will add more ideas, theories, and opinions on vocabulary in additional posts as well. Here’s a start...
When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do
Kylene Beers
I would encourage all teachers of middle school or older students to read this book. It has a lot of great information about all things reading, including vocabulary. Her main premise is that students should learn words they hear often and will actually use regularly. For example, perhaps students are only required to learn 5 words a week. Teachers will use those same 5 words in their speech in the weeks prior to students being asked to use them. Students will hear them being used and then will also expected to use them in conversations with each other. Beers argues that the more students hear and use vocabulary words, the more they will truly have mastery over them. To me, this also means that vocabulary words that students need to know specific to a certain content area should be simply discussed in class as they read. True vocabulary practice should be left for words that they will hear and use consistently (activities showing how this works is coming in new entries!)
Vocabulary Processes
Judith A. Scott and William E. Nagy
These two know their stuff on vocabulary, but I want to pay special attention to what they say about what it means to “know a word.” They assert that “knowing” a word depends on exposure to the words, the various ways students hear the word being used, and the idea that students know that most words relate to other words. Obviously it is not as simple as “Yes, they know it!” or “Nope, they don’t!”. Your students may in fact “know” a word to a certain degree. Our job then as teachers is to increase this degree or measure at which they “know” vocabulary words.
“Big Ideas and Concepts Regarding Vocabulary”
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/voc/voc_what.php
University of Oregon
As I was scrolling around on the web, I ran across this website. It contains a lot of information that you could perhaps find in many places, but it’s all contained in one site, concise, and it has a large references page which I found helpful in finding more research and other vocabulary-interested authors. A few interesting tidbits I found here...
“Children who enter school with limited vocabulary knowledge grow more discrepant over time from their peers...” (Baker, Simmons, and Kame’enui, 1997)
“After the primary grades, the “achievement gap” between socioeconomic groups is a language gap.” (Hirsh, 2002)
“For English Language Learners, the “achievement gap” is primarily a vocabulary gap.” (Carlo, et al., 2004)
When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do
Kylene Beers
I would encourage all teachers of middle school or older students to read this book. It has a lot of great information about all things reading, including vocabulary. Her main premise is that students should learn words they hear often and will actually use regularly. For example, perhaps students are only required to learn 5 words a week. Teachers will use those same 5 words in their speech in the weeks prior to students being asked to use them. Students will hear them being used and then will also expected to use them in conversations with each other. Beers argues that the more students hear and use vocabulary words, the more they will truly have mastery over them. To me, this also means that vocabulary words that students need to know specific to a certain content area should be simply discussed in class as they read. True vocabulary practice should be left for words that they will hear and use consistently (activities showing how this works is coming in new entries!)
Vocabulary Processes
Judith A. Scott and William E. Nagy
These two know their stuff on vocabulary, but I want to pay special attention to what they say about what it means to “know a word.” They assert that “knowing” a word depends on exposure to the words, the various ways students hear the word being used, and the idea that students know that most words relate to other words. Obviously it is not as simple as “Yes, they know it!” or “Nope, they don’t!”. Your students may in fact “know” a word to a certain degree. Our job then as teachers is to increase this degree or measure at which they “know” vocabulary words.
“Big Ideas and Concepts Regarding Vocabulary”
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/voc/voc_what.php
University of Oregon
As I was scrolling around on the web, I ran across this website. It contains a lot of information that you could perhaps find in many places, but it’s all contained in one site, concise, and it has a large references page which I found helpful in finding more research and other vocabulary-interested authors. A few interesting tidbits I found here...
“Children who enter school with limited vocabulary knowledge grow more discrepant over time from their peers...” (Baker, Simmons, and Kame’enui, 1997)
“After the primary grades, the “achievement gap” between socioeconomic groups is a language gap.” (Hirsh, 2002)
“For English Language Learners, the “achievement gap” is primarily a vocabulary gap.” (Carlo, et al., 2004)
I am in Language Limbo
Yes, it's true, I am in language limbo. While doing the master's program at Sonoma State I am constantly wondering, what do I think language is? What do I think reading is? What do I think writing is? Does anything qualify? This blog will be my process of figuring it out. Waiting, expecting, exploring, failing, and hopefully achieving. A real state of limbo. This will be the place where I air out my dirty teaching so to speak, tell it how it really is in my mind and my classroom. I will explore theory and research, post lessons from myself and others, and give offerings to other teachers who might have the same interests I do on language and literacy.
This will be an interesting journey and I think I will learn a lot along the way. Hope you do too.
This will be an interesting journey and I think I will learn a lot along the way. Hope you do too.
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