Title: Accelerated Vocabulary Instruction
1Accelerated Vocabulary Instruction
- Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gap for
All Students - Author Nancy Akhavan
2Estimated Number of Words Children Hear by Age 3
3Vocabulary Matters
- Vocabulary is closely associated with
intelligence and with knowledge - Vocabulary influences reading comprehension
- Vocabulary growth is cumulative
- Children who begin school with a vocabulary gap
dont catch up without intervention
4Principles For Vocabulary Instruction
- Creating a word-rich learning environment
- Making Connections to words
- Engaging students with explicit instruction
- Accelerating vocabulary development through wide
reading
5Principles That Guide Vocabulary Instruction
- Plan to Create a word-rich learning environment.
- Plan to Teach concepts not words.
- Plan to Show children how to make connections
- between words.
- Plan to Make your thinking transparent as a
- model for children.
- Plan to Put content first and teach reading in
fiction and non fiction genres.
6Plan to Engage children with intensive mini-
lessons. Plan to mentor children during
individual sustained reading. Plan to Balance
vocabulary instruction between explicit and
implicit activities. Plan to Spiral learning by
using familiar methods and activities with new
words. Plan to Foster word learning by creating
word-learning areas in your classroom.
7Design Effective Mini-Lessons
- Connect (Wakes Up the Brain) Immediately
focuses childrens attention on the words they - are going to learn. This takes one minute.
- Teach (Explicit Instruction) Teach words and
concepts that children dont know yet and links
new learning to prior knowledge quickly. This
takes ten minutes. - Practice (Guided and Authentic) Children are
engaged with information that they are able to
process for themselves. This takes five minutes. - Wrap Up (Transition) A sentence or two that
highlights the learning.
8Vocabulary Lessons
- Should focus on learning something new
- Should engage curiosity and concentration
- Should sustain interest and help with making a
new word more meaningful - Should move information from short term memory to
long term memory - Should connect with words the way they connect
with other media in their lives, including music,
computer games, and reading information on the
Worldwide Web
9In order for students to use a word in writing or
when speaking it takes a greater understanding of
a words meaning. Differentiate your instruction
to meet the needs of all students. Following a
few routines in your daily lessons can help to
accelerate a students ability to focus deeply on
a word and allows them to increase their
vocabulary. Active Allow students time to work
with their peers on ideas. We rush students to be
independent and we dont trust that they can
learn with a peer or in a group Visual/Kinestheti
c Move information from short term memory to
long term memory by allowing students to draw
and write their own definitions of words or act
out words by having children demonstrate the
definition. Repetition Some researchers
estimate that it takes at least 12 purposeful
encounters with a word for children to own it or
to be able to retrieve it from their memory and
use it correctly (Stahl, 1985 Stahl Nagy,
2006). Drill exercises are proven to be the least
effective way to teach vocabulary. Background -
Children will think of images that match a words
meaning, and with time they will use what they
know to create their own definition. Fast
Mapping This is the unconscious action our
memory takes when we first begin to learn a
word and occurs after one or two encounters with
a word. Students might say theyve heard the
word or seen it, but they dont know what it
means. Fast mapping is part of explicit
vocabulary instruction.
10The Three Levels of Word Knowing
- Word Association
- Recognize words they read or hear
- Have curiosity about new words
- Are able to attend to new words, rather then
forget them immediately - Word Comprehension
- Know and understand words they read or hear
- Can answer multiple-choice test questions about a
word - Appreciate beautiful language
- Word Generation
- Use words in writing
- Use words in conversation and academic discussion
- Use words in new ways
- (Stahl, 1985)
11Four Ingredients To Student Learning
- Engage
- Integrate
- Assess
- Reflect
12Engage
- Share examples of beautiful, lyrical language
- Celebrate and accept students favorite phrases
and words - Share a fascination with facts, ideas, and
information - Share a fascination with words
- Act out meanings
- Draw word meanings
- Honor students attempts to discover and try new
words.
13Integrate
- Our memories work best when new information
connects to schema. - Students should keep track of their personal word
goals and focus on how they expand their
vocabularies - Teachers present students with academic words
- Word meanings are explained throughout the day
14Assess
- Listen to students read and focus on how they
determine the meaning of unknown words - Assess group knowledge of core words and content
words of study. -
- To determine how students are developing
- Develop an understanding of what they know about
word usage - Focus on teaching words they dont know, rather
than teaching something they already know - Listen to them read to determine how well they
infer word meaning - Listen to them read and help them to apply their
word knowledge - Assess their word knowledge appropriately to see
if they are only acquainted with a word or if
they own it
15Reflect
- When you reflect on your instruction and
student learning you can align what you are
teaching to what you plan to teach. - After instruction, do the following
- Reflect on student learning Are students able to
try new words? - Reflect on students word usage in writing,
speaking, and academic conversations - Ensure that the classroom environment allows for
children to experiment and learn new words and
concepts. - Focus on making our thinking transparent, model
and make explicit learning and thinking that are
implicit.
16When we provide connected learning, we are
accelerating the rate at which children learn and
know new words. We have to focus on how we teach
so that we help our students understand that
expanding their vocabularies is important. By
providing both explicit and implicit
opportunities to learn words, we can help our
children move beyond the short, quick phrases
they use for daily friend-to-friend communication
and learn new discourses. In sum, we teach them
how words are used in school and in life and how
words connect us to the world. (Akhavan, 2007)