Focus on Vocabulary Development

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Focus on VocabularyDevelopment
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Overview of the Focus

• Research
• Implications for Best Practice
• Strategies and Activities

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What is Vocabulary?

• Words we speak
• Words we need to know
• to understand what we hear
• Words we need to know
• to construct meaning when reading
• Words we use in writing
• Armbruster, et al., 2001

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Research
Vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to
reading proficiency and school achievement.
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Research

• The problem
• There are profound differences in vocabulary
  knowledge among learners from
• different ability and socioeconomic groups
• beginning with toddlers all the way through
  high school.
• In fact, high-knowledge third graders had
  vocabularies equal to low-performing 12th
  graders.
• Beck McKeown, 1991
• Smith, 1941

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Research Review

• After 35 years of review, Marzano and colleagues
  concluded research quite specifically points to
  eleven school-, teacher-, and student-level
  factors that determine student achievement.
• Among these factors is Academic Vocabulary
• It is one of the strongest indicators of how
  well students will learn subject area content
  when they come to school.
• Many students acquire vocabulary outside of
  school and come to the subject-area classes
  already knowing and using terms essential for
  understanding content.
• 
  Marzano Pickering, 2001

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Research

• Two types of students
• Those from academically advantaged environments
  
• Those from academically disadvantaged
  environments.
• As time progresses, the gap in academic
  vocabulary knowledge grows even larger, as does
  the gap in academic achievement .
• 
  Marzano Pickering, 2004

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How many words do you know?

• 2,500 words
• (typical 3rd grade
  student)
• 19,000-200,000
• (typical college
  student)

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Do the math

• To learn 175,000 words between
• third grade and college,
• a student would need to learn about
• 17,500 words every year, or
• 48 words every day, or
• 115 words every school day
• Kamil (Stanford), 2003

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More

• Low SES students use 1/3 to 1/2 the words of
  higher SES students
• Hart Risely, 1995

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Similarly

• ELL students use 1/3 to 1/2 the words of an
  average educated persons active vocabulary
• Nash, 1997

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Research

• Researchers have stated that
• Vocabulary deficiencies are a primary cause of
  academic failure in grades 3-12.
• Baumann Kameenui,1991
• Stanovich, 1986
  Becker, 1977

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Consider

• It is a vocabulary deficit that contributes
• to student failure in content classrooms
• and in meeting content standards.

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Five Research-based Facts

• Vocabulary is essential to learning
• Students bring a wide range of vocabulary to
  school
• Oral language, talk and listening is critical
• Books and wide reading are essential
• Instruction can make a difference.
• Blachowicz, 2005

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Acquiring Vocabulary

• Students learn the meanings of most words
  incidentally or indirectly (implicitly) through
  everyday experiences by
• Engaging in oral language (conversing,
  interacting, hearing others, asking questions)
• Reading others communication
• Listening to adults read high level selections to
  them and discussing the selection
• Reading extensively on their own

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However

• Some vocabulary needs to be taught intentionally
  (explicitly) by providing
• Specific word/term instruction
• Word-learning strategies

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Vocabulary is essential to comprehension because
  of its long-term impact upon powers of
  communication and concept development.
• It requires on-going instruction
• To increase student familiarity and understanding
  of word meanings
• To expand student word recognition
• To increase student comprehension of content

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Vocabulary instruction should be an integral part
  of ALL instruction
• It may begin with the major concept or
• big ideas of the content,
• i.e. photosynthesis, area, income tax, story
  elements
• Or, be the foundations of content information
• i.e. chloroplasts, square unit, paycheck,
  plot

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Vocabulary Instruction

• The average student in middle grades
• and beyond
• must acquire approximately 3,000 new words
  each year to stay current with each successive
  grade level. Nagy
  Anderson, 1984

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Kinds of Gains Expected

• Depicts a student who is in the 50th percentile
  in terms of vocabulary with no direct vocabulary
  instruction
• Depicts same student after specific content-area
  vocabulary instruction and their ability to
  comprehend subject matter taught in school
• INCREASE OF 33
• Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research since 1980 suggests that the following
  principles should guide vocabulary instruction
• Find ways to actively engage students when
  learning new words and developing understanding
  of their meaning
• Enable students to personalize word learning
• Use multiple sources of information to teach
  words through repeated exposures
• Immerse students and the classroom in words

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Vocabulary Instruction

• National Reading Panel report (2000) offers the
• following implications for practice
• Vocabulary should be taught directly and
  indirectly
• Repetition and multiple exposures to vocabulary
  are important
• Learning in rich contexts is valuable for
  vocabulary learning
• Vocabulary tasks should be restructured when
  necessary
• Vocabulary learning should entail active
  engagement in learning tasks

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Student comprehension and memory is strengthened
when

• Relate to the content/words by experiencing it,
  by imagining it, and by using other sensory
• experiences or images such as sensing, or
• experiencing its smell, taste, feel, or
  outcome
• Represent it by brainstorming, identifying
  associations, comparing/contrasting, structured
  mapping , visual organizers, drawing, writing
  about the words or using them in conversations
• Reason with words/concepts by developing their
  definitions, identifying cluster associations,
  classifying words, acting them out, using them in
  creative writing

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Vocabulary Instruction should not be left to
chance

• Vocabulary instruction that improves
  comprehension has the following characteristics
• Multiple exposures to instructed words
• Exposure to words in meaningful contexts
• Rich or varied information about each word
• The establishment of ties between instructed
  words
• and students own experience and prior
  knowledge
• An active role by students in the word-learning
  process
• Nagy and Herman,
  1987 Beck, et al.,
• 2002 Beck, et al.,
  1987

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Vocabulary development is the
• responsibility of every teacher

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Dept or Coordinator Training

• Additional Slide Presentation, Teacher Activities
  and Material Available for Training Purposes
• Includes
• Marzanos 6-Step for Vocabulary Building
• Activities for Engagement
• Games to Reinforce Vocabulary Retention

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A Six-Step Process for Teaching New Terms
Step 1 Provide a description, explanation, or
example of the new term.
Step 2 Ask students to restate the description,
explanation, or example in their own words.
Step 3 Ask students to construct a picture,
symbol, or graphic representing the term or
phrase.
Step 4 Engage students periodically in
activities that help them add to their knowledge
of the terms in their notebooks.
Step 5 Periodically ask students to discuss the
terms with one another.
Step 6 Involve students periodically in games
that allow them to play with terms.
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Activities For Engagement
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Games for Multiple Exposures to Vocabulary
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Closing Words of Wisdom

• In written language, your vocabulary is your
  currency.

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Bibliography

• Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., Osborn, J. (2001).
  Put reading first The research building blocks
  for teaching children to read. Washington, DC
  Partnership for Reading.
• Baumann, J.F. and Kameenui, E.J. (1991). Research
  on vocabulary instruction Ode To Voltaire. In J.
  Flood, J.J. Lapp, and J.R. Squire (Eds.),
  Handbook of research on teaching the English
  language arts (pp. 604-632). New York MacMillan.
  
• Beck, I.L. and McKeown, M.G. (1991). Conditions
  of vocabulary acquisition. In R. Barr, M. Kamil,
  P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of
  reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 789-814). New York
  Longman.
• Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., Kucan, L. (2002).
  Bringing words to life Robust vocabulary
  instruction. New York Guilford.
• Becker, W. C. (1977). Teaching reading and
  language to the disadvantaged What we have
  learned from field research. Harvard Educational
  Review, 47, 518-543.
• Blachowicz, (2005). International Reading
  Association, May International Conference San
  Antonio, TX, Vocabulary Instruction, Powerpoint
  presentation,

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Bibliography

• Hart, B and Risely, T. R. (1995) Meaningful
  differences in the everyday experience of young
  American children. Baltimore. Brookes.
• Kamil, M. (2004). Vocabulary and comprehension
  Making connections in scholarship. Kamil,
  Michael, bio, Stanford University, View the
  presentation, PowerPoint (71K) PDF (103K).
• Marzano, R.J. Pickering, D.J. (2005). Building
  Academic Vocabulary. ASCD.
• Nagy, W.E. and Anderson, R.C. (1984). How many
  words are there in printed English? Reading
  Research Quarterly, 19, 304-330.
• Nagy, W. E., Anderson, R. C., Herman, P. A.
  (1987). Learning word meanings from context
  during normal reading. American Educational
  Research Journal, 24, 237-270.

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Bibliography

• Nash, R. (1997). NTCs dictionary of Spanish
  cognates Thematically organized. Lincolnwood,
  IL NTC Publishing Group National Reading Panel,
  2000, p. 4-4.
• Pickering, D.J. (2004). Classroom Instruction
  That Works, ASCD Workshop Activities Games
• Smith, M. (1941). Measurements of the size of
  general English vocabulary through the elementary
  grades and high school. Monographs of the Journal
  of Genetic  Psychology, 24, 311-345.
• Stahl, S.A. Fairbanks, M.M. (1986).  The
  effects of vocabulary instruction  A model-based
  meta-analysis.  Review of Educational Research,
  56(1), 72-110.
• Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in
  reading Some consequences of individual
  differences in the acquisition of literacy.
  Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360-407.