Reading First Action Seminar

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Reading First Action Seminar Los Angeles Unified
Schools January 2005
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We have evidence that

• Skillful teaching creates successful students.
• When the school works from a shared and explicit
  vision of academic success, then the work of the
  teachers, coaches, and school leaders is more
  focused and learning is more likely to improve.

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The school needs to

• Have an established vision of how to work to
  improve achievement based on coherent
  instruction.
• Establish methods and systems focused on academic
  improvement that are collegial and collaborative.
• Take intentional, coordinated actions to improve
  teaching and learning.

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Keep Doing What Matters

• Consistent improvements in achievement through
  improvements in teaching must be our essential
  focus.
• Develop co-accountability between teacher, coach,
  principal, and director as our tool to improve
  schools.
• Learn together how to improve teaching in the
  room with the students.

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Three Goals for Vocabulary Instruction

• Provide students with skills/opportunities to
• learn words independently.
• Teach students the meanings of specific
• words.
• Nurture a love and appreciation of words
• and their use.
• -Bauman, Kame'enui, Ash, in press

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Expectations for School Teams

• Coaches depth of knowledge and ability to make
  the content accessible to every teacher at any
  grade-level is paramount.
• Administrators depth of knowledge and follow-up
  is critical to successful implementation.
• 75 of professional development should be aimed
  at helping teachers apply new learning in the
  classroom.

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Follow-up Conversation

• What evidence did you see of strategy instruction
  at your school?
• How did you use the information provided in the
  last professional development?
• How does the data reflect the evidence seen and
  actions taken?

• Share the data collected, evidence seen, and the
  actions taken since the last seminar. Colleagues
  will give constructive feedback.

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Tonights Objectives

• 1. Identify actions to move the instructional
  practice of teachers.
• Determine how to extend vocabulary instruction
  beyond the transparency and dictionary.
• Recognize meaningful practice as a follow-up to
  vocabulary instruction.

During your classroom observations, what evidence
do you have that vocabulary development and
instruction is extended beyond strategy
instruction (transparency) and the dictionary?
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(No Transcript)
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Deepening RationalePlease read

• Introductory Section of Bringing Words to Life
• page 1 - top of page 3
• Section titled What Does It Mean To Know A
  Word?
• page 9 - page 12
• 2. Excerpts from The Voice of Evidence in
  Reading Research from the handout packet.
• Silence is golden!

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Table Talk
Discuss the salient points of the readings
with your school team.
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Salient Points from the Reading

• Robust vocabulary instruction was found to be
  effective in learning word meaning and improving
  reading comprehension.
• Students learn words better if they are actively
  engaged in the task of inferring vocabulary
  meanings from context rather than simply being
  given the definition.
• Vocabulary can be directly taught and acquired
  incidentally. Development can be fostered by
  structuring learning tasks to meet students
  needs, employing group learning formats, and
  expecting high engagement by all students.

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To Know a Word

• Receptive Vocabulary Requires a reader to
  associate a specific meaning with a given label
  as in reading or listening.
• Expressive Vocabulary Requires a speaker or
  writer to produce a specific label for a
  particular meaning.

Reflect upon the vocabulary and periodic writing
assessment. Which assessment involves use of
more rigorous expressive vocabulary? Is this
consistent with the data?
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To Know a Word

• Stage 1 never saw it
• Stage 2 heard it, but
• Stage 3 recognize it in context. It has
  something to do with
• Stage 4 know it well
• (Dale, 65)

• No knowledge
• General sense
• Narrow, context-bound knowledge
• Having knowledge of a word but not being able to
  recall it readily enough to use it in appropriate
  situations.
• Rich, decontextualized knowledge of a words
  meaning
• (Beck, McKeown, Omanson, 1987)

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You Try It!
-
X
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Which Words Could We Use for Vocabulary
Instruction?

• Underlined words in the selection
• Words from the vocabulary section of the
  teachers manual
• Problem words from Clues and Problems or words
  needed based on prior knowledge of students
• Words suggested in EL Support Guide
• (Words from the assessment come from point 1 and
  2.)

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Three Tiers of Vocabulary

• Tier 1 The Most Basic Words
• cat, mother, go, red, talk, chocolate
• Tier 2 Words of General Utility for mature
  language users. Words that exemplify the rich use
  of language by a good writer.
• unique, convenient, influence, ponder
• Tier 3 Low Frequency Words that apply to
  specific domains
• nebula, tidal pool, resistivity

The most productive instructional efforts should
be directed toward the second tier. Beck, The
Effects and Uses of Diverse Vocabulary
Instructional Techniques
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Vocabulary Tiering Worksheet Selection
_____________________
 
EL Pre-Teach
cat, mother, go, red, talk, chocolate
Word Wall Concept Board
unique, convenient, influence, ponder
Concept Board
nebula, resistivity
tidal pool
 
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Where is vocabulary strategy instruction taught
and practiced?Where is vocabulary developed?

• Unit Opener
• Blending/Word Knowledge
• Transparency
• During Reading
• After Reading

Workshop/ I.W.T.
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OCR Supplemental Materials
What are the multiple pre-teaching and
re-teaching opportunities in the support
materials? What opportunities are there for
deeper learning?
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Problems with Dictionary Definitions

• Weak differentiation
• Conspicuous easily seen
• How is this different than visible?
• Lacks element of inappropriate or out of place.
• Vague language
• Typical being of a type
• More likely interpretations
• Devious straying from the right course, not
  straight forward
• Walking a line? Not getting lost?
• Lacks element of dishonest.
• Multiple pieces of information
• Exotic foreign strange not native
• Lacks element of relationship, i.e., strange
  because it comes from far away.

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Developing Student-Friendly Explanations

• Characterize the word
• Be as particular as possible.
• Model typical usage.
• Dont be all inclusive - at least not at first.
• Use everyday language
• Lexicographers eschew verbosity.
• As teachers, we are not limited by the space
  requirements of the dictionary. We can talk
  around the idea until we provide enough context
  for it to make sense.

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Digging DeeperPlease jigsaw strategies for
guided practice

• Word Associations (page 44)
• Have You Ever? (page 45)
• Applause, Applause (page 45)
• Idea Completions (page 45)
• Questions, Reasons, Examples (page 56)
• Making Choices (page 56)
• One Context for All the Words (page 56)
• Facets of Word Meaning (page 74)

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Effective Vocabulary Instruction
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(No Transcript)
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Personal Thesaurus
L
known word
New words
target word
antonym
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Personal Thesaurus
L
lively
clever
known word
scintillating
New words
intelligent
target word
antonym
dull
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Personal Dictionary
Illustration My own sentence
New word
Dictionary definition
Definition in own words
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Personal Dictionary
scintillating
We had an exciting, scintillating discussion
about our vacation.
Possessing or displaying dazzling liveliness,
cleverness, or wit
Very exciting, smart, clever
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Planning for Multiple Exposures

• Take into account all of the teaching
  opportunities and resources available to extend
  vocabulary instruction.
• How could the instruction be embedded into a
  weekly lesson plan?

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I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my
career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26
occasions I have been entrusted to take the game
winning shot, and missed. I have failed over and
over and over again in my life. And that is
precisely why I succeed.
-Michael Jordan, Former NBA Player
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School Team Action Plans

• What are your objectives?
• How will your team continue to improve
  vocabulary instruction at
  your school site?
• What are your plans for following through on the
  professional development?

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Writing Objectives
S Specific M Measurable A Actionable R
Realistic T Time-bound
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An Opportunity to Share

• Pair up with another school team.
• Share your action plan.
• Team A Team B (7 minutes)
• Team B Team A (7 minutes)

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Enabling and monitoring the school action plan
is where the rubber meets the road. Here,
action plans are put into practice -
instructional programs are modified, schedules
are changed, professional development is carried
out - and evaluated on an ongoing basis to
determine their effectiveness.
-Middle Level Leadership Center (www.mllc.org)