Academic Vocabulary and Background Knowledge

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Academic Vocabulary and Background Knowledge
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• Academic Vocabulary
• versus
• Everyday Vocabulary

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Gaps

• Differences in vocabulary development
• 3-year olds from families on welfare have about
  70 of the vocabulary of children from working
  class families and 45 of the vocabulary of
  children from professional families.
• These differences will get even greater as the
  children grow older.
• Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background
  knowledge for academic achievement Research on
  what works in schools. ASCD Alexandria, VA.

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• Mobility and poverty impact student achievement
• What do we have control or influence over that
  can impact student achievement?

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• If you wanted to teach all of the standards in
  the national documents, you would have to change
  schooling from K-12 to K-22.
• 255 standards across 14 subject areas
• 3,500 benchmarks

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• 13,000 hours of class time available
• 9,000 hours of instruction available
• 15,500 hours of instruction needed to cover the
  3,500 benchmarks
• Marzano, R. School leadership that works in
  schools. OCPS Principals Institute.
• June 8, 2006.

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• CAAP
• Comprehensive Academic Achievement Plan
• (Standards, Benchmarks,
• Task Analyses)

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OCPS Vocabulary Lists

• Sunshine State Standards
• Benchmarks
• Task Analyses
• FCAT

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Break-out Groups

• Group 1 Building Academic Vocabulary initial
  training complete program begun
• Group 2 Some presentation given need further
  planning
• Group 3 In planning stage

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Vocabulary Lesson?
slope carve powder mogul face-plant
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Definitions

• slope
• 1 ground that forms a natural or artificial
  incline2 upward or downward slant or
  inclination or degree of slant3 the part of a
  continent draining to a particular ocean
  ltAlaska's North Slopegt4 a the tangent of the
  angle made by a straight line with the x-axis b
  the slope of the line tangent to a plane curve at
  a point

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Definitions

• carve
• 1 to cut with care or precision ltcarved
  fretworkgt2 to make or get by or as if by
  cutting -- often used with out ltcarve out a
  careergt3 to cut into pieces or slices ltcarved
  the turkeygtintransitive verb1 to cut up and
  serve meat2 to work as a sculptor or engraver

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Definitions

• powder
• 1 to sprinkle or cover with or as if with
  powder2 to reduce or convert to powder3 to
  hit very hardintransitive verb1 to become
  powder2 to apply cosmetic powder

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Definitions

• mogul
• 1 also moghul or mughal /'mü-/ capitalized
  an Indian Muslim of or descended from one of
  several conquering groups of Mongol, Turkish, and
  Persian origin2 Etymology German dialect akin
  to German dialect (Viennese) mugl small hill a
  bump in a ski run

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Definitions

• face-plant
• 1 a sudden face-first fall

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Building Background Knowledge

• Why direct vocabulary instruction of academic
  terms?
• Estimates of the impact of reading on vocabulary
  development do not take into account the research
  indicating how difficult it is for students to
  learn words through context alone.
• Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background
  knowledge for academic achievement Research on
  what works in schools. ASCD Alexandria, VA.

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Strong Predictor ofAcademic Progress

• Researchsupports what students already know
  about the content is one of the strongest
  indicators of how well they will learn new
  information relative to the content.
• Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background
  knowledge for academic achievement Research on
  what works in schools. ASCD Alexandria, VA.

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Focus on Academic Terms
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OCPS Vocabulary Lists

• Sunshine State Standards
• Benchmarks
• Task Analyses
• FCAT

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Impact of Direct Vocabulary Instruction
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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction
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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on
  definitions.
• therefore, Steps 1 and 2.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Students must represent their knowledge of words
  in linguistic and non-linguistic ways.
• therefore, Step 3.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Involves the gradual shaping of word meanings
  through multiple exposures.
• therefore, Step 4.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Teaching word parts enhances students
  understanding of terms.
• also related to Step 4.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• 5. Different types of words require different
  types of instruction.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Students should discuss the terms they are
  learning.
• therefore, Step 5.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Students should play with words.
• therefore, Step 6.

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Eight Characteristicsof Effective Direct
Vocabulary Instruction

• Instruction should focus on terms that have a
  high probability of enhancing academic success.
• therefore, OCPS Vocabulary Lists!

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• Reflection
• The vocabulary information recently presented is
  common sense, but not necessarily common
  practice.
• How might you help your faculty make these eight
  characteristics and six steps common practice?