Visualizing Vocabulary: Moving Beyond Lists and Definitions

1
Visualizing Vocabulary Moving Beyond Lists and
Definitions

• Janie R. Goodman M.Ed.
• jgoodteach_at_aol.com
• Victoria A. Oglan Ph.D.
• oglanmon_at_mailbox.sc.edu
• University of South Carolina

2
2D Palindromes

• are word squares in which every
• row and column reads as a word in
• both directions.

3
The Nym Family

• Words ending in nym are often used
• to describe different classes of words,
• and the relationships between words.
• The nym literally means name, from
• the Greek onoma meaning name or
• word.

4
Some of the family members
acronyms antonyms aptronyms
autonyms tautonyms homonyms
hypernyms eponyms exonyms
patronyms contronyms bacronyms
synonyms meronyms metonyms
heteronyms hyperonyms hyponyms
autoantonyms capitonyms oronyms
paronyms pseudonyms retronyms
5
Lets Predict

• How many words are there in the English language?

6

• How many words do you think you know?

7

• What is the longest word in the English language?

8

• What word in the English language has the most
  meanings?

9

• Set has 464 definitions in the Oxford English
  Dictionary

10

• Run runs a distant second with 396

11
Rounding out the top 10 are

• go with 368
• take with 343
• stand with 334
• get with 289
• turn with 288
• put with 268
• fall with 264
• strike with 250

12

• How many metaphors do you use in regular
  conversation
• (free discourse)?

13

• It is now well accepted that the chief cause of
  the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups
  is a language gap.
• Ed Hirsch
  2003

14

• Struggling readers lack word knowledge
• Struggling readers do not use visualization as a
  strategy

15
Research also tells us word knowledge

• promotes reading fluency
• boosts reading comprehension
• improves academic achievement
• enhances thinking and communication

16
And

• Students learn words through wide reading
• Knowing a word means more than knowing a
  definition for the word
• Discussion leads to vocabulary learning
• Students learn words through strategy instruction

17
What Doesnt Work?

• Copying definitions
• Writing sentences
• Telling students to use context
• Memorizing lists of definitions
• 
  Feldman Kinsella (2003)

18
Four Principles to Guide Vocabulary Instruction

• Students should be active learners in vocabulary
  and strategies to enhance vocabulary
• Students benefit from personalizing the learning
  of words

19
Four Principles to Guide Vocabulary Instruction

• Students gain from immersion in words
• Students augment their vocabulary through
  repeated exposure to words

20

• Comprehensive vocabulary instruction that
• includes strategy instruction where students
• are provided opportunities to play with words
• and language is a necessary part of a plan
• for academic success.

21
Some Strategies to Think About

• Word sorts
• Sticky note sentences
• Cloze tasks
• Word walls
• Picture walk (to introduce new words)
• Rebus
• Word webs

22

• List, group label
• Ten important words
• Kid-Friendly definitions
• Word wonder
• ARTiculate the word
• Word curiosity

23
Search the web

• www.cnn.com/studentnews
• www.funwithwords.com
• www.nytimes.com/pages/education
• www.smithsonian.com
• www.teachingtolerance.org

24
Become a wordsmith, a lexophile

• Make your classroom a place where students learn
  to become language collectors.

25
Remember

• One forgets words as one forgets names. One's
  vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will
  die.
• Evelyn Waugh

26
So Now We Are
27
(No Transcript)