Learning Words Inside and Out

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Learning Words Inside and Out

• Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
• San Diego State University
• www.fisherandfrey.com
• Books.heinemann.com/wordwise
• Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and
  content rich Five essential steps to teaching
  academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

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Ill go back to school and learn more about the
brain!
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400 Page text
Somites are blocks of dorsal mesodermal cells
adjacent to the notochord during vertebrate
organogensis. Improved vascular definition in
radiographs of the arterial phase or of the
venous phase can be procured by a process of
subtraction whereby positive and negative images
of the overlying skull are superimposed on one
another.
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Skills Versus Strategies?
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I dont know how youre going to learn this, but
its on the test.
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Quick, Build Background!
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Expand Understanding Through Reading
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Reading Increasingly Difficult Texts
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Read Non-Traditional Texts

• To date, over 100 YouTube videos!
• PBS (The Secret Life of the Brain)
• Internet quiz sites about neuroanatomy
• Talking with peers and others interested in the
  brain

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But, the midterm comes
17 pages, single spaced
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Besides Some Neuroanatomy, What Have I Learned?

• You cant learn from books you cant read (but
  you can learn)
• Reading widely builds background and vocabulary
• Interacting with others keeps me motivated and
  clarifies information and extends understanding
• I have choices and rely on strategies

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An Intentional Vocabulary Initiative

• Make it intentional through word selection and
  intentional instruction.
• Make it transparent through teacher modeling of
  word-solving and word learning.
• Make it useable with collaborative learning.
• Make it personal by fostering student ownership.
• Make it a priority with schoolwide practices.
• Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and
  content rich Five essential steps to teaching
  academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

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Step 1 Make it Intentional Selecting and
Teaching Words
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TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
I do it
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
We do it
You do it together
Collaborative
You do it alone
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
A Structure for Instruction that Works
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But Which Words Do We Teach
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Influence of Background Knowledge

• Catherine the Great, a minor aristocrat from
  Germany, became Empress of Russia when her
  husband Peter, the grandson of Peter the Great,
  was killed.

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Types of Vocabulary

• Tier 1/General
• Commonplace learned from interactions with texts
  and people
• Tier 2/Specialized
• Change meaning with context (polysemic)
• Tier 3/Technical
• Specific to the discipline
• A starting point for selecting vocabulary

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General Vocabulary

• On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie,
  Royal Governor of His Majestys Colony in
  Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the
  capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports
  from the frontier. The French were causing
  trouble again, pushing their way into British
  land. There was a whiff of war in the air.
• Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginias
  western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even
  said that their colony stretched across the
  continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old
  claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to
  a map to see North America as it really was.
  (Allen, 2004, p. 1-2)

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Specialized Vocabulary

• On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie,
  Royal Governor of His Majestys Colony in
  Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the
  capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports
  from the frontier. The French were causing
  trouble again, pushing their way into British
  land. There was a whiff of war in the air.
• Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginias
  western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even
  said that their colony stretched across the
  continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old
  claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to
  a map to see North America as it really was.
  (Allen, 2004, p.1)

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Technical Vocabulary

• On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie,
  Royal Governor of His Majestys Colony in
  Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the
  capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports
  from the frontier. The French were causing
  trouble again, pushing their way into British
  land. There was a whiff of war in the air.
• Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginias
  western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians
  even said that their colony stretched across the
  continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old
  claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to
  a map to see North America as it really was.
  (Allen, 2004, p.1)

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The Problem Too Many Words!

• 17 words identified in 2 paragraphs
• Ideal is 8-10 a week for deep teaching (Scott,
  Jamieson-Noel, and Asselin, 2003)
• Must be narrowed, but how?

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Questions for Selecting Vocabulary

1. Representative
2. Repeatability
3. Transportable
4. Contextual Analysis
5. Structural Analysis
6. Cognitive Load

• Is it critical to understanding?
• Will it be used again?
• Is it needed for discussions or writing?
• Can they use context to figure it out?
• Can they use structure?
• Have I exceeded the number they can learn?

Adapted from Graves, 2006 Nagy, 1988 Marzano
Pickering, 2005
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Step 2 Make it Transparent Modeling
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Teacher Modeling

• Brief (5-10 minutes) think-alouds
• Identify unfamiliar words to learn procedures for
  discerning meaning
• Show students how to look inside (morphology and
  structure) and outside (context clues and
  resources) words

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What to Model?

• Comprehension
• Word Solving
• Text Structure
• Text Features

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Morphology and Word Parts

• Affixes
• Root words
• Derivations
• Cognates for English learners
• Beware of false cognates! (embarrassed/embarazada)

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Context Clues

• Definition/Explanation
• Access to clean water would ameliorate, and
  improve upon, living conditions within the
  village.
• Restatement/Synonym
• Access to clean water would ameliorate living
  conditions within the village such that life
  would be tolerable for the people who live there.
• Contrast/Antonym
• Access to clean water would ameliorate living
  conditions within the village whereas continued
  reliance on a polluted river will exacerbate a
  bad situation.
• Inference/General Context
• Access to clean water would ameliorate living
  conditions within the village. Clean water would
  make life tolerable as residents could focus on
  other pressing needs such as finding food and
  shelter.
• Punctuation
• Access to clean water would ameliorate--make
  tolerable--living conditions within the village.

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But Context Isnt Always Enough

• The documentary film March of the Penguins was a
  surprise hit in 2005. However, the movie
  neglected to point out that the population of
  emperor penguins is thinning.
• Since the 1970s, the penguins neighborhood has
  become increasingly warm. The Southern Ocean
  experiences natural shifts in weather from one
  decade to the next, but this warm spell has
  continued, causing the thinning of sea ice. Less
  sea ice means fewer krill, the penguins main
  food source. Also, the weakened ice is more
  likely to break apart and drift out to sea,
  carrying off the young penguin chicks, who often
  drown.
• Is global warming responsible for the thinning of
  penguin population? Scientists believe so.
  (Gore, 2007, p. 94)
• Think aloud to clear up confusions about skinny
  penguins!

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Resources

• Peer resources from productive group work
• Dictionaries
• Bookmark Internet resources
• Model how you use these (Phone a Friend,
  dictionary use on doc camera)

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Discussion Questions
What might teacher modeling contribute to your
students learning? Describe word-solving
approaches you can model for your students. What
do you believe is necessary in order for students
to begin to take on what is being modeled for
them?
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Step 3 Make it Useable Collaborating with Peers
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Tips for Productive Group Work

• Establish purpose (content, language, and social
  goals)
• Variety is the spice of life
• Integrate activities into content flow

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Fostering Collaboration

• Partner and small-group discussions
• Jigsaws
• Student think-alouds
• Reciprocal teaching
• Co-constructed graphic organizers
• Semantic feature analysis

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25,000 Pyramid
Ancient Greeks
Contributions to Science
Philosophers Major Wars
Greek City-States Government Structures
Gods and Goddesses
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Concept Circles Planet before August 2006
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Round in shape
Large
Orbits a star
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Concept Circles Planet after August 2006
Sufficient gravity to sweep its orbit
PLUTO
Round in shape
Size dominates its region of space
Orbits a star
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Victors Shades of Meaning in Sixth Grade English
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Step 4 Make it Personal Individual Activities
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Challenges to Independent Work

• 28 of high school teachers often or very often
  run out of time in class and assign the content
  for homework (MetLife, 2008)
• Should follow modeling, guided practice, and
  collaborative work with peers (Fisher Frey,
  2008)

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Conditions that Support Independent Learning

• Choice
• Differentiation
• Relevance
• Goal is application of learning

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Baos Concept Open Sort in 8th Grade Algebra
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Tinos Vocabulary Self-Awareness Chart in Physics
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Alphabet Vocabulary Chart
A-B C-D E-F G-H
I-J K-L M-N O-P
Q-R S-T U-V-W X-Y-Z
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Alphabet Vocabulary Chart
A-B C-D crater E-F G-H
I-J K-L lava M-N magma O-P
Q-R S-T U-V-W volcano X-Y-Z
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Alphabet Vocabulary Chart
A-B ash C-D crater cinder cone E-F flow G-H
I-J K-L lava M-N magma magnitude O-P
Q-R Rim of Fire S-T shield volcano tremor U-V-W volcano vent volcanologist X-Y-Z
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Alphabet Vocabulary Chart
A-B ash active balsat C-D crater cinder cone caldera E-F flow eruption extrusion G-H geothermal harmonic tremor
I-J intrusion K-L lava lahar M-N magma magnitude mantle O-P obsidian pahoehoe pillow lava
Q-R Rim of Fire S-T shield volcano tremor U-V-W volcano vent volcanologist X-Y-Z xenoliths
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Amys Vocabulary Card in Chemistry
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Step 5 Make it a Priority Creating a
Schoolwide Focus
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Why Go Schoolwide?

• Schoolwide focus is one of the most important
  actions a middle or high school can take to
  improve achievement (Langer, 2001 Reeves, 2000)
• Focus on literacy schoolwide leads to long-term
  improvement in climate, achievement (Fisher,
  Frey, Williams, 2002)

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Two Schoolwide Initiatives

• Words of the Week (WOW Words) to focus on SAT
  words
• Wide reading to build background, increase
  exposure, and foster interest in reading

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Words of the Week

• Five words a week (Fid, Fi to trust)
• Affidavit, confidant, defiant, fidelity, infidel
• Grouped by affix or derivation
• Departments propose words
• Goal is to build vocabulary and teach patterns
  for unfamiliar words
• Introduced in English classes

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WOW at Northview (MI) High School
Created by Tricia Ericksons Art and Technology
Students
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Incidental Learning Through Wide Reading

• Cumulative effect of reading 60 minutes per day
  x 5 days a week 2,250,000 words per year
• 2,250 words learned per year this way (Mason,
  Stahl, Au, Herman, 2003)
• A bargain, considering that only 300-500 words
  can be directly taught each year

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Who benefits? How?

• Text must be at independent level (you cant
  learn from books you cant read)
• Older readers learn more words than younger
  readers
• Stronger readers learn more words than struggling
  readers
• The words they are likely to learn are those they
  know a little bit about

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8 Factors for SSR

• Access
• Appeal
• Environment
• Encouragement
• Staff training
• Non-accountability
• Follow-up activities
• Distributed time to read
• Pilgreen, J. (2000). The sustained silent reading
  handbook. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann

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Discussion Questions
Its not enough to list the Words of the Week
they need to be taught. How do you believe the
vocabulary cards reinforce and expand word
learning? Why does game playing reinforce
learning? How does motivation play a role in
learning? What can students learn about adult
reading habits through SSR?
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Learning Words Inside and Outside

• When our teaching is at its best, our students
  learn take what theyve learned inside our
  classrooms to their outside lives. Vocabulary
  doesnt exist between the school bellsit is
  carried with each learner for the rest of their
  lives.