Building Background Knowledge through Academic Vocabulary

1
Building Background Knowledge through Academic
Vocabulary
2
the research literature supports one
compelling fact what students already know
about the content is one of the strongest
indicators of how well they learn new information
relative to the content. (Marzano,1)
3
Why does it matter?

• Read the following definition
• A charizard is a final evolution in an RPG. It is
  bipedal and omnivorous and flies with HM02.
  Unlike the charmeleon, it will almost never be
  found in the wild. In contrast to the charmander,
  charizards can command pyrokinetics and their
  loyalty may waiver under neglectful conditions.
  Its name is a portmanteau.

4
Now lets take a quiz

• Which evolution is the Charizard?
• First
• Second
• Third
• Last
• The Charizard is able to fly at ________.
• Compare the Charmeleon, Charmander, and
  Charizard.
• Explain the importance of a Charizard to both
  offense and defense.

5
Why does it matter?

• Compare your score on the quiz to what you feel
  you really understand about a Charizard.
• Were some questions easier than others? Why?
• Is your grade an accurate reflection of your
  understanding? Why or why not?

To understand information "students must be
familiar with the terminology of a given topic
and have some general idea as to the terms
meanings. (Marzano, 32)
6
This knowledge of terms and ideas regarding the
topic of study is called
Academic
Background Knowledge
7
Ways to Build Background Knowledge

• Direct Experiences
• Field Trips
• Mentors
• Indirect Experiences
• Sustained Silent Reading
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction

8
Ways to Build Background Knowledge

• Direct experiences
• Field trips
• Students must know what to look/listen for and
  how dialogue (put into words) about the
  experience
• Mentoring relationships
• Mentor takes on responsibility to build and
  maintain a relationship with student and family
  to enhance experiences and provide opportunity to
  dialogue about them.

9
Ways to Build Background Knowledge

• Indirect experiences
• Sustained silent reading
• Students experience through fiction and
  nonfiction, in unlimited textual formats
  (Internet, magazine, linguistic nonlinguistic
  texts) AND dialogue about their experiences
• The difference between students who read silently
  and those who dont is the 50th to the 81st
  percentile on norm-referenced tests.

10
Ways to Build Background Knowledge

• Indirect Experiences
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction
• Shape the meaning of the new word through many
  experiences
• Graphic or nonlinguistic representations
• Descriptions
• Parts and connections
• Various applications
• Games
• Dialogue and discourse

11
Why does it matter?

• Please draw a picture (no words) of the following
  vocabulary

• Love
• Hate
• Divorce
• Allegiance
• Egregious
• Détente
• Ephemeral

12
Depth of Understanding

• Background knowledge does not have to be detailed
  and thorough to be useful.
• The deeper our understanding the faster we
  remember, but we do not think in broad, general
  knowledge terms anyway
• Connections (similarities, contrasts, etc) with
  what we already know helps clarify what we are
  learning.
• Referents (points of reference) allow our memory
  to make connections.

13
Three Functions of Memory
Sensory Memorytemporary storage of sensory
information, filtered for processing Permanent
Memorypermanently stored information for active
(conscious and unconscious) retrieval Working
Memoryprocessing of conscious, active memory,
retrieved from both sensory and permanent memory
storage
14
Lets revisit our definition

• Read the following definition
• A charizard is a final evolution an in RPG. It is
  bipedal and omnivorous and flies with HM02.
  Unlike the charmeleon, it will almost never be
  found in the wild. In contrast to the charmander,
  charizards can command pyrokinetics and their
  loyalty may waiver under neglectful conditions.
  Its name is a portmanteau.

15
See if this helps

• RPG means a Role Playing Game where the player
  pretends to be a character in the game itself and
  other characters create a team or world with
  which the player will interact.

• The characters in this game evolve through
  phases, gaining strength and powers, but
  maintaining their connection to the player.
• A portmanteau is a word created by combing two
  words.

16
A charizard is

• Kind of like a dragon, with fire on its tail and
  a strong competitive spirit

17
What might memory processing look like?

• Information must make it to permanent memory to
  be part of our background knowledge...
• To make it to permanent memory, information must
  effectively be processed in working memory
• through multiple times over time
• with details added to elaborate the information
• with associations to other information from
  permanent memory

18
Questions?
19
Ways to Build Background Knowledge

• Direct Experiences
• Field Trips
• Mentors
• Indirect Experiences
• Sustained Silent Reading
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction

20
Marzanos Six Steps to Effective Academic
Vocabulary Instruction

• Teacher
• Introduce the vocabulary using description,
  images, stories, or examples
• Student (with teacher to guide and facilitate)
• Write a definition based on the introduction
• Create a nonlinguistic representation of this
  understanding
• Develop layers of meaning through activities to
  interact with the vocabulary
• Clarify understanding through dialogue and
  discussion with peers and teacher
• Enrich understanding through vocabulary games
  over time

21
1. Introduce the vocabulary using description,
images, stories, or examples

• vicissitude

22
the vicissitudes of weather
23
the vicissitudes of war
24
The vicissitudes of gambling
25
Marzanos Six Steps to Effective Academic
Vocabulary Instruction

• Teacher
• Introduce the vocabulary using description,
  images, stories, or examples
• Student (with teacher to guide and facilitate)
• Write a definition based on the introduction
• Create a nonlinguistic representation of this
  understanding
• Develop layers of meaning through activities to
  interact with the vocabulary
• Clarify understanding through dialogue and
  discussion with peers and teacher
• Enrich understanding through vocabulary games
  over time

26

• 2. Write a definition of your own.
• 3. Create a nonlinguistic representation of this
  understanding

Vicissitude is ___________________________________
_______________
Draw a nonlinguistic representation of
vicissitude
27
Develop layers of meaning through
activities to interact with the vocabulary.5.
Clarify understanding through dialogue and
discussion with peers and teacher

• Complete the Four Box Synectics chart for your
  definition
• Compare your definition and picture with at least
  one other person
• How are your definitions alike or different?
• Can you change yours to make it more clear?

28
Four Box SynecticsCompare ____________________
to the following ideas how are they alike?
homework textbook
pencil __________
A vicissitude is like homework because sometimes
homework is fun and sometimes it isnt.
A vicissitude is like a ________________ because
29
The next day

• Yesterday, we talked about the vicissitudes of
• Weather,
• War, and
• Gambling
• What else can you think of that would have
  vicissitudes?
• (Explain your choice.)

30
Tracking Progress

• v -- I understand even more about the term than
  I have been taught.
• v -- I understand the term and am not confused
  about its meaning or usage.
• v- -- Im not sure I understand the term, but I
  have some idea as to its meaning.
• X I really dont understand the term at all.

31
A little more about why it matters

• Children of poverty come to school with
  significantly fewer academic background
  experiences than other children.
• Field trips
• Mentors
• Sustained silent reading
• Direct vocabulary instruction

32
Academic Background Knowledge and family
occupation

• According to Hart and Risely, a one year old
  child in poverty has
• 50 of the language experiences of a working
  class child
• 30 of the language experiences of professional
  class child

33
Words Heard in an Hour

• Words heard on average in one hour based on the
  income level
• Poverty 615
• Middle class 1,251
• Professional 2,153
• Louisa Moats (2001) refers
• to this as Word Poverty.

34
More about why it matters

• Correlation between
• achievement
• and
• academic background knowledge
• is .66

A middle class student gains approximately 5,000
words each year an economically disadvantaged
student gains 3,000 in the same time period.
35
A high-performing first grader knows about twice
as many words as a low-performing one by 12th
grade, the high performer knows about four times
as many words as the low performer.
36
What does it mean?

• Based on what you know about how background
  knowledge impacts understanding and how poverty
  impacts background knowledge, what might the
  correlations be between these two factors and
• Success on test scores
• Reading comprehension
• Study behavior
• Student engagement
• Student behavior

37
Look back at your vocabulary word vicissitude

• Name the part of speech
• List a synonym(s)
• List an antonym(s)
• Whats a topic with
• which I could use
• the word vicissitude?

38
Check your understanding.

• Explain steps 1-2 to your neighbor.
• Neighbor, explain steps 3-4.
• How is this different from the way you currently
  address vocabulary and background knowledge?
• How do you think it will work with your students?

You have 3 minutes to answer.
39
Lets try again

• polysemous

40
Whats first?

• Polysemous
• You know how sometimes you look up a word in the
  dictionary and the definition takes the whole
  page?
• That word is probably polysemous, having many
  definitions.

41
Run (40 pages 179 definitions)

• Ive got a run in my hose
• Im going to run to the store.
• He runs to his mommy every time he has a problem.
• Shes going to run for city council.
• The ship could run aground in the storm.
• We watch the salmon run every year in the spring.

42
Polysemous
Rock rok noun 1.a large mass of stone forming
a hill, cliff, promontory, or the like.
2.Geology. a.mineral matter of variable
composition, consolidated or unconsolidated,
assembled in masses or considerable quantities in
nature, as by the action of heat or water. b.a
particular kind of such matter igneous rock.
3.stone in the mass buildings that stand upon
rock. 4.a stone of any size. 5.something
resembling or suggesting a rock. 6.a firm
foundation or support The Lord is my rock.
7.Chiefly British. a kind of hard candy,
variously flavored. 8.rock candy. 9.Often, rocks.
Slang. a.a piece of money.b.a dollar bill.
10.Slang. a.a diamond.b.any gem. 11.Slang. a.
crack (def. 41). b.a pellet or lump of
crack. Idioms 12. between a rock and a hard
place, between undesirable alternatives.13.get
one's rocks off, Slang Vulgar. to have an
orgasm.14.on the rocks, a.Informal. in or into a
state of disaster or ruin Their marriage is on
the rocks. b.Informal. without funds destitute
bankrupt.c.(of a beverage, esp. liquor or a
cocktail) with, or containing, ice cubes Scotch
on the rocks a vodka martini on the rocks.
verb (IT) 1.to move or sway to and fro or from
side to side. 2.to be moved or swayed powerfully
with excitement, emotion, etc. 3.Mining. (of sand
or gravel) to be washed in a cradle. 4.to dance
to or play rock music. 5.(of popular music) to
have the driving beat characteristic of
rock. verb (TR) 6.to move or sway to and fro or
from side to side, esp. gently and soothingly.
7.to lull in security, hope, etc. 8.to affect
deeply stun move or sway powerfully, as with
emotion Everyone in the courtroom was rocked by
the verdict. 9.to shake or disturb violently A
thunderous explosion rocked the waterfront.
10.Graphic Arts. to roughen the surface of (a
copperplate) with a rocker preparatory to
scraping a mezzotint.11.Mining. cradle (def. 22).
noun 12.a rocking movement the gentle rock of
the boat. 13.rock-'n'-roll (def. 1). adjective
14.rock-'n'-roll (def. 3). Idiom 15.rock the
boat, Informal. to disrupt the smooth functioning
or routine of something Don't rock the boat by
demanding special treatment from management.
43
What are some other words in the English language
that are polysemous?
44
Whats the next step?

• Create your definition.
• Draw a nonlinguistic representation.
• Do an activity with the word.
• Discuss your understanding.
• What does polysemous mean?
• Share an example with your neighbor.
• Complete the word web.
• Compare answers.

45
(No Transcript)
46
Not traditional vocabulary instruction

• Ever heard (or said) this
• Class, here is this weeks (chapters)
  vocabulary. Look them up in the dictionary (or
  glossary or chapter) and write down the
  definitions. Write a sentence with each word. We
  will have a test on Friday (or at the end of the
  chapter).

Write a sentence with the word "fugacious."
47
Direct vocabulary instruction is a process that
enables students to develop in-depth knowledge
of important words .
48
Marzanos Six Steps to Effective Academic
Vocabulary Instruction

• Teacher
• Introduce the vocabulary using description,
  images, stories, or examples
• Student (with teacher to guide and facilitate)
• Write a definition based on the introduction
• Create a nonlinguistic representation of this
  understanding
• Develop layers of meaning through activities to
  interact with the vocabulary
• Clarify understanding through dialogue and
  discussion with peers and teacher
• Enrich understanding through vocabulary games
  over time

49
Things to Remember about Step 1

• Teacher must
• Present carefully chosen vocabulary words
• Use student friendly descriptions (not
  definitions initially)
• Use explanations with multiple examples
• Use both verbal and nonverbal (visual, auditory,
  kinesthetic) means of explanation

50
Things to Remember about Step 2

• Students must
• Create a definition, description, or explanation
  of the term
• Teacher must
• Monitor accuracy of student work
• Allow partially-correct definitions to stand
• Use questions/prompts to promote student thinking
  without providing the answer.
• Not provide a written definition.

51
Things to Remember about Step 3

• Students must
• Know youre not looking for artistic excellence
• Use nonverbal representations they can explain
• Be creative in making a connection between the
  vocabulary and their existing background
  knowledge
• After step 3, rate their current level of
  understanding to self-assess learning
• Teacher must
• Check accuracy of illustration.
• Help students enhance their understanding through
  explanation and extension

52
The first 3 steps are the initial teaching of the
word and developing initial understanding the
second 3 steps are for reinforcing the word and
developing a rich understanding.
53
Things to Remember about Step 4

• Student must
• Manipulate the vocabulary words through a variety
  or activities
• Deepen understanding through dialogue and
  discussion
• Teacher must
• Create/Determine the appropriate activities.
• Balance paper/pencil and hands-on activities
• Use various student groupings (pairs, small
  groups, whole class, individual)

54
Things to Remember about Step 5

• Student must
• Interact with the word periodically over time
• Enrich understanding through dialogue and
  discussion
• Reflect on previous interactions and revise
  understanding
• Teacher must
• Provide a context for the discussions
• Model (at least initially) the thinking process
  involved in discussions
• Monitor discussions ensuring everyone
  participates
• Provide opportunities for enriching understanding

55
Things to Remember about Step 6

• Student must
• Play with new and old vocabulary to reinforce
  understanding
• Encounter (at least periodically) new uses for
  previously studied words
• Teacher must
• Develop (or steal) games to play with vocabulary
• Manage the class effectively during play

56
Having Fun with Words on a minutes notice

• Charades
• Board games
• Pictionary
• Hangman
• Scattergories
• Stump the Teacher
• Mix-and-Match word parts

57
A website for Vocabulary gameshttp//www.jc-scho
ols.net/tutorials/vocab
58
Things associated with __________________
59
Whats the connecting term?
60
In closing

• Background knowledge matters for student learning
  because
• Mazanos six-steps to vocabulary instruction are
  (in order)
• What are at least two other ways to build
  background knowledge to increase student
  learning?
• Bonus whats a charizard?

61
In closing

• http//sde.state.ok.us/Curriculum/BAV.pdf
• (online guide to Oklahomas Building Academic
  Vocabulary program)
• http//ClassTools.net
• (online templates and games you can create for
  your classes)
• http//www.jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab
• (online templates for vocabulary games)
• Graphic Organizers
• www.freeology.com
• www.teachervision.fen.com
• http//www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_
  organizers.htm