Moving Beyond the Definitions: Effective Vocabulary Instruction Grades 4-8

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Moving Beyond the Definitions Effective
Vocabulary Instruction Grades 4-8

• Kevin Flanigan, Ph.D.
• West Chester University
• kflanigan_at_wcupa.edu

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Agenda

• Definitions
• Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction
• Effective Vocabulary Instruction
• Word-Specific Instruction (photosynthesis)
• Generative Vocabulary Instruction (telephoto,
  photograph, photocopier)

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Why teach vocabulary?

• Every teacher is a teacher of LANGUAGE
• English, math, social studies, biology you
  teach the language of that subject or discipline
• Vocabulary is a critical part of that language

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Vocabulary knowledge IS content knowledge

• Research reveals that vocabulary knowledge is the
  single best indicator of students
• Reading ability
• Comprehension
• Familiarity with academic discourse
• (Baumann, Kameenui, Ash, 2003 Schleppegrell,
  2004 Townsend, Collins, Filippini, 2009)

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Definitions are just the tip of the iceberg

• A first step toward owning a word

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All definitions are NOT equal

• Luminous emitting light, especially
  self-generated light lucid, resplendent,
  incandescent, refulgent
• Some definitions define an unknown word with
  OTHER unknown words
• Student-friendly definitions PLUS CONTEXT

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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

• LUMINOUS - shining in the dark luminous paint
• Her large dark eyes were almost luminous.
• ldoceonline.com - clear definitions written using
  only 2000 common words

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Degrees of Knowing a WordThe Dimmer Switch

• Learning vocabulary is not a one-shot
  proposition.
• We learn words in increments, in little steps
• How many encounters with a vocabulary word?
• Students need to have 12 encounters with a word
  to reliably improve their comprehension of a
  passage containing those words (McKeown, Beck,
  Omanson, Pople, 1985)

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Vocabulary Fist-to-Five Rating Scale (Patterson,
Patterson, Collins, 2002)
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How might you use this in your classroom?
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3 General Components of Vocabulary
Instruction(Templeton, Bear, Invernizzi,
Johnston, 2009)

• Overall Context (reading, writing, rich
  discussion)
• Direct Vocabulary Instruction
• Word-specific (teaching specific words)
• Generative (teaching how words work)
• Word Consciousness a positive attitude and
  disposition toward learning words

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Have you ever?/Word Wizard(Beck, McKeown,
Kucan, 2002)

• Purpose to connect new words to known concepts
  and encourage students to notice examples of
  words in contexts outside of school (or outside
  of formal instruction)
• Procedure
• Choose Tier Two words and ask students to bring
  back examples from home (I saw a radiant sunset
  last night!).
• For each word used, the student, group, or class
  earns a points toward class competition and/or
  grade, extra credit.

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Principles of Vocabulary Instruction(Blachowicz
Fisher, 2000)

• The students should
• Be ACTIVE and ENGAGED in developing their
  understanding of words and ways to learn them.
• PERSONALIZE word learning.
• Be IMMERSED in words (listening, speaking,
  reading, writing).
• REPEATEDLY experience words across a VARIETY OF
  RICH CONTEXTS.
• Learn new words/concepts by RELATING them to
  existing words/concepts.
• Learn both SPECIFIC WORDS and strategies for
  INDEPENDENT word learning.

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Four Square Concept Map(Eeds Cockrum, 1985
Stahl Nagy, 2006)
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Vocabulary Map Tier 2 words
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Concept of Definition Map Social Studies
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The Mental Junk Drawer
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Roman Numeral Outlining

• For some students, they are so concerned about
  the format of the outline, they lose sight of the
  function to organize information.

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Discovery
Games
Musket Firing
Susan Constant
3 ships
Fort
Jamestown
Church
Godspeed
Powhatans Statue
Navigation Tools
Museum
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Musket Firing
Susan Constant
3 Ships
Fort
Discovery
Godspeed
Games
Church
Jamestown
Museum
Navigation Tools
Powhatans Statue
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Power Thinking

• Power 1 Main Idea
• Power 2 Sub-topic
• Power 3 Detail -

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Power Thinking (Santa, Havens, Valdes, 2004)

• Purpose to provide students a framework for
  organizing information that is hierarchical in
  nature
• Main ideas, subtopics, details
• An alternative to roman numeral outlining

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Power Thinking

• Power 1 Main Ideas
• Power 2 Subtopics
• Power 3 Details

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Draw a power map of this scene
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Power Thinking

• Power Mapping use with a graphic organizer
• Power Reading use in conjunction with reading
• Power Writing use as a framework for organizing
  essays, reports, etc.

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You cant get there . . .

• ONE
• WORD
• AT
• A
• TIME

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Its all Greek (and Latin) to me!

• What percent of English vocabulary words are
  Latin or Greek derived?
• Approximately 70 (Nagy Anderson, 1984 Padak,
  Newton, Rasinski, Newton, 2008)
• What percent of upper-level English vocabulary
  words (middle and high school, science, law,
  medicine) are Latin or Greek derived?
• Over 90 (Green, 2008)

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What makes more sense ?

• Teaching 40,000 separate words?
• Or, teaching the system (or meaning code) that
  underlies those words?

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SPEC, SPECT
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Root Web/Tree with Spec, spect

• Create a web with spec, spect at center
• Generate as many words with spect as you can
• Try to deduce meaning of root

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Generative Vocabulary InstructionWhen you
learn 1 word, you learn 10.
Page 17
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Questions to Promote Deep Processing of Word
Meanings

• How do these words look alike? (spelling)
• How are the meanings of these words similar?
• How is the meaning of the prefix, suffix, or root
  related to the meaning of the word?

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Generative Vocabulary InstructionWhen you
learn 1 word, you learn 10.

• How many words in English have spec, spect as a
  root?

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Root Webs/Trees

• Brainstorm known words that contain the root
• Look for common meanings to find the route back
  to the root.
• Confirm with new words.
• Sometimes, the route back to the root is not as
  straightforward (respect and circumspect)

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Root Tree with spect
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Key word for spect?
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• When you learn
• one word,
• you learn ten . . .
• When you learn one root,
• you learn exponentially more words!!

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Morphology

• Knowledge of the processes of word formation in
  English how prefixes, suffixes, base words, and
  Greek and Latin word roots combine is the
  engine that will generate your students learning
  about thousands of words (Templeton, 2004).

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Online Resources

• Dictionary.com Etymology. Drills down to word
  parts by prefix, suffix, and root.
• Etymonline.com
• Onelook.com finds words that share a common
  root
• Wildcard search - spect

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Selected Resources

• Beck, Isabel L., McKeown, Margaret G., and Kucan,
  Linda. Bringing Words to Life Robust Vocabulary
  Instruction. New York Guilford, 2002.
• Nagy, W.E., Anderson, R.C. (1984). How many
  words are there in printed school English?
  Reading Research Quarterly, 19(3), 304 330.
• Santa, C.M., Havens, L.T., Valdes, B.J. (2004).
  Project CRISS Creating Independence through
  student-owned strategies (3rd edition). Dubuque,
  IA Kendall/Hunt.
• Templeton, S., Bear, D., Invernizzi, M.,
  Johnston, F. (2010). Vocabulary their way Word
  study with middle and secondary students. Boston
  Allyn Bacon.