Effective Vocabulary Instruction and

Assessment

Angela StockmanWNY Education Associates

stockmanangela@gmail.com

Why Vocabulary

Was My Final Frontier

Confessions of a Former Teacher

What do your current vocabulary

instruction and assessment

practices look like?

What are you hoping to

learn today?

Essential Question:

If background knowledge is the greatestpredictor of how much and how wellstudents will learn NEW material, what can teachers do to build each student’sbase of prior knowledge??? How do theyknow when they’ve accomplished this???

In Response to Research Disseminated by the Mississippi Department of Education, September 2007 4

FLUID

CRYSTALLIZED

Use Your Background Knowledge to Make

Meaning of These Terms:

Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields, 2006

Understanding the Cattell-Horn Theory of

Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

How is vocabulary acquisition dependent on BOTH forms of intelligence?

Consider the Contrast:

Student A:Vocabulary knowledge is based primarily on crystallized intelligence.

Student B:Vocabulary knowledge is based primarily on fluid intelligence.

Which school experiences enhance crystallized intelligence?

Which school experiences enhance fluid intelligence?

Which do YOU rely upon most?

Robert Marzano, 2007

“Effective schooling can provide the most direct approach to building academic content

knowledge through a variety and depth of experiences like field trips and out-of-class

experiences and/or through mentoring from the community.

In the absence of these direct approaches, however, an indirect approach to building background

knowledge can also lead to remarkable results.”

1. Background knowledge is stored in “memory records” associated with the following “I” questions:

what I did how I felt what I did to something where I did something what I did for or gave to someone what happened to me during the event what someone else did for me how I felt at the end of the event.

Robert Marzano, 2004 Mississippi Department of Education, 2007 10

The Underpinnings of an Indirect Approach

2. We can enhance each student’s ability to move new learning into long-term memory.

◦ Students need minimally four exposures to new content, no more than two days apart.

The four exposures cannot be mere repetition

The four exposures must provide a variety of elaborations of the new content without requiring students to access another knowledge set.

September 2007 Robert Marzano 2004

Mississippi Department of Education 11

3. The target for instruction must be content-specific information.

◦ A student’s background knowledge outside the target content area can be a valuable tool as the student personalizes the new information.

September 2007 Robert Marzano 2004

Mississippi Department of Education 12

4. Teachers must create opportunities for students to build academic knowledge through multiple exposures to the surface-level or basic terminology or concepts for a content area.

◦ Teachers cannot build “more” background knowledge until their students have acquired the basic information.

September 2007 Robert Marzano 2004

Mississippi Department of Education 13

5. Vocabulary acquisition builds background knowledge.

◦ Words are labels students store in their memory packets for single objects and for groups or families of objects.

◦ Only if the student has a memory packet can that student apply background knowledge to new experiences through words.

A store becomes a grocery store, a convenience store, a department store, etc., only for the student with an expanded memory packet.

September 2007 Robert Marzano, 2004

Mississippi Department of Education 14

6. Virtual experiences enhance background knowledge.

◦ A student’s ability to read allows one type of virtual experience.

◦ Equally important is the use of spoken language for virtual experience.

Conversation is an important instructional tool that should be used in the required repetitive process to allow students to build background information.

September 2007 Robert Marzano, 2004

Mississippi Department of Education 15

Sustained, Silent Reading

Allow students to identify topics of interest to them.

Require students to write about what they have read.

But expecting students to learn words in context is not enough…………..

Robert Marzano, 2004 Copyright © 2007 Mississippi Department of Education 16

Other Vital Experiences:

Chances of Learning Word

Ability Low 8%Average 12%High 19%

Grade Level Grade 4 8%Grade 11 33%

Text Density 1 new word per 10 words 7%1 new word per 74 words 14%1 new word per 150 words 30%

Debra Pickering, 2005

Chances of Learning New Words When Presented in Context Only

1. Does not rely on definitions2. Requires linguisitic and nonlinguistic expression

and demonstration of understanding3. Involves the evolution of word meanings through

multiple exposures4. Teaching word parts enhances students’

understandings of words.5. Different types of words require different types of

instruction.6. Students should discuss the terms they are

learning.7. Students should play with words.8. Instruction should focus on terms that have a high

probability of enhancing student success.

Marzano and Associates, 2007

8 Research-Based Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Considering the role of

nonlinguistic representatio

n

Students Who Use Non-Linguistic Representation Performed….

Number of Studies

Percentile Gain As Compared To

6 37 Percentile Points Higher

Students who kept repeating definitions

4 21 Percentile Points Higher

Students who were using the terms in a sentence

Marzano and Associates, 2004

Identify essential academic terms and phrases.

Use a research-based process for teaching and assessing new terms and phrases.

Where To Begin?

Exploring Word Tiers

TIER 1 WORDS:Basic words that

rarely require instruction in

school.Examples:

house, book, dog, ball, telephone, computer

TIER 3 WORDS:Low frequency,

domain-specific words.

Examples: personification, iambic

pentameter, ion

Tier 2 Words High frequencyHigh probability of impacting academic successHigh probability of association with life skillsHigh probability of appearing on assessments

A Six Step Method for Vocabulary Instruction that Works

Teacher DescriptionStudent Description

Non-linguistic RepresentationAdding to the Knowledge

Student Discussions of LearningHaving Fun With Words

Marzano and Associates, 2007

Best Practices for Vocabulary Instruction

Assessment and

Vocabulary Growth

Marzano, R. (2004). Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Pickering, D. and Marzano, R. (2005). Building Academic Vocabulary. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Perini, M., Silver, H. & Strong, R. (2001). So Each May Learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The Role of Vocabulary Instruction in Improving Student Achievement. Sept. 2007. Mississippi Department of Education. 19 August 2008. http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/acad1/powerpoint_vocabulary_instruction.ppt

Stockman, Angela. “The WNY Young Writers’ Summer Studio.” Duns Scotus Hall, Daemen College, 4 August 2008.

Photos used with subject and parent permission.

References