SCIENCE

Student responses: (see Figure 3)

Elaborate: Discussion and writing notes

Student directions:

How do lenses help us magnify?

"* Use the microscope reading as evidence."* Draw pictures if needed.

Student responses: (see Figure 4)

Evaluate: Science journal entry

Directions: Write a journal entry that answers this question:How does a microscope work?

Student responses: (see Figure 5)

ReferencesLlewellyn, D. 2002. Inquire within, implementing inquiry-based

science standards. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc.Struble, J. Using graphic organizers as formative assessment.

Science Scope 30 (5): 69-71.Swartz, S.L., AF. Klein, and R.E. Shook. 2001. Interactive writ-

ing and interactive editing: Making connections betweenwriting and reading. San Diego: Dominie, Press, Inc.

Unrau, N. 2004. Content area reading and writing: Fosteringliteracies in middle and high school cultures. Upper SaddleRiver, NJ: Pearson Education.

ResourcesAuthor's website-www.stephsnature.comHoughton Mifflin, graphic organizers-www.eduplace.com/

graphicorganizerTechnology Publishing Company, teacher workbooks, graphic

organizer series, science organizers volume 1-www.teach-nology.com/gold/sciorg.html

Tools for writing and reading, Greece Central School Dis-trict-www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/e/a/6-12/

Tools/Index.htm

Using direct instructionto teach contentvocabulary

Do you ever find yourself lying awake in the early morninghours of the day wondering, "How can I effectively teachmy students the curriculum so that they are able tosucceed and gain confidence in their skills?" We have allbeen there a night or two, pondering how to best improveour teaching skills so that students in our classroomslearn the material and learn it well.

The magnitude of vocabulary students need to know in themiddle school science curriculum is vast and can be daunting.Many of the words related to the science curriculum areextremely specialized and many students enter the classroomwith only a very loose understanding of a majority of thewords. As educators, it is our job to efficiently and effectivelyteach students so that they are not only able to apply thenew vocabulary to that year's curriculum, but to store itin their memory for future use in high school and college.Often we have our students look up vocabulary words fora unit of study in the glossary of their textbook and recordthe definitions in their notes, either as a class warm up orhomework assignment. Or we may provide definitions tostudents to study for the next assessment. Regardless of themethod we choose, the underlying question remains: Is thisthe most effective way for students to learn the specializedvocabulary for a particular unit of study and beyond?

Problems with traditional methods ofvocabulary instructionOne traditional method of vocabulary instruction is to havestudents copy definitions from the glossary or pages of theirtextbook. This technique, however, has three problems. First,in many textbooks the definitions located in the glossary donot always have a direct link to the topic being taught-theyare either too broad or too narrow. Second, many studentswho copy definitions from their textbook's glossary do soabsentmindedly, merely copying symbols on a page, ratherthan reading the definition for understanding and committingit to memory. These students do not benefit academicallyfrom the exercise besides receiving a good grade on ahomework assignment. Third, if students navigate throughthe text to find the definitions of assigned words, their contextclues may not be sharp enough to elicit comprehensivedefinitions, resulting in incomplete or incorrect definitions.

September 2007 63

SCIAENC

Stephanie Erickson (stephanie.s.erickson@spps.org)

is a teacher at Washington Technology Magnet MiddleSchool in St. Paul, Minnesota.

SAMPLER

Essential vocabulary

Word Definition Knowledge connection(examples or facts)

A table of the elements, arranged by atomic number, that showsS1. periodic tablepatterns in their properties.

An abbreviation for the element's name. It contains one or two letters.2. chemical symbol Some elements have not yet been named and are assigned three-

letter symbols.

3. atomic number The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.

4. atomic mass The average mass of the atoms of an element.

An element that has a different number of neutrons than another atom

5. isotope of the same element.6. ion An atom or group of atoms that has a positive or negative electric charge.

Directions1. Complete the vocabulary by providing examples or facts.

2. Fold over the Visual column to line up with the

vocabulary words.

3. Draw/find visuals for each vocabulary word.

4. Use to self-test.

Reverse side-this column will be on the left side of theback of the paper, so that when folded over it is next to

the Word column.

Despite the amount of effort these students have put intotheir homework, they still have many misconceptions of thevocabulary. For example, when completing a chemical uniton atomic structure, students may be required to know theword nucleus. But if asked to define this word for a vocabularyhomework assignment, students could easily record thedefinition of the nucleus of a cell, rather than the nucleus ofan atom. Although middle school students must understandthe function of a cell's nucleus, it may not be appropriatefor the unit they are studying, and students may commit tomemory the wrong definition.

New method of vocabulary instructionOne method of vocabulary instruction that works wellwith students is direct instruction with the ability tointeract with the vocabulary verbally, visually, spatially,and intrapersonally. In this method a foldable graphicorganizer created by Mindy Panzer provides studentswith the required vocabulary, chunked in groups ofseven, as well as the most relevant definition for eachword as it lends itself both to the current unit of studyand to the entire course curriculum, allowing studentsto interact with each concept in both linguistic andnonlinguistic ways (Marzano 2004).

How is this accomplished? First, create a double-sided,three-column graphic organizer (see Figure 1) withapproximately eight rows (one for the column headings,and one for each vocabulary word). The three columnheadings are as follows: Column one is Word; column two

6 SCIENCE SCOPE

Visual

SCIENCE

FIGURE I

64

SCIENCE

is Definition; column three is Knowledge Connection. Onthe reverse side of the paper in the upper left-hand corner(directly backing the Knowledge Connection column)insert a column with the heading Visual (see Figure 1). Ifthe unit is small create one graphic organizer and adjustthe number of rows accordingly, but try to stick to chunksof seven words. If the list of words is longer, create twoorganizers, separating the two lists of words accordingto their definitions or how they relate to each other.

Using vocabulary lists of seven words or less, studentsare able to interact with the words more meaningfully thanwhen they are overwhelmed by a large vocabulary list. Asmaller list provides an opportunity to learn each word moresufficiently, and learning words in groups according to theirrelation helps students to see connections between suchspecialized vocabulary. Students are provided with the firstlist at the beginning of the unit and the second list a few dayslater to give them the time to retain the first set of words.

Why has this worked?By providing a complete definition for students in thesecond column, not only are we assured that they arelearning the correct usage and meaning of the word, butstudents are using their time to interact with each word,rather than copying definitions from the glossary of theirtextbook. The definitions (from textbooks and curriculum)are in brief, student-friendly language so students canfully understand the concept. In the third column ofthe organizer, students are asked to make a knowledgeconnection, which will vary depending on students' skilllevel or the words for the unit of study. Students can beasked to provide a fact or example of each word based ontheir previous knowledge; to explain how the word appliesto a lab activity they just completed; to write a scientificsentence for each word; or to make a link or connection toanother word on the graphic organizer. Students seem tobe more responsive to this vocabulary exercise if the typeof knowledge connection that is required is varied (Beck,McKeown, and Kucan 2002).

Finally, when students have completed their knowledgeconnection they are asked to fold over the third column,making a large flap that hides the Definition and KnowledgeConnection columns so that only the vocabulary word canbe seen on the front side of the paper, and revealing theVisual column on the back (Marzano 2004). Students areasked to draw a visual reminder so that when studyingtheir vocabulary they are reminded of the definition of theword and their knowledge connection. Some students take

Folded graphic organizer

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the initiative to cut individual flaps for each word so thatthey are able to study without revealing the definitions ofother words when they make a quick peek. Other studentschoose to have only one flap, and those who have poor orslow motor skills ask to have individual flaps cut for them.

In the end students have created not only a wonderfulvocabulary lesson, but also a great study guide! We havestudents place their vocabulary foldable in their interactivenotebooks so they can study them throughout the year.Other teachers place the organizers in their students'portfolios or have them hole-punch the left side and insertit into a three-ring binder.

The pitfallsMy students receive a vocabulary sheet for each of the 35labs that are conducted throughout the academic schoolyear. As with any new activity, Students are guided throughthe first one or two vocabulary exercises to ensure that theynot only understand how to complete the activity, but why itis necessary to follow all the guidelines. After modeling the

September 2007 65

SAMPLE

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first few in class, students should be given the opportunityto complete a vocabulary foldable in class so they have thechance to ask questions and you, the teacher, can checkfor mastery of the task. This process does take time out ofclass at the beginning of the year when the class scheduleis already quite hectic.

Another pitfall to direct instruction of vocabulary isthat after extended use of this form of activity, studentscan become too comfortable with the assignmentand their quality of work may decline. Conversely,if presented with a set of vocabulary words that aremore challenging than the words given to them in thepast, students may struggle to complete the otherwisesimple activity. Therefore it is necessary to not onlyconstantly monitor this assignment, but to periodicallytake time out of class to complete the assignmenttogether, reminding students of the guidelines forthe activity and the reason such guidelines need to befollowed. These periodic refocusing sessions do taketime, yet they have a great payoff in the end.

Lisa Catherine Leno (lisa.leno@fcps.edu) is a physical

science teacher at Lake Braddock Secondary School in

Burke, Virginia and a master's degree student at George

Mason University. Laura Anne Dougherty (la ura.dough-

erty@fcps.edu) is a special education teacher at Lake

Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia.

66 JSCIENCE SCOPE

FIGURE 3 1

SC

Assessment techniquesThe effectiveness of direct instruction of vocabulary canbe assessed in many ways (Beck, McKeown, and Kucan2002). One of the first methods of assessing students'vocabulary acquisition is by both formally and informallyobserving students' responses to lab activity questionsand the usage of key concepts during class discussion.As students become more accustomed to this style ofvocabulary acquisition their ability to correctly use keyconcepts in both written and oral explanations should notonly improve, but increase.

A second formative assessment to test the effectivenessof this particular vocabulary activity is through students'performance on written assessments, such as vocabularymatching, multiple-choice, short-answer or essay questions.Students who benefit from direct vocabulary instructionshould develop better word recognition on assessmentsand have an overall improvement of performance onassessment questions from all levels of Bloom's Taxonomythat pertain to key concepts and ideas. Finally, students'overall performance on summative assessments willimprove as they are able to make connections betweenkey concepts from multiple units of study.

AcknowledgmentThe author would like to thank Mindy Panzer, an Excep-tional Education Teacher at South County SecondarySchool in Lorton, Virginia, for her contribution to thisarticle.

ReferencesBeck, I., M. McKeown, and L. Kucan. 2002. Bringing

words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. NewYork: Guilford Press.

Marzano, R. 2004. Building background knowledge foracademic achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association forSupervision and Curriculum Development.

National Resource Council. 1996. National science education

standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

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TITLE: Using direct instruction to teach content vocabularySOURCE: Sci Scope 31 no1 S 2007

The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and itis reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article inviolation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher:http://www.nsta.org/middleschool