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No Word Is an Island: Teaching Vocabulary Through

Word Relationships

Louisa Moats, Ed.D.

Workshop Part 4

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SESSION OBJECTIVES n  Review the importance of vocabulary n  Understand why and how we learn

words n  Learn techniques for teaching word

relationships n  Identify extension activities to promote

independent word learning

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3 Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.

The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading (Scarborough, 2001)

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE LANGUAGE STRUCTURES VERBAL REASONING LITERACY KNOWLEDGE

PHON. AWARENESS DECODING (and SPELLING) SIGHT RECOGNITION

SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension.

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

WORD RECOGNITION

increasingly

automatic

increasingly

strategic

What is a word?

“a peg to hang ideas on.” …Henry Ward Beecher

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Variance in Comprehension Accounted for by Word Recognition Ability

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01020304050607080

1st 3rd 5th 7th

Proportion of variance incomprehension accounted for bydecoding skill

Connecticut Longitudinal Study

What Do These Data Mean?

n … decoding skill is necessary but not sufficient for learning to read, write, and spell

n …as time goes on, vocabulary and language proficiency account for more and more of the variance in reading comprehension.

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What Is Academic Language?

n Longer sentences with embedded clauses

n Paragraph and genre (text) structures

n Unusual, content-specific words

n Formal, conventional grammar

n Tighter logic, less redundancy

n Fewer conversational cues

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Newspapers:“Research Team Clones Human Embryos” (USA Today, 2/2004)

“…Medical researchers hope to use cloned embryonic stem cells – which have the potential to grow into any kind of cell or tissue – to someday treat diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s. The cells potentially could create rejection-free transplant organ tissues. Opponents of cloning fear the development will lead to cloned babies. They decry the destruction of human embryos to produce the stem cells.”

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Vocabulary: “Research Team Clones Human Embryos” (USA Today, 2-12-04)

medical (medic) researchers cloned, cloning embryonic, embryos stem cells potential, potentially diseases diabetes Parkinson’s

create, creation rejection-free transplant organ tissues opponents development decry destruction (destroy) human produce 9

The Vocabulary Gap at Age 6

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

words known by age 6

low SESmiddle SEShigh SES

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The Gap Grows

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1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

0 End of Pre-K End of K End of gr. 1 End of gr. 2

Lowest 25% of students

Average students

after Biemiller, 1999, 2005

This gap remains wide!

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0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

low vocabavg vocabhigh vocab

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A Grown Vocabulary: What Do Children Need to Learn by 12th Grade ?

n  Nagy and Anderson (1984) estimated that there are 88,700 word families in text up to 12th grade.

n  107 words account for 50% of the words in running text.

n  5,000 more words account for an additional 45% of the words in running text.

n  Infrequent words (5% of total) carry the most unique meaning in a passage.

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Differences in Text Exposure

14 Less than 1 minute 4.6 minutes 20 minutes

8,000 words

282,000 words

1,800,000 words Number of words, per year, children are exposed to, compared to time spent reading each day.

The Importance of Vocabulary

n Predicts overall academic success n Highly correlated with reading

comprehension n Facilitates fast, accurate word

reading and passage reading fluency

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How Do We Learn Words?

n  Incidental encounters with words in context

n  Direct, planned, explicit teaching n  Fostering of word consciousness that

enables students to learn words on their own

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Word form enhances access to word meaning… (Perfetti, 2011)

Context Processor

Orthographic Processor

Phonological Processor

Meaning Processor

writing output speech output reading input

speech sound system

letter memory

Phonemic Awareness

Fluency

Phonics

Background Knowledge and Language Context

Vocabulary

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Deep Knowledge of a Word

Aspect of Language

n  syntactic role n  morphemes n  syllable structure n  graphemes n  phonemes

Example

n  to prodúce (v.) vs. próduce (n.) n  pro (prefix) + duc (Latin root) n  pro (open) + duce (VCe) n  p r o d u ce n  /p/ /r/ /ō/ /d/ /ū/ /s/

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Deep Knowledge of Words

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(word)

Linguistic Structure: morphemes, syllables, graphemes, phonemes

Examples in context

Synonyms Antonyms

Connotations and Denotations

Multiple meanings

Categories shinny

-not “shiny” or “skinny”

-2 syllables, 1st closed

-related to “shin?”

-it’s a verb

Examples: “shinny up the flagpole…”

Syn: Scale,climb. Antonym: ??

Denotes a creature with strong, agile legs climbing up a pole or tree by use of shins.

1.  Field hockey

2.  Curved stick

3.  To climb by shinnying

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Which Words to Teach Directly? (Beck & McKeown, Bringing Words to Life) Tier 1- Basic, common words that students

should learn on their own. Tier 2- Most mature readers are familiar with

them. “Core content” vocabulary. Can be found across various contexts and topics. Are central to the topic or theme.

Tier 3- Low-frequency words; many of these are domain specific.

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Multiple Meanings

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One trip around an oval running track

lap

Can you brainstorm other meanings for this word?

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Categories

n  Listen to the words on the list. n  What are all the words about? n  What subordinate categories do they belong in? n  Use a graphic organizer that shows these word relationships.

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n  mushing jobs sniffing n  dogs kibbles leading n  milkbone famous dogs Fido n  searching Bruno retriever n  Lassie greyhound legs n  Rin-Tin-Tin tail food n  terrier bones breeds n  fur/hair spaniel body parts

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DOGS

breeds jobs body parts famous dogs

food

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(superordinate)

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CANINE

dog fox wolf

working

toy herding

gray Arctic

Algebra Vocabulary n  equation n  solution n  deduction n  variables n  inequality n  negative number n  positive number n  coordinate n  conditional statements n  base n  factor n  hypothesis

Categories n  Mathematical expressions

and solving equations n  Logical reasoning process n  Graphing numbers

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Why Categorize?

n  If words aren’t “filed” in the lexicon, they will be harder to retrieve quickly and accurately.

n  Categories are fundamental structures of

knowledge – aspects of the mental frameworks (schemas) that enable understanding.

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Formal, Structured Definitions

n  A darkroom is a room for developing photographs that has very dim, special light and running water.

n  To plunder is to rob or pillage, usually by an invading or conquering group.

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Formal, Structured Definitions

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= + word category, synonym attributes

A _______ is (a) ___________ that (is, does) ________. (word) (category, synonym) (attributes)

Part A Part B

Making Definitions

Use the following format to write a definition for the word listed below:

A _____ is (a) ______ that (is, does) ________.

wolf

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Scaling of Attributes

Put these words on a “scale” that indicates their relationships to one another:

placid, fierce, docile, accepting,

ferocious, aggressive, gentle, energetic, menacing

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How to Introduce a New Word

Pronounce and read the word. Examine the spelling. (Ehri, 2014)

Tell students what the new word means, using a student friendly definition.

Say more about the word. Use it several times while elaborating its meaning.

Ask questions about the word’s meaning. Elicit word use by students.

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How to Introduce a New Word

Pronounce and read the word. “semantics”

Tell students what the new word means,

using a student friendly definition. “the study of meaning and meaning

relationships”

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How to Introduce a New Word

Say more about the word. Use it several times. Semantics --- the study of sense; the stuff of thought; the concepts that underlie words; the nature of meaning.

Ask questions about the word’s meaning. “Could we say that ….”

Elicit word use by students. “When we study or talk about word meaning,

we are dealing with ___________”

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Extension Activity: Select and Connect

Column 1 Column 2

definition depth dictionary multiple meanings breadth categories word conscious(ness) lexicon semantics vocabulary

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Extension: Word Structure Analysis

n  Pare off prefixes and suffixes:

incomparable = in + com + par + able; par + ity n  Find word cousins:

sanitation, sanitary, sanitarium, sanitize, sane, insane (from the Latin layer of English, “sanitus” = “health”)

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Teach Word Building by Morpheme

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VERT, VERS

co

in

sub

con

contra

uni

-ion

-ity

-ible

-ation

-ical

-atile

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Semantic Feature Analysis has hair swims can be a pet flies

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X 42