Vocabulary Instruction for Developing Readers

8/8/2019 Vocabulary Instruction for Developing Readers

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VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION FOR

DEVELOPING READERS

Presented by Kim, Eugene and Naz


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WHYTEACHVOCABULARY?

What is vocabulary?

y Knowledge of words

y Meaning of words


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WHY ITS IMPORTANT TO TEACH

VOCABULARY?


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1. ACADEMIC SUCCESS

A. Manzo, V. Manz, M. Thomes. 2006

Words make the learning process easier for

children

less vocabulary = less comprehension Researchers have found that:

y 98% of human teaching and learning is meditated

through language.

y

Words knowledge of primary school can predictstudents reading and comprehension success in high

school. (Cynthia and Drew Johnson )


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2. THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR

GET POORER

Lehr, F.


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3. PROBLEM SOLVING

Marlow Ediger, 1999:

y Words influence self-talk

y Express feelings

y

Think clearly


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4. RAISE SELF-ESTEEM

Increase academic

and social confidence


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5.CAPTURE IDEAS AND MAKE THEM REAL

Talk

Write

Sing

Invent


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6. REFLECTS OUR FEELING AND VALUES

Thoughts

Wishes

Beliefs

________________________________________

Finally, researchers havent been able to find the

upper limit of human capacity to learn!

y (Ediger, 1999)


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WHATS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY?


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TEACHING STRATEGIES

Children learn vocabulary in two main ways:

1) indirectly 2) through instruction

y

How to facilitate indirect learning of vocabulary? Read Alouds & Reading

Using same vocabulary words in different activities

Conversation

Put that away

Put the crayons back on the blue shelf in the art centre

y Vocabulary by Instruction: Word walls

Semantic Trees

Vocabulary Visit


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5-10 MINUTE WORD GAMES

Synonyms & antonyms

y Groups of4-5

y Teacher writes word on board

y

Teams write as many synonyms (and the antonym)as possible in one minutefor table points

Give A Clue

y Choose 2 students to compete at front of room

y Write secret word on board BEHIND them

y Rest of children give one word clues for that secret

word without giving away any part of the word


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5-10 MINUTE WORD GAMES CON

Mind Reader

y Children write 1-5 on paper / mini whiteboard

y Give 5 broad to narrowing clues for the word

y

Children make a guess after each clue

Word Scavenger Hunt

y Give a hunting rule e.g. un words

y

Brainstorm together: unsafe, unlikely, undoy They look for words innewspapers, textbooks,

writing, signs, corridors, books, wherever they can

think of

y How many can they find in10 minutes?


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GAMES TO PURCHASE

Blurt!

Apples to Apples Junior

Outburst Junior

Taboo


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

Asselin, M. (2002):

When is a word learnt?

y Able to define the word

y Can recognize and use it in multiple contexts, and

uses knowledge of the word in combination with

other types of knowledge to construct meaning


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

Biemiller, A. (2003):

How many new words should be learnt per day?

y 9,000 root words acquired by the end of elementary years

y 800-900 root words per year

y 2.2 words per day from age 1 through 8 and ~2.4 words perday from age 9 to 12

y Grade 2 in highest quartile had a vocabulary size: ~7,100root words

Acquiring 3+ root words per day since 1 years old

y Grade 2 lowest quartile had a vocabulary size: ~3,000 rootwords

Acquiring ~1 root word a day

Do not catch up

3.5 or 4 root words per day to catch up with the averagelearner in5-6 years


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

Coyne, M. D., McCoach, D. B., Loftus, S., Zipoli, R., & Kapp, S.(2009):

How to best leverage scarce instructional time?

Teaching for Breadth: Embedded Vocabulary Instruction

Goal: introduce students to as many new words as possible+ time efficient - minimal instructional

time/exposures

+ minimal disruption - students not actively engaged

+ meaningful and within context - limited to partial knowledge

Teaching for Depth: Extended Vocabulary Instruction Goal: help students develop sufficient depth of word

knowledge to support comprehension+ maximum instructional time/ - time required

exposures

+ word consciousness/ - choosing which words to teach

metalinguistic awareness


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

Nation, P. (2003):

Deliberate, Decontextualized VocabularyLearning:

- not readily transfer to communicative use

- small proportion of the vocabulary knowledge

- not in a communicative context does not resultin much learning and does not help latervocabulary use in communicative contexts

+ conjunction with opportunities for learningthrough communicative use will provide a richand reasonably intensive learning environmentfor a positive effect on comprehension


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (2004):

Is direct vocabulary instruction worthwhile?

Incidental Learning vs.Direct Instruction

y Story-only group (15 minutes)y Story-plus study group (85 minutes)


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

Scott, J. A., Jamieson-Noel, D., & Asselin, M.

(2003):

How much time is actually spent in vocabulary

instruction?


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ISSUES / CONCERNS

y Activities involving literacy occupy 51.5% of school

time

y 6% of school time was devoted to the development of

vocabulary in language arts; 8.8% if vocabulary

instruction taught in isolation is addedy 1.4% was devoted to academic discipline-based

vocabulary in social studies, science, math, or art

y Most instruction involved mentioning and assigning

rather than actual teaching

Documents

Vocabulary Instruction for Developing Readers