Vocabulary Instruction

EDC424Dr. Terry Deeney

This is a “whelk” shell.

Top Three Reasons for Not Teaching

Vocabulary

Reason #3

• Students learn vocabulary from context

– Estimates are 5-15/100 unfamiliar words are learned through context (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson,1985)

Or do they?

• Students must read widely to encounter unfamiliar words– Many students in need of vocabulary development

don’t read widely, or don’t read books that include words with which they are unfamiliar

• Students must have skills to infer meanings of words from context– Many students in need of vocabulary development

are less able to derive information from context• Context needs to be informative of word meaning

Naturally-Occurring Contexts

• Misdirective– Directs student to incorrect meaning

• Nondirective – No assistance in directing the reader to any

particular meaning

• General – Provides enough information for the reader

to place the word into a general category

• Directive– Likely to lead to reader to a specific, correct

meaning

Mos

t H

elpf

ul

Leas

t he

lpfu

l

Misdirective(not helpful)

• Sandra had won the dance contest, and the audience’s cheers brought her to the stage for an encore. “Every step she takes is so perfect and graceful,” Ginny said grudgingly as she watched Sandra dance.

Nondirective(not helpful)

• Dan heard the door open and wondered who had arrived. He couldn’t make out the voices. Then he recognized the lumbering footsteps on the stairs and knew it was Aunt Grace.

General(somewhat helpful)

• Joe and Stan arrived at the party at 7 o’clock. By 9:30, the evening seemed to drag for Stan. But Joe really seemed to be having a good time at the party. “I wish I could be as gregarious as he is,” thought Joe.

Directive(very helpful)

• When the cat pounced on the dog, he leapt up, yelping, and knocked down a shelf of books. The animals ran past Wendy, tripping her. She cried and fell to the floor. As the noise and confusion mounted, Mother hollered upstairs, “What’s all that commotion?”

Reason #2

• Students ARE learning new words daily– Estimates from 3-20 words, most cited is that

students learn 7 new words per day!

BUT– Averages do not represent all students.

SOME students are learning 7 words a day, many are not (particularly struggling, low achieving students)

What does it mean to know a word?

Word

Know it well, can explain it,

use it

Know something about it, can relate it to a

situation

Have seen or heard the

word

Do not know the

word

portend

appropriation

sycophant

tyranny

Reason #1

• There are too many words to teach!– Students encounter so many new words in

reading, how could we teach them all?

BUT– Not all words need attention– Not all words should be treated equally

How The Spider Came to Be

Choosing words to teach

• Tier One words: Most basic words, rarely require instruction (cake, street, walk, jump)

• Tier Three words: Words that are low frequency, or are domain specific (isotope, woof, peninsula), probably learned best when needed in content

Tier Two words

• High frequency words for mature language users

• Words that would be found across a variety of domains

• Words that can be worked with in a variety of ways so that students can build rich representations of them and their connections to other words and concepts

• Words for which students understand the general concept, but would provide more precision in use (e.g. astonished, coincidence, absurd, scrumptious)

Identifying Tier Two Words

• Read through the text• Choose words you think are likely to

appear in texts or in the talk of mature language users

• Think about whether the students already have ways to express the concepts presented by the words; if they do not have the concepts, the words are probably too hard

Students have concepts, but not sophisticated words:

Tier Two Words

merchantrequiredtendperformedfortunate

Students’ likely explanation

salesperson, clerkhave totake care ofdidlucky

Selecting which Tier Two words to teach

• Which words will be most useful in helping students understand the story, paragraph, or other piece?

• Which words are general but sophisticated words?

• How many words can the students successfully handle learning in a rich way?

• Which words will you give brief attention to, which more elaborate attention?

Choosing words that aren’t there

• Many children’s books use simple vocabulary• Choose related Tier Two words whose concepts

fit with the story• For example, a character who is acting silly can

be “absurd,” a character who is showing off can be trying to “impress” someone.

Are the words too hard?

• If the words that you use to explain the target word to the students are too hard, the word is too hard.

• Will the students be likely to use the word in their day-to-day lives? If not, choose a different word.

Teaching Word Meanings

Are dictionaries the best way?

Frank McCourt on Using the Dictionary

From: Angela’s Ashes

(pp. 285-286, tape 8B, 40)

It’s raining so hard one day, Miss O’Riordan the librarian says, Don’t go out in that or you’ll ruin the books you’re carrying. Sit down over there and behave yourself. You can read all about the lives of the saints while you’re waiting.

There are four big books, Butler’s Lives of the Saints. I don’t want to spend my life reading about saints but when I start I wish the rain would last forever. Whenever you see pictures of saints, men or women, they’re always looking up to heaven where there are clouds filled with little fat angels carrying flowers or harps giving praise. Uncle Pa Keating says he can’t think of a single saint in heaven he’d want to sit down and have a pint with. The saints in these books are different. There are stories about virgins, martyrs, virgin martyrs and they’re worse than any horror

film at the Lyric Cinema.

I have to look in the dictionary to find out what a virgin is. I know the Mother of God is the Virgin Mary and they call her that because she didn’t’ have a proper husband, only poor old St. Joseph. In the Lives of the Saints the virgins are always getting into trouble and I don’t know why. The dictionary says, Virgin, woman (usually a young woman) who is and remains in a state of inviolate chastity.

Now I have to look up inviolate and chastity and all I can find here is that inviolate means not violated and chastity means chaste and that means pure from unlawful sexual intercourse. Now I have to look up intercourse and that leads to intromission, which leads to intromittent, the copulatory organ or any male animal. Copulatory leads to copulation, the union of the sexes in the art of generation and I don’t know what that means and I’m too weary going from one word to another in this heavy dictionary which leads me on a wild goose chase from this word to that word and all because the people who wrote the dictionary don’t want the likes of me to know anything.

Closer to home: A look at middle school words-of-the-day:

• Formulate (v): to state as or reduce to a formula; to express in systematic terms or concepts; to devise or invent

• Judge (v): to form an opinion or estimation after careful consideration

• Outline (v): a line marking the outer contours or boundaries of an object or figure. A style of drawing in which the figures are delineated in contours without shading; a general description covering the main points of a subject

• Manipulate (v): to arrange, operate, or control by the hands or by mechanical means; to influence or manage something deviously

• Evaluate (v): to ascertain or fix the value or worth of; to examine and judge carefully; appraise

Why don’t definitions work?

• Weak differentiation: Definition does not differentiate how the word is different from other words (e.g. conspicuous = “easily seen.” How does that differentiate from visible?)

• Vague language (typical = “being a type”)

• More likely interpretation: Definition uses familiar words in unfamiliar ways (e.g. devious = “straying from the right course, not straightforward.” Students could interpret as walking.

• Multiple pieces of information: definition gives no help in how to integrate pieces (e.g. exotic = “foreign, strange, not native”)

Even context doesn’t help these words!• obverse (n):

– Definition: 1. the side of a coin or currency note bearing the chief device and lettering; 2. a front or principal surface; 3. counterpart; also: opposite.

– Context: “While a lot of companies these days are cutting costs and eliminating jobs, Jenna’s company is doing the obverse.”

• aphorism (n): – Definition: 1. a concise statement of a principle. 2. a

terse formulation of a truth or sentiment. – Contexts: “As a radio broadcaster, Ted has entertained

countless listeners with his feel-good stories and pithy, down-home aphorisms.”

Maybe more helpful would be to give an example of an aphorism?

To develop student-friendly explanations:

• First, think about the word. How is it typically used? Be as particular as possible. (When do you use this word particularly? Why do we have such a word?)– Tamper: Defined as, “to interfere in a secret or

incorrect way.” Definition does not get at the idea of messing up something up in a sinister way. Students could construe the definition as meddling.

• Second, explain the meaning in everyday language– Student friendly explanation: “to change something

secretly so that it doesn’t work properly or becomes harmful.”

Make sure your explanation truly characterizes the word

• Ally: “One associated with another”– Possible student-friendly explanation: “Somebody

who does things with you”

• Does that truly characterize “ally”?– Doesn’t get at main characteristic of helping in a

common cause

• Better student friendly explanation: “Someone who helps you in what you are trying to do, especially when there are other people who are against you.”

Activities for Words

Students interact with the words

Word associations

• Associate a new word when presented with a word or phrase: – Words = accomplice, virtuoso, philanthropist,

novice– Which word goes with crook?– Which word goes with “gift to build a new

hospital”?

Have You Ever …?

• Helps students associate new words with contexts and activities from their own experiences– Describe a time when you might urge

someone?– Describe a time when you might banter with

someone?– What would make you gleeful?

Applause, Applause!

• Students are asked to clap in order to indicate how much they would like (not at all, a little bit, a lot) to be described by the target word. Why do they feel that way?

Idea Completions

• Provide students with stem that require them to integrate a word’s meaning into a context in order to explain a situation– The audience asked the virtuoso to play

another piece of music because…– The skiing teacher said Maria was a novice

on the ski slopes because …

Questions, Reasons, Examples

• If you are walking around a dark room, would you do it cautiously? Why? What are some other things that need to be done cautiously?

• What is something you could do to impress your teacher? Why? What is something that might impress your mother?

• Which of these things would be extraordinary? Why or why not?– A shirt that was comfortable or a shirt that washed itself?– A person who has a library card, or a person who has read

all the books in the library?

Making Choices

• If any of the things I say might be examples of people clutching something, say “clutching.” If not, don’t say anything.– Holding tight to a purse– Holding a fisful of money– Softly petting a cat’s fur

• If any of the things I say would make some one radiant, say, “You’d be radiant.” If not, don’t say anything.– Winning a million dollars– Getting a hug from a favorite movie star– Walking to the post office

Relating Words

• See whether there is anything about the words that is related.

• Create an activity to relate the words.– Reluctant, insisted, drowsy might be demonstrated

by facial expressions– Create a sentence using all words: Would you prefer

to budge a sleeping lamb or a ferocious lion? Why?– Ask students to choose between two words: If you

get your clothes ready to wear to school before you go to sleep, would that be sensible or raucous?

Using the Words in One Context

• What would an immense plate of spaghetti look like?

• Would you feel miserable after you ate all that spaghetti? Why or why not?

• What would it look like to eat the spaghetti in a leisurely way?

Other Ways to Teach Vocabulary

Semantic Mapping

Teaching words in semantic groups

Bad People– Villain– Malefactor– Burglar– Embezzler– Miscreant– Cad– Rogue– Scoundrel

Red– Crimson– Scarlet– Pink– Blush– Ruby– Sanguine– Carmine

Semantic Feature Analysis

Classifying

• Mammals– People– Cats– Dogs– Lions– Mice – Whales

• Reptiles– Snakes– Alligators– Dinosaurs– Lizards

Classifying

• What makes something a mammal?– Hair– Warm-blooded– Milk to young

• What makes something a reptile?– Skin?– Cold-blooded– Shape of head