Robust Vocabulary Development

Bringing Words to Life: Developing Robust Vocabulary

Developed by Jane Cook and Donna Drasch

EASTCONN Staff Development Specialists

Mill #1, 3rd Floor

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Willimantic, CT 06226

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Developing Robust Vocabulary Handout – Page 7

Robust Vocabulary Development

Based on the work of Isabel Beck, Margaret G. McKeown and Linda Kucan in

Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2002)

What Does the Research Say?

Isabel Beck, Professor of Education at the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh states that:

o  It is clear that a large and rich vocabulary is the hallmark of an educated individual. (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002)

o  Vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to reading proficiency and school achievement. (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002)

o  There are profound differences in vocabulary knowledge among learners from different ability or socioeconomic (SES) group from toddlers through high school. (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002)

o  First-grade children from higher SES groups knew twice as many words as lower SES children (Graves & Slater, 1987).

o  High-knowledge third graders had vocabularies equal to low-performing 12th graders (Smith, 1941).

o  High school seniors near the top of their class knew about four times as many words as their lower-performing classmates. (Smith, 1941)

o  Most frightening is that once established, such differences appear difficult to ameliorate. (Biemiller, 1999; Hart & Risley, 1995)

o  Teachers must make vocabulary instruction robust, vigorous, strong and powerful to be effective. (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002)

Words are learned from context, but…there are four different kinds of contexts:

1.  Misdirective – Those contexts that direct the reader to an incorrect meaning of a word (Beck, et al, 2002, page 4)

2.  Nondirective – Those contexts that are of no assistance to a reader (Beck, et al, 2002, page 5)

3.  General – Those contexts that allow readers to place a word in a general category (Beck, et al, 2002, page 5)

4.  Directive – Those contexts that lead readers to a specific, correct meaning of a word

Don’t assume that context clues will always lead the reader to understanding.

A Simple Formative Vocabulary Assessment (Dale, 1965; Beck, et al, 2002)

Five Types of Vocabulary

Every person has five different types of vocabulary:

1.  Listening vocabulary (receptive)

2.  Thinking vocabulary

3.  Speaking vocabulary (expressive)

4.  Reading vocabulary

5.  Writing vocabulary

Our job as teachers is to develop all types of vocabulary. As the first three types increase, the 4th and 5th type will also increase. When helping students “crack the code”, we need to help them see that words in their reading are already known words in their listening and speaking vocabularies, they have just never seen them in writing before (Quality Quinn presentation at Windham Summer Literacy Institute, 2005).

Choosing Words to Teach

Words in our language have different levels of utility. Isabel Beck and her colleagues have developed the concept of “tiers of words” (Beck, et al, 2002).

Tier One Words

o  Consist of basic words (AKA “high frequency words”)

o  Rarely require instructional attention

o  Examples are: baby, clock, happy, walk, jump, hop, slide, girl, boy, dog

Tier Two Words

o  Consist of high frequency words that are found across a variety of subject areas or domains

o  Instruction in these words can add dramatically to a student’s use of language

o  Examples include: coincidence, absurd, industrious, fortunate

Tier Three Words

o  Consist of words whose frequency of use is quite low and often limited to specific subject areas or domains

o  Are best learned when a specific need arises such as during a science or geography lesson

o  Examples include: isotope, lathe, peninsula, refinery

To benefit students in building a robust vocabulary, teachers should focus on teaching Tier Two words.

Criteria for Identifying Tier Two words:

·  Importance and utility: Words that are characteristic of mature language users and appear frequently across a variety of domains.

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

·  Conceptual understanding: Words for which students understand the general concept but provide precision and specificity in describing the concept. (Beck, et al, 2002, page 19)

Vocabulary Activity – It’s Your Turn

Silently read the following passage from Jack London’s The Call of the Wild and then write five Tier Two words in the table below the passage.

With a partner(s), discuss why you chose those words as important Tier Two words and talk about how you would use the concept of Tier Two Words for your grade level and/or content area.

Vocabulary Activities

Adapted from Karen Carpenter

Source: http://www.nevadarea.org/Karens_vocab_lesson.doc

Based on the work of Isabel Beck, Margaret G. McKeown and Linda Kucan in Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2002)

Developing Robust Vocabulary

1.  Choose three Two Tier words from a children’s book. These should be words that you feel are integral to comprehension or will be useful to students beyond this particular book. Students should have some background knowledge about each word so that they can make connections and develop a conceptual understanding of the new words. The word should be “a useful addition to students’ repertoires”.

2.  During a read aloud, introduce the three words.

a.  During or after the reading of the story NOT before

b.  Use student friendly definitions

c.  Use the context of the story

d.  Pantomime the word

3.  Extension activities (see next page for descriptions):

a.  Word Associations

b.  Have you ever?

c.  Applause

d.  Idea completions

Model of Sample Vocabulary Activity

Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester (2000)

Wodney Wat is about a rodent name Rodney Rat who can’t pronounce his r’s. Below are brief excerpts. Tier Two words are bold and underlined.

“A twain twavels on twain twacks,” Wodney replied miserably.

Miserably – to feel very bad because someone has hurt your feelings or to feel badly because you are sick

“All of this teasing day in and day out made Wodney the shyest rodent in his elementary school.”

Teasing – to use words or actions to make fun of someone in order to get other people to laugh

“And while the other rodents scurried and scooted about at recess, Wodney hid inside his jacket.”

Scurried – to run quickly

Some Possible Extension Activities

Word Associations

·  Which word goes with ‘making fun of someone’?

·  Which word goes with ‘running quickly’?

·  Which word goes with ‘feeling horrible’?

Have you ever?

·  Describe a time when you have felt miserable.

·  Show me what scurry looks like

·  Tell me about a time when you have been teased

Applause, applause:

Clap not at all, a little bit, or a lot if

·  Teasing is something you wish people would do to you and why.

·  You like to feel miserable?

·  You scurry out to recess and why?

Idea Completion:

·  The child coughed throughout the night and did not sleep well, he felt miserable so …

·  After watching Jane tease and tease the boy about falling on the ice, Carina…

·  The rabbit scurried across the field because…….

VOCABULARY RESOURCES

The Top 500 High Frequency Words Found in Print

The First 100

The Second 100

The Third 100

The Fourth 100

The Fifth 100

Developing Robust Vocabulary Handout – Page 18

Latin Cognates

Source: http://www.qualityquinn.com/Documents/latin_cognates.html