Vocabulary and Word Study- the 3rd element in a comprehensive literacy Framework
What to do during word work?
There are countless word solving and word recognition activities that you can do in elementary during word work time. In Division 1: Focusing on high frequency words and word-level skills can never steer you wrong. See the literacy interventions tabs for powerpoints of clusters and high frequency words for classrooms to use during transition times or as a start to your word work time. Other ideas to develop HF words and common word families & clusters would be Bingo, BOING! Wordville Passports for spelling, hands-on magnetic letters, playdough, wikki etc to build those pesky words, boggle, high-speed spelling, reading the word wall, word sorts, definition matching etc.
In Division 2: See Frayer models below. Word sorts, vocabulary building, studying of roots & bases, word ladders and building academic word walls that are interactive. Marzano has created a wonderful classroom collection of vocabulary based games.
There are countless word solving and word recognition activities that you can do in elementary during word work time. In Division 1: Focusing on high frequency words and word-level skills can never steer you wrong. See the literacy interventions tabs for powerpoints of clusters and high frequency words for classrooms to use during transition times or as a start to your word work time. Other ideas to develop HF words and common word families & clusters would be Bingo, BOING! Wordville Passports for spelling, hands-on magnetic letters, playdough, wikki etc to build those pesky words, boggle, high-speed spelling, reading the word wall, word sorts, definition matching etc.
In Division 2: See Frayer models below. Word sorts, vocabulary building, studying of roots & bases, word ladders and building academic word walls that are interactive. Marzano has created a wonderful classroom collection of vocabulary based games.
Recently I gave some workshop sessions devoted to Word Study and Vocabulary. See also the tab above on Vocabulary. Here is an infographic by Dr. Kimberly Tyson.
Fact #1: It has a direct impact on comprehension. It is predictive of reading achievement.
Fact #2: It is reciprocal. Vocabulary learning supports reading and reading supports vocabulary learning.
Fact #3: The definition method does NOT work! You know, that " write down the word and look it up in the dictionary thing? It has no transferability and has been proven to be ineffective as a stand alone method. Knowledge of a word's meaning is more than a simple definition.
Fact # 4: There are vast differences between the vocabularies of low and high -achieving students. This difference is around 5400 words. Children from affluent homes have a vocabulary 5X greater than children from lower-income households. This gap widens as they move through school.
Fact #5: Teachers tend to focus on Content words much more than Academic words in teaching. Content words such as democracy, buoyancy or igneous are more stressed in the classroom than words such as identify, contrast or sequence. Students need exposure to academic word meanings as well.
Fact # 6: Most words in English are derivatives of Greek and Latin. Teaching students the more common roots and bases will give them a set of strategies that they can apply to any subject. For example, if they learn that "therm" means "heat", then they can apply that understanding to words such as thermos, thermal energy or thermostat.
Fact # 7: Having a framework for vocabulary learning in the classroom is the best way to increase their lexicon. This includes daily independent reading and a strategic plan for Read Aloud with a focus on Vocabulary. These new words should be discussed, used in context, applied purposefully in conversations and revisited often. See below for my Read Aloud Framework which focuses on introducing new vocabulary ( all grades) which is based on research and a list of vocabulary games for use in all content classrooms
Fact #1: It has a direct impact on comprehension. It is predictive of reading achievement.
Fact #2: It is reciprocal. Vocabulary learning supports reading and reading supports vocabulary learning.
Fact #3: The definition method does NOT work! You know, that " write down the word and look it up in the dictionary thing? It has no transferability and has been proven to be ineffective as a stand alone method. Knowledge of a word's meaning is more than a simple definition.
Fact # 4: There are vast differences between the vocabularies of low and high -achieving students. This difference is around 5400 words. Children from affluent homes have a vocabulary 5X greater than children from lower-income households. This gap widens as they move through school.
Fact #5: Teachers tend to focus on Content words much more than Academic words in teaching. Content words such as democracy, buoyancy or igneous are more stressed in the classroom than words such as identify, contrast or sequence. Students need exposure to academic word meanings as well.
Fact # 6: Most words in English are derivatives of Greek and Latin. Teaching students the more common roots and bases will give them a set of strategies that they can apply to any subject. For example, if they learn that "therm" means "heat", then they can apply that understanding to words such as thermos, thermal energy or thermostat.
Fact # 7: Having a framework for vocabulary learning in the classroom is the best way to increase their lexicon. This includes daily independent reading and a strategic plan for Read Aloud with a focus on Vocabulary. These new words should be discussed, used in context, applied purposefully in conversations and revisited often. See below for my Read Aloud Framework which focuses on introducing new vocabulary ( all grades) which is based on research and a list of vocabulary games for use in all content classrooms
|
|
Robert Marzano created this book for K-12 with a wide variety of games to build both general content and academic vocabularies. I have used several of these games and adapted them for specific content and audiences and find this resource to be an excellent addition to any teacher's tool kit.
Timothy Rasinski and co-authors have created a resource that expounds on the importance of Greek Roots, Latin Roots and Bases in learning new vocabulary. Learning them will unlock exponentially more words for students and give them a key to understanding complex vocabulary in their content classes. Especially geared for grades 4-12, there is a wealth of information, including planning for instruction, class activities, word study strategies and lists of the roots students should know.
Academic Word Walls-slideshow
Word Walls are meant to be used. Here you see word walls from all kinds of content classrooms from primary high frequency based words, to specific high school content vocabulary. No matter what grade, word walls are an effective tool for creating schema and consolidating information on a topic. Visuals are a key component of these kinds of word walls, and even connecting lines help students to bridge understandings from one concept to another. Providing an anchor to these new words, whether it's on a bulletin board a door, or a portable screen, giving students, especially for ELLS and strugglers is an important bridge to learning. Thanks to teachers from GPCSD for their word wall pics!!