VOCABULARY: More Than Relying on Context Cyndi Schultz, M.A., CCC-SLP, F/AOGPE [email protected] Monica Gordon Pershey, Ed.D., CCC-SLP [email protected]

VOCABULARY First-grade children from higher SES know about twice as many words as lower SES (Graves, Brunetti, & Slater,1982; Graves & Slater, 1987)

Top performing high school seniors use four times as many words as their lower performing classmates (Smith, 1941) High-knowledge third graders use as many words as the lowest performing 12th graders (Smith,1941)

SO WHY TEACH VOCABULARY

Children need to learn 2,000 to 3,000 new words each year from 3rd grade onward, about 6–8 per day.

• Vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to overall reading comprehension.

In 1st and 2nd grade, children need to learn 800+ words per year, about 2 per day.

• If a word is decoded and pronounced but the meaning is not recognized, comprehension will be impaired.

Children who are behind by 1st grade have a hard time making up the gap. Andrew Biemiller; Nagy & Anderson

TEACHING ASSUMPTIONS Vocabulary is learned in context Words learned in context are added to vocabularies Instruction must focus on learning vocabulary from context because there are too many words to teach using direct instruction

• Knowledge of a word!s meaning also facilitates accurate word recognition. The phonological, orthographic, and meaning processors all contribute to reading!

Natural contexts are not that informative for deriving word meanings (Beck, McKeown, & McCaslin). Four categories were identified: – Misdirective • leads the reader to an incorrect meaning

– Nondirective • provides no assistance in determining any meaning for a word

– General • places meaning within a category

– Directive • leads the reader to a specific, correct meaning of a word

Misdirective Context 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. (p.4)

Nondirective Context 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. (p.5)

General Context 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 Stan. (p.5)

Directive Context 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 out and fell to the floor. As the noise and confusion mounted, Mother hollered upstairs, “What!s all that commotion?” (P.5)

TO LEARN FROM READING Must read frequently and with right level of difficulty to encounter a substantial number of unfamiliar words… requires – Adequate decoding skills – Recognition of unfamiliar word – Motivation to pursue understanding – Ability to extract or infer meanings from context

PROBLEM Students who need vocabulary development: – Do not engage in wide reading – Do not choose books with unfamiliar vocabulary – Are less able to identify main ideas, infer meaning or derive meaning from context (Kucan & Beck, 1996; McKeown, 1985)

WORDS HAVE • phonological form (sounds, syllables) • morphological form (meaningful parts) • spelling patterns (orthographic form) • meanings and meaning networks • syntactic roles • linguistic history (etymological features)

Stages of Word Knowledge • Stage 1: Never saw it before; no knowledge • Stage 2: Heard it, but doesn!t know what it means; general sense like recognizing negative connotation • Stage 3: Recognizes it in context as having something to do with; narrow context-bound knowledge or unable to readily recall • Stage 4: Knows it well; decontexualized (Dale, 1965); (Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987)

Qualitative Dimensions of Word Knowledge • Generalization: ability to define • Application: use word in appropriate situations • Breadth: knowledge of multiple meanings • Precision: apply correctly and recognize incorrect usage • Availability: use in thinking and discourse (Cronbach,1942)

CHOOSING WORDS – Evaluate use and importance to student – Frequently appears in variety of texts – Adds productivity to language ability – Has some conceptual knowledge – Will be able to explain in own words – Offers precise/complex forms of the familiar – Instructional potential: relates to other words; brings meaning to text; represents a new concept

REACHING DEEP… TO KNOW Students need to “own” their words Requires repetitive practice Notice words in their environment Explore relationships

INTRODUCTIONS Student friendly definitions – Explain how it is typically used • Start with focused concept rather than multiple meanings • Concept grows with use

– Use everyday language • Avoid puzzling words

– Interactive discussions

INTRODUCTIONS • Notice word pronunciation and word spelling. • Explore morphology (compounds, prefixes, roots, suffixes). • Generate a definition then check it against the dictionary. • Compare similar words.

SPELLING AND VOCABULARY Spelling Knowledge • Provides the basis for explicit awareness and understanding of morphology. • Should be based on morphemic structure and word origin (Leong, 2000). • Emphasizing the spelling meaning connection (paradigm/paradigmatic).

CONTEXT Contextual Information – Relationship to context • Analyzing word structure • How does the word change with different places, people or sentences • Differences in formal and informal language environments • Constructing definitions for context

DEFINE Definitional Information – Relationships with other words, connect to know • • • •

Synonyms Antonyms Categories; semantic groups Descriptions; semantic features – similarities and differences

DECONTEXTUALIZE Becoming conscious (acquiring knowledge): – of the word!s sounds and morphemes – of the word!s origins – of the word!s usage and multiple meanings

INSTRUCTIONAL TIPS Instructional context – – – – –

Provides strong clues to word!s meaning Develops explanation of target word Ensures clear and correct conclusion Gives how meaning was derived from context Builds stronger connection between word and meaning

Provide meanings as words are encountered – Meaning can then be integrated into the context of use immediately

TEXT TALK

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition • Use word in context; role in the story • Children repeat the word; creating a phonological representation • Give understandable definition • Provide additional contexts; examples of use • Children join in examples; use structured activities • Children say the word again

ENGAGING ACTIVITIES

Word Associations

– Which word goes with...

Have you ever…? – Describe a time when you might urge someone, commend someone, banter with someone.

Applause, Applause! – Clap if you want to be described as: vain, stern, intelligent, creative, frugal

ENGAGING ACTIVITIES Idea Completions – Using sentence stems to integrate a word!s meaning into a context 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… • The teacher said the students are exhausted after testing because… • When might you feel impatient? How would you rescue a cat? or Why might you be glum?

MORE ACTIVITIES How much energy does it take to… • Meander down a hill? • Vault over a car? • Stalk a turtle?

Making choices – Which are examples of clutching • Holding on tightly to a purse • Softly petting a cat!s fur

MORE… Making Definitions • A darkroom is a room for developing photographs that has very dim, special light and running water. • To plunder is to rob or pillage, usually by an invading or conquering group. • (Moats, 2004)

Relating words – Would you prefer to budge a sleeping lamb or a ferocious lion?

FLOCABULARY FLOCABULARY LESSON PLAN Appropriate for grades 7-12. Curriculum Areas: *Vocabulary Building *Reading Comprehension *Aural Comprehension *Pronunciation *Spelling *Word Recognition and Analysis Goal: In each lesson, your students will: *Memorize a rap *Engage with vocabulary and wordplay *Learn the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of forty to fifty SAT-level vocabulary words *Work as a team *Have fun

The Pre-Lesson: Discussion - optional (5 - 10 minutes) A great way to introduce Flocabulary to the classroom is with an open discussion on hip-hop and vocabulary. Use the following questions to spark discussion: "Can rap music be considered poetry?" "What are the qualities of hip-hop that are unique?" "How many poems do you have memorized?” “How many rock / hip-hop songs?" "Is memorizing a rhyme easier than memorizing a non-rhyming sentence?" "What could explain this difference?"

Time Needed: Two thirty minute sessions on separate days with homework. Materials needed: *Flocabulary A Dictionary and A Microphone cd *A page of the lyrics and definitions for the song from the Flocabulary Workbook *A list of the vocabulary words without definitions from the website *A Teacher’s Guide to the Songs from the website *cd-player

The Lesson (20 - 30 minutes) *Distribute the lyrics to the Flocabulary song chosen. *Play the song for the class. Students should listen and follow along on the printed page. *Ask for reactions and comments. *Use the Guide to Theme, Language and References sheet to engage in a brief discussion of the theme, narrator, plot-line, language and references. *Play the song again. This time students should listen for vocabulary. *Ask the students if there are any words that they still don't understand the meaning of in the context of the song. (You can test understanding by asking them to fold the page so that the definitions are hidden and then asking them to define words based on their context in the lyrics).

Flo + Cab Homework Assignment First Follow Up (5-15 minutes) Performance Time (30 minutes) Final Assignment Alternative Ideas

FLO CAB Where ever you go we’ll be there. FLO CAB Rocking harder than your grandma’s chair. FLO CAB Rocking the apocalypse until there’s nothing left. FLO CAB A better recipe for success than the iron chef.

There are copious connotations for every single word, many meanings that are varied and diverse. So I could be terse, and not talk with too many words, and a preponderance of meanings could still emerge. Some say different voices create dissonance, white noise, and cacophony, actually they make harmony. And without harmony BoyzIIMen would still be boys, and Art Garfunkel would be unemployed. We’re in harmonious agreement, in concord, like the fast plane and we’d like you to get on board. We confound and frustrate those who must hate us, and think hip-hop is the scourge of the English language. They offer scathing criticism and indictments. They think that when you’re studying there should be no excitement, but then they listen to our songs, they retract and withdraw their statements like it was a bank card.

Like a boomerang we’re back, together again, the collusion, two people huddled and making a plan. Rocking iPods to Etch-A-Sketches, it’s Escher, urgent and exigent, exerting mad pressure. Like how peanut butter always tastes better with jelly, we added flow to vocab, to get Flowcabulary. It’s the confluence of two discrete things, like french fries and onion rings, we make things meet that are different. Now sometimes it’s true that divergent things, split people apart and are divisive. Some people try to disparage our project, speak ill of it and criticize us, but we’re imperious to bad vibes, we’re untouchable, stick together like Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable. Two things come together just coalesce like when you zip up the two sides of your vest.

We juxtapose those who know and those who don’t, by putting them together to compare and contrast. We variegate and differentiate these tracks so they don’t all run together like sidewalk chalk in the rain. We ameliorate our orations, make our speeches better, Improve and troubleshoot, don’t maintain. I stress and accentuate positivity in life, like peas accentuate the taste of rice. So I’m sanguine, optimistic and cheery, the opposite of enervated and weary, you hear me, clearly we spread good vibes like Beverly Cleary, but not as saccharine, overly sweet. Maudlin is sentimental like your dentals are your teeth. We fight holes in our mores, those moral cavities. The amalgamation, combination of two rare things, I can’t believe it’s so butter…

AFFIXES PREFIXES • The 15 most frequently occurring prefixes appear in over 4000 words. • Occur at the beginning of words which make them easy to identify. • Tend to be consistently spelled.

Tis a Very Dirty Manner of Life Source: Colonial House • Translate spoken words of 17th-century New England colonists into 21st-century language. Grade Level: 6-8 Subjects: Reading & Language Arts, Social Studies Topics: Vocabulary. United States History: 15851763. Resource Type: Lesson Plan • http://www.pbs.org/teachers/readlanguage/

HISTORY OF ENGLISH Many of our oldest words, given to English from Anglo-Saxon, have undergone the most changes in meaning over time. house (AngloSaxon) habitat (Latin) residence (French)

Teaching Roots

MEMORY AIDS • Humor • Visualization • Mnemonics

MEMORY AIDS

INSTRUCTIONAL FEATURES Create an Environment that… Frequent encounters – Focus of attention 8 to 10 times – Cumulative review

Richness of instruction – Opportunity to use and think about meaning – Consider relationships

• Values words as important and interesting • Rewards the use sophisticated words in everyday situations • Stimulates student!s interest in words and in contexts outside of school • Encourages students to ask word meanings

Extension beyond the classroom