“Review of the literature indicated that the most
effective vocabulary instruction includes multiple
exposures to words in a variety of oral and written
contexts.”
—Dixon-Krauss, December 2001/January 2002
“When students were engaged in the tasks in
which they were learning vocabulary, they had
larger gains.”
—National Reading Panel, 2000
Incorporating effective vocabulary instruction across the curriculum is one of the most important things you can do to help your students improve their reading comprehension. Content area reading in a range of media including textbooks and on the Web demand more critical literacy and increasing word knowledge. In the middle grades, students are also challenged in writing by more oral reports, complex essays, and longer explanations in quizzes and tests. There are a number of different strategies for effective teaching of vocabulary. Whichever method you choose, most experts agree on some general principles:
- Many words are learned indirectly through reading, writing, and speaking ("Tier 1")
- Direct instruction is needed to learn most “Tier 2” and "Tier 3" words.
- Teach words directly that interfere with students' understanding of a reading (literature, textbook, etc).
- Learning new concepts requires active involvement rather than passive definition memorization.
- Students need to work with a word at least six times in order to remember its meaning.
- Target words should be used in a context to which students can relate.
- Writing definitions from dictionaries is not a recommended practice.
- Whenever possible, relate new words to students’ prior knowledge and to other related words.
- Students need to learn how to determine meaning of words from the multiple contexts of reading.
.
Tier One Words-High frequency use, rarely require instructional attention:
clock, baby, ball, happy, walk, run, etc.
Tier Two Words -High frequency use found across a variety of
knowledge domains: coincidence, absurd, allergic,
defiant, etc.
Tier Three Words -Low frequency use, limited to
specific knowledge domains: isotope, lathe, peninsula,
refinery, etc.
Here is an 8-Step routine for explicitly teaching vocabulary. This process may only take a few minutes for each word. This should be followed by multiple opportunities to work with new words to really cement their understanding. For more details and graphic organizers to support the learning of new words, see Teaching Vocabulary Through Differentiated Instruction With Leveled Graphic Organizers.
1) Show students the word.
2) Have students decode/pronounce.
3) Students guess at the word on paper.
4) Show students word used in context.
5) Students review their definitions, eliminate meanings that don't make sense in context, and use semantic clues
to adjust or create new definition.
6) Ensure students have correct definition.
7) Read aloud two sentences with correct usage and two with incorrect usage. Students give thumbs-up or thumbs-down to indicate which is correct usage and which is not.
8) Students create sentence using word correctly and share ('Think-Pair-Share'). Partners give each other feedback.
9) (optional) Discuss derivatives.
Check out this website for other routines for direct instruction, as well as a range of activities, resources, and links.
http://innovativocab.wikispaces.com/
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. NY: Guilford
Press.
Block, Cathy Collins & Mangieri, John N. (2006) The Vocabulary Enriched Classroom: Practices for Improving the Reading Performance of All Students in Grades 3 and up. New York: Scholastic.
Johnson, D. D. (2001). Vocabulary in the elementary and middle school.Boston, MA: Allynand Bacon.
McMackin, Mary C., Witherell, Nancy L. (2007) Teaching Vocabulary Through Differentiated Instruction With Leveled Graphic Organizers: 50+ Reproducible, Leveled Organizers That Help You Teach Vocabulary to ALL Students and Manage Their Different Learning Needs Easily and Effectively
