Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Vocabulary Instruction in the Middle School
Welcome! You have read the article "The Words Students Need" from the October issue of Educational Leadership. Please respond by engaging in professional discussion about the vocabulary instruction in the middle school as it relates to the article, your professional experiences, and other research.
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I think that vocabulary should be a larger emphasis accross the board. I have been an advocate for a building level word list, so that by the end of a student's tenure at a building they should have been thoroughly exposed to a sizable list of words that they can employ in writing or in speech. Although, words are not enough. I am unsure if the link below will work. but I like what this guy has to say about teaching reading as well as his view of the notion of learning styles.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/dbw8m#p/u/2/RiP-ijdxqEc
I have to admit that I did not read the Kwiet ppt presentation. It was a bit too much information to place in that format. However, I have discovered that when it comes to teaching vocabulary, definitions are not enough. Kids can write definitions until "their hands fall off" it doesn't mean they own the words. In fact, I would propose that writing definitions lends to overload. Vocabulary mastery comes when words are manipulated, and used regularly in correct context in new and meaningful ways. I think summarizing and paraphrasing has to be an integral part of vocabulary development, and it needs to be embedded within the context of true problem solving.
ReplyDeleteHere is another video link by David Merrill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_TKaO2-jXA
This is my first year teaching reading, and I am lucky enough to have a stud of a teacher with whom I co-plan. Many of the vocabulary instructional strategies she employs, and consequently me too, are mentioned in this article. Mere dictionary defintions are not enough. And students do need multiple opportunities to work and play with words before they truly have a concrete understanding of them.
ReplyDeleteThe best ways we have found to do vocabulary in our classes consists of using pictures, synonyms and antonyms, specific situations where using the word would be appropriate and experimentation with using new words in their writing.
For me, the last one seems to be the most powerful. When students get to experiment with words in their writing, the words truly become theirs. And when students actually "own" the word, it is much more like to become part of their active vocabulary.
I found the quasi-research project that the authors engaged within on a Word Generation Program to be enlightening. I would like to know more about it, and see how it could be applied within our own middle schools. It might take a lot to get the content teachers on board, but if words were chosen that apply to all, it could easily 'fit' content curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to see how many LA/Rdg teachers introduce only 5-7 words in a week. I'm sure that most teachers are introducing more than that in ONE classroom. The value is within repeated exposures and experiences in differing contexts.
Years ago we received the 79 word list from someone here in 501. These are the type of words this article was talking about...Larry Bell also has a short list of "Money Words".
Definitely something to look into further. Angela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0HfwkArpvU
ReplyDeleteFor the more creative, this is a really interesting video from NPR. Could be a great jumping off point for writing. We give a great deal of lip service to teaching vocabulary, but there is still very little focus on allowing students TIME to be creative with words, to play with words, to interact with words and to once again learn to love words. While explicit vocabulary instruction is important, I would still like to see more time for writing....poetry, songs, stories, plays whatever they desire as long as they are writing.
Justin and I have experimented this year with the best way to introduce vocabulary words and how to make the vocabulary work meaningful. I am still pretty faithful to the chart that we use where we draw a picture of the word, along with writing the definition. We then use them in a variety of activities throughout the quarter, including writing sentences that don't just use the word, they demonstrate the meaning of the word.
ReplyDeleteI know that many students are able to generalize these words because when we encounter them they get a little bit excited!
In my experience with my own children, just the exposure to a variety of experiences provides a broad vocabulary; while we can't control what experiences our students have before they get to us, we can provide them with a wide variety of "virtual experiences" through both our language arts classes and other subjects.
I went to the links given in the article and was amazed at the online tools available that could make vocab instruction so much more effective...and easier!
ReplyDeleteOne of them (wordsift.com) gives an immediate image showing which words occur frequently in a passage and which words are academic vocabulary. The tool also shows an entry to the visual thesaurus and provides associated images.
I LOVE this next one...and no I'm not getting kickbacks from any of these sites. :) Go to
www.books.google.com and type in the name of a book you will be using. Once the preview of the book comes up, look on the right hand side and you will see "search in this book." Type in whatever vocab word you want and it will show you all the passages containing that word. I love it!
http://wordgeneration.org/index.html is fabulous, and you can download good resources.
I have to add that I'm way too excited about Janet Allen's visit for our Nov. 8 professional development. Her book about vocabulary is great!
October 27, 2010 3:37 PM
Another post from me, since I didn't really do much in the way of commenting about the actual article...I was too busy pushing the sites I had found. :)
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of a schoolwide effort would be very effective. The trick, of course, would be in having everyone on board. Those of us who have watched students' vocabulary skills decline in the past 20 years or so would probably need no coaxing to do whatever is needed to help the cause.
I remember reading a book by Shirley Brice Heath about 10 years ago. She had done longitudinal studies on how families communicated with their children, providing their foundation for language skills. I mainly remember how she stressed that language is power when kids get to school, and children who come from a word-poor background are going to have more of a struggle.
Since I feel like I'm not conveying the information well enough I found a very "worth reading" website about her work. http://www.thebestclass.org/heath.html
Tired of hearing from me yet? I was just reading over my first post and noticed that I got a direction wrong. When you go to www.books.google.com and type in the name of a book you will be using, click on the book, and once the preview of the book comes up, look on the LEFT hand side and you will see "search in this book."
ReplyDeleteThis is why I was never able to square dance...you have to know right from left.
After reading the article, I realize that we have used this strategy in teaching vocabulary to the students. I believe that emercing the students in the vocabulary helps place the meaning in their long term memory. The web sites are helpful the article gives. I also use a chart where we draw a picture of the word, along with writing the definition. We then use them in a variety of activities throughout the quarter, including writing sentences that don't just use the word, they demonstrate the meaning of the word.
ReplyDeleteSeveral thoughts regarding “The Words Students Need”
ReplyDeleteFor students to recognize, remember, and begin to integrate target words into their spoken and written vocabulary, multiple exposures to the words are crucial. A cross-content approach to vocabulary instruction seems like a good way to create the multiple experiences for students.
The Word Generation program’s introduction of vocabulary words in a high-interest passage about a controversial topic would interest many middle school students. I expect that when students encounter a vocabulary word with a measure of emotion attached, such as in a debate, they have better retention of the word.
I want to make some time to look at the websites listed. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English sounds interesting.
I’m looking forward to checking out the videos suggested by fellow bloggers. Thanks for your comments.
The electronic format of a blog as a meeting place is exciting.
Onecia Mercer
Oh please, I just typed three or four lengthy paragraphs, and they didn't post. This is a test
ReplyDeleteAlice, you are a truly amazing person. I know you're almost as old as I am, but technology is your comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteI agree that repeated exposure to words is imperative, and I admit that I sure don't hit the 12 mark on my own. It makes sense that if kids are exposed in multiple classes the exposure multiplies. It would be relatively easy to incorporate a vocabulary system into the ILT groups which meet twice a week. One problem I see is that we need to do something that is not perceived as a burden.
I went to several of the websites. Visuwords.com was so amazing, it was graphically organized thesaurus entries. With our projectors in place, it would be so easy to pop up a word and expand some vocabularies....
I had trouble with the victoria site, I never did find a list of words. Wordcount.org had the list of 80,000some words,but there didn't seem to be a starting point.
It was an enlightening article, and I hope it encourages us to take action.
I agree vocabulary is important in every aspect of education. I put this with the comment from Rick Wormelli that kids need over 200 affixes to help figure out meanings of words. I do affixes in class as well as spelling and vocabulary activities.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the article and found it to be worth reading. I think we all know how important vocabulary development is for all students and all content areas. We also are able to detect quickly when our students have a low level of vocabulary knowledge. Unfortunately outside of reading/LA class, we don't see much time spent on it, other than looking up definitions. Why is it that it is so hard to work it in, even when we know how important it is?
ReplyDeleteSpecial thanks to Dianna Shinn who helped me blog for the first time!
Vocabulary is so very important to students and adults alike. When a student questions a word, I send them to find an answer to their own question. In my class, we study affixes and correlate the spelling with the vocabulary words. We also bring in outside information and if a word is new to us, it is always discussed and digested. "In the olden days" when I first started teaching, the vocabulary was interdisciplinary and it was insisted upon that we all became familiar with the words. This is truly a very important concept for the students to learn a variety of words which refer to the same topic. Great article.
ReplyDeleteI hope you all enjoyed this blog experience! I seem to do this more often than not anymore as I take those grad classes. I really enjoyed your posts!
ReplyDeleteDebby---I'm so proud of you, you techno-savvy girl!
ReplyDeleteI hope that people have more time in the future to comment as well! Thanks to those of you who had time to visit those web sites and report out to the rest of us!
Vocabulary is tough to teach. It is if you don't have strategies to use to allow students to understand the concepts. I think students need to have ways to make the connection between the word and the meaning and I have seen greater retention when students can draw a picture. I feel that the learning occurs when they have owned the word. If you can't draw the concept using in their own words will make meaning last.
ReplyDeleteAs for the posting of comments here on a blog, I love the idea. I had to take an on line class and most of my learning occured when reading through the posts and how others interpret the material. I would be willing to do this again.