Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Melanie Mursau, M.S., CCC-SLP Bonduel Elementary School

How Does Vocabulary Relate to Reading? STAR Assessment Results In Bonduel, students who are scoring “lower” on the STAR are also struggling in the area of “Vocabulary Acquisition and Use” According to the Instructional Planning Report. Examples goals from Instructional Planning Report for “Vocabulary” “Use vocabulary acquired from listening, conversing, reading, and responding to text.” “Name antonyms” “Identify new meanings of familiar multiple-meaning words such as nouns” “Explain or act out differences in meanings of words” “Sort words by category” “Determine or clarify precise meanings of key words and phrases”

How Does Vocabulary Relate to Reading? “Vocabulary” refers to the words we use to communicate Vocabulary plays a critical part in learning to read by helping children make sense of the words they see by comparing them to the words they have heard Our everyday speech consists of 5,000-7,000 words The entire English language consists of 450,000 words Students are expected to learn about 3,000 new words per year by 3 rd grade Only about 400 words per year are directly taught by teachers Students are expected to learn new words based on everyday experiences and conversations However, many students have outside factors that are not conducive to providing them with the experiences they need to be exposed to new words.

Why are our students struggling with vocabulary skills? Lack of experiences Low vocabulary skills in parents Possibly due to a poor “filing” system When a person learns a new word or concept, our brain stores that new material in a place in the brain that “makes sense” (i.e., we need to know where to file it) Words can be stored based on: 1. Category 2. Function 3. Appearance 4. Composition 5. Parts 6. Location 7. Background information

Example: Pumpkin Weak vocabulary skills: “the thing we see on Halloween” Memorizing a definition may not be enough in order to accurately file a newly learned word. By adding several language functions, the student can more effectively learn where to file the new word so it makes sense and can be retrieved:

How Do I Teach a Child How to Learn New Vocabulary Words? Expanding Expression Tool (EET) I use it in therapy String of beads made to look like a caterpillar Each bead corresponds to one language area Tactile cueing helps students remember to provide information for all areas

Example: Pumpkin Pumpkin: 1. Category: fall things, fruit, Halloween decorations 2. Function: grow on a vine, we carve them, we decorate with them, we use them to make pumpkin pie 3. Appearance: orange, round, different sizes 4. Composition: grows from a plant, starts as a seed 5. Parts: seeds, stem, “meat” 6. Location: pumpkin patch, homes in the fall 7. Background information/Association or Exclusion: we carve them into jack-o-lanterns during Halloween. We can use the “meat” to make pumpkin pie. We often see pumpkins and cornstalks together as fall decorations.

Student Examples

Student Examples Continued

Using EET in your Classroom

Using EET in the Classroom ~Possibilities are Endless….

Student Examples Continued

Using the EET for Describing

Teacher Resources (i.e., Examples) See for full list of examples

Using the EET at Different Levels

Visual Charts (for our “non-writers”) These are great to put up on the SmartBoard or when introducing the concept of the EET

Graphic Organizers (for our “writers”)

Graphic Organizer for Informational Text

Graphic Organizer for Biographies

Baseline/Data Collection (See for full list of stimulus pictures) These can be use to measure where the child is at in terms of his/her ability to describe objects. I use these information assessment tools at the beginning, before any instruction. Then I use them again at quarterly progress reports to show growth in the child’s ability to describe vocabulary words. You can use these boxes to transcribe what the child says, or have the child “write everything [s/he] knows about the picture”

Mini Books Could be individual or “whole class” activity on the SmartBoard when introducing your new curriculum vocabulary

Questions??