DYNAMIC VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION ANITA L. ARCHER, PHD.

Summary Importance of vocabulary instruction Components of a vocabulary program Explicit instruction Instructional routines

Importance of vocabulary instruction Children’s vocabulary in the early grades directly effects reading comprehension in the upper grades Hart & Risley, 1995 More directive language in low income families To close the gap, vocabulary acquisition must be accelerated through intentional instruction in all grades, all classes. Words heard in 3 years Low Income 10 million Working Class 20 million Professional 30 million

Components of a vocabulary program High quality classroom language Tell students the meaning of words when first used. Ex. “Don’t procrastinate on your project. Procrastinate means to put off doing something.” Pair in the meaning of the word by using parallel language. Ex. “Please refrain from talking. Please don’t talk.”

Components of a vocabulary program Read-Alouds Listening to a book being read can significantly improve children’s expresssive vocabulary. (Nicholson &Whyte, 1992; Senechal & Cornell, 1993) Print vocabulary is more extensive and diverse than oral vocabulary. (Hays, Wolfe, & Wolf, 1996) Choose interesting, engaging stories Be a story-teller Provide students with a little explanation of novel words encountered in the text. Ex. “They concluded, or decided, that something dreadful, or terrible, must have happened...”

Explicit vocabulary instruction Sources: words from read-alouds, core reading programs, reading intervention programs, and content area instruction. Selecting vocabulary words: Select a limited number (3-10) of words for explicit instruction from a chapter or section. Select words that are unknown, critical to the passage, likely to be encountered in the future, and difficult to obtain (abstract or no known synonym) Goldilocks words: not too easy (store), not too difficult (cellular respiration), just right (absurd).

Instructional Routine for vocabulary Step 1: Introduce the word “The word is compulsory. What word?” “____”. Step 2: Introduce the meaning. Use a student-friendly explanation Have students locate it in the glossary or text Introduce using morphographs in the words Ex. Autobiography: auto=self, Step 3: Illustrate with examples Concrete, visual, or verbal Step 4: Check for student’s understanding. Ask deep processing questions. Ex. “Many things become compulsory. Why do you think something would become compulsory?”

Instructional Routine for vocabulary Step 4 continued: Check for student’s understanding. Have students discern between examples and non-examples. Ex. “Is going to school in 8th grade compulsory? How do you know? Is going to college when you are 25 compulsory? Why not?” Have students generate their own examples. Ex. “Make a list of things at this school that are compulsory.”

Resources Student-friendly dictionary Photos for target vocab words www.wordcentral.com Photos for target vocab words www.taggalaxy.com Video resources from Anita L. Archer, Phd. www.explicitinstruction.org