Vocabulary and Concepts Strategies You Can Use

Vocabulary and Reading Students cannot comprehend what they read unless they know the words they are reading—they need to understand the vocabulary. There are three levels of vocabulary: common words (tier 1), words of general knowledge (tier 2), and words from specific fields (tier 3).

Music Vocabulary Tier 1: Music. This is a word that most people in general know. Tier 2: Harmony. This is a word that cuts across fields (music, psychology, visual arts, etc.) that educated people know. Tier 3: Allegro. This is a word that is specific to music and that only musicians need to know.

Music Vocabulary Over time, the level of vocabulary we need to learn changes. K college Tier

Music Vocabulary What music-related words do students need to know in Kindergarten? What music-related words do students need to know in 7 th grade? What music-related words do seniors in high school need to know? List words and estimate whether they are Tier 1, 2, or 3.

Teaching Vocabulary Vocabulary is not a list of random words. Most vocabulary words are interrelated by way of concepts. Words need to be taught conceptually. Why??? Think about this as you consider the self reflection on the next slide.

Self Reflection Think for a minute about how you have learned vocabulary, particularly the tier 2 and 3 music vocabulary you identified above. What has worked for you? What has not worked for you? What strategies were used to teach it to you? What strategies did you use to learn it? Write a drop box page, a discussion thread, or a private to me about this.

Thinking about concepts Concepts can be organized in many ways. Think about using visuals to help students understand the relationships between words. Visuals not only support an understanding of the complex relationships being taught, they also support visual learners. These visuals are called “graphic organizers.”

Musical Instruments: A Semantic Map I did this with the “organizational chart” slide template.

Constructing Graphic Organizers Analyze the vocabulary of the learning task. List all the words that you believe are important for the student to understand. Arrange the list of words until you have a scheme that shows the interrelationships among the concepts particular to the learning task. Add to the scheme vocabulary. Add terms that you believe the students understand in order to show relationships between the learning task and the discipline as a whole. Evaluate the organizer. Have you clearly shown major relationships? Can the organizer be simplified and still effectively communicate the idea you consider crucial? Introduce the students to the learning task by showing them the scheme. Tell them why you arranged the terms as you did. Encourage them to contribute as much information as possible to the discussion of the organizer. As you complete the learning task, relate new information to the organizer where it seems appropriate. Vacca and Vacca, pp

Another Graphic Organizer Bridge F-hole Tuners Fingerboard Bow Isn’t it amazing what you can do on Powerpoint? You could add a clip of someone playing the instrument

Need more ideas? Ask your students to help construct graphic organizers. The first time you do this, use the whole group. After defining terms, consider as a group how they might be related to one another. You will be able to correct any misconceptions through developing the graphic organizer. Small groups of students can develop graphic organizers that can be shared with the whole group.

Vocabulary Strategies: Freewrite Choose a vocabulary word or phrase that is tier 2. Tier 3 where there is no possibility of making good guesses will not work for this activity. Allow students to write freely about what they associate with the word or phrase. During freewrites, students are not to worry about grammar or spelling. They are to write as quickly as possible without stopping. This strategy allows students to explore their ideas about a new word or phrase.

Vocabulary Strategy: Brainstorm Ask students to generate all the words they can think of related to a concept. For example, what are all the musical words you know that are related to the concept of dynamics? From here you can introduce new words (crescendo/decrescendo) or you can introduce the idea of “-issimo” intensifies the meaning of the word in Italian, giving students “fortissimo” and “pianissimo.”

Vocabulary Strategy: List-Group-Label Create categories and ask students to suggest words to go under each heading. Classical Counterpoint Symphony Concerto Jazz Lick Improvisation Changes 12-bar Blues Both Melody Harmony Rhythm

Vocabulary Strategy: Semantic Word Map The simple name for this is “web.” Types of Music in America Classical Jazz Bluegrass Rap Rock Cajun

Reflection: How might you make a semantic word map of the following terms? What other terms could you add? What would be the central concept? Sonata allegro Minuet and trio ABA Sonata Symphony Concerto Rondo

Word Sort Give the students the words you are using. Ask them to sort the words into categories. During discussion, students can justify their choices. You will be able to assess their understanding and reteach as necessary. You can give them the categories or you can ask them to come up with their own categories.

Knowledge Rating Can define/play Have seen/heard ??? Major scale Minor scale Pentatonic scale Dorian Students assess their own knowledge and check the appropriate box Rich vocabulary learning means students can actually use the knowledge. Standardized tests only assess recognition (“have seen/heard” column) and don’t test students abilities to use the concept.

Things to Remember It takes 8 or 9 meaningful encounters with a word for it to enter our vocabulary. Choose concepts that students can immediately use because that will help them to remember. Vary your strategies to accommodate students’ interests and abilities. Remember to address all learning styles. Try to work with other teachers on tier 1 and 2 vocabulary. Aim for the rich learning of vocabulary, not merely the ability to recognize a word. The lack of vocabulary will significantly reduce a student’s ability to read. Just because a student is in high school, do not assume the student has a sufficient tier 1& 2 vocabulary to read what you have assigned. When in doubt, check it out—find out what the students is understanding during reading.

Vocabulary Games and Challenges Jeopardy—make a Jeopardy board that requires students to use vocabulary in constructing questions. Who needs to know this? Ask students which occupations require knowledge of this word. Give points only for unique responses and give students a chance to justify their responses. For Tier 1 and 2 vocabulary, give students points when they hear or read the word outside your class.

Reference Much of the material in this chapter is from Vacca, R. T. and Vacca, J.L. Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.