WATESOL Conference, Fall 2013 Irene Sakkas and Jennifer Kuchno K-12 SIG Chairs Fairfax County Public Schools

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 There is a national need for a systematic approach and program to build academic vocabulary.  Benefit of integrating vocabulary instruction: Vocabulary supports comprehension

◦ Background knowledge and vocabulary develop concepts and related terms in a schema ◦ The more students understand the terms, the more they can comprehend information they hear or read. ◦ Families with resources have experience and students develop academic language (incidentally) as a result.

◦ Families with fewer resources (such as many in ESL) lack opportunity to have experiences that support academics. ◦ This creates a gap that continues to grow.

  Step 1: Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new word.   Step 2: Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.   Step 3: Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term.   Step 4: Engage students periodically in review activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their notebooks.   Step 5: Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another.   Step 6: Involve students periodically in games that allow them to play with terms.

 GOAL: Students build an initial understanding of the term by linking to prior knowledge. Tips for Teachers  - Before providing students the definition of the new word, try to determine what students already know or think they know about the term.  - After you have determined what students already know, help them build an understanding of the term. Examples can be:  - Tell a story that integrates the term.  - Use video or computer images as the stimulus for understanding the information.  - Describe your own mental pictures of the term or find or create pictures that exemplify the term.  Using both linguistic and nonlinguistic approaches will help students not only begin to develop an initial understanding of the term but will also help prepare them to create their own pictures (a requirement in Sept 3).  Note: This step does not involve presenting the students with the definition of a term or ask them to look up the definition in a dictionary. Instead a description, explanation or example provides students with a more natural starting place for learning a new term. 

 GOAL: Students restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.  Tips for Teachers  - It’s ok if students’ descriptions may not be complete or comprehensive  - Building a Word Schema: Restatements represent the student’s starting place for gradual understanding of the vocabulary word; definitions should be revised, updated and added to as the student gains a better understanding of the word and how it connects to other words and concepts. This is a long-term endeavor which is supported by Step 4.  - Teachers should monitor students as they work on their restatements and be sure students are generally correct.  - If students do not understand the general meaning, teachers can provide more examples and/or images  -

 ESL students require a non-linguistic representation/image to scaffold the second language prior to this step. A picture is worth a thousand words.  ESL students should be encouraged to write the definition/restatement in their first language. This supports L1 literacy, provides access to background knowledge in L1, and demonstrates a respect for the student’s language and culture.  See the Resources Tab for sources to support students

GOAL: Students construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term or phrase. When students construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representation they are forced to think of the term in a completely different way. This task requires students to process information in nonlinguistic ways. Tips for Teachers - Students are not accustomed to create pictures and graphics for terms and may need significant guidance and modeling. - Some challenges and suggestions to overcome challeges may include: Students believe they cannot draw. Provide examples of students' drawings and your own drawings that are rough but that represent ideas. You may want to allow students to work together first. Students try to "overdraw". You can play "draw me" and allow students to share tips on quick draws. Students would rather copy the written definition. Allow students to work together and share personal stories of how pictures help them learn. Discuss the power of pictures. The students (and you) have difficulty representing the term. Different types of terms require different types of pictures. Help students practice drawing different types of terms. As you and your students focus on different types of terms, some will be easier to draw then others. Through practice, students will discover different ways to illustrate meaning with pictures.

 - Draw the actual object  - Draw a symbol  - Draw an example  - Draw a graphic  - Dramatize the term

 GOAL: To revisit and review vocabulary in a purposeful way  Learning a word takes time and we must have multiple exposures to words. This step includes continual revision of restatement, adding to meaning with additional examples, pictures, synonyms, antonyms, related words (Schema), spelling rules (s/es or irregular. Ex - principle vs- principal), important things to remember (dessert/desert), L1 gloss, word parts – prefix/suffix, word forms/parts of speech  Tips for Teachers  You must PLAN for review; it does not just happen. Incorporate it as warm-up, exit tickets, journal writing topics, and center activities. Include three to five minute opportunities at the beginning of the class.  Teachers should keep a master class set of the terms on index cards. One side of the index card should be the term and the other side includes the definition. Store the index cards in a quart size zipper bag and keep it accessible for regular use. These cards can be used by the teacher for group activities and games. It is suggested that teachers prepare separate sets for student use.  Activities and Thinking Skills – NOT just recall.

 A. Free Association  Form groups. Teacher calls out a term from the notebook, and students create a list of words related to the term. When teacher says, “Stop!” the student who said the word must tell the class how it relates/connects to the term. This activity could also be done as paired practice for additional oral work. Students create individual word lists and rather than sharing with the class, they share with each other.  B. Comparing terms using Venn Diagrams with Sentence Stems  With a Venn diagram and two terms, students work in pairs to discuss and record how the terms are similar and different. Provide students with a sentence stems to discuss the concepts.  C. Classifying/Sorting Terms  This type of review can be done individually, in pairs, or in a small group. Also, it can be completed in the vocabulary notebook or at a center/station with sortable laminated cards prepared by the teacher. If it is at a center, students might copy their final sort in their notebook as a record of their work.  Closed Sort – Teacher provides predetermined groups (Example – US Rivers and US Lakes). Students sort the words then label/tell the categories. As an extension, ask students to add other examples to each category.  Open Sort - Students create groupings based on connections they make with terms. Students must justify (orally or in writing) why they grouped terms the way they did. They can add additional examples to each category.

 D. Analogies  A is to B as C is to D.  Analogies are quick and great for a warm-up activity or a center/station.  Level 1: Add One term  Example: Pencil is to write as book is to _____________.  Level 2: Add Two Terms  Example: Pencil is to write as _________ is to ___________.  E. Concept Circles - visual organizer to categorize words. (See templates below)  - Given a word and two related words, students add another word or two and justify its inclusion.  - Which one does not belong below and why?  F. Using Foldables to Practice Vocabulary  Dinah Zike’s foldables  G. Twenty- Questions (Partners guess each other's words)  H. Puzzle maker 

GOAL: Students engage in discussions with one another using their new terms.  Interacting with other people about what we are learning depends the understanding of everyone involved.  Tips for Teachers  - Discussions can be formal and informal, but you may want to consider providing some kind of structure for discussion, such as the think - pair - share strategy.   Think: allow students a few moments of think time. Model a think aloud to show some things they may consider during this quiet time.  Pair: After students are in pairs and have had a chance to think about the targeted terms, ask them to discuss their descriptions and pictures of the terms with their partners. They may want to:  Compare their descriptions of the term  Describe their pictures to each other  Explain new information  Identify areas of disagreement or confusion seeking clarification  Share: Students share back to whole group highlights of their discussions with their partner. This step provides an opportunity for you to make sure that confusions and misconceptions have been resolved accurately. Encourage students to help each other identify and clear up misconceptions and confusion. 

 Teacher Tips:  - Maintain a class set of index cards with the term on one side and the definition on the other side. You may even want to laminate these. This makes playing group games really easy and there is less teacher prep.  - These games can be played whole group as teams or at a station/center with pairs of students. If you do it as a center, you can teach 3-4 students how to play the game and they can teach their group.  - Post the digital versions of games on a class web site or blog for pairs to access and play.

 Jeopardy- See template  Charades/Act out the words - Requires term cards  Millionaire- See template  Hollywood Squares - See template  Name that Category – Pyramid  Pictionary- Draw the word and team guess  Password –See template  BINGO - Use master card set; See template  Tic-Tac-Toe Squares K-12 Vocabulary Website:

 Academic Vocabulary Lists for Native Speakers from "Building Academic Vocabulary" By Marzano  English - (See website)  Science - (See website)  Level 1 = K-2  Level 2 = Gr. 3-5  Level 3 = Gr. 6-8  Level 4 = Gr. 9-12

 Your Dictionary (an easy dictionary - great for ESL)   Lingro  Turns web site into clickable dictionary and translates text into 12 languages  Word Sift Highlights important words in the text which can be clicked on to see visual thesaurus  Visual Dictionary  Lexipedia  visual thesaurus - color coded with parts of speech  VisuWords  Shows how words connect to other words  Snappy Words  visual thesaurus  Word Hippo  Math Dictionary for Kids  Math Words

 Google Images  Flickr   Pixabay – Free Images   Phillip Martin’s Free Original Clip Art   DK Clip Art   Pics4Learning 

 Flashcards - Quizlet.com  Dinah Zike’s foldables -

Reference Marzano, R. J., Pickering, Debra J. (2005). Building Academic Vocabulary Teacher's Manual. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Irene Sakkas Elementary Lead ESOL Teacher Fairfax County Public Schools Jennifer Kuchno Middle School ESOL Teacher Fairfax County Public Schools

 Ideas for Spring 2014 Conference  Presenter Volunteers?