 Presented by Marie Flood and Amy Pope Getting the Best Out of Students

 How Much Do You Really Need To Know?  LTLL’s (Another Acronym)  Biggest Bang For Our Buck  Vocabulary  Context Clues

Learning, as a language based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge (Baker, Simmons, & Kame’enui, 1998).

How Many Words Do Students Need to Know to Understand Content? Please read the passage from Harris, C. H. Curriculum Based Assessment: A Primer

Possessing the capacity to learn unfamiliar words requires a student to know almost all the other words in the text. Indeed, if students don’t know at least 95% of the words in a text, comprehension of the main points is likely to be inadequate (Strategic Education Research Partnership, 2008).

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Brain has an intrinsic mechanism for shutting down input when it needs to (Eric Jensen 2008)

Teaching is not easy!!!!! Not only that our students forget information….

Using textbook material in a study of 3,605 6 th grade students, H. Spitzer found that the rate of forgetting: o After one day46% forgotten o After seven days65% forgotten o After 14 days79% forgotten o After 21 days82% forgotten

Students need processing time. Teaching new content may require processing time of 2-5 minutes every minutes. 10:2 Lecture (Brechtel, 2001) After every ten minutes of instruction students spend two minutes discussing what they have learned.

Elbow Up! Tell us What You have Learned So Far-

 What happens first in a period of time and what happens last are usually the longest remembered.  What happens just past the middle is often the 1 st to be forgotten. BeginningEnd Research for Better Teaching –

 At the beginning of class, review important ideas.  Get students actively involved in the middle.  Select important ideas from the middle of the period and include them in the summarizing at the end. Research for Better Teaching –

This passage has 16 occurrences of six unknown words, or 93% known words, making it impossible to comprehend. Therefore, teaching unknown vocabulary to students is imperative!

Vocabulary is essential to students’ academic success but what words should we choose and what strategies should we use to teach them?

 Shift 1:Balancing Informational & Literary Text  Shift 2:Knowledge in the Disciplines  Shift 3:Staircase of Complexity  Shift 4:Text-based Answers  Shift 5:Writing from Sources  Shift 6:Academic Vocabulary

 L.CCR.4:  Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple- meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.  L.CCR.5:  Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

 L.CCR.6:  Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word of phrase important to comprehension or expression.

 L.CCR.4:  Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple- meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

 Match the Clue  Please read your cards and decide what type of context clue helped you to understand the meaning of the underlined word.  Place the cards under the appropriate headers: Definition, Synonym, Antonym, Example, General, or NCAA (No Clue At All). Adapted from the Florida Center for Reading Research, 2007

 Definition:6  Synonyms:3  Antonyms:4  Example:5  General:2  NCAA:1

 Students work with partners or small groups  They arrange words with similar meaning in a continuum from least to most  Students share their final results with the class and explain their reasoning Leas t Most

SandBoulderClayGranuleCobbleSilt Pebble

Boulder Cobble Pebble Granule Sand Silt Clay

Calm Strong Winds Moderate Winds Fresh Winds Violent Storm GaleStorm Near Gale Strong Gale Hurricane Light Winds

Hurricane Violent Storm Storm Strong Gale Gale Near Gale Strong Winds Fresh Winds Moderate Winds Light Winds Calm

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According to Isabelle Beck, words may be categorized into three levels:  Tier 1: High Frequency  Tier 2: General Academic - frequently occurring words across a variety of domains  Tier 3: Domain Specific - specialized vocabulary

Most commonly used words:

Tier 2: General Academic - frequently occurring words across a variety of domains:  complex  identify  coincidence  absurd Tier 3: Domain Specific - specialized vocabulary. Words typically associated with a content area or topic:  evaporation  peninsula  isotope  refinery

 With your partner, please place the following words under the appropriate Tier: comeanalyzecould relativelavaexpectation impressionismtherecircumference itemizephotosynthesisbook legislaturevaryestablish

 Tier 1: come, there, book, could  Tier 2: relative, analyze, establish, expectation, vary, itemize  Tier 3: impressionism, lava, photosynthesis, legislature, circumference

 L.CCR.6:  Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word of phrase important to comprehension or expression.  General academic: Tier 2 words Vessel:  a ship or large boat (Social Studies)  a hollow container, esp. one used to hold liquid (Science)  Domain – specific: Tier 3 words  photosynthesis  peninsula

 A sheet of paper is divided into a given number of boxes.  Students individually fill in two or three of the boxes with ideas they want to remember, key points, etc.  Afterwards, they get out of their seats and walk up to someone to “give an idea away” and get an idea.  After the exchange, students move on to another partner to share their idea and to collect a new one.  Students return to their desks for a whole class discussion.

 Students need repeated exposures and repeated opportunities to connect and authentically use the new words over time – in writing, in reading, and in talking and listening. Lasting learning needs cohesion and reinforcement. As a student once asked, “Once you know a word, then what?” We must teach students how to use the word (Zwiers and Crawford, 2011).  Most typically developing children need to encounter a word about 12 times before they know it well enough to improve comprehension (Biemiller; Nagy, & Anderson).

How much do students retain from instruction? Average Retention Percent after 24 hours Lecture5% Reading10% Audio-Visual20% Demonstrations30% Discussion Groups50% Practice by Doing75% Teach Others90% How the Brain Learns, Dr. David A. Sousa