1. Kevin Flanigan, Ph.D. West Chester University kflanigan@wcupa.edu
Growing a Love for Words and Ideas: The Vocabulary-to-Comprehension Connection for Struggling Readers and Writers
Kevin Flanigan, Ph.D.
West Chester University

2. Why do you learn to read?

3. Agenda Bring Back the JOY of Words and Language!
Engage readers and writers (with literacy challenges)
Make the Vocabulary-to-Comprehension Connection
My favorite digital vocabulary resources

4. Vocabulary knowledge is the single best indicator of students’:
Reading ability
Comprehension
Familiarity with academic discourse
(Baumann, Kame’enui, & Ash, 2003; Schleppegrell, 2004; Townsend, Collins, & Filippini, 2009)

5. Vocabulary Where does it come from?
Children are naturally curious about words and language
Most of our new vocabulary comes from reading (and talking)
Grace’s story – paisley capris
Red leather yellow leather

6. 40 SAT vocabulary prep words
bacchanal
baleful
balk
ballyhoo
banal
bandy
baroque
bastion
bedlam
belligerent
benediction
benefactor
benevolent
benign
bilious
billow
blasphemy
blatant
boisterous
bombast
bon vivant
bona fide
bohemian
botch
bourgeois
bracing
brackish
brandish
bravado
brazen
brevity
bristle
broach
brogue
brusque
brouhaha
bucolic
bulwark
bureaucracy
byzantine

7. 3 General Components of Vocabulary Instruction (Templeton, Bear, Invernizzi, & Johnston, 2009)
Overall Context (reading, writing, rich discussion)
Direct Vocabulary Instruction
Word-specific (teaching specific words)
Generative (teaching how words work)
Word Consciousness – a positive attitude and disposition toward learning words

8. Much time must be spend reading for meaning in appropriate and engaging texts and writing for genuine purposes
Reading volume, both in and out of school, is associated with higher reading achievement (Allington, 2001; NAEP, 1998)
Achievement percentile
Minutes of reading per day
Words per year
90th
40.4
2,357,000
50th
12.9
601,000
10th
1.6
51,000
(Adopted from Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding, 1988)

9. Much time must be spend reading for meaning and writing for genuine purposes
Every 8 days, a child in the top 10% will read as much as a child in the bottom 10% reads all year!
Every two months, a child in the top 10% will read as much as a child in the bottom 10% has read his/her entire life!

10. How were YOU taught vocabulary?

11. Definitions are just the “tip of the iceberg”
A first step toward “owning” a word

12. GNARLED
"The last thing that Pippin saw, as sleep took him, was a dark glimpse of the old wizard huddled on the floor, shielding a glowing chip in his gnarled hands between his knees.”

13. Introducing a new vocabulary word in 3 steps (Beck, McKewon, and Kucan,
Student-friendly definition
Context
Personal Connection
“Have you ever ?
Vocabulary Walk
Word Wizard

14. Have you ever?/Word Wizard (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)
Purpose: to connect new words to known concepts and encourage students to notice examples of words in contexts outside of school (or outside of “formal instruction”)
Procedure:
Choose Tier Two words and ask students to bring back examples from home (“I saw a radiant sunset last night!”).
For each word used, the student, group, or class earns a points toward class competition and/or grade, extra credit.

15. Word Wizard List students’ names on board in classroom
Students earn points for bringing examples of words “from the world” back to class
To earn a point, student must demonstrate knowledge of the word’s meaning – “Dad, this boy in our class is SO supercilious.”

16. Let’s try it Agog – very excited; impatiently eager
“While waiting for the train to take him home, the soldier was agog about his homecoming.”
Saturnine – sullen, gloomy, depressed
“The teacher’s saturnine demeanor put a damper on any joy or excitement among the children.”

17. Principles of Vocabulary Instruction (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000)
The students should:
Be ACTIVE and ENGAGED in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them.
PERSONALIZE word learning.
Be IMMERSED in words (listening, speaking, reading, writing).
REPEATEDLY experience words across a VARIETY OF RICH CONTEXTS.
Learn new words/concepts by RELATING them to existing words/concepts.
Learn both SPECIFIC WORDS and strategies for INDEPENDENT word learning.

18. Degrees of Knowing a Word The Dimmer Switch
Learning vocabulary is not a one-shot proposition.
We learn words in increments, in little steps
How many encounters with a vocabulary word?
Students need to have 12 encounters with a word to reliably improve their comprehension of a passage containing those words (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople, 1985)

19. Clue Review/Taboo
Purpose – to review concepts repeatedly, actively, across a range of contexts
Procedure
Concept/words are written on cards.
Pairs – (a) clue giver, (b) clue detective.
Clue detective places card on his forehead, so she can’t see it, but clue giver can see it.
Clue giver provides clues to clue detective for each word.
Pairs switch roles.

20. Clue Review Word Bank Example
zealous
tangible
strut
agog
saturnine
dote
harmony
stroll
swagger

21. Clue Review Tips Can’t do “sounds like Nunion!”
Definition/clue must relate to essential elements of that word/concept (For George Washington, can’t say, “Dude with the wig!”).
Pair up ELL and native language speakers. Native language speaker can be first clue giver to provide a language model for ELL.
Use word bank as scaffold.

22. Clue Review
Switch pairs to hear multiple ways of defining the same word/concept.
Taboo tournament!
Every student in class is actively engaged 100% of the time.
Homework assignment with parents/siblings.
Collect words on rings, in soap dishes, baggies, in notebooks, or coffee cans.

23. Act it out/Charades

24. Principles of Vocabulary Instruction (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000)
The students should:
Be ACTIVE and ENGAGED in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them.
PERSONALIZE word learning.
Be IMMERSED in words (listening, speaking, reading, writing).
REPEATEDLY experience words across a VARIETY OF RICH CONTEXTS.
Learn new words/concepts by RELATING them to existing words/concepts.
Learn both SPECIFIC WORDS and strategies for INDEPENDENT word learning.

25. Applause, Applause (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)
Clap to indicate how much you would like to be described as:
Saturnine?
A doting mom, dad, aunt, sister?
Compassionate?
A GADFLY?

26. Thumbs up/thumbs down (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)
Would a tough drill sergeant dote on his soldiers?
Is a car tangible?
Is love tangible?

27. Word Associations (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)
Which word goes with a MODEL walking down the runway? Why?
Which word goes with a BULLY? Why?
Which word goes with a GRANDPARENT giving their grandchildren all the candy they can eat? Why?

28. All definitions are NOT equal
Luminous – emitting light, especially self-generated light; lucid, resplendent, incandescent, refulgent
Some definitions define an unknown word with OTHER unknown words
Student-friendly definitions PLUS CONTEXT

29. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
LUMINOUS - shining in the dark: luminous paint
“Her large dark eyes were almost luminous.”
ldoceonline.com - clear definitions written using only 2000 common words

30. Kevin’s Word-Nerd Wall
Have you ever been waiting so long for a meal, that you have become angry, or frustrated, or both?
HANGRY (Hungry + Angry)
Do you only like to go camping in style?
GLAMPING (Glamour + Camping)
Urban Dictionary

31. Kevin’s Word-Nerd Wall
Do you know someone who is arrogant, but in a pushy way?
BUMPTIOUS
Who loves to be frightened at horror movies and/or rollercoasters?
FRISSON

32. Vocabulary.com

33. Vocabulary.com

34. Online Etymology Dictionary etymonline.com
Frisson (noun) "emotional thrill," 1777 (Walpole), from French frisson "fever, illness; shiver, thrill" (12c.), from Latin frigere "to be cold" (see frigid). Scant record of the word in English between Walpole's use and 1888.
Frigid, refrigerator, freeze, frozen,

35. Kevin’s Word-Nerd Wall
bumptious
claptrap
gemutlichkeit
ginormous
bedlam
mountebank
discombobulate
frisson
gadfly
Hobson’s choice
hornswoggle
sockdolager
skullduggery
piquant

36. Zach’s Vocabulary Wall
grip tape
trucks
backside air
ollie
kickflip
grind
fakie
goofie foot
McTwist

37. Do we have a word for that?
When your breath freezes on a cold fall morning?
FROSTSPIRATION?
The Vocabulary Assembly Line – Most new English words are created by combining prefixes, suffixes, base words, and roots.

38. It’s all Greek (and Latin) to me!
What percent of English vocabulary words are Latin or Greek derived?
Approximately 70% (Nagy & Anderson, 1984; Padak, Newton, Rasinski, & Newton, 2008)
What percent of upper-level English vocabulary words (middle and high school, science, law, medicine) are Latin or Greek derived?
Over 90% (Green, 2008)

39. Knowledge of just one root . . .
Can be the KEY to unlocking 10, 20, 30 words!
Generative Vocabulary Instruction –
A LITTLE
Goes a LONG WAY

40. Harnessing Generative Power: Common Affixes
20 prefixes account for 97% of all word prefixes
16 suffixes account for 87% of all word suffixes
un-, dis-, in-
re-
en-, em-
non-
in- (im-, ir-, il-)
mis-
sub-
pre-
inter-
fore-
de-
trans-
super-, out-, over-
semi-
anti-
mid-
bi-
-er, -or
-ly
-ful
-ness
-less
-ion (-tion, -sion)
-ment
-able, -ible
-al
-ity
-ive
-en
-ent, -ant
-ous
-ian, -ist
(O’Connor, 2014)

41. Root Web/Tree with “Spec, spect”
Create a web with spec, spect at center
Generate as many words with spect as you can
Try to deduce meaning of root

42. SPEC, SPECT

43. Generative Vocabulary Instruction: “When you learn 1 word, you learn 10.”
Page 17

44. Root Tree with spect

45. Key word for spect?
Spectacles!

47. Generative Vocabulary Instruction: “When you learn 1 word, you learn 10.”
How many words in English have spec, spect as a root?

48. Learn one root and 100 words!
Use technology!
November 30, 2017
IRA Preconference Institute.
try it yourself at (search using wildcards *spect*)

49. “Knowledge of word-formation processes opens up vast amounts of vocabulary to the reader”
(Nagy & Anderson, 1984)

50. Why Latin and Greek Roots?
“Give someone a fish, he/she can eat for a day, teach someone how to fish, he/she can eat for a lifetime.”

51. How to use onelook.com

52. https://membean.com/treelist

53. Root Walls
Charts on classroom walls containing high-utility prefixes, suffixes, and roots
Root, meaning, key and derived words, picture
Already created and/or can be added to over the course of the year
Used ACROSS CONTENT AREAS – great for cross-curricular connections
Referenced during reading, writing, lecture, discussion AS THEY NATURALLY COME UP

54. Root Walls
Find prefixes, suffixes, and/or roots that come up in your content area

55. “Words for Word Parts” 5 key terms your students should know
Prefixes – a meaning unit attached at the beginning of the base word/root
Pre-, un-, dis-, anti-
Suffixes - a meaning unit attached at the end of the base word/root
-ion, -ible/-able
Affixes – collective term for prefixes and suffixes

56. “Words for Word Parts” 5 key terms your students should know
Root (NOT root word)- word parts, often of Greek or Latin origin, that combine with other word parts to form words – canNOT stand alone as a word
Spect (retrospect), tract, arch (monarchy),
Base Words – A stand-alone word to which prefixes/suffixes are added
Unwholesome
Un – whole- some

57. “Break it Down” Strategy
Context
Look for words/word parts that are familiar
Circle/take off prefix – meaning?
Circle/Take off suffix – meaning?
Underline root/base word – meaning?
PREFIX + ROOT/BASE WORD + SUFFIX = WORD MEANING

58. The country reached the point where it was ungovernable.
un- = not
-able = ability, capacity
govern = to keep under control, exercise power
November 30, 2017
IRA Preconference Institute.

59. “Break it Down”
The economic problem is so intractable, I don’t think it will ever be solved.
INTRACTABLE
in – “not”
Tract – “pull”
Able = “capable of”
Intractable – not easily controlled, stubborn (literally, “not capable of being pulled”)

60. PROCRUSTEAN

61. Why Etymological Narratives?
Our minds are hard-wired to remember stories!

62. Bandwagon?
What word parts do you notice?
Band + wagon

64. Why was an umbrella invented?
What word parts do you notice?
Umbra – complete shadow/shade
Penumbra – partial shadow/shade