1. Word Nerds Teaching All Students to Learn and Love Vocabulary
Introduction and Chapter 1
4th Grade
February 9, 2017

2. Introduction
Margot Holmes leads a sort of call-and-response rap to practice vocabulary. ~When I say diversity, you say ____________________. ~When I say languages, you say _________________. ~When I say neighboring, you say _______________. ~When I say settlement, you say _________________. ~When I say territory, you say ____________________.
The book opens by introducing us to Margot Holmes (one of the two featured teachers in the book) as her class is visited by her mentor. A peek into Margot Holmes’ third-grade classroom gives us an example of the daily vocabulary instruction that takes place.
Margot Holmes and Leslie Montgomery use a combination of multisensory instructional strategies daily to teach academic and concept words.

3. Introduction: The School
Atkinson Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Jefferson County, Kentucky
90% eligible for free lunch/4% eligible for reduced lunch
43% African American, 46% white
poverty, hunger, homelessness, parent incarceration, unemployment, underemployment, poor health, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health issues, domestic violence, and community violence
District has 97,000 students and 154 schools
The demographics of the school are similar in some ways to Southampton and to many schools in RPS. So the teachers weren’t in an affluent school or district with lots of resources. They had many obstacles to overcome.

4. Introduction: The Teachers
Holmes and Montgomery joined the school as first year teachers and focused on Reading First professional development
Both understood that their students had limited vocabularies, which limited their proficiency in all subjects.
They realized that assigning lists to look up, define, draw, and use in a sentence did not work. So…

5. Introduction: Crafting a Vocabulary Plan
Holmes and Montgomery worked for a couple of years to develop and refine their daily vocabulary instruction.
The two developed and adapted games and activities, kept journals of their instructional practices, and collaborated.
Students’ retention of vocabulary and performance on high-stakes tests improved.
Because the schools were not successful, the teachers were given leeway to develop and implement strategies based on research to move student achievement forward.

6. Introduction: Speaking of Success
Holmes’ and Montgomery’s classes scored higher on the vocabulary section of the Reading First GRADE assessment.
Their classes’ vocabulary scores correlated with improvements in reading comprehension.
Their goal in writing this book is to help teachers provide scaffolding, support, and tools to build vocabulary for students.

7. Ch.1: What’s the Big Deal About Vocabulary Instruction?
p. 11 For the Love of Words
Our students can’t just go buy the words they need, so it is our responsibility to provide them with rich, explicit instruction.

8. Ch.1: What’s the Big Deal About Vocabulary Instruction?
“Texts of all kinds (print, visual, and digital) are filled with what could be fascinating ideas and information, but even if our kids are able to decode and pronounce the words, they may not understand their meaning without explicit instruction.” p.7
Research suggests that students acquire 2,000 to 3,500 new words a year and know the meaning of
approximately 50,000 words by the time they graduate from high school (Graves, 2006; Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert, 2004; PREL, 2008). Some estimates are 3,000-4,000 words a year.

9. Ch.1: What’s the Big Deal About Vocabulary Instruction?
Read each of these sentences. What does each sentence mean?
Der Mann isst eine Gurke.
Der Mann isst einen Apfel.
Der Mann wohnt in einem grossen Haus.
Mein Hand tut weh.
Mein Hand hat fünf Fingern.
What helped and hindered your understanding of each sentence?

10. Ch 1: “School Talk” and High-Risk Students
Many of our students come to school with what is known as the 30 Million Word Gap.
What is communication like in a taciturn family?
Dolch sight words conversation activity

11. Ch. 1: Connections to the Standards
Look through your grade level’s standards and identify the focus on word knowledge vocabulary for a particular SOL.
How can we incorporate meaningful vocabulary instruction into our daily lessons?
Hand out copies of curriculum framework pages to appropriate grade levels. Work as a group to come up with an engaging activity to teach Tier II or Tier III vocabulary. Are there ways to provide multiple exposures to these words?

12. Ch 1: What Do We Know About Vocabulary Teaching and Learning?
Most of us will revert to what we are comfortable with or rely on methods that were used when we were in school. We need to recognize what works (and more importantly) what doesn’t and abandon practices that yield little in the way of results. Whatever we do, the juice has to be worth the squeeze. (Tomlinson)

13. Ch. 1: Research Reveals the Right Approach
Some words are more important to teach than others.
Students have to learn words at more than one level.
Students learn words when they experience them multiple times.
Asking students to look up words in a dictionary and write the definition does not help them learn words.
1 Look for researched based word lists. (Vocabulary Workshop, Flocabulary, Reading Rockets, Bringing Words to life, For the Love of Words, etc.)
2 Help students understand that word knowledge is on a continuum and to know where their knowledge lands. P.12
3 Provide multiple exposures to words.
4 Introduce words in student-friendly, everyday language.

14. Ch. 1: Research Reveals the Right Approach
When students learn words, they build patterns and networks of meaning called “word schemas.”
Students can learn words through the use of wide reading.
Students can learn some words through rich conversations with adults and peers.
5 Help students develop “word schemas” so they can use their background knowledge to decipher meanings of new words. Roots and affixes, parts of speech, and context clues are important in building schemas.
6 Reading aloud will provide instruction of rich vocabulary that students rarely can get by only reading independently, especially in the early grades.
7 Instructional conversations and interactive read-alouds can provide students with the type of vocabulary instruction only found among college educated adults. P.14-15

15. Ch. 1: Research Reveals the Right Approach
Students can learn some words through word play.
Students can learn some words by direct instruction.
Most students need word learning strategies to become independent readers.
8 Multisensory approaches to vocabulary instruction ted to help students internalize new words and develop word schma as well as make them excited about vocabulary instruction. (dice game)
9 Marzano’s research in 2009 found positive results from direct instruction. P for 6 step process
10 Teaching morphology is critical in developing strategies to attack unfamiliar words. Words Their Way has useful resources.

16. Ch. 1: A Need for Systematic Vocabulary Instruction
Most teachers provide very little direct vocabulary instruction.
Students with limited vocabulary knowledge would benefit from a four-part vocabulary plan.
1 Provide rich and varied language experiences.
2 Teach individual words.
3 Teach word-learning strategies.
4 Promote word consciousness.
These ideas come from Michael Graves’ work in 2006 to address the needs of students with limited word knowledge. The authors note that in addition to incorporating Graves’ findings, they follow the guidelines laid out by Frey and Fisher (2009) indicating that teachers must make vocabulary teaching “intentional, transparent, useable [sic], personal, and a priority.”

17. Ch. 1: Passage to Progress
The rest of the book focuses on explaining the vocabulary plan Holmes and Montgomery used, demonstrates the research and implementation of methods teachers can use to aid students as they build their Tier II and Tier III vocabulary.