1. The Importance of Word Study
Fun with Words
The Importance of Word Study

2. MENSA Invitational – Task is to take a word from the dictionary and add, subtract, or change one letter to create new meaning.
Cashtration:
The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time
Bozone:
The substance surrounding stupid people , that stops bright ideas from penetrating the Bozone layer. It unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Memnants:
The chipped or broken “M&M’s” at the bottom of the bag

3. Giraffiti: Sarchasm: Inoculatte: Decafalon:
Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
Sarchasm:
The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Inoculatte:
To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Decafalon:
The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

4. Dopeler Effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly (see White House and/or Congress)
Arachnoleptic Fit:
The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
Beelzebug:
Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor:
The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating

5. “It is widely accepted among researchers that the difference in students’ vocabulary levels is a key factor in academic achievement...but that vocabulary instruction has been neither frequent nor systematic in most schools”
(Appendix A of Common Core State Standards ELA)

6. Three Tiers of Words
One way to plan for vocabulary instruction is to look at the three tiers of words.
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. Guilford Press.
Tier 1 – words in everyday speech, not consider a challenge for native speakers (cloud, arm, walk, friend)
One way to plan for vocabulary instruction is to look at the three tiers of words as designed by Templeton

7. Three Tiers of Words
Tier 2 – general academic (obstacle, disqualify, accumulate, itemize)
Far more likely to be in written text than speech
Far less well defined by contextual clues or defined explicitly
Powerful because found in all sorts of texts so they can be generalized

8. Criteria to Choose Tier Two Words
Word is central to understanding text
Frequency
More mature or precise label for something the student already knows.
The candidate faced many obstacles.
The candidate was disqualified for a technicality.
The candidate felt harassed by her opponent.
harassed rather than bothered

9. Three Tiers of Words
Tier 3 – Common Core State Standards refer to these as domain-specific words. They are specific to the domain of study and key to understanding new concepts.
They are unfamiliar to most students
Important to specific subject areas
Require the most instructional time
Best taught explicitly using effective activities mentioned later in this presentation

10. 4th – 6th Grade Content from Time for Kids
Here on the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, Australia, orange basslets and green puller fish feed on plankton. Basslets are tiny fish, no longer than 2-4 inches, with vibrant colors. Green pullers, also known as green chromis, are a type of damselfish.
The Great Barrier Reef borders the 74 islands that make up Whitsunday Island, in Queensland, Australia. The reef, which stretches over 2,000 kilometers, protects the islands from ocean swells.

11. Word Level = General academic and domain-specific vocabulary
The Great Barrier Reef borders the 74 islands that make up Whitsunday Island, in Queensland, Australia. The reef, which stretches over 2,000 kilometers, protects the islands from ocean swells.
Here on the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, Australia, orange basslets and green puller fish feed on plankton. Basslets are tiny fish, no longer than 2-4 inches, with vibrant colors. Green pullers, also known as green chromis, are a type of damselfish.

12. Try this...
Freedman, Russell. Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. New York: Holiday House, 2006.
From the Introduction: “Why They Walked”
Not so long ago in Montgomery, Alabama, the color of your skin determined where you could sit on a public bus. If you happened to be African American, you had to sit in the back of the bus, even if there were empty seats in the front of the bus.
Back then, racial segregation was the rule throughout the American South. Strict laws – called “Jim Crow” laws – enforced a system of white supremacy and discriminated against blacks and kept them in their places as second-class citizens....
Most southern blacks were denied their right to vote. The biggest obstacle was the poll tax, a special tax that was required of all voters but was too costly for many blacks and for poor whites as well. Voters also had to pass a literacy test to prove they could read, write, and understand the U.S. Constitution. These tests were often rigged to disqualify even highly educated blacks. Those who overcame the obstacles and insisted on registering as voters faced threats and harassment. And even physical violence. As a result, African Americans in the South could not express their grievances in the voting booth, which for the most part, was closed to them. But there were other ways to protest, and one day a half century ago, black citizens in Montgomery rose up in protest and united to demand their rights – by walking peacefully.

13. Effective Vocabulary Activities

14. Morphology
Knowledge of the processes of word formation in English – how prefixes, suffixes, base words, and Greek and Latin word roots combine – is the engine that will generate your students’ learning about thousands of words
(Templeton, 2004).
70% of English words have Greek or Latin Roots. 90% of middle and high school content area vocabulary in mathematics, science, law are have Greek or Latin Roots. Teaching students how vocabulary is GENERATED helps them understand how words are built. This prevents them from having to memorize lists of words with which they may never use.

15. Word Generation Challenge
In groups of three or four choose one of the following roots to construct as many words as possible.

16. Roots for each Group Port – to carry Ject – to throw Poli – city
Spec – to see, look
Struct – to build

17. bankrupt
rupture
erupt
interrupt
disrupt

18. Visualizing Vocabulary
Quick Draw
Divide word into parts
Write meaning for each part
Define
Draw concepts/symbols rather than illustrations

19. Vocabulary Tree

21. Be Silly and/or Creative Through Drawing

22. Illustrated Opposites

23. Engaging Questions
Cylinder, circle, triangular prism, face, vertex, symmetrical
Would you store water in a bottle shaped like a cylinder or a circle?
Would you rather play catch with a sphere or a triangular prism?
Which would be more dangerous – being poked by the face of a box or the vertex of a box?

24. Questions that encourage debate.
Which one of these things might be symmetrical ? Why or why not ?
A car?
A water bottle?
A starfish?

25. Concept Maps

27. Venn Diagrams

29. Semantic Feature Analysis

32. Four Square/ Frayer Model

35. Try one Capitalism/Socialism Transverse Waves/Longitudinal Waves
Prime Numbers/Composite Numbers
Foreshadow/Flashback
….Or think of something you teach to try out