1. Chapter 11: Best Practices in Oral Vocabulary Instruction
Deborah Murillo
RDG 692
September 19, 2016

2. Guiding Questions
How can we accelerate children’s oral vocabulary development in the early years of instruction?
What are the most beneficial instructional principles to support oral vocabulary development?

3. Agenda
Research
Instruction

4. 30 Million Word Catastrophe
42 Families
Observed language interactions of 1 to 3 year olds in their homes every month for 2+ years
Observed families from affluence, middle and working-class, and poverty

5. The Research Base for Teaching Oral Vocabulary Instruction

6. The Research Says… Explicit selection of words
Opportunities to give meaning
Practice
Review
Strategies to determine children’s progress in word learning
(p. 193)
Which interventions are effective, for whom, and under what conditions?
It turns out that certain pedagogical features support OL more than others.

7. Two Different Views Coyne and Colleagues Beck and McKeown
Introduce words before a story
Build word consciousness
Provide child-friendly definitions
“Rich instruction”
Words are introduced in context first and then definitions are offered
Although varying in approach, each of these programs provides explicit definitions or descriptions of target words.
Words that are taught need intentional stopping
Implicit Instruction: might include hearing a word in an activity
Programs that use explicit and implicit instruction are more effective than using just one

8. Word Consciousness

9. Which Words? Unfamiliar words in a story? No.
Breadth of work knowledge (Biemiller, 2011)
High utility (Beck and Mckeown, 2007)
Focusing on state standards in four content areas (Neuman et al., 2011)

10. Building Oral Vocabulary Instruction into the Early Literacy Classroom

11. Word Selection Teach word meaning and concepts together
Make sure the words you teach are challenging
Teach many words
if vocabulary instruction is to enhance childrens word knowledge it needs to produce knowledge of high utility for additional learning p 194
receptive vocab is much larger than productive vocab (NRP)
children need active engagement and multiple repititions in multiple setting
The only way for young children to be exposed to a new word is if an adult says it or reads it aloud (198)

12. Gradient Select a pair of polar opposite words
Generate at least five synonyms for each of the opposite words
Arrange the words in a way that makes a bridge from one opposite word to the other
Have students discuss their rationale

14. Semantic Mapping Create meaningful structures of words
Allows for additional learning /
It is generally believed that receptive vocabulary is much larger than productive vocabulary <NRP, Another difficulty with the measurement of vocabulary is that interventions teach only a relatively small number of words, yet standardized assessments are designed to evaluate a broader cross-section of vocabulary (not equal).

15. List-Label-Group See the research that supports this strategy
Select a concept
Students brainstorm words related to the topic
Divide class into small groups and have them place word into categories
Label the groups of words
See the research that supports this strategy
Lenski, S. D., Wham, M. A., & Johns, J. L. (1999). Reading and learning strategies for middle and high school students. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
Taba, H. (1967).Teacher's handbook for elementary social studies. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Tierney, R.J., & Readence, J.E. (2000). Reading strategies and practices: A compendium (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

16. Explicit Instruction Use pictures Use Media
Build categorical knowledge
Relate words to key concepts or “Big Ideas”
repeat
connect to something kids know
pictures
videos can help kids visualize what the word is
knowledge networks
link new words to the big ideas that are being taught (life cycle)

17. Student Friendly
Pictures

18. Practice and Review Interactive read-alouds
Every pupil response techniques
“Brains On” Small group activities
Picture sorts with explanations
Discovery centers
Developmental writing
brain on: children pantomime growing from a seed to a plant
discovery centers: explore ideas related to their learning in a center
developmental writing: draw and write about learning

19. Paired Texts
Fiction
Nonfiction

20. Turn and Talk Purposeful Question Stems
Focused on specific information
Develop oral language

21. Picture Sorts
name pictures and sort them into different categories and articulate the reasoning

22. Progress Monitoring Brief anecdotal notes
Keep track of a list of vocabulary words being taught
Developmental writing (“drite)
Helps to tailor instruction

23. What it should look like
Vocabulary assessments should match the instructional goal
Assess for what you want to know about your students’ learning
If straightforward knowledge is the goal, then multiple choice items can be appropriate
If deeper knowledge is the goal, then more complex formats may be necessary
Bringing Words to Life
Bringing Words to Life
When considering what kinds of assessments are appropriate, it is important to first consider the kind of learning that is the goal. The type of assessment selected will differ if, for example , you want to know whether students have developed an initial association to a word versus deep understanding that will serve students’ comprehension and composition.

24. References
Allen, S., & Lane, H. (2010). The vocabulary-rich classroom: Modeling sophisticated word use to promote word consciousness and
vocabulary growth. The Reading Teacher, 65(5)
DOI: /RT
Barone, D., & Mallette, M. (2013). Best practice in early literacy instruction.
New York: The Guilford Press.
Beck, I., McKeown, M., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life. New
York: Guilford Press.
Hart, B., & Risley, T. (2003). The early catastrophe: The 20 million word gap by age 3. American Educator. 4-9.
Reading Rockets
vocabulary development is foundational for learning to read. it is the entry to concepts and comprehension. we cannot leave it to chance. engage children in planned sequential instruction giving them the opportunity to discuss describe and develop word knowledge and concepts they will need to be successful when they begin to read complex text.