1. VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
ACDV B70F - Vocabulary

2. Words as Tools To access background knowledge To express ideas
To learn about new concepts
Word knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension and academic success.

3. Types of Vocabulary
Listening – Established by the time student begins kindergarten
Speaking – Words used in everyday speech
Writing – Words used in both formal and informal written communication
Reading – Body of words students must know to read increasingly demanding text with fluency and comprehension
On average, students add 2,000-3,000 words a year to their reading vocabularies
Six to eight words per day

4. Two Vocabulary Dimensions
Breadth
The number of words that a student knows, at least at a superficial level
Depth
How well the student knows a word, including pronunciation, spelling, meaning, frequency, and morphological and syntactic properties

5. Breaking Down Types of Words
Tier One – In spoken vocabulary: mother, clock, jump
Tier Two – Words with wide usage that most readers do not have in their spoken vocabularies: dismayed, paradoxical, absurd, wary. Estimated 7,000 words
Tier Three – Highly specialized and are almost never used outside of the disciplines where they are encountered: monozygotic, tetrahedron, bicameral

6. Strategies to Increase Vocabulary Development
Implicit
Readers learn new words by repeatedly encountering them in text
Explicit
Structural Analysis: The use of word parts and compound words.
Use of context clues
Efficient use of the dictionary

7. No Context Clues?
Not all sentences or text contain context clues. You will need to use other methods to determine the word’s meaning.
Pronounce the word aloud. You may hear a word or word part that you know or that you may recall, within the unknown word
Carefully analyze the word’s parts.
Look up the word in the dictionary.

8. Read to Improve your Vocabulary
If you read minutes a day, you will read millions of words per year
Minutes per Day
Words per Year
14.2
1,146,000
21.1
1,823,000
65.0
4,358,000

9. Read to Improve your Vocabulary
Read even as little as 15 or 20 minutes per day.
Read a significant quantity of material.
Read a variety of material.
Read consistently – everyday
You can stop reading a book before finishing it and choose another one.
Read books that are challenging to improve your vocabulary.
Keep an informal daily journal of your reading.

10. How to Make a Word Study Card
Write the word in bold letters on one side of an index card
vacillate

11. How to Make a Word Study Card
On the other side of the index card write:
Vacillate: to waver
verb (part of speech)
Connie’s parents usually came to a decision quickly and stuck by them. This time they vacillated before deciding. (a sentence the word appeared in)
Synonym: waver antonym: decide quickly
Any other interesting information you can find