Language Choice (Talking In Class) Article
The authors of this article suggest that to increase vocabulary acquisition, teachers should know " ..language is our most powerful tool" and should be used meaningfully in classrooms to engage " social imaginations, social relationships, and self-regulation (moral development)". In order to increase these concepts, teachers should ask open-ended questions with no single right/wrong answer. Use "mental verbs" such as "thinking, feeling, imagining" to increase the dialogue in the classroom. When we ask specific comprehension questions that have a right/wrong answer we are choosing to focus on "required and coerced vs intention and curiosity". The authors provide some principles of how to accomplish a strong language rich classroom discussion: a) start talking; b)listening genuinely; c) have students pay attention to the process; d) provide opportunities to learn; e) develop independence in students; f) allow students to be decision makers and g) make positive language choices. Do any of the principles provided follow what you currently practice in your classroom? How do you determine students are understanding material? Do you focus on these principles in whole group/small group settings?
Important Vocabulary Article
The authors state it is important for students to know how words work by understanding phonology, morphology, orthography, and syntax but the, " foundation for high quality lexical representations is built by engaging students in carefully designed instructional sequences that focus directly on word meaning". Words to teach are categorized by Tier 1 (easily explained), Tier 2 (likely to encounter in many texts but not everyday) and Tier 3 (domain specific). Teachers need to ask questions about vocabulary words when determining which words to choose such as: "Which words students encounter in their reading" and " Which words provide opportunities for building on to other words". In order to teach words effectively, provide daily lesson of 10-15 minutes over three or four days and ensure your instructional sequence follows," student friendly lessons, meaningful activities and assessment". The authors also provides some activities to incorporate vocabulary learning, such as word associations and word relationships. How do you choose Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 vocabulary words in your classroom? Do you choose them for all subjects? Do you use the vocabulary outlined by your curriculum guidelines or add/subtract words? How do you assess vocabulary understanding?
S& H Ch 2
Chapter 2 focuses on the principles of effective vocabulary instruction. It is estimated that students will encounter 88,000 different words in their school career from grade 1-12 (yikes)! In order to be effective when teaching vocabulary, again, the authors outline the use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 words. On page 25, is an outline of "Words Worth Teaching" that I found helpful in developing a better understanding of words to teach. The authors outline an approach for words to teach " 1)useful, 2)known, 3) frequent in academic texts, 4) thematic. Not only should this approach be considered but also knowing when to teach breadth or depth of certain words and need to adjust teaching in order to address these two areas. The authors also state teachers should follow certain principles when teaching vocabulary ( page 35) with explicit instruction being crucial ( this is provided more in depth in Ch 3). Also, ensuring appropriate assessment and to differentiate for all learners by differentiating according to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an important piece of teaching vocabulary
(page 41). How do you approach vocabulary instruction? Do you use more words in academic texts or more of a thematic approach? How do incorporate UDL in your classroom?
S& H Ch 3
This chapter focuses on explicit and extended vocabulary instruction. The authors state that explicit instruction is not " boring, scripted, tedious lesson delivery" but rather a style of teaching which includes certain characteristics. These include to explain, model, guided practice, and student independence. These characteristics also are effective in explicit vocabulary instruction through read-alouds. There are many examples in the chapter of how to use these characteristics in teaching vocabulary. I found it interesting and thought this chapter related back to the article about language choice, as many of the examples in the book (page 53-55) relate to teacher questions and use of language.Page 64-67 provides activities for extending vocabulary instruction as well as a lesson plan checklist (helpful for me) on page 69. Do you use explicit instruction? Do you use read-alouds to teach vocabulary? Do you find it effective? How do you assess vocabulary using read-alouds?
S&H Ch 7
Chapter 7 focuses on differentiating vocabulary instruction. The key point in this chapter focuses on incorporating UDL as a framework for instruction. UDL is a "guideline to the design and development of curriculum that is effective and inclusive for all learners" (page 145). UDL is centered around three principles: 1) provide multiple means of representation, 2) provide multiple means of action and expression, and 3) flexible options for generating and sustaining motivation. These guidelines are to ensure that all children have access and to the same content and instructional standards. The chapter provides some examples for each of the three UDL principles (checklist on page 158). Page 164 address the role of Response to Intervention (RTI) and how it is possible for this framework to be applied to vocabulary since it has been a successful framework in providing differentiation for children with phonemic and phonics needs. We do not use RTI at my current school but I have been involved with this framework in the past at other schools where I have worked. How does your school/classroom approach UDL? Do you incorporate any of the examples of UDL provided from the chapter in your classroom? If your school uses RTI, do you think this framework is appropriate for vocabulary as the authors suggested?
Karen,
ReplyDeleteChapter 2 of S&H gave us so much information on how to provide effective vocabulary instruction in classrooms. Like the text suggested, I provide explicit vocabulary instruction during the beginning of the school week. These words are provided by the Wonders curriculum we are using for literacy. Fortunately, the words given to practice are reoccurring throughout the stories of the week. They are also taxonomically related and follow the theme. The Wonders curriculum includes morphemic analysis, so the students are looking for root words, suffixes, and prefixes to decode words. As children begin paying attention to context clues and morphology, the text states that children will start developing a better understanding of word knowledge (p. 40).
My explicit instruction during the beginning of the week will consist of providing the class with the 8 words of the week and displaying images and sentences as an example. We will also review the words as we encounter them in our stories. On page 37, the text states that children increase their depth of word knowledge when explicit instruction is given along with extended instruction after reading. My instruction after reading is a simple game of charades at the end of the week, but after reading these chapters, I will be looking for an extension activity that is a bit more meaningful and assessable.
I do try to keep a very language rich environment though, by displaying the vocabulary words on the wall for the week, as well as spelling words, high frequency words, and word wall words. This allows the students to use the words around the room to complete center activities and other writing assignments.
I agree, there is an extensive amount of information in Ch 2 on how to provide effective vocabulary instruction. I did like the information presented in figure 3.2 on page 48 about the multidimensional vocabulary instruction. This is similar to the way I present a vocabulary lesson and gave me some ideas on ways to improve.
DeleteTheresa could you explain what the Wonders curriculum is like and how it is used? Would you say that is is aligned with the ideas discussed in this weeks readings? I was also wondering if you or any of the others disagreed with any of the readings or practices that we have discussed this week?
DeleteExplicit vocabulary instruction is given during the beginning of the week. Using the curriculum provided by the district, we have access to vocabulary slides online. I will go over the first 4 with the class on one day and the next 4 another day. Unknowingly, we are teaching 8-12 works a week, just as the authors have suggested (p. 59). These not only provide pictures, but they will sometimes include videos that explain the vocabulary word and it always has a sentence using the word to provide an example of it being used. After the words have been discussed, I will let the student think, pair, and share their understandings and talk about any connections they have with the word.
ReplyDeleteI currently do not provide explicit vocabulary instruction during read alouds, but after reading the examples of how to conduct these lessons (p. 60-61), I have an idea of how I can tackle teaching the words during this time now. Although I do not assess my students' vocabulary during read aloud, on Fridays when we play Vocabulary charades, I will informally assess the students as they guess the vocabulary word being acted out and also assess those that are doing the acting. This game is similar to those ones provided on p. 66-67.
Our school uses Response to Intervention in the lower grades. Before and referral to special education teachers are required to document the RTI used with each student. Special education students who are given explicit and extended vocabulary instruction develop background knowledge to build upon. When I provide support for students before, during and after reading then add extended opportunities (p. 69) students are able to recall and apply vocabulary. We also integrate the vocabulary in teacher created games, and center activities. Each student keeps a student made lexicon, which is a valuable reference tool.
DeleteTheresa,
DeleteKnow I understand even better why teachers do not want me to pull their students in the beginning of the week. They have mentioned before that it is because they are introducing a topic but now I understand even better how much they would be missing out if they were not in class for this instruction. I use Heads Up in my small groups and it really gets them to think critically, ask questions, and interact with their classmates. Not to mention they really enjoy it too. You can teach so many different skills from playing that game (and so many others). Like the others mentioned, the students usually have no idea that they are actually learning.
*Now, and *authors! So many spelling mistakes, oops!
DeleteHow do you approach vocabulary instruction? Do you use more words in academic texts or more of a thematic approach?
ReplyDeleteOne point that I highlighted while reading that relates to how I approach vocabulary has to do with considering the goal of instruction. This helps me like the author stated to determine how much time I want to spend teaching various words. In third grade my students have been learning the meanings of various prefixes and suffixes, and through learning about the morphological aspect of these words they have been more confident in being able to use those known parts to better comprehend what they are reading.
Our Wonders program seems to use a thematic approach to choosing vocabulary words that are suggested we teach each week. I have been pleased with the words provided, and they go well with our short reading stories within in the books. I try to use their vocabulary words throughout the day across all contexts to build understanding. The book also suggested not having students give the definitions the first time you introduce the word. The author made a strong point for this suggestion in saying that often times too many kids will give an incorrect definition or a partially correct definition. Then the teacher has to spend time reteaching the correct word. This stuck with me and I have been trying to have students give me a thumbs up or down like the teacher in the text did to avoid confusions when first introducing the words. Another approach that the book mentioned that I really like to use is having students act out or come up with gestures for the words. Throughout the week when we have a few minds I’ll call out the words and the kids can get up and show me the motions for the words. Each week I also have the kids brainstorm a list of related words that match our theme for vocabulary words that week. This web is similar to the one on page 57. In doing this the students have really been able to build up the understanding of the words and they tend to use them more in their own writing.
Jamie,
DeleteThe web on p. 57 is a great activity that allows students to look back on their schema of a word and apply it to other related and thematic contexts. Webs like these can illustrate to a teacher how well a student understands the word and what they can do if reteaching is needed.
I agree that the Wonders curriculum has great intentionality, due to the frequent encounters of the vocabulary words weekly. Your use of extended instruction of vocabulary words and acting out gestures is similar to an activity my students engage in as well. After reading the chapters, to continue with extended activities, I plan to incorporate more analytic talk during my small group discussions to really encourage my students to use the new vocabulary words and promote a language rich environment. I can easily assess my students during the small group time by observing and listening to how the vocabulary words are used in context during our discussions. Small group time would also be a great time for incidental exposures of tier 3 words as well, since our text suggested that we do not explicitly teach tier 3 terms.
Like you I also have the students pair share and discuss the words. We are lucky to have those engaging questions and activities that students are asked to do on those vocab slides. For example, for the others reading this post if the students had the word alert, they would then be asked a question about it such as, How would you alert someone to talk quietly? I usually have the students write the answer on their whiteboards and share with a partner. I then ask them to also come up with their own questions about the words, and have their partners answer those questions. In doing this I am see if the students are using the words in the correct context or not. In allowing the students to elablorate on their words, it also provides me with an oppurtunity to give corrective feedback in a supportive way. Like pg .54 says this would be a time for me to clarify, revoice the words, or provide students with positive affirmations. This activity also seems to help the students because they can hear the words used in various ways. I also have heard students use the word in a certain context and think they weren't using it correctly. However, like the author suggested if I give the students time to explain their points of view on why they are using the word in a certain way it turns out that sometimes their use of the word works with their way of thinking.
DeleteTheresa and Jamie,
DeleteIt sounds like you both like the Wonders curriculum and that it provides appropriate vocabulary to incorporate into your lessons. I find that providing gestures ( for vocabulary and phonics) seems to help solidify learning of the new material. Page 60 lists the routine for vocabulary instruction before reading and when I think about my instruction I don't seem to use the gestures as much with vocabulary. With phonics yes. I think this is something I need to address. I know for some of my students --when we use sign language ( and they are not hard of hearing or deaf) their acquisition of the word both using sign and verbally increases.
Jamie, I have tried to use academic text and thematic approach. Depending upon the level of disabilities my students bring determines how they respond. However, I have had the most success with the thematic approach. The majority of my students retain information best when I teach across the curriculum to integrate concepts and vocabulary. Their comprehension increases through the thematic approach also.
DeleteKaren,
DeleteMy students love using sign language as well, to spell out words. We do this every once in awhile during grammar when we correct mistakenly spelled words. It would be super fun to sign our vocabulary words for the week! Or there is a student in another class that knows sign language so I may have to steal her and have her teach me some of the words to sign without spelling each letter out! Thanks for the idea!!
Cynthia,
I agree. A student's vocabulary escalades when I teach words thematically as well! As they use them over and over again, they see how words can be used as synonyms and how they are related. This helps develop their schema for the topic and incidental exposure then becomes implicit instruction and they are using the words in their work. Thematic words are also a great way to provide incidental exposure of tier 3 words and children can get a breadth understanding of the terms. Thematic approaches also show that the curriculum is showing intentionality and skills are being taught with an intention of providing a language rich environment.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLanguage Choice (Talking In Class) Article
ReplyDeleteDo any of the principles provided follow what you currently practice in your classroom? How do you determine students are understanding material? Do you focus on these principles in whole group/small group settings?
One thing I do almost every day is have my students read independently for various purposes. For example, this week we read various poems and I would ask the kids to write down anything they thought of while reading and/or anything that the poem made them feel. The students would write. I’d walk around and look at what they wrote. The article suggests we ask them questions like “what are you thinking about that”. I know not to simply just say great job or good job to my students, but I will admit I sometimes give replies like that. This article reminded me of the importance of my role in helping students to become more independent through asking them questions beyond yes or no and right or wrong. I try to get my students to listen genuinely by providing them with speaking and listening cards that they hold up for each to see as they speak/listen. The cards have prompts on them that help their partners with how to respond to what they’ve said or provide them with sentence starters on how they might start talking. These cards have made a huge difference in making my students accountable as they speak and listen. I also feel that having the students talk about what might have been confusing to them is helpful to one another. The author said it helps others to see that it is okay to struggle with what you might be reading, and I couldn’t agree more. When my students see that others are struggling, it helps open that door for other students to say they struggled too or allow students to voice their strategies who also might have experienced similar difficulties while reading. I do think I sometimes spoon-feed my kids with too many cues as to what the right or wrong answer is. In an effort to build student’s independence as readers, I am excited to try out cues like, ““What are you thinking/imagining/feeling? And/or I notice that you figured that out by your-selves”.
During my therapy sessions (including those on vocabulary instruction and with reading books), I too occasionally find myself using the phrases like "Good job!" or "I'm so proud of you!" I was already aware that it was important to ask open ended questions but the readings this week really solidified that for me. I usually ask quite a few questions and sometimes I wonder if I ask too many. The authors did note that teachers had to be careful not to ask too many questions and lose the students interest. This is even more important for my classroom since my students tend to have shorter attention spans. I really like your speaking/listening cards and think that is something that I could implement well in my classroom so thanks for sharing! I definitely need to ask more of the "what are you feeling/thinking" questions as well.
DeleteJamie,
DeleteAn exciting practice that I discovered was using the “what are you thinking/imagining/feeling with my students? They were able to exercise critical thinking skills on their own. Additionally, reflecting back, they chose to incorporate the tier 2 and 3 vocabulary words from text. It was astonishing for me as an observer. When preparing lessons, I never know whether the students will reach the lesson target.
Melinda,
DeleteWould you explain your therapy sessions? Previously I too praised students by saying, "good job," and "I am peacock proud of you." However, since I began using I noticed... "what are you feeling/thinking"? The students have begun to think critically and increase comprehension.
Cynthia,
DeleteWhat exactly would you like to know about my therapy sessions? I would be happy to explain but I didn't know if you have any specific questions relating to the readings? :)
Karen,
ReplyDeleteMy vocabulary instruction aligns with the information in Chapter two mainly focuses on implicit instruction, explicit instruction and extended instruction. I am going to integrate incidental exposure (p.36) in creating a language rich environment, children read orally to partners, the teacher and the classroom aide. We have a word wall and anchor charts to assist students with vocabulary and writing.
Karen,
ReplyDeleteVocabulary Article: Due to the demographic of students I work with, I end up teaching many Tier One words to my students, especially my younger students. This fits in with what the authors said about not including Tier 1 words in vocabulary instruction unless they are behind or delayed for some reason. I have had several foster students and they almost always have less Tier 1 vocabulary than other students because they have had so much less incidental exposure and access to language rich environments. I do not complete formal assessments of their vocabulary but I am now understanding how that important is in the general education classroom.
S&H Chp 2: I tend to teach vocabulary thematically. Every week I usually have a different book and activities to go with them. In this way even the children who don't have a need for extra vocabulary instruction are getting more vocab exposure. Since my students are all on IEPs I do not need to use UDL and I honestly had never heard of it before reading this chapter. I'm so glad that there is a model out there like this and wonder if it is being used in my school?
S&H Chp 3: I tend to use explicit instruction but it is easier for me to do so since I have smaller groups and also due to the fact that most of students require explicit and extended instruction. I always try to reinforce the vocab learned in various ways and in different contexts. I do use read alouds for vocabulary but of course I am not following a specific curriculum. I especially find using hand gestures and pictures helps my students retain knowledge of vocabulary learner. I also sometimes play a YouTube video on a term we just learned about in book we read that day, before we do a written or oral activity that relates to it. My students often need that little bit of extra motivation.
S&H Chp 7: I honestly do not know how my school approached UDL, but I will find out!! My school does do RtI and I even do use for speech therapy. I do think, based on what we know so far including the differentiation it allows, that it would be appropriate to use RtI for vocabulary.
Melinda,
DeleteI agree, I as well tend to teach many Tier 1 one words as all my students have language delays.
Also, since your students are on IEP's--UDL principles would apply to your students when they are with you. UDL was designed with special needs students in mind. If you look at the three principles of UDL( see my post above) these would apply to your classroom/therapy setting.
The Language Article provided us principles to guide us through appropriate language use in the classroom. Of the various principles, I noticed that I do follow a few in my classroom. One principle that I encourage is speaking through their thought process. I will use phrases like, "tell me what your brain is thinking" or "how do you know that?" I try to steer the students away from answers like "I just know it" or "I don't know." This gets the class really trying to dig in their brains and explain verbally what their thought process is and how they derived their answer. Another principle that I noticed that I am currently practicing in the classroom is using conversations to provide learning opportunities. This is supported during whole group lessons, when we engage in think, pair, share discussions. Students pair up with their buddies and share and listen to thoughts about the specific question or topic. As the students are in conversation, I will walk around the area and listen to pairs of students and provide scaffolding questions as they are sharing with one another.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ladies for a very thoughtful discussion around the ideas in the readings and how they connect to your practice! I can tell how you all thought and what you felt about what you read.
ReplyDelete