Chapter Nine

Payge Rivord – EngEd 370

aptitude hypothesis, knowledge hypothesis, and instrumental hypothesis

Vocabulary: The breadth depth of all the words we know: The words we use, recognize, and respond to in meaningful acts of communication. Breadth involves the size and scope of our book vocabulary and depth concerns the level of understanding we have of words.

components of vocabulary: There are four components of vocabulary 

1. Listening 
2. Speaking
3. Reading 
4. Writing 
5. New literacies (additional component) 

Principles to Guide Vocabulary Instruction

1. Principal one: select words that children will encounter while reading literature and content material. Introducing vocabulary that students will find while they are reading is likely to significantly enhance comprehension. It includes
   1. Key words that come Directly from the basil, literature, Internet, or content text selections.
   2. Useful words that are relevant. Children encounter useful words repeatedly in a variety of contexts.
   3. Interesting words spike the imagination and create enthusiasm, and excitement, and interest in the study of words. Words that have unique origins, tell intriguing stories, or have intense personal meaning for students make good candidates for instruction. 
   4. Vocabulary – building words. Classroom instruction should include words that lend themselves readily to vocabulary building skills. Vocabulary building skills allow children to seek clues to word meetings on their own. Word should be selected for instruction that will show students how to inquire into the meaning of unknown words – through structural analysis.
2. Principal 2: teach words in relation to other words. Vocabulary words are often tied to basic concepts. Students develop definition or knowledge when they are able to relate new words to known words. When words are taught in relation to other words, students are actively drawn into the learning pride process. They must use background knowledge and experiences to detect similarities and differences.
3. Principal three: teach students to relate words to their background knowledge. When learning new words students use what they know to make initial predictions about the meaning of the word and then refine the meaning. Teaching students to relate words to their background knowledge is important for all students, especially for English learners.
4. Principal 4: teach words in pre-reading activities to activate knowledge and use them in post reading discussion, response, and retelling. Through pre-reading activities, vocabulary words can be focused on before students read to help activate background knowledge in activities involving predicting. Pre-reading and post reading vocabulary activities that connect vocabulary words to content are more desirable than isolated vocabulary exercises especially for English language learners. English language learners have more difficulty applying knowledge that they’ve gained through isolated trail.
5. Principle 5: Teach words systematically and in-depth. Vocabulary knowledge is applied knowledge. Knowing and teaching a word in depth means going beyond having students parrot back a definition. It means more than having students do something with the definition such as fighting is an antonym, fitting the words into a sentence blank, or classifying the word with other words. In order for students to process vocabulary in depth, they must generate a novel product using the term: they could restate the definition in their own words, compare the definition to their own experiences with the concept, or make up a sentence that clearly demonstrates the words meaning.
6. Principal 6: awaken interest in and enthusiasm for words. promoting students’ interest and engagement helps to develop rich vocabularies, especially for less advantage students. The teacher’s attitude towards vocabulary instruction can be contagious and what teachers do to illustrate the power of words is vital in improving children’s vocabulary. Get excited about learning new words, share words of interest to you with your students, and tell stories about the origins and derivation of words. 

Strategies for Vocabulary and Concept Development

1. Relating experiences to vocabulary learning. Students experiences will vary and technology such as talking book or virtual field trips can be useful for this strategy. 
2. Using context for vocabulary growth. Students need to hear the new words used in different contexts. Defining a word and using the word in a sentence or a context is a common and useful practice.
3. Developing word meanings. Definitional knowledge, or the ability to relate new words to known words, can be built through synonyms, antonyms, and multiple meaning words. 
   1. Synonyms are words that are similar in meaning to other words. Synonym instruction has value when a child has knowledge of a concept but is unfamiliar with its label.
   2. Antonyms are words that are opposite in meaning to other words. For teaching antonyms, consider strategies that challenge students to work with antonyms in various print contexts.
   3. Multiple meaning words are words that have multiple meanings these words give students opportunities to see how words operate in context.
4. Classifying and categorizing words. When children manipulate words in relation to other words, they are engaging in critical thinking. Vocabulary strategies and activities should give students the experience of thinking about, thinking through, and thinking with vocabulary. Through the aid of categorization (categorizing based on similarities) and classification strategies, students recognize that they can group words that label ideas, events, or objects.
   1. Word sorts is a form of categorization. The process of sorting words is in her growly involved in concept formation. A Word sort of simple yet valuable activity doing i Word sorts is a form of categorization. The process of sorting words is integrally involved in concept formation. A word sort of simple yet valuable activity to initiate. 
   2. Categorization activities can help students form relationships among words in much the same manner as open and close sorts. Children receive less assistance in the activities involving categorization
   3. Concept circles are a versatile activity appropriate for students at a wide range of grade levels, concept circles provide still another format an opportunity to study words critically and to relate words conceptually to one another.
   4. Semantic mapping is a strategy that shows readers and writers how to organize important information. Semantic mapping can also revolve around vocabulary learning by providing a visual display of how words are related to other words.
   5. Analogies are comparisons of two similar relationships. On one side of the analogy, the words are related in someway; on the other side, the words are related in the same way. Analogies probably should be taught to students beginning in the intermediate grades. If they are not familiar with the format of an analogy they may have trouble reading it successfully.
   6. Paired- word sentence generation can spur students into using these words in their speaking and writing. Paired word sentence generation is a task that could be used to test students’ understanding of difficult concepts. In using this strategy, the teacher gives students to related words. The goal of the strategy is to generate one sentence that correctly demonstrates an understanding of the words and their relationship to each other.

think sheet: below is an example of a think sheet

Predictogram: Story elements – including the setting, the incidence in the plot, characterization, the characters problem or goal, how the problem or goal is resolved, and the theme or larger issue to which the problem our goal relates – can be used to develop students meaning vocabulary with the predictogram strategy. Teachers choose words from a story that they feel will be challenging to students. The words and their meanings are discussed in class, and students relate their personal associations with the words. Finally, students work in groups to predict how they think the author might use each term in the story. Below is an example of a predictogram.

self-selection strategy: words for the self selection strategy can be drawn from Basal readers, literature, content area instruction, or incidental learning experiences. Children select the words to be studied and explain why the word should be studied. These words can be used in activities such as word sorts, analogies, synonym matching, or any of the other activities that have been described.

word knowledge rating: A way to get students to analyze how well they know vocabulary words. Words chosen by the teacher or by the students in the self selection strategy are written on a worksheet or on the board. After students have read them selves on their knowledge of the words, the teacher should lead them in discussing using questions such as “which are the hardest words?”

Classroom application 

Before reading this chapter, I had never heard of the strategy of using a predictogram! I think that this could be a very fun strategy to use in my future classroom! It allows students to discuss and collaborate, using their prior knowledge to make inferences. I will be using this!