Creating and Sustaining a Comprehensive SchoolWide Vocabulary Program

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Creating and Sustaining a Comprehensive
School-Wide Vocabulary Program
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Michael F. Graves University of Minnesota,
Emeritus mgraves_at_umn.edu
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FLAGRANT
Paper presented at the symposium on Promoting
Vocabulary Development in Grades 4 Through 12 A
Comprehensive Approach. Chaired by Kathy Ganske
and Douglas Fisher. IRA Annual Convention,
Atlanta, GA, May 4, 2008
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bonnie_graves_at_msn.com
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The Importance of Vocabulary
Vocabulary knowledge is a crucial factor
underlying reading comprehension and thinking
more generally (Davis, 1944 Stahl Stahl, 2004
Thorndike, 1973-1974 Wittgenstein,
1953). Vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and
first grade is a significant predictor or reading
comprehension in the middle and secondary grades
(Cunningham Stanovich, 2005 Scarborough,
1998). Vocabulary is the primary factor
influencing the readability of text (Chall
Dale, 1995 Klare, 1984).
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The Importance of Vocabulary2
Teaching vocabulary can improve reading
comprehension for both native English speakers
(Beck, Perfetti, McKeown, 1982) and English
learners (Carlo et al., 2004) Learning English
vocabulary is a crucial task for English learners
(Folse, 2004 Goldenberg, in press Nation, 2001).
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The Vocabulary Learning Task
The vocabulary learning task is huge. The average
fourth grader probably knows 5,000-10,000
words. The average high school graduate probably
knows 50,000 words. To acquire this extensive
vocabulary, he or she has learned something like
3,500 words a year. This translates to learning
10 words a day.
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Vocabulary Deficits
Many children of poverty and English learners
enter school with debilitating vocabulary
deficits, vocabularies about half the size of
those of their middle-class, native-English
speaking counterparts. Once in school, these
children continue to learn words at about half
the rate of their peers, and this increasing gap
put them at severe risk of failing in
school. Although we have been alerted to this
risk for some time (for example, Carroll, 1971
Becker, 1977 White, Graves, Slater, 1990
Chall, Jacobs, Baldwin, 1990 Chall Jacobs,
2003 Hart Risley, 1995, 2003), schools are
only now beginning to do something about it.

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Helping Students Build Strong Vocabularies

• Helping average students achieve vocabularies of
  50,000 words is a very substantial task.
• Helping students with small vocabularies catch up
  with their peers is an even more substantial
  task.
• Only a rich and multifaceted vocabulary program
  is likely to help students accomplish these tasks
  (Baumann Kaméenui, 2004 Blachowicz, Fisher,
  Ogle, Watts-Taffe, 2006 Graves, 2006 Stahl
  Nagy, 2006).

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A Four-Pronged Vocabulary Program
Frequent, varied, and extensive language
experiences Teaching individual words Teaching
word-learning strategies Fostering word
consciousness
Graves (2006). See Baumann, Ware, and Edwards
(2007) for a study validating this program.
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Frequent, Varied, and Extensive Language
Experiences Reading, writing, discussion, and
listening The emphasis on these four modalities
and the teaching/learning approaches used will
vary over time. With younger and less proficient
readers, there is more discussion and listening
and more teacher-led work. With older and more
proficient readers, there is more reading and
writing and more independent work.
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Teaching Individual Words
Rich and powerful instruction Semantic
mapping Semantic feature analysis
Robust instruction Frayer method . .
. . . Introductory instruction . . . . .
Repetition and review . . . . .
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Teaching Word-Learning Strategies Using
context Learning and using word parts
Using glossaries and the dictionary
Recognizing and using cognates (for Spanish
speakers)
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Fostering Word Consciousness Creating a
Word-Rich Environment Recognizing and
Promoting Adept Diction Promoting Word
Play Fostering Word Consciousness Through
Writing Involving Students in Original
Investigations Teaching Students about
Words (Graves Watts-Taffe, 2002, 2007)
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Preplanning
Assessing the situation Recognizing and
appreciating the size of the task Committing to
endeavor of that size
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Planning
Find a champion
Create a detailed plan
Garner support
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Initiating the Plan
Kickoff festivities
Initial inservice
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Year One Activities
Meetings Between meetings Teacher
responsibilities Teacher opportunities Coaching As
sessment Sharing successes and challenges Sharing
teaching activities Sharing data Deliberate plans
to maintain and renew interest
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Year Two Activities
Adjustments in light of year one Meetings Between
meetings Teacher responsibilities Teacher
opportunities Coaching Assessment Sharing
successes and challenges Sharing teaching
activities Sharing data Deliberate activities to
maintain and renew interest
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Year Three Activities
Adjustments in light of years one and
two Meetings Between meetings Teacher
responsibilities Teacher opportunities Coaching As
sessment Sharing successes and challenges Sharing
teaching activities Sharing data Deliberate
activities to maintain and renew interest
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Major Points
Acquiring a sophisticated vocabulary is both a
very important task and a very large
task. Designing and implementing a school wide
program to assist students in acquiring a
sophisticated vocabulary is also a very important
and very challenge task. At minimum, I would give
it three years. Included in the first year would
be preplanning, planning, and implementation
phases. Implementation would continue into the
second and third yearsand of course hopefully
beyond that.
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References1
Baumann, J. F., Kame'enui, E. J. (Eds.).
(2004). Vocabulary instruction Research to
practice. New York Guilford. Baumann, J.F.,
Ware, D., Edwards, E.C. (2007). Bumping into
spicy, tasty words that catch your tongue A
formative experiment in vocabulary instruction.
The Reading Teacher, 61, 108122. Beck, I. L.,
Perfetti, C. A., McKeown, M. G. (1982). The
effects of long-term vocabulary instruction on
lexical access and reading comprehension.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 74,
506-521. Becker, W. C. (1977). Teaching reading
and language to the disadvantaged What we have
learned from field research. Harvard Educational
Review, 47, 511-543. Blachowicz, C. L. Z.,
Fisher, P. J. L, Ogle, D., Watts-Taffe, S.
(2006). Vocabulary Questions from the
classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 41,
524-539. Carlo, M. S., August, D., McGlaughlin,
B., Snow, C. E., Dressler, C., Lippman, D. N.,
Lively, T. J., White, C. E. (2004). Closing
the gap Addressing the vocabulary needs of
English-language learners in bilingual and
mainstream classes. Reading Research Quarterly,
39, 188-215. Carroll, J. B. (1971). Learning
from verbal discourse in educational media. A
review of the literature. Princeton, NJ
Educational Testing Service.Chall, J. S., Dale,
E. (1995). Readability revisited The new
Dale-Chall readability formula. Cambridge, MA
Brookline Books. Chall, J. S., Dale, E.
(1995). Readability revisited The new
Dale-Chall readability formula. Cambridge, MA
Brookline Books. Chall, J. S., Jacobs, V. A.
(2003). The classic study on poor children's
fourth-grade slump. American Educator, 27 (1),
14-15, 44. Chall, J. S., Jacobs, V. A.,
Baldwin, L. E. (1990). The reading crisis Why
poor children fall behind. Cambridge, MA
Harvard University Press.
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References2
Davis, F. B. (1944). Fundamental factors in
reading comprehension. Psychometrika, 9,
185-197. Folse, K. (2004). Vocabulary myths
Applying second language research to classroom
teaching. Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan
Press. Graves, M. F., Watts-Taffe, S. M.
(2002). The place of word consciousness in a
research-based vocabulary program. In S. J.
Samuels A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research
has to say about reading instruction (3rd ed.,
pp. 140-165). Newark, DE IRA. Graves, M. F.,
Watts-Taffe, S. M. (2007). Word consciousness
comes of age. Unpublished paper. Hart, B.,
Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in
the everyday experiences of young American
children. Baltimore P. H. Brookes. Hart, B.,
Risley, T. R. (2003, Spring). The early
catastrophe The 30 million word gap by age 3.
American Educator, 27 (1), 4-9. Cunningham, A. E.
(2005). Vocabulary growth through independent
reading and reading aloud to Children. In E. H.
Hiebert M. Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and learning
vocabulary Bringing research to practice (pp.
45-68). Mahwah, NJ Erlbaum. Klare, G. R.
(1984). Readability. In P. D. Pearson, R. Barr,
M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of
reading research (pp. 681-794). New York
Longman. Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning
vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, U.K.
Cambridge University Press. Scarborough, H. S.
(1998). Early identification of children at risk
for reading disabilities Phonological awareness
and some other promising predictors. In B. K.
Shapiro, P. J. Accardo, A. J. Capute (Eds.),
Specific reading disabilities A review of the
spectrum (pp. 75-119). Timonium, MD York
Press.
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References3
Stahl, S. A., Nagy, W. E. (2006). Teaching
word meanings. Mahwah, NJ Erlbaum. Goldenberg,
C. (in press). Improving achievement for
English Learners Conclusions from recent
reviews and emerging research. In S. Neuman
(Ed.), Literacy achievement for young children
from poverty. Baltimore, Brookes. Stahl, S. A.,
Stahl, K. D. (2004). Word wizards all!
Teaching word meanings in preschool and primary
education. In J. F. Baumann E. B. Kame'enui
(Eds.), Vocabulary instruction Research to
practice (pp. 59-78). New York
Guilford. Thorndike, R. L. (1973-1974).
"Reading as reasoning." Reading Research
Quarterly, 9, 135-147. Wasic, B. A., Bond, M.
A. (2001). Beyond the pages of a book
Interactive book reading and language development
in preschool classrooms. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 93, 243-250. White, T. G., Graves, M.
F. Slater, W. H. (1990). Growth of reading
vocabulary in diverse elementary schools
Decoding and word meaning. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 82, 281290. Wittgenstein,
L. (1953). Philosophical investigations. New
York Macmillan.