Expand Vocabulary

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Expand Vocabulary
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Welcome ToThe Language Of Our Kids

• Whatever
• Ya-right
• Wassup?
• Dawg
• My bad
• Straight up
• What it is
• That rocks             

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Why Teach Vocabulary?

• Learning, as a language based activity, is
  fundamentally and profoundly dependent on
  vocabulary knowledge.

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Why Teach Vocabulary?

• Increasing vocabulary knowledge is a basic part
  of the process of education, both as a means and
  as an end. At the same time, advances in
  knowledge will create an even larger pool of
  concepts and words that a person must master to
  be literate and employable.
• Nagy

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It Pays Off

• Every word learned equals one more dollar in your
  yearly salaryunless you are a teacher.

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Reading Difficulties Begin Here..

• Actual Differences in Quantity of Words Heard
• In a typical hour, the average child would hear
• Welfare family- 616 words
• Working class family- 1,250 words
• Professional family- 2,153 words

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How Many Words Do Our Students Hear?

• 85 of ESCs families
• fall into the first two
• categories
• welfare
• working class

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What DoesResearch Say?

• Homes rich in communication- Children before the
  age of four have heard 45 million words.
• Homes that lack rich communication-
• Children before the age of four have heard 13
  million words.
• (Hart and Risley 1996)

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Research. . .

• Beyond the first 10,000 words used by adults, the
  rest are rare words, and these play a critical
  role in reading. The eventual strength of our
  vocabulary is determined not by the common ten
  thousand words, but by how many rare words we
  understand.
• (Hart and Risley)

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Finding ThoseRare Words

• Even though it is important to talk to kids, more
  of the rare words are found in print rather
  than oral language.
• What would you guess?
• Adult talking to child __ rare words for 1,000
• TV __ rare words for 1,000
• Childrens book ___ rare words for 1,000
• Adult books __ rare words for 1,000
• Comic books __ rare words for 1,000
• (Hayes and Athens 1988)

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Without The Rich Word Background,

• Elkhart CommunitySchool students have
  consistently performed lower on the vocabulary
  sections of standardized tests.

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Every TeacherNeeds To Help

• Students with poor vocabularies, including
  diverse learners, need strong and systematic
  educational support to become successful
  independent word learners.
• (Baker, Simmons, Akmeenui, 1995)

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Past PracticeDictionary

• Rote memorization of words and definitions is
  the least effective instructional method
  resulting in little long-term effect.
• (Kameenui, Dixon, Carine 1987)

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How Do We Increase Vocabulary Knowledge?

• 1. Read aloud to the students.
• 2. Give time for students to do silent sustained
  reading.
• 3. Encourage self-initiated writing.

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A Goal

• By middle school, if students are to make
  grade-level progress (i.e. 3,000 to 5,000 new
  words per year), they should be reading more than
  1.1 million words a year of outside reading
  (25-35 books) and about 1.7 million words in
  school texts.
• (Honig, 1996)

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How Do We Increase Vocabulary Knowledge?

• New words are
• 1. Encountered repeatedly in context through
  reading and listening
• (Stahl and Fairbanks 1986)
• 2. Linked to students prior knowledge
• (Johnson 1981)
• 3. Connected with other words that are
  semantically related
• (Johnson et al. 1986)

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Stretching Their World

• Students will incorporate the words that
  teachers use frequently in the classroom. The
  words become part of their expressive vocabulary.

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Students Need Involvement

• Considering the large number of words students
  encounter and the need to learn them, it is
  obvious that all of these words cannot be taught
  . We need to encourage students to be aware of
  and interested in words so that students develop
  ownership of them.
• J. David Cooper

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Levels Of Word Knowledge

• No Clue
• Have Heard/Seen It
• Think I Know It
• Know It Well/Can Use It in a Sentence

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WordstormingSteps

• 1.Students write down all words they can think of
  related to a given concept.
• 2.When list-making slows, increase words to the
  list by asking more guided questions.

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WordstormingSteps

• 3. Ask students to group and categorize their
  words. One column might be left for
  miscellaneous.
• 4. Introduce any words that you think should be
  included. Students must decide what category in
  which to place the added word.

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How Do We Develop Word Knowledge?

• Repeat words in varied contexts
• Describe words
• Support words with visuals
• Connect words to students lives
• Extend words with anecdotes
• Make associations
• Give definitions
• Compare and contrast

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How Do We Develop Word Knowledge?

• Question
• Chart characteristics
• Rephrase sentences
• Provide tactile experiences
• Give examples of correct and incorrect usage
• Make analogies

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Make A PictureLogographics

• Construct a visual image that connects the target
  word with the meaning.
• One connection could be auditority. Carlin
  means old woman. The word part car could
  generate a picture of an old woman driving a car.
  Or, the student could just draw a picture of an
  older woman.

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What AboutContext Clues?

• There is rich and lean context.
• Current textbooks have rich context providing
  typographical clues and detailed
  explanations.Students can learn from this text
  structure.

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Typographical CluesAs They Read

• Have students look at
• Bold-faced, italicized words
• Footnotes
• Parenthetical definitions
• Illustrations
• Charts, graphs
• Glossary

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Contextual CluesAs They Read

• Instruct students to look at how the word is used
  in the sentence, then examine surrounding
  sentences.
• Find
• Synonyms
• Antonyms
• Concrete example
• Descriptions
• Definitions

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Lean Context

• In real-life print, there may not be enough clues
  to infer the words meaning.

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Word Parts

• Looking for roots, prefixes and suffixes will add
  to students knowledge of words.
• It is best done if the introduction of such words
  is done school-wide.
• Multiple exposures will increase the
  understanding of the words.
• Different content areas can explain their use of
  these words.

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Repeated Exposures

• Words should be used in meaningful contexts
• 10-15 times
• Janet Allen

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Word Walls Help

• Word walls are absolutely essential in our
  classrooms.
• Janet Allen

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Word Walls

• Word walls could be organized alphabetically or
  thematically.
• The word wall is built on the theory of
  masteryrepetition reinforces previously learned
  principles. Regular use throughout the school
  year allows you to recycle many words.
• (Green)

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Lets Back Up

• What if the student cant pronounce the words
  even ones fairly familiar?

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How ToPronounce A Word

• 1. Look for chunks you know.
• 2. Underline the vowel sounds.
• 3. Use the syllable patterns to break apart the
  word.
• 4. Sound out the word. Blend the sounds back
  together.
• 5. Ask yourself if the word sounds right and
  makes sense.

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Enrich OurStudents Vocabulary

• When positive emotions are associated with a
  learning task, the knowledge is more likely to be
  retained.
• Game formats for vocabulary help create that
  positive connection.

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Playing With Words

• Word Jars- Students write down new words they
  have seen or heard on slips. Place into jar. Each
  day pull out two words and discuss.
• Commercial word games such as Mad Gab, Catch a
  Phrase, Scrabble
• Charades, skits using words
• Pictures of words for multiple meanings bat for
  sports or the mammal
• Creating new words with roots

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Remember This

• The limits of my language means the limits of my
  world.
• Wittengsten

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Expand Vocabulary