John J. Pikulski, Ph.D. Sponsored by: Lou Massicci,

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San Joaquin Valleys Region VII Vocabulary
Conference
Achieving Reading Excellence Building on the
Strengths, Taking on the Challenges
John J. Pikulski, Ph.D. Sponsored by Lou
Massicci, Central Valley Representative Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishers
2
Facility in the language arts is the enabling
skill that traverses academic disciplines and
translates into meaningful personal, social, and
economic outcomes for individuals.
California Reading/Language Arts Framework, p. 3
3
There has been no previous time in history when
the success, indeed the survival, of nations and
people has been so tightly tied to their ability
to learn.

Todays society has little room for those who
cannot read and write proficientlyThe economy of
high paying jobs for low skilled workers is fast
disappearing.
In contrast to only 20 years ago, individuals who
do not succeed in school have little chance of
finding a job or contributing to society.
National Commission on Teaching and Americas
Future, 1997
4
The United States today is in a truly global
environment, and competitor countries are not
only wide awake, they are running a marathon
while we are running sprints. p. 253
Thomas L. Friedman. (2005). The world is flatA
brief history of the twenty-first century.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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Stubbornly Flat Reading Scores?
6
Average NAEP Reading Scores for the Nation
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California Standards Test
8

• Criteria for Evaluating Instructional Materials
  K-8 In California State Board of Education.
  (2007). Reading/language Arts Framework for
  California Public Schools Kindergarten through
  Grade Twelve.
• (For adoption cycle beginning November, 2008)

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Program Descriptions for each of the five programs

• Program 1 Reading/Language Arts Basic Program,
  K-8
• Program 2 Reading/Language Arts - English
  Language Development Basic Program, K-8
• Program 3 Primary Language/English Language
  Development Program, K-8
• Program 4 Intensive Intervention in
  Reading/Language Arts, 4-8
• Program 5 Intensive Intervention for English
  Learners, 4-8

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Program 1 RLA Basic ProgramCurriculum and
Instruction

• The basic program must offer comprehensive
  guidance for teachers in providing effective,
  efficient, explicit, sequential, linguistically
  logical and systematic instruction. The basic
  program must offer practice, application, and
  diagnostic support in all skills and strategies
  at the appropriate grade levels.

This is the basic, comprehensive (what might in
the past have been called the Basal) Program
designed for developmental or accelerated
readers, as well as those with mild difficulties.
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Program 1 RLA Basic ProgramTime for
Instructional Materials
Must provide instructional content for 180 days
of instruction for the following minimal time
periods

• 1 hour in kindergarten
• 2.5 hours grades 1- 3
• 2 hours in grades 4,5,6
• At least 1 and up to 2 hours in grades 6,7,8

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Program 1 RLA Basic ProgramRequired
Instructional Elements to reinforce and extend
the basic program

• Extra Support for Struggling Readers, K-8
• Extra Support for English Learners, K-8
• Intensive vocabulary Support, K-3
• Reading Intervention Kit, 1-3, (but same kit can
  be used for all 3 grade levels).

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Program 1 RLA Basic Program Required
Instructional Elements

• A. Extra Support for Struggling Readers K 8
• Purpose is to provide guidance for teachers and
  support for students to successfully participate
  in, and progress through, the daily lessons in
  the basic program with their peers
• 30 minutes of additional instructional materials
  daily

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Program 1 RLA Basic Program Required
Instructional Elements

• B. Extra Support for English Learners,
  Kindergarten Grade 8
• Purpose is to provide guidance for teachers and
  support for students to successfully participate
  in and progress through the daily lessons of the
  basic program with their peers
• 30 minutes of additional instructional materials
  daily
• Must provide
• Material that address the beginning, early
  intermediate, and advanced early levels of
  English-language proficiency.
• Survival vocabulary and language, including, but
  not limited to language for obtaining
  necessities.
• Acquisition of academic vocabulary.
• Phonological, morphological, syntactical and
  semantic structures of English.

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The Extra Support for Struggling Readers and the
Extra Support of English Learners pieces have as
their purpose, allowing success for students ,
K-8, who might be overly challenged by the
instruction and materials that are part of the
Basic Program. These pieces are to provide
scaffolded support for success in the basic
program by students who might otherwise have
found the program inaccessible. It is
encouraging to note that preteaching is
specifically mentioned in the extra support
material requirements.
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Program 1 RLA Basic Program Required
Instructional Elements

• Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support, K-3

The Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support
Element is one of the most potentially powerful
aspect of the new framework, one that is likely
to have an impact far beyond the borders of CA.
For this reason, I will review it and comment on
it later in the presentation when I review the
issue of vocabulary as it relates to the new
framework.
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Program 1 RLA Basic Program Required
Instructional Elements

• Reading Intervention Kit, 1-3
• A classroom kit including five sets of strategic
  intervention ,technical skills materials, one set
  for each of the five key technical skill domains
  of beginning reading.

• For use in tutorial or small group instructional
  settings.
• Each set includes a minimum of 90, fifteen minute
  lessons
• Each set includes periodic assessments.
• The same classroom kit for grades 1 through 3 is
  acceptable.

This kit is for students who are skill deficient
strategies and skills must be consistent with
those used in the basic program.
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Program 2 Reading/Language Arts - English
Language Development Basic Program, K-8Required
Instructional Elements

• Includes all the content required in RLA Basic
  Program 1 including
• Extra Support Struggling Readers
• Extra Support for English Learners
• Intensive Vocabulary Support
• Reading Intervention Kit

The Reading/Language Arts English-Language
Development Program includes all content and the
four additional instructional elements required
in the Reading/Language Arts Basic Program as
well as the additional one hour of daily
English-language development instruction. P.
296 The Framework.
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Program 2 ELD Instructional Materials
Requirements

• Connected to, and consistent with the unit or
  theme of the basic program
• Focused survival vocabulary and language, skills
  that are transferable from students primary
  language to English, academic vocabulary, oral
  language development, etc.

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Program 2 ELD Instructional Materials
Requirements (Continued)

• One hour daily
• The one hour may be segmented

Program 2 appears to be Program 1 with the
addition of a more intensive, one hour English
language development component one that it more
extensive and intensive than the Extra Support
for English learners component of the basic
program.
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Program 3 Primary Language/ELD Basic Program, K-8

• Comprehensive program in the key languages of the
  state for students K-8.
• Designed for students on waiver as defined by
  Proposition 227.
• Materials designed to ensure students are
  successful in acquiring English.
• Must be submitted with ELD materials.
• This program may not be submitted as part of the
  basic program this program stands alone.

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Program 3 Primary Language/ELD Basic Program

• Parallels Program 2 including requiring
• Extra Support for English Learners
• Intensive Vocabulary Support
• Reading Intervention Kit
• Extra Support for Struggling Readers
• One hour of daily English Language Development
  Instruction

Program 3 parallels Program 2, but is in the
native language of students who speak a language
other than English and who are on waiver as
defined by proposition 227.
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Program 4 Intensive Intervention Program in
Reading/Language Arts, 4-8

• Stand alone, intensive, accelerated not part of
  the basic reading/language arts program.
• Designed for learners in grades 4-8 whose
  academic achievement is two or more years below
  grade level who would not profit from instruction
  in the basic program.
• 2.5 to 3 hours of daily instruction 180 days of
  instruction.

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Program 4 Intensive Intervention Program in
Reading/Language Arts, 4-8 (continued)

• Major goals are to teach students to read and to
  master content standards not previously mastered.
• Must be designed so students gain two grade
  levels for every year of instruction and progress
  rapidly into the basic program at their grade
  level in two years or less.
• Must have multiple levels and multiple points of
  entry.

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Program 5 Intensive Intervention Program for
English Learners, 4-8

• Stand alone, intensive, accelerated not part of
  the basic reading/language arts program.
• Designed for English Learners in grades 4-8 whose
  academic achievement is two or more years below
  grade level, who would not profit from
  instruction in the basic program.
• 2.5 to 3 hours of daily instruction/180 days of
  instruction.

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Program 5 Intensive Intervention Program for
English Learners, 4-8 (continued)

• Major goal is to provide intensive
  English-language development that compliments and
  supports reading/language arts instruction.
• Must be designed so students gain two grade
  levels for every year of instruction and progress
  rapidly into the basic program at their grade
  level in two years or less.
• Must have multiple levels and multiple points of
  entry

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Programs 4 and 5 are clearly stand alone
alternatives to the basic program for students
whose level of reading proficiency mitigate
against success in Programs 1 or 2. They both
have the very ambitious goal of providing
sufficient instruction in 2 years or less to
equip students with the competencies they will
need to succeed in the basic program at their age
appropriate grade level. The emphasis of Program
4 is mastery of previously missed competencies
Program 5 adds substantial English language
development.
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers combines the
strengths of the two most widely used, most
highly respected, and most successful publishers
of reading programs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
publishers will offer a unique choice to school
districts in California to meet the requirements
of the 2007 Reading Language Arts framework for
California Public Schools by offering districts a
choice of
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• Houghton Mifflin Reading The Medallion Edition
  (2009)
• Harcourt School Publishers (HSP) new
  CALIFORNIA EXCURSIONS (2009)

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Textbook Publisher Offers Creative Response to
School Budget Crisis.
The Comprehensive Legislative Update on
Education. March 27, 2008. A publication of
School Innovations and Advocacy, An advocacy
group employed by nearly 65 percent of CAs
school districts as a legislative advocacy group
and to ensure school districts mandate
reimbursement claims meet the states
Controllers Office requirements..
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has announced that it
will be resubmitting its current program,
Houghton Mifflin Reading, for the new 2008
Reading Language Arts adoption for Program 1. At
the same time, the publisher will also submit a
new program, HSP California Excursions. If
approved by the State Board of Education, this
approach will allow districts to continue to use
their current pupil editions, and purchase any
new components they wish, as needed, at a
fraction of the cost of a new reading program.
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Textbook Publisher Offers Creative Response to
School Budget CrisisThe Comprehensive
Legislative Update on Education. March 27, 2008
By revising its current teachers' editions and
ancillaries, the publishing giant will be able to
reflect updates to the Reading Language Arts
criteria and incorporate the input they have
drawn from the thousands of educators currently
using the program.
The ELD component from HSP California Excursions
is to be integrated in the new Teacher's
Edition, so districts who stay with Houghton
Mifflin Reading but desire an ELD program
(Program 2), can purchase one at a fraction of
the cost of a new Program 2.
The Houghton program is also slated to add
digital tools such as Destination Reading and
Learning Village aimed at stepping up the ability
of teachers to meet the needs of all students..
32
Textbook Publisher Offers Creative Response to
School Budget CrisisThe Comprehensive
Legislative Update on Education. March 27, 2008
Given that over 80 of the state has Houghton
Mifflin Reading, approval of Houghtons
submission would substantially resolve this issue
for many districts throughout the state. The move
would also allow districts to stay in compliance
with the Williams settlement.
School officials have applauded the effort by
Houghton as an important gesture that will
undoubtedly reduce significant revenues the
publisher might have otherwise anticipated in the
coming year.
At the same time, their decision is also viewed
as a smart business move for a company with a
vast clientele among cash strapped districts in
the state.
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Textbook Publisher Offers Creative Response to
School Budget CrisisThe Comprehensive
Legislative Update on Education. March 27, 2008
This submission would also help address the
broadly held concern about the challenges of
implementing back-to-back adoptions. Houghton's
submission would also allow districts to take
advantage of the work they have already done with
Houghton Mifflin Reading in the areas such as
lesson planning, pacing and classroom management.
The need for retraining or continued professional
development, another concern that has been
raised, would be significantly reduced.
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Areas of Major Concern Reflected in the 2007
Framework

• Struggling Readers
• English Learners
• Vocabulary/Language Development

An Area of Major Concern Expressed by California
Educators

• Writing

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Meeting the Needs of Struggling Readers

• Houghton Mifflin Medallion Edition will
• Include the Extra Support for Struggling Readers
  and the Reading Intervention Kit required by the
  CA Framework.
• Include additional refined instructional
  suggestions for meeting the needs of struggling
  readers in its new, enhanced Teacher's Guide.
• Be coordinated with HMH Program 4, Portals
  Intensive Intervention in Reading/Language Arts,
  4-8, which builds on the research based, very
  positively reviewed Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt
  early intervention programs.

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Writing InstructionTwo Major Concerns

• Daily writing instruction was not sufficiently
  prominent in the current program. Teachers were
  prone to omit it.
• Insufficient attention, instruction, and practice
  with prompts like those used in state writing
  assessments.

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Addressing the Two Major Writing Instruction
Concerns in the Medallion Edition

• The format and design of daily reading/writing
  instruction has been dramatically revised so that
  the writing instruction is prominent,
  unavoidable.
• Writing prompts, like those used in California
  writing assessments will be systematically and
  prominently used at all levels of the program.

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Vocabulary
39
California Reading/Language Arts
Framework(Chapter 9 Evaluating Reading
Programs)
12
Phonemic Awareness
02
Phonological Awareness
36
Phonics
12
10
Decoding
68
Vocabulary
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Program 1 RLA Basic Program Required
Instructional Elements

• Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support, K-3
• Provide additional vocabulary development (beyond
  that in the basic program) for students who need
  extra vocabulary support.
• Purpose is to increase oral (listening and
  speaking) vocabulary of students with limited
  vocabularies, including ELs, students with
  disabilities, struggling readers, and students
  who use African American vernacular English.
• Must provide a list of logically sequenced
  vocabulary words which are beyond grade level
  reading the lists must be supported by research.

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Zeno 1995 Word Frequency list

• Analyzed texts from kindergarten through college
  level.
• Established a list of 17.25 million words.
• The vast majority of words appeared less than
  once per million running words of text.
• Only 107 words appeared 1,000 or more times per
  million words high frequency words whose
  meaning need not be taught.
• 5,586 words appeared between 10 and 300 times per
  million words.
• This list could be reduced to 3,886 words just by
  grouping words whose meaning was transparent
  because of inflectional endings (act - ed, ing,
  s).
• This list of 3,886 account for 80 of the word
  corpus through college, 90 of the words through
  9th grade, and approximately 92 of the words on
  prominent reading tests through fourth grade.

Hiebert, E. (2005). In Hiebert, E. Kamil, M.
(Eds.) Teaching and Learning Vocabulary.
Earlbaum.
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Zeno 1995 Word Frequency list (continued)

• Many of the 3,886 words are NOT general academic
  vocabulary that need to be taught in a reading
  program, including
• Words whose primary function is syntactical (a,
  aint, am, and, an, are, arent, as)
• Proper first names (Abraham, Adam, Alan, Albert,
  Alex, Alexander, Alfred, Alice)
• Geographic terms (Africa, African, Alaska,
  America, American (s), Americas, Arizona
• Many of the words can be effectively clustered
  morphologically for instructional efficiency (act
  ed, ing, s action s active, activity.
  Assist, assistance, assistant.)

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Zeno 1995 Word Frequency list (continued)

• I estimate (roughly) that the list could be
  reduced by about a third by eliminating words
  that are not general academic and through making
  morphological clusters, leaving roughly 3,500
  words which would constitute a core general
  academic vocabulary list
• 500 words per year K-6
• Pre-K?????????
• Of course, it is not that simple!
• Words have multiple meanings
• Frequency and difficulty are not the same
• No recent studies of word difficulty
• Situating words in meaningful contexts

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Program 1 RLA Basic Program Required
Instructional Elements

• Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support, K-3
  (continued)
• Must include narrative and expository texts which
  link to the units and themes in the basic
  program.
• Must provide for 15 to 20 minutes of additional
  instruction.
• Requires instruction with 8 to 10 words per week
  in K 10 to 12 words in 1 and 2 15 to 18 words
  in grade 3.
• Requires periodic review and extended use.
• Weekly pre and post assessments of new words.

This is a more general oral language enhancement
component rather than a scaffolding component for
the basic program like the extra support pieces.
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Academic language the more difficult,
abstract, technical, and specialized vocabulary
and concepts used in texts and tests. (p.305)

Interpretation this refers to mature, advanced,
sophisticated vocabulary needed for success in
academic and professional settings--- not just
vocabulary from academic disciplines or content
areas. Improvement of academic language and
vocabulary will not take place unless the content
and concepts underlying that language are taught.
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Three Major Reasons for Teaching/Developing
Vocabulary

• To facilitate/enhance students comprehension of
  a text they are to read.
• To equip students for success in educational
  settings and in life.
• To enhance students appreciation of the pleasures
  to be derived through language.

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Types of Words

• Conversational Becks Tier 1 address, afraid,
  agree, airplane, alive, alone, angry.
• Selection/Concept Musher, Iditarod, chilblains,
  
• Academic
• Core Academic Becks Tier 2 Abandon, abundant,
  accurate, advantage, agriculture, alternative,
  analyze.
• Content Academic Becks Tier 3? acid,
  amendment, algae, atom, arctic, bacteria,
• The jargon of reading and writing (e.g.
  Summary, Plot, Theme, Main Idea)
• Interesting/Rare/Morphologically useful

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Addressing the expanded Emphasis of the
California Framework on Vocabulary

• Houghton Mifflin Medallion Edition will
• Include a new, research based oral
  language/vocabulary component into every theme of
  instruction in the expanded, enhanced Teacher's
  Guide.
• Include the Framework required Intensive
  Vocabulary component (K-3) with research based
  justification for the selected vocabulary.

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Published reading are tools that are necessary
for effective reading instruction, but those
tools are effective only in the hands of a
skilled professional teacher. Reading programs
and materials are akin to a set of advanced,
expertly designed surgical instruments necessary
for the work of a skilled surgeon, but
ineffective, and downright dangerous in the hands
of an unskilled, poorly prepared surgeon or
layperson.
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Building on Prior Professional Development

• California, through AB 466 and more recently
  through SB 472, has made major commitments to
  professional development in reading instruction
• 40 hours of targeted development at grade level.
• 80 hours of grade level intense follow up
  development that is program specific.
• Districts throughout CA have committed additional
  resources to develop expertise in areas such as
• Universal access
• English Learners
• Classroom Management
• Differentiated reading through guided reading
  groups
• Writing, etc.

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Major Conclusions From USOE Cooperative First
Grade Studies
To improve reading instruction, it is necessary
to train better teachers of reading rather than
to expect a panacea in the form of materials.
Bond and Dykstra, 1967
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It is recognized that good teachers Are the
most important element in learning. The single
most important strategy for achieving
Americas education goals is to recruit, prepare
and support excellent teachers for every
school. National Commission on Teaching and
Americas Future, 1997