IEL: Focus on Phonics and Vocabulary

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IEL Focus on Phonics and Vocabulary

• NJDOE - Office of Literacy

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Critical Elements

• Motivation and Background Knowledge
• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Fluency
• Writing

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• What was your experience with phonics as a
  student?

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Background Knowledge Systems

• Graphophonic (Linguistic) Students know the core
  structure of their oral language English is CVC
• Syntactic (Grammar) English and most languages
  are NP VP. English is highly structured and
  controlled by word order.
• Semantic (Vocabulary) English is a conglomerate,
  freely borrowing from many languages
• (Freeman, D. E. Yvonne S., 1994)

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Characteristics of Strong Phonics Instruction

• Clear, direct and explicit
• Ample modeling of applying phonics skills
• Focuses on reading words and connected text, not
  learning rules
• Contains repeated opportunities to apply learned
  sound-spelling relationships to reading and
  writing

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Phonics Development and the Alphabetic Principle

• The Probable Acquisition System for English
  Language Background Students
• Using a CVC approach, explicit systems introduce
• Initial consonants
• Final consonants
• Medial short vowels
• Medial long vowels

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Phonics and Vocabulary

• Phonics instruction needs words to make sense to
  students
• Depends on building the connection between
  phonemic awareness and background oral
  proficiency
• Words must have meaning to connect to students
• Depends on oral proficiency and background
  knowledge

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Phonics Development and the Alphabetic Principle

• Introduce and Practice with the usual, less
  common graphemic representations (digraphs)
• Letters ai , and ay make the /e/ long a
  sound
• Letters ee, and ea make the /i/ long e sound
• Introduce and Practice even more less frequent
  graphemic representations
• Letters gh, and ph usually make the /f/
  sound, ph can occur anywhere, but gh only
  occurs medially or at the end, and it is not
  always true. Example igh negates the gh
  (high), and there are other possibilities as well
  bought

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Phonics Development and the Alphabetic Principle

• Introduce and Practice the most unusual graphemic
  representations Late Decoding
• ough rough - /r?f/
• ough doughnut - /don?t/
• ough bought- /b?t/
• ough bough- /baU/
• and then there are
• house, courtesy, numerous, would, pour, hour

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Instructional Strategies with Early Phonics

• Blending isolated sounds join together to form
  words
• /k/ /æ/ /t/ cat
• Whole word to part(s) What is the first sound
  you hear in cat /k/
• Rhymes, families
• the _at family cat, bat, hat

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Late Decoding

• All these acquired skills are applied to compound
  words and other polysyllabic words
• Compounds like doghouse, blackboard, etc.
• With polysyllabic words a new situation presents
  itself stress and intonation so that
  sound/letter arrangements change
• Apply /?plaI/ becomes application /æplIke??n/
  which becomes applicable /?plIk?b?l/ or
  /æplIk?b?l/

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Syllabication Generalizations

• If the word is a compound word, divide the word
  between the two words that comprise it
• Inflectional endings such as ing, er, est, and
  ed often form separate syllables
• When two or more consonants appear in the middle
  of the word, divide the word between them (CVC
  CVC) words
• When only one consonant appears between
• two vowels, divide the word before the
  consonant

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Structural Analysis- PrefixesGuidelines

• Explicitly define, model, and practice
• Discuss prefix warnings
• Teach only the most common prefixes

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Structural Analysis- SuffixesGuidelines

• Explicitly define, model, and practice
• Teach suffix warnings concerning spelling
  changes
• Teach only the most common suffixes

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Guidelines for Roots Instruction

• Teach common Greek and Latin roots in grades 3 -8
  to give students access to a larger number of
  words
• Teach Greek and Latin roots in categories (i.e.
  number, size, body)
• Focus on the most common, high-utility roots

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Word Analysis Games

• Word Webs w/Latin and Greek Roots
• Root Search
• Word Detectives
• Password

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• What was your experience with vocabulary as a
  student?

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Vocabulary and Comprehension

• One of the oldest findings in educational
  research is the strong relationship between
  vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.
• (Stahl, 1999, p. 3)

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The Role of Vocabulary

• All of the energy and time expended in acquiring
  the decoding system is applied to known and
  unknown vocabulary
• Initially efforts are made to present common CVC
  words so that the rules apply
• -cat, dog, run, and, at, etc
• However, dolch/sight words must be introduced
  immediately for the earliest reading to take place

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Multiple Unknowns

• The gobbledorph drined a bleen in the shile to
  rend its crill.

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Comprehension QuestionsPlease answer in
complete sentences.

• Who drined the bleen?
• What did the gobbledorph drine?
• Where did the gobbledorph drine the bleen?
• Why did the gobbledorph drine the bleen in the
  shile?

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.

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Vocabulary and Decoding

• Children who are capable decoders often
  experience difficulty in reading when they
  encounter too many words for which they have no
  meaning. (Rupley, 2003)
• Thus, an extensive vocabulary is the bridge
  between the word-level processes of phonics and
  the cognitive processes of comprehension. (Kamil
  Hiebert, in press)

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Vocabulary and Background Knowledge

• Childrens vocabulary knowledge closely reflects
  their breadth of real-life and vicarious
  experiences.
• If children have printed words in their oral
  vocabulary, they can easily and quickly sound
  out, read, and understand them, as well as,
  comprehend what they are reading (National
  Reading Panel)
• There are profound differences in vocabulary
  knowledge among learners from different ability
  or socioeconomic (SES) groups from toddlers
  through high school.
• (Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002, p. 1)

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Vocabulary Acquisition

• Students arrive with social (kitchen) English
  knowing (orally) most dolch words and critical
  irregulars like are, was, been, etc.
• Vocabulary instruction unfolds similarly to
  phonics instruction with CVC words preceding
  late decoding words, compounds, polysyllabic etc.

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Immediate Considerations

• ELLs do not arrive with social English
• Students, who have been read to, will enter with
  broader experiential vocabulary (incidental
  vocabulary huff and puff)

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Differentiating Instruction for ELLs

• ELL students need opportunities to actively
  engage with new words.
• Thematic approaches which involve the development
  of conceptual networks.
• ELL students require instruction in both basic
  and sophisticated vocabulary words.
• Explicit instruction of idiomatic expressions and
  figurative language.

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What Does it Mean to Know a Word?
(Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002)
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What does scientifically-based research tell us
about vocabulary instruction?

• Most vocabulary is learned indirectly
• Children learn word meanings indirectly in three
  ways
• Conversations with adults.
• Listening to adults read and engaging in
  conversations about books.
• Reading extensively on their own, encountering
  unfamiliar words.

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• Some vocabulary should be taught directly
• Direct instruction includes
• Teaching specific words before reading.
• Providing instruction over an extended period of
  time and working actively with words.
• Using new words in different contexts.
• Repeated exposure and active engagement.

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Vocabulary Pyramid

• Tier 3
• Mitosis, ubiquitous
• Tier 2
• Journey, defiant,
• Tier 1
• (at-Dolch), (love-sight), (play-everyday words)

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Vocabulary Tiers

• Tier 1
• You can see it, touch it, draw it
• It is used in everyday speech (social English)
• Tier 2
• Common words you run into in school and reading
• You can use Tier 1 words as synonyms or explain
  through situations

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Tier 2

• Gigantic is very, very big
• Journey is a trip, it is when you go to a new
  place with your family or friend
• Dont use Tier 2 unknown to explain a Tier 2
  unknown
• Gigantic enormous
• Journey excursion

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Multiple Meanings and Tier 2

• Students will acquire most common meaning first
  height tall(ness)
• Additional meanings need to be explicitly taught
• The height of the Roman empire was reached in
  the first century C.E.
• Height zenith, apex (Synonyms may not be very
  helpful) Use graphic organizers

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Tier 3

• Content or usage specific words, rarely used
• Ubiquitous (rarely used),
• photosynthesis (content specific)

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What words should I teach?

• Since text may have many unknown words, direct
  vocabulary instruction is time consuming, and
  most text can be understood without knowing the
  meaning of every word
• Teach Tier 2 vocabulary
• Useful words that students will see or use
  repeatedly.
• Difficult words that have multiple meanings.
• Important words that are significant for
  understanding concepts within the text. (could
  be Tier2 or Tier 3)

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Direct InstructionVocabulary Learning

• A few key words are taught within meaningful
  contexts.
• Words are related to students prior knowledge in
  ways that actively involve them in learning.
• Student-centered activities are available in
  classroom centers.
• Students are given multiple exposure to the
  words.
• Students are taught to identify root or base
  words through the use of prefixes, suffixes and
  other word parts.
• Learning a definition is not learning a
  word. Students must
• relate it to other concepts and words
  they already know.

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A Word about Word Walls

• They change with growth of vocabulary
• They have purpose(s)
• New words from readings
• (Story word wall, content word walls, wow words,
  Tier 3 )
• Tier 2 words (prefer) that are hard to spell
  (bought)
• Words that are useful in writing (although, even
  though,transition words)

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Building Word Knowledge with English Language
Learners

• Many ELL students bring a rich store of first
  language word knowledge that can serve as a
  foundation for learning new words in English.
• Cognates (words similar in English and the first
  language)
• Many Tier 2 and even Tier 3 words in English are
  everyday Tier 1 words in Spanish
• Preocupado preoccupied (worried)
• Valiente valiant (brave)
• Significar significant (mean)

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Vocabulary Strategies

• Concept Definition Map
• Cloze Procedures
• Vocab-O-Grams
• (Blachowicz Fisher, 2002)

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What do I take from this?

• When reading, students must be able to decode the
  word
• Students will immediately attempt to relate
  sounded out word to oral vocabulary and
  background knowledge
• Read, read, read to students because most
  vocabulary acquisition is incidental
• Some vocabulary must be explicitly taught
• Tier 2 words are critical

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Resources

• Beck, Isabel, McKeowon, M, Kucan, L, (2002).
  Bringing Words to Life Robust Vocabulary
  Instructiion, Guilford.
• Bos, C.S., Vaughn, S. (2002). Teaching Students
  with Learning and Behavior Problems. Boston
  Allyn and Bacon.
• Balajthy, E., Lipa-Wade, S. (2003). Struggling
  Readers Assessment and Instruction in Grades
  K-6. New York Guilford Press.
• Catts, H.W., Kamhi, A.G.. (1999). Language and
  Reading Disabilities. Boston Allyn and Bacon.
• Cooper, J.D. (2000). Literacy Helping Children
  Construct Meaning. Boston Houghton Mifflin.
• Cunningham, P., Allington, R.L. (2003).
  Classrooms that Work They can all read and
  write. New York Harper Collins.

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Resources

• Freeman, Yvonne Freeman, D. (1994). Between
  Worlds Access to Second Language Acquisition.
  Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Kamil, M.L., Hiebert, E.H. (in press). The
  teaching and learning of vocabulary Perspectives
  and persistent issues. In E.H. Hiebert M. Kamil
  (Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary
  Bringing scientific research to practice. Mahwah,
  NJ Erlbaum.
• Lehr, Fran, Osborn , J. Herbert, E. (2003)A
  Focus on Vocabulary, Pacific Resources for
  Education and Learning
• Peregoy, S., Boyle, O. (2001). Reading, Writing
  and Learning in ESL A Resource Book for K-12
  Teachers. New York Longman.
• Rupley, William H , John Logan, William Nichols
  (2003) Vocabulary Instruction in a Balanced
  Reading Program, EBSCO.
• Put Reading First The Research Building Blocks
  for Teaching Children to Read (2001). The
  Partnership for Reading National Institute for
  Literacy National Institute for Child Health and
  Human Development and the U.S. Department of
  Education.

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Contact

• NJDOE Office of Literacy
• 609-622-1726