LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT VOCABULARY AND THE

LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT: VOCABULARY AND THE SLINGERLAND APPROACH MANY THANKS TO M. J. AND LINDA BEV WOLF

WORD RETRIEVAL AT ANY AGE Two year old Drew had seen the pediatrician who commented about his delay when stringing words together. Later, Drew was cruising through the cereal aisle at Trader Joe’s when he told his mom he wanted “beautiful circle cereal”. Many thanks to Jeanette Hurley

THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY

VOCABULARY IS THE BEST PREDICTOR OF READING AND LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION IN ELEMENTARY AGE CHILDREN. Hirsh states that children with high oral language skills in Kindergarten are likely to have more than 5 years higher reading levels at age 13. During the primary grades (kindergarten to grade 2), average children acquire 1, 000 root word meanings per year. Each root word meaning has many related meanings created with prefixes and suffixes. These are “derived” words. If we include all word meanings, children probably know three to five times as many words.

Quantity builds quality. It fine tunes our skills. • Words are used to think. The more words we know, the more words we learn, the finer our understanding of the world. Stahl (1999) • Children need to learn more words to read well, but they need to read well to learn more words. Mc. Kenna (2004)

●Teaching vocabulary can improve reading comprehension for both native English speakers and ELLs. ●Growing up in poverty can seriously restrict the vocabulary children learn before beginning school, and make attaining an adequate vocabulary a challenging task. ●Learning English vocabulary is one of the most crucial tasks for ELLs because of the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, and ELLs’ difficulty comprehending text in a second language.

THE VOCABULARY LEARNING TASK IS ENORMOUS! • The average child enters school with a listening vocabulary of perhaps 5, 000 -10, 000 words and a very small reading vocabulary. • Once in school, however, both children’s listening vocabularies and their reading vocabularies grow rapidly. Soon, children are learning words at the rate of 3, 0004, 000 words a year, leading to vocabularies of something like 25, 000 words by the sixth grade and something like 50, 000 words by the end of high school.

THE JOB BEFORE US • 25% of children with the lowest vocabularies acquire roughly 400 fewer root word meanings each year than their average peers, both before and during the primary grades. Thus, low vocabulary students need to add at least this many additional meanings each year if they are not to fall steadily further behind during elementary school. • Difficulties may be driven by economics and related to language processing, and/or lack of experience.

HOW A WORD IS LEARNED 1. The student stores some information about the word 2. This information is reinforced and extended each time the word is heard or seen. 3. On each encounter the child learns more about the word 4. The student gradually acquires ownership of the word Nagy, Anderson and Herman, 1987

VOCABULARY IS THE ENGINE THAT DRIVES COMPREHENSION. LINDA HOYT School children in ancient Rome were required to learn lists of new words by saying them aloud with their voices. The English word vocabulary, is built on the Latin word for voice. It literally means an “oral list of words. Newton, E. , Padak, N. and Rasinski, T. (2008)

WHICH WORDS SHOULD WE TEACH? Word meaning knowledge is a better guide than print frequency in terms of deciding which words should be taught. Biemuller, in Words Worth Teaching, established high priority root word meanings for teaching in the primary grades by ranking words known by children at the end of grade 2 as follows: ●Easy -- Meanings known by 80% or more of the children. Not requiring special attention. ●High priority -- Meanings known by 40– 79% of the children. ●Difficult -- Meanings known by fewer than 40% of the children. Appropriate for attention in later years. Using these criteria, he found some 1, 600 high priority root meanings that should be addressed directly between kindergarten and grade 2.

CHILD-FRIENDLY DEFINITIONS • Avoid conventional dictionaries that have formal definitions that are difficult for students to understand. • Try to find examples of the word through child-friendly contexts such as images. © Gillis & Eberhardt 2016 Explain the meaning of the word as it applies to the context where it is used. • Explain the meaning in everyday language using simple words. • Try starting your definition with one of the following: • If you…. If you gape at something, you look at it with your eyes and mouth open. • When you. . When you are drowsy, you feel sleepy. • If someone. . If someone is annoying you, it means they are doing something that you don’t like. • If something is. . . If something is ghastly, it is very scary or yucky. •

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION • Present word(s) using child-friendly definitions • Draw attention to orthographic (spelling) and phonological (sound) representation • Engage students in repeated use of word(s) in different contexts. • Teach words in categories. • Make the word meaning visual.

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION IS MULTIDIMENSIONAL Provide rich oral language vocabulary experiences Establish a word – conscious environment Explicitly show the power of vocabulary development through read-alouds

THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text. Having a substantial vocabulary is crucial to learning to read and write, to success in school more generally, and to success in the world beyond school. Findings from more than 100 years of vocabulary research include:

EARLY LANGUAGE Vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and first grade is a significant predictor of reading comprehension in the upper elementary and secondary years. • ●Kindergarten general vocabulary is the best predictor of grade 3 or 4 reading comprehension. • Grade 1 general vocabulary is a strong predictor of reading comprehension in grade 11. • Acquiring 8 – 10 meanings per week must be sustained across the primary grades.

WHAT ARE THE DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES IN WORD DEFINITION ABILITIES? Preschool children give function or associated responses Preschool Function Words an, all, as, above (higher than, over head) after (looking for, later), for (given to, at the price of) Elementary level children give synonym or category responses Primary After (following, in pursuit of), around (here and there, approximately), with (in the company of, by using) Upper Elementary Above (superior to in rank or importance), among (grouped with, in with, once (when, whenever), for (towards, during) Adolescent age students give abstract dictionary definitions

Stages in Word Definition Abilities PRESCHOOL an, all, as above (higher than, overhead) after (looking for, later) for (given to, at the price of) ELEMENTARY give synonym responses PRIMARY Give synonym responses around (here and there, approximately) after (following, in pursuit of) with (in the company of, by using) ADOLESCENT AGE give synonym responses above (superior to in rank or importance) give abstract dictionary definitions among (grouped with, in with, ) once (when, whenever) for (towards, during)

• Manipulate sentences to include both personal and indefinite. The confusions in interpreting this – one of the most common confusions is this. What does it refer to • The emphasis should be on word meanings rather than words. Each of these are separate meanings to be acquired. • To, too, two • Lean against the wall – lean meat • Place it here – I live in this place.

WHAT THEY NEED TO LEARN? • Common use of language • New words • Multiple meaning • Words to teach • Ambiguous • Age level • Multiple meanings • Relational or symbolic words – it, because, subtract, plan • Concrete meanings are learned much more easily -- house, girl, dog

SUCCESSFUL INSTRUCTION OF VOCABULARY INCLUDES: • Small number of words taught intensively • Exposure to the words in many contexts • Focus on meaning of word parts--*prefixes, suffixes, and roots • Direct, systematic, and continuous instruction • Definitional and contextual information about a word • Generate information that ties the new word to already known information • Provide multiple exposures (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986) • Include simultaneous association of A-V-K modalities (Slingerland, 1981)

• There is no one best method for vocabulary instruction, AND both direct and indirect instruction is needed. • There is a difference between explicit, systematic instruction vs incidental exposure • Reading (or being read to( is the single most important factor in word knowledge.

WHAT WORDS SHOULD WE TEACH? Word meaning knowledge is a better guide than print frequency in terms of deciding which words should be taught. Biemuller established high priority root word meanings for teaching in the primary grades by ranking words known by children at the end of grade 2 as shown later in this handout. ●Easy -- Meanings known by 80% or more of the children. Not requiring special attention. ●High priority -- Meanings known by 40– 79% of the children. ●Difficult -- Meanings known by fewer than 40% of the children. Appropriate for attention in later years. Using these criteria, he found some 1, 600 high priority root meanings that should be addressed directly between kindergarten and grade 2.

WHAT TO TEACH Children need more meanings than just the root meanings. Consider the following: • Importance and utility • Age level • Ambiguity • Rich language with instructional potential – those that can be worked with in a variety of ways • Conceptual understanding – words which students understand the general concept but need to provide precision and specificity in describing the concept. (Beck, Mc. Keown, et al 2002) • Multiple meanings • Unfamiliar words • Double Negatives “I would never have not done by homework. ” • Unpredictable content words,

Consider: Importance, utility and Instructional potential – those that can be worked with in a variety of ways in the Question of the Day and in the format. Rich language For upper-elementary children, it may be sufficient to make students responsible for learning meanings of priority words as they are encountered. Many texts build this into content materials through insertions into the text or as a glossary.

TEACHING VOCABULARY • Should be tied closely to vocabulary known by readers. Stories and other readings containing many potentially unfamiliar words should be read to children, combined with discussion of word meanings. • Most successful vocabulary teaching for primary-grade children has included several re-readings of the same book, combined with teaching some word meanings in conjunction with (or just after) reading a text. Reading time and story time • High priority words should be addressed as they occur in meaningful texts. This usually means teaching meanings directly, as they are encountered in context. • Instruction before, during, and after reading are appropriate based on text to be read and students involved.

BUILDING VOCABULARY WITH THE SLINGERLAND APPROACH You must be able to understand language at the oral level in order to understand it at the text level. • Both Breadth (many words) and Depth are needed • Make connections between new and known words • Make connections to background knowledge and concept words. This takes them beyond memorizing definitions. • Provide multiple exposures /does it fit in different parts of the format? • Teach everything about the word. • Provide visual representations • Use words in sentences in context

QUESTION OF THE DAY • Model descriptive vocabulary and language usage when speaking. • Elaborate on student language. • Request clarification and elaboration • Offer synonyms • Promote questions from the audience • Provide feedback • Facilitate open-ended questions and prompts • Enrich vocabulary instruction • A time to provide synonyms or antonyms • Ask open-ended questions

LEARNING TO WRITE Alphabet review and letter connections. When you have dictated a word, stop for a moment to discuss meaning and usage.

ENCODING AND DECODING • Spelling lists are not the same as vocabulary lists, but we can combine and make each serve double duty • Homophones • Hink pinks • Encoding and decoding teach productively – learning one word leads to learning several • sign • • • signal signature signify significant signee

• Teach more about affixes and base words. • Teach common prefixes and suffixes. • When appropriate, teach Latin roots and Greek combining forms.

PREPARATION FOR READING • Previewing words is different from directly teaching specific words. • Previewing vocabulary activates prior knowledge and clears up misconceptions about a word’s meaning. It clarifies meaning of known words with multiple meanings. It provides some familiarity with unknown words and strengthens understanding of the words as they are important to the text Previewing is more of a comprehension strategy than it is direct teaching of specific words. • In addition to using vocabulary with new or different meanings, it is an opportunity to point out meanings as used in text

Good definitions paint a picture in the reader’s mind • Develop an auditory recognition for words. Present and practice vocabulary words that convey meaning through multiple examples in context, spoken and written, planned and incidental. Categorizing words expands words through multiple meanings. Help students use words in sentences to demonstrate understanding of academic language – the content area text – and connect those words to background knowledge.

SELECTING WORDS AND PHRASES Consider words that are: Important to the text • Useful in many situations • Uncommon in oral language, but occur in written text • Function words such as prepositions, conjunctions, articles are necessary in constructing and comprehending sentences. • Offer familiarity with the meaning of words to be read • It is more about attaching some meaning to a new word than enabling deep learning of words.

• Words with multiple meanings. Focus on the meaning used by the text • Figurative language • Words or phrases critical to making meaning from the text or topic of study • Content classrooms provide the best opportunity to identify key academic words • Connect words to background knowledge

READING FROM THE BOOK • When specific vocabulary needed in particular texts is taught, comprehension of those texts is improved. • The more words intervening between subject and verb, the harder to comprehend. Pay attention to this when structuring or when selecting phrases. • Work with meanings as shown in text • Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text. • Successful reading requires both success at reading words and knowledge of the words read – a prerequisite to comprehending text.

INDEPENDENT WORK I am thinking of words related to food or to a season Proverbs – out of sight out of mind Idioms – Who let the cat out of the bag? (Who let the dogs out? ) Slang -- Food (hot dog, collie flower) Parts of speech The function of the word brick changes from a noun naming a building material to an adjective describing the color red. Red brick red apple crisp apple What happened by reversing the order of the words? Can you do it with other words?

STORY TIME Print vocabulary is more extensive and diverse than oral vocabulary. Hays, Wolfe, and Wolfe, 1996) Listening to a book can significantly improve children’s expressive vocabulary. (Nicholson&Whyte (1992) • Repeated readings are associated with greater gains in vocabulary. (Senechal, 1997) • Reading multiple versions of the same story develops new means of expression and varied points of view. • The Three Pigs • The True Story of the Big Bad Wolf • Lon Popo • Multiple activities – seat work, games, etc.

• Approximately 1, 000 word meanings need to be taught each year for individual primary-grade children to gain as much as 400 meanings, as some children will already know some of the meanings and some meanings will simply not be learned • For upper-elementary children, it may be sufficient to make students responsible for learning meanings of priority words as they are encountered. Many texts build this into content materials through insertions into the text or as a glossary.

SUCCESSFUL READING REQUIREMENTS • Successful reading requires both success at reading words and knowledge of the words read – a prerequisite to comprehending text. • Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text. • When specific vocabulary needed in particular texts is taught, comprehension of those texts is improved.

The Language of Math Words for Operations Addition and Subtraction less than subtract increase make difference more than add together sum all together total more leave left remove remaining taking away less in all difference fewer than greater than How many left