DYNAMIC VOCABULARY INSTRUCTIONANITA L. ARCHER, PHD.

SUMMARY

Importance of vocabulary instruction

Components of a vocabulary program

Explicit instruction

Instructional routines

IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

Children’s vocabulary in the early grades directly effects reading comprehension in the upper grades

Hart & Risley, 1995

More directive language in low income families

To close the gap, vocabulary acquisition must be accelerated through intentional instruction in all grades, all classes.

Words heard in 3 years

Low Income 10 million

Working Class 20 million

Professional 30 million

COMPONENTS OF A VOCABULARY PROGRAM

High quality classroom language

Tell students the meaning of words when first used. Ex. “Don’t procrastinate on your project. Procrastinate means to put off doing something.”

Pair in the meaning of the word by using parallel language. Ex. “Please refrain from talking. Please don’t talk.”

COMPONENTS OF A VOCABULARY PROGRAM

Read-Alouds Listening to a book being read can significantly

improve children’s expresssive vocabulary. (Nicholson

&Whyte, 1992; Senechal & Cornell, 1993)

Print vocabulary is more extensive and diverse than oral vocabulary. (Hays, Wolfe, & Wolf, 1996)

Choose interesting, engaging stories Be a story-teller Provide students with a little explanation of novel

words encountered in the text. Ex. “They concluded, or decided, that something dreadful, or terrible, must have happened...”

EXPLICIT VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

Sources: words from read-alouds, core reading programs, reading intervention programs, and content area instruction.

Selecting vocabulary words: Select a limited number (3-10) of words for

explicit instruction from a chapter or section. Select words that are unknown, critical to the

passage, likely to be encountered in the future, and difficult to obtain (abstract or no known synonym)

Goldilocks words: not too easy (store), not too difficult (cellular respiration), just right (absurd).

INSTRUCTIONAL ROUTINE FOR VOCABULARY

Step 1: Introduce the word “The word is compulsory. What word?” “____”.

Step 2: Introduce the meaning. Use a student-friendly explanation Have students locate it in the glossary or text Introduce using morphographs in the words

Ex. Autobiography: auto=self,

Step 3: Illustrate with examples Concrete, visual, or verbal

Step 4: Check for student’s understanding. Ask deep processing questions.

Ex. “Many things become compulsory. Why do you think something would become compulsory?”

INSTRUCTIONAL ROUTINE FOR VOCABULARY

Step 4 continued: Check for student’s understanding. Have students discern between examples and

non-examples. Ex. “Is going to school in 8th grade compulsory? How

do you know? Is going to college when you are 25 compulsory? Why not?”

Have students generate their own examples. Ex. “Make a list of things at this school that are

compulsory.”

RESOURCES

Student-friendly dictionary www.wordcentral.com

Photos for target vocab words www.taggalaxy.com

Video resources from Anita L. Archer, Phd. www.explicitinstruction.org