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Literacy Retreat 2015

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Teaching Academic Vocabulary with Six Interactive Strategies

ACKNOWLEDGE the RESEARCH

Courtney explained that the vocabulary research tells us that most students need to interact with the meaning of an academic term 12-17 times to have a full and flexible knowledge of the term. To ensure academic success, we need to choose which of the academic vocabulary words in our curriculum to target.

As students and teachers work towards 40 exposures to a vocabulary word, students will need a note-taking space to track their growing understandings of a word. This is usually in the form of a Vocabulary Notebook. Notebooks could be any of the following:

Marzano’s research offers educators a 6-step, systematic approach to teaching a vocabulary word:  explain, restate, show, develop, refine and play. The first of these three steps produces an initial understanding of the word, while the last 3 steps shape and sharpen that understanding for a very thorough use of the academic word. To learn more about these 6 steps, consider Marzano’s book Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.

Step 1

Students need to hear an informal definition of a term presented in kid-friendly language. Then they will need clear examples of how this term is used in their world so we offer examples that relate to students’ background knowledge.

As Courtney showed us, we can have students rewrite the lyrics to a simple children’s song or you could give students more of a funky jam by providing them with a simple recording of freestyle beat.

See how Elizabeth Werner, and her 4th grade students from Brownsburg, IN displayed their knowledge of the 6 Trait terms by rewriting the lyrics to popular songs.

Student understanding deepens when they can accurately show the meaning of a word using abstract tools. Collecting or drawing pictures that depict the meaning of a word is a popular way to reach the goals of step three. Learn more about how to target vocabulary using visual clues.

Another great way to create a non-linguistic representation of the term is to build it–perhaps out of Play-doh.

How about using this website to create ready-to-go PHOTO flashcards to help students learn academic vocabulary?

In Step 4 students start to develop a deeper understanding of an academic term by experiencing multiple interactions with the word, understanding various applications of the word, and enjoying activities that tighten their understanding. Some different ways to do this might include:

  • Practice using vocabulary words by writing sentences
    • Create sentences to highlight vocabulary.
    • Use essential vocabulary terms in a variety of sentences.
  • Create charts and tables to compare words.
  • Write acrostic poems to expand understanding of a word.
  • List synonyms/antonyms for the word.
  • Show multiple connections on an ABC chart.

This step requires students to work together to further their knowledge about an academic term. This peer interaction allows students to express their thinking and learn from one another. In order for this kind of activity to go well, we know there must be procedures in place. To allow students to experience working with different people in the class (and to avoid students choosing the same partners all the time) try the Clock Buddies procedure.

Courtney introduced us to the Interview with a Word strategy that requires students to personify the word by pretending to interview the word and give clues to the term’s meaning within the answers to the interview questions. Sample interview questions help this run smoothly. Have students use the interview script template to document their thinking so they can perform their script later to see if anyone can guess the word.

Once students have a good handle on the academic term then playing with the words is a fun way to cement their learning. Have a treasure chest of vocabulary games that you can play with all the words that students are learning throughout the year.

Here are some great resources to get you started:

Courtney introduced us to a strategy entitled Let’s Make Connections. Students make as many connections to a word as they can while gently tossing a ball back and forth within a circle. Another fun way to do this is to play Spider’s Web and have students pass a tightly-wound ball of yarn back and forth to each other to see who can make the most intricate spider web of connections.