Aha! Moment at ASHA15

The American Speech Language Hearing Association's (ASHA) annual conference in Denver was outstanding this year. Beth Lawrence and I were able to present our InferCabulary and WordQuations methods to more than 700 SLPS who are in the trenches with students everyday. More importantly, we got our batteries recharged by attending some excellent sessions learning and re-learning important skills.

We've all relished in seeing our students have that aha! moment. I thrive on it and beam when it happens. In Denver last week, I had my own aha! moment. I was in the Practical Strategies for Middle School and High School students class with hundreds of other SLPS (in the overflow room) and something Stephen Charlton said made the lightbulb illuminate. 

SLPs are not responsible for getting the student a good grade on the next test. They are responsible for giving students the strategies so later in the school year they are getting good grades, because they can.

That message was freeing. As a speech language pathologist in private practice, I feel so much pressure to help my students ace that next test by learning the vocabulary, developing mnemonics to recall information and comprehending the textbook passages. It's a reminder that my job is to give my students strategies to learn new vocabulary effectively. I need to teach them how to attack expository text by paying attention to the key words in the passages. The student and I work together to find what strategies work for them in all areas of academics and then hone those skills so they can master the material independently, eventually.

I'm disowning the guilt trip I feel when students don't do as well as I would hope. I'm taking on the role of language expert and cheerleader, all wrapped in one. Still relishing in those aha! moments, but looking more for the light at the end of the tunnel when they master a language skill that leads to accomplishment and success. - Deena Seifert, M.S.,CCC-SLP

Robust Vocabulary Instruction

In the last ten years there has been a lot of research into Vocabulary and here is what I've learned:

1. We should focus on tier 2 words. (Beck & McKeown, 2002)
2. Students need multiple exposures to words they are learning. (Stahl, 2005)
3. Instruction needs to utilize a variety of methods. (NICHD, 2000)
4. Learning words in context sometimes requires a prior knowledge and inferential reasoning skills. (Univ. of Illinois, 2007)
5. When teaching a class, 1/3 already know the word, 1/3 will get it, and 1/3 of students won't get it. (Katz, 2005)
6. Most people (65%) are good visual learners, so using multiple pictures and photographs to help students learn a word is a useful strategy.
7. Students need to learn the words deeply and broadly, not just a quick definition in one context. (Stahl & Kapinus, 2001)
8. In order to build vocabulary, students need to develop an interest and an awareness beyond the words. (Beck & McKeown, 2002)
9. Using technology to learn vocabulary is effective (NICHD, 2000)

Cutting Edge Vocab Research

New research, published in the journal Developmental Science. by a Florida State University psychology professor, Arielle Borovsky explores how toddlers add new words to early words, such as mama and dada. Dr. Borovsky studies learning disabilities, but in order to better understand what happens when things go awry, she has been studying early vocabulary acquisition.

When a young child has learned the names of several types of fruit, for example, they have laid the foundation, so learning a new word like "lime" or "kiwi" is easier.  By having a category label, like "toy", it is then easy for the child to add words like "doll" or "block". Learning new words, without previously learned related words or category labels takes longer.  Dr. Borovsky explained, "Children start to say words somewhere around their first birthday...but they're not a random subset of adult vocabulary. They're not learning words like stockbroker or bifocals. That's common sense, but what's really new is that they are learning these words in clusters and there might be some words that are easier for children to learn and some that are harder."

Borovsky and her colleagues studied 32  two-years olds. She examined their existing receptive vocabulary knowledge by showing images on a screen of items that are common for toddlers.  Using eye tracking technology, the researchers could identify when the toddlers looked at pictures upon request.  The researchers taught the children six, new, complex words, but they were words already related to known words.  These words were used in five different sentences and paired with pictures on the screen.

When the children had more related words in their repertoire he was more successful and quicker at learning new words than toddlers who had fewer words in that category. For example, if a toddler know five drink words, he was better able to learn a new drink word than peers who knew only two drink types.  "This suggests we could use a child's own vocabulary to find words that would be easier or harder for an individual child to learn at a particular age," Borovsky said.

---

---

Journal Reference:

1. Arielle Borovsky, Erica M. Ellis, Julia L. Evans, Jeffrey L. Elman. Lexical leverage: category knowledge boosts real-time novel word recognition in 2-year-olds. Developmental Science, 2015; DOI: 10.1111/desc.12343

Geography Vocabulary with Google Earth

I was struggling to  help a student who was struggling to recall continent versus country versus state versus city. I wanted to share with you how he mastered the concepts and was able to retrieve the associated vocabulary words in 20 minutes!  We used: a) Google Earth; b) gestures; and c) pencil and paper.

First, like many young students, he needed to understand how he personally fits into the schema that names locations from close (his city) to a bigger "gestalt" (the world.)  Using Google Earth, we honed in on his home, zooming out to see that his house and his neighborhood are part of the city of Baltimore.  We continued to zoom out until the Maryland state boundaries became obvious. We continued out until he could see the United States of America (which we changed to USA so he would not be confused with the "state" level.) Then we could see North America and the other continents, then the world.  He was in awe and wanted to zoom back in. We did this several times, with me emphasizing the labels for each level: "world/earth/globe, continent, country, state, city" and vice versa. Then, I had him join me.  We gestured a small circle (city) and expanded the size of our circle for each term until we were laughing at how huge the world/earth/globe was.

Now, I had to make sure he could retrieve the correct word. It is confusing that two of these concept words start with a "k" sound (continent/country) and two start with a "s" sound (state/city.) But the COOL part is that the number of letters increases as one moves from city to world/earth/globe!  Having him write the words like this helped him to link the concept of the size of the location with the length of the word:

World/Earth/Globe (15 letters)

Continent (9 letters)

Country (7 letters)

State (5 letters)

City (4 letters)

My student and I hope this mnemonic and method will other students struggling to recall the terms in order of size.  Enjoy! - Beth Lawrence, M.A., CCC-SLP

Once Upon a Time Vocabulary

When you hear those four magical words, "Once upon a time...," you are transported into a story's world.  You've probably heard reading to your child is good for language development. One reason listening to a story is good is that it helps him learn the "script" of a story. Listening to stories teaches a child about literary vocabulary - those words and phrases that we don't usually speak, but hear in stories. We don't generally speak phrases like "a land far away" and "happily ever after," but reading helps a child understand their meaning and later use them in narratives.

Listening to and reading stories helps a child learn to tell a story. When I teach storytelling (narratives), I uses this framework:

1. Use a starting phrase: "one day," "long, long ago," or "once upon a time."
2. Tell what the character usually does: everyday he _____.
3. Something unusual happens: but today....
4. What problem does this create?
5. Now think of a solution to that problem.
6. What happens in the end?
7. Use an ending phrase: "the end," "they lived happily ever after," or "he learned his lesson"

We first practice this script with stories that are familiar: Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears or Little Red Riding Hood. Once they are able to use this format with familiar stories, we move on to creating original stories (narratives). Analyze stories you are familiar with using this format and then create your own story. The next time you read a book (children or adult), analyze the story phrases see what figurative language our students are expected to understand.

Nicaraguan Surprise

I had the amazing blessing of going to Nicaragua for a mission trip two weeks ago. The land is beautiful. The faces of so many are beautiful. The financial poverty is astounding, with many there making less than a dollar a day in income. The educational need is great. Although there is a public school system, it seems many parents choose not to send their children because, “I never went, why should I send my children?” or, “I need my child here with me picking trash so we can afford to eat this week,” or, even more surprisingly, “I don’t have money to buy a uniform for my child, so I won’t send him” (although uniforms are not required, they are encouraged).

I had the opportunity to build friendships with several families and their children through a local church initiative.  Their physical hunger is being addressed through the non-profit organization.  However, I found it interesting to see the hunger the children had to learn English.  I did not realize that knowledge of English can be a ticket out of living in the trash dumps for these children. And English is only taught in private lessons or in private-pay schools, so very few children have the opportunity. 

What an amazing time we had playing games like Uno and baseball. They had fun looking at photos and videos on my iPad where they found our InferCabulary app.

It was an incredible opportunity for me to watch how the visual method really did work for someone who did not know any English.  

Our focus has been on how InferCabulary helps students with learning disabilities, but I was amazed at how quickly and accurately these girls were at inferring what words like “boulder” and “perplexed” meant, without my needing to explain or define the words in their language.  They enjoyed using their visual inference skills to guess, and kept asking for more words.  

This opportunity made me realize our need to assess the efficacy and value of using the InferCabulary method with those learning English as a second language.  We look forward to working with the program, and remain hopeful that we may get to play at least a small part in opening doors to a better life for these children.  I know my life was changed by spending time with them.

Taking Vocabulary Instruction to the Next Level

I think we can all agree that vocabulary instruction needs to reach more students at a deeper level. How do we do that? Take it to the next level. 

In Bringing Words to Life, the authors, Beck & McKeown, give an example of instruction for younger grades with the word reluctant from the book A Pocket for Corduroy. In the story Lisa is reluctant to the laundromat without Corduroy.  Here is what Beck & McKeown recommend:

1. Read the context of the word reluctant.
2. Give a child-friendly definition of reluctant - not sure you want to do something.
3. Repeat the word, practicing its pronunciation.
4. Give examples in context talking about a time you were reluctant to do something.
5. Ask students what they would be reluctant to do and replies are phrased using the word: I would be reluctant to _____.

Moving beyond the context of the word into real life examples, helps students construct "a meaningful and memorable representation of the word." 

Go a step further and use the InferCabulary method by adding pictures to help students understand what reluctant looks like. In the picture on the right, the girl is reluctant to eat her vegetables - something all kids can relate to.

Taking vocabulary instruction to the next level means taking the word from the everyday mundane classroom exercises and putting into a context that applies to everyday life with examples they will remember - the sillier and funnier, the better!

Toddler Vocabulary Predicts Success

Vocabulary is the best single indicator or intellectual ability and an accurate predictor of success at school. - W.B. Elley

Engaging with your toddler, reading books and talking with them about their world has never been more important. A new study in the journal aptly named Child Development found that children who had good oral vocabularies (what they could express) by age two were better prepared kindergarteners academically and behaviorally than others in their classroom.

They noticed gaps in oral vocabulary began emerging as early as two years of age. That means its important for parents and preschool teachers to spend some time engaging with toddlers in activities that will expand the 2-year-olds' vocabularies. So how do we do this?

Tanya Christ and X. Christine Wang developed a list in Supporting Preschoolers' Vocabulary Learning based on current research. I've paired examples from The Little Blue Truck, by Alice Schertle.

1.  Point and label - direct the child's attention to the word and say the word. This helps the child connect the word and the image. For example, point to the word "road" on the story page and then point to the picture of the road in the book. As you read the story, point to the words related to the animals the little truck sees: a frog, a sheep, etc. Taking care to point to the words and images, so the child can see the relationship between the words and images.

2.  Ask questions that require a use of the word - As you read a book with your child or students, ask a comprehension question to see if they use the word thereby creating a memory of the word's sounds. For example, "What does a farmer use to carry hay and supplies from one place to another?" and the answer is "a truck."

3.  Ask questions that require using related words to help the child establish a relationship between the vocabulary word and closely related words. You could say, "A truck is a kind of ____ " and vehicle would be the answer. Name some other vehicles that take you from one place to another. What other vehicles would a farmer use?

4.  Give short definitions - explain the meaning in a short, child-friendly definition to help promote understanding. The original story begins, "Horn went 'Beep!'. Engine purred. Friendliest sounds you ever heard." Explain that when an engine "purrs," it means the truck is working well. 

5.  Use extended approaches - provide opportunities for the child to process and use the words in a deeper way. Talk about the animals the little blue truck passed on the road. What other animals could it have seen that aren't in the story? What sounds would they make?  What does a ship see as it sails along? ...and on and on.

The point is as soon as a child can attend to a book, keep in mind that vocabulary is very important to their successes in kindergarten and beyond. Pay particular attention to children at risk. Their parents are struggling to put food on the table and may not have the time to interact with their young ones which may result in smaller vocabularies. Preschools and HeadStart programs should put vocabulary high on their list.

It's a Context Thing

Although using context clues to determine vocabulary meaning is not always effective (not all sentences provide context clues), this is an important skill for students to cultivate for the occasions where authors are kind enough to include them.  We need to overtly teach students to seek out context clues the author may have provided.

Looking before and after the novel word is a good place to start searching for clues.  Blachowicz and Fisher, authors of Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms, suggest several techniques that will help students use context clues that are present before and after the word to determine word meanings.

Sometimes authors provide definitions. For example, "The dermatologist, the skin doctor, identified the problem."  Sometimes they provide clues about what the word is not. For example, Unlike a bicycle, a moped has a small engine. Other times there are location or setting clues, such as, "the mountaineers reached the summit after a brutal all day climb."  Authors sometimes provide a clue when they explain how something happens, like, "She masticated her burger into tiny pieces and swallowed it."  There can be hints within the sentence regarding the function of the word. For example, "in order to keep it from fraying, the worker placed an aglet on the end of the shoelace."  Finally, an author might provide clues about a word by sharing related words or ideas.  For example, At the wake, mourners cried, prayed, and celebrated the life of the deceased.

Learning vocabulary requires time spent reading, review, and overt instruction. Searching for clues within a sentence will not always lead a student to understand novel words in literature. However, when clues are present, only students who realize the power of these clues will be able to successfully determine novel word meaning.

Back to School Vocabulary Strategies

While kids and parents are scrambling for school supplies, lunch boxes and backpacks, I am scrambling to get my students organized for learning vocabulary this year.

I start preparing my students over the summer break. They learn low tech vocabulary strategies with index cards. The word on the front and definition on the back. A visual cue on the front to promote memory and other ideas from my bag of tricks to enhance retrieval.

Next, we go high tech with an online vocabulary storage, like Quizlet or Study Stack. Why go high tech? Kids never lose their vocabulary cards and words this way. They are stored permanently in their account until they delete them. Words learned in September are stored online for review in January when they have midterms. Pictures can be added for each word and the cards can be printed out. Teachers can share word lists with their students and students can create groups with other students in their class to collaborate.

By starting early, we ensure students are starting off the school year with effective strategies tailored for their learning style and preferences rather than on the fly when students are stressed.

The Word Gap

There is no such thing as starting too early on your child's vocabulary skills. Twenty years ago two researchers, Betty Hart and Todd Risley "The Early Catastrophe" study showed that some three year old children heard 30 million less words than others. 30 million - wow! This has been called the "thirty million words project" or "word gap." Parents can help their young children (infants and toddlers) stay ahead of the game.

Start reading early. I read to my children by 5 months of age. They sat in my lap and helped me turn the pages of the board book. As they grew older, we graduated to different levels of books. We read signs as we walked around town and passed them on the highway.

Talk about what you are doing. If you are making cookies or building a birdhouse, talk about what what you are using and doing. They will hear words specific to each activity and add to  their vocabulary with each interaction.

Make up Stories. Use your imagination creating a variety of stories. They'll start to notice stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Eventually, they will notice each story has a problem and a solution. They'll hear words specific to each story setting.

Experience the world. Go on field trips to the zoo, aquarium, grocery store, library, and park. Talk about what you see and do.

Each interaction builds your child's vocabulary and gives them a leg up on language and don't widen the "word gap."

If your child doesn't recognize letters by age 2 or 3 years of age this could be an early sign of reading and/or language difficulties. Most children recognize letters and the sounds they make by age 4 or 5. If you suspect a language problem, contact your local school for information on how to get your child's speech and language tested. You can also go to the American Speech Language Hearing Association's website to find a speech language pathologist near you. Early intervention is the key to closing the gap.

Drawing Attention to Vocabulary

What therapy tools could I not live without? My iPad is one, but even more basic than that is paper and colored pencils. A student walks in my office having difficulty with vocabulary, reading comprehension or understanding a concept from one of their classes and I roll over (literally, in my chair) to the colored pencils and snag a piece of white copy paper from the printer...and off we go.

I am a terrible artist, but if I can't draw it you can bet my student can. We laugh about how bad I am at drawing, but even the horrible scribble I draw sticks with them - because it's so absurd they remember.  If it's a vocabulary word, we are drawing pictures on their flash cards. If it's a lesson concept, we are drawing more expansive representations to solidify the concepts. If it's a story, I am mapping out the story on paper and "drawing" attention to underlying meaning in the story. We break down the "big picture" or "gestalt" into smaller pieces so they can see how the parts relate to the whole story.

Why does this work? iCare4Autism published an article, Enhancing Reading Comprehension through Intensive Training last month. They highlight research by the University of Alabama researchers who studied 31 children with autism. These children were average readers, but had low comprehension skills. They used visual aids to help the children broaden their knowledge of vocabulary words and recorded neurological changes using MRIs. "By the end of the study, it was evident that children that participated in the intensive training had stronger connectivity within the language network."

I've known using visual aids and drawing pictures with colored pencils and markers improves my students' understanding of words and broadens their meanings. The study acknowledge the usefulness of visual aids with images of the brain. So add some color to your treatment sessions and break out the colored pencils.

Our vocabulary apps, InferCabulary and WordQuations, use beautiful photographs and video, because students benefit from visuals in a variety of forms.

"Twerking" Has Been Around for a While

Vocabulary instruction tends to be humdrum and predictable not only for students, but for teachers, as well. Recently, the Oxford Dictionary added 500 new words to it's pages. If I find this fact interesting maybe my students will, too. 

Think about inspiring your students to have some fun with vocabulary by learning new words recently added and researching why.  For instance, Miley Cyrus didn't invent the term "twerking." It dates back to the 19th century and was originally spelled "twirking." In 1820 it was considered a combination of the words "twitch" and "jerk." The Oxford Dictionary updated the spelling recently to reflect the times. 

Karen Bromley in "Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know About Words and Vocabulary Instruction," suggests that not only should students find new words added to the dictionary, but take it a step further by having them create a list of words they think should be added. Relating vocabulary to daily life, helps students develop a deeper relationship with word meaning.


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/25/417530639/oxford-english-dictionary-adds-new-words-offers-clarity-on-old-ones

Bromley, Karen. "Nine things every teacher should know about words and vocabulary instruction." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 50.7 (2007): 528-537.

Putting Definitions in Context

 Yes, context clues are generally not an effective way

 for students to learn the meanings of words, 

but should we get rid of using context all together? 

Janet Allen in her book, Words, Words, Words (2006) asks, "Why Not Context?" She says without guidance students generally resort to two methods for learning new words: looking it up and sounding it out in a sentence (context). A single sentence usually does not have enough information for students to figure out what a word means in context, so they need new strategies.

Students learn more words on their own by reading, so they should have instruction in how to figure words out on their own. Arm them with strategies for figuring out the words in context. Using strategies to learn vocabulary is known as concept-based vocabulary and researches say that the benefits last well beyond the usual vocabulary instruction.

Strategies may include:

• using the words in sentences to "paint a picture"
• identifying synonyms and antonyms
• talk about the roots, prefixes and suffixes
• look for context clues before and after the sentence with the vocabulary word

Finally, show students how you use strategies to figure out words you don't know well. Talk through the process with them, so they can see a more efficient way to go about the process.

Visual Memory and Vocabulary

The Dual Coding Theory, originally proposed by Paivio on 1971, has inspired debate and decades of research.  This theory, described as “one of the most influential theories of cognition this [20th] century” (Marks, 1997) attempts to explain why mental imagery is so powerful for recall of verbal information. 

Although far more complex than the scope of this blog post, Dual Coding Theory can be simply explained as two separate systems in the brain that work in tandem to lay down memory traces, and which increase the chance that a memory will be created and retrieved.  One system, the verbal memory system, lays down tracks to recall verbal information. When the language is converted to mental imagery (either intentionally and with effort, or spontaneously), the visual memory system is also then engaged.  Thus, rather than having only a single verbal memory trace laid down for the word, the visual imagery laid down an additional pathway, increasing the likelihood of recall of specific meaning. The chance that the memory for this word will be retained and retrieved are significantly greater when it is stored in two distinct brain locations rather than in just one location.  

For example,  if the word "prudent" is learned using a definition, but it is paired, either incidentally or intentionally with a visual image of, say, a person making a wise choice, Dual Coding Theory explains why the person is more likely to remember and retrieve the concept.

Although other theories exist, such as Common Coding Theory, The Dual Coding theory has, for decades, been subjected to vigorous criticism and to many attempts by researchers to refute Paivio's theory without success.  According to Nigel J.T. Thomas ;, "Paivio has continued to develop, elaborate, and defend it, periodically reviewing the relevant experimental literature.* http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/theories-memory.html

We know that pairing the language of vocabulary with imagery helps students lay down more effective mental maps for theses words. The likelihood of recall and retrieval is also increased.

*(Paivio, 1971, 1977, 1983a, 1986, 1991a, 1995, 2007; Paivio & Begg, 1981; Sadoski & Paivio, 2001 – for less partisan reviews see Morris & Hampson, 1983; Thomas, 1987; Richardson, 1980, 1999)

Pruning Vocabulary

"One gradually learns the word’s denotations and connotations and its modes of use little by little over many, many language experiences."  

- Ed Hirsch (2003)

We know that an advanced 12th-grade student who knows 80,000 words knows each of these words with different levels of precision. She learned these words, not by learning 15 words a day, but by collecting bits of information about, and integrating together these bits in order to "own" the words.

On average, students require 10-12 exposures to a word in a variety of contexts in order to have this ownership over a "rare word" (i.e., Tier Two vocabulary.)

By providing students with a multitude of context clues about a new vocabulary term from the get-go, we posit that the time spent mastering these words will diminish, leaving the student with a deeper, broader understanding of the word, requiring only further refinements.  

For example, if a student reads, "The prudent mom brought her coupons to the store," she might infer that prudent means thoughtful, or good at planning ahead.  A month later, she might read, "Tavon prudently studied for his test." When this word is accessed, the previous assumption of what prudent means is pruned.  Now she might understand prudent to mean planning ahead to save money and to get a good grade.  Four months later, she might hear her health teacher say, "It is important to make prudent decisions about the food you eat so you do not become obese." 

With repeated exposures, the student develops a deep, broad understanding of the word and the variety of contexts in which it can be used.  

We encourage teachers and SLPs to work with students to find multiple images that represent the word. Through this discovery process, the word is explored in greater depth than if only a definition were provided. We anticipate that word meanings can be pruned and honed in far less time by approaching vocabulary learning in this manner.

We've done this with our InferCabulary app, giving students multiple exposures through photographs to help them through this discovery process.

    

Strategies Proven to Help Students Learn Vocabulary

Dr. Hairrell et al. performed a systematic review of 24 current vocabulary research studies. Their review concurred that several instructional approaches and strategies have been proven to increase students’ vocabulary knowledge.  They also determined that the National Reading Panel was correct in identifying the need for additional research.

One of the findings was that when teachers use Semantic Strategies, it has a strong positive affect on students’ understanding of vocabulary.  These semantic strategies included discussions, student-friendly definitions, word characteristics, examples and non-examples, visuals, and graphic organizers. Several studies (Apthorp, 2006; Fore III, Boon, & Lowrie, 2007; Nash & Snowling, 2006) reported positive gains when semantic strategies were part of a multicomponent vocabulary program. Additionally, studies showed semantic instruction to be effective with students with limited vocabulary knowledge (Apthorp, 2006) and resulted in more “durable” knowledge (Nash & Snowling, 2006, p. 349).

We know that children benefit, not only when we talk about words or define them, but when we provide them with visuals, and show them how to link new words with known words. When they are provided multiple contexts, and learn about the precision of meanings through examples and non-examples, they are more successful at “owning” the new words. For example, after a student learns the concept of  “audacious”, we might ask, “Is this an example or non-example of audacious, ‘The audacious boys rode their skateboards downstairs and handrails.’”  “How about this one? ‘The audacious parents served their children breakfast.’?” As students fine-tune their understanding of words, these examples/non-examples can become more subtle.  

Reference: Angela Hairrell , William Rupley & Deborah Simmons (2011) The

State of Vocabulary Research, Literacy Research and Instruction, 50:4, 253-271, DOI:

10.1080/19388071.2010.514036

Vocabulary Meaning Has a Dimmer Switch

How do we foster meaningful vocabulary skills in students? Deeper and broader understanding of vocabulary meaning doesn't happen all at once, according to Charlene Cobb and Camille Blachowicz in "Look Up the List" Vocabulary Instruction. Look at it like a dimmer switch where the understanding of a word's meaning will increase over time. As they learn, the light becomes brighter. They say, first, you need to "flood students with words."

Set your classroom up with word charts, puzzle books, games, dictionaries, alphabet books, etc., so that their learning environment is inundated with word meaning. Next, engage the students in word play and read daily from materials that step up the game on their vocabulary with words that are above their level. Past posts have mentioned word games we love to engage our students in active learning, such as:

• Apples to Apples
• Tribond for Kids
• Taboo
• Outburst
• Scattegories
• Last Word

Tell jokes and puns in class. Show them that you love learning new words, playing with the meaning of words, and figuring out why a joke is funny. Let them see you use strategies to figure out new words, so they can learn by example and develop their own strategies.

Multiple Meaning Words

"What did one math book say to the science book? Boy, do I have problems!"

There are few things funnier than listening to young children attempt to tell jokes.  They just think they are hysterical, and we go along with it--laughing at non-humor.  I had the distinct pleasure of spending time over Memorial Day weekend with almost-five year old nephews who are just three months apart. We sat around telling jokes for about 30 minutes. The older boy laughed at some of the more obvious jokes, the younger one forced himself to laugh, missing the humorous elements in all the jokes.  Both boys told their own made-up jokes to varying degrees of "success" in terms of making sense.  My favorite: "Why did the mom walk aaaall the way to the airport? (why?) She had a lightbulb in her stomach!" (burst of hysterical laughter from him, encouraging laughter from the adults.)

So what happens with these types of jokes? This nephew had learned the "format" for this basic form of joke, but lacked language precision, which is still developing at this age.  He realized he had to  tell a story, and that it needed a punchline, but he has not yet developed his awareness of multiple meaning words, which plays a large role in many puns and jokes. 

By 6 or 7, children typically realize there is a whole new world of figurative language, including multiple-meaning words.  Throughout the elementary years, students are fine-tuning their understanding that words can have nuances of meaning. For example the word "prudent" (which is in our InferCabulary2 app) can apply to a variety of "wise choice-making" such as wearing sunscreen, eating healthfully, studying etc. As they enter elementary school, student's language skills begin to explode, yet again.  Amelia Bedelia becomes funny, not because she does silly things, but because of her lack of awareness that words can mean more than one thing.

It is important to spend time helping children learn that words can mean more than one thing.  Not only is this language skill important for comprehension, but it sure makes jokes funnier!

This chart of several multiple meaning words by age was borrowed with permission from: http://www.home-speech-home.com/multiple-meaning-words.html 

Grades K-2	Grades 3-5	Grades 6-8	Grades 9-12
bark bit bat bolt bowl foot gum file fly hard hit last left jam hide check box club can clip stamp shake sink star seal	before bill bore blue bear range pool racket pound pupil light leaves mold mine log head jerk handle kid kind stable steer squash stoop stern	dusting dread either date crane company charge cobbler column chair tackle strike terrific trace suit like lash late loom marker mint monitor minor patient novel	current custom doctor cobble draft buckle coach channel cabinet certain refrain prune riot plane reservation harbor hamper grave hatch ground sentence spare season solution sanction

Vocabulary Storage

When a student learns the meaning of a new word, the word must then be stored somewhere in the brain for future use and application.  When the word is encountered again, either in spoken or written form, the student pulls up whatever concept he/she has for the word, and applies it to the new context.
        For example, if the student learns that the word condominium means a place where people live, the word becomes neurologically linked with other words, such as house, apartment, mansion, bungalow etc. However, condominium means more than just a shelter.  There are features about a condominium that make it slightly different from an apartment, and very different from a mansion or a shack.
     When vocabulary instruction emphasizes how new words relate to the broader picture, and how the new word is different from other words that are related, the neurological storage of that new word is much more effective, making the word available to aid listening and reading comprehension as well as for retrieval during conversation or writing.

Graphic organizers are a great method for guiding students to discover the relationships among and between words that they already have, and how new words should be effectively stored.  Walking a student through this process can be very helpful since it helps them, in a visual way, lay down, or enhance the "neural network" or filing system for storing words.  For example:  

Shelters (Inspiration File)

Another graphic organizer that helps students hone their understanding of words, is the category/subcategory organizer in which circles fit inside other circles (and circles can overlap) to show hierarchical relationships.  This visual representation helps students store words in a more organized way.  Some students struggle to think flexibly about how a single word may fit into multiple subcategories.  For example, I could say "sheep" is a kind of animal, but if I say it is a farm animal, I have narrowed down the field of choices for my listener and used greater precision. In speech-language therapy, we spend a good deal of time helping students develop the framework of categories and subcategories since many students who struggle with word-retrieval lack this important skill. 

Simply providing definitions for new words is not enough for robust vocabulary instruction.  Students benefit from--and students with language disorders require--instruction that clarifies how novel words relate to stored words so that strong "neural networks" are established. Without this structured storage of words, students will lack precision in their spoken and written work, and students with word-retrieval issues will truly struggle.  Make it Visual! Make it Interactive! Make it Connected!

Getting to the Root of Word Meanings

"If you speak English, you know a little more than 100 languages." (Garg, 2011)

Learning prefixes, suffixes and root word meanings is an important aspect of vocabulary instruction. Once my least favorite method for vocabulary, but now it is one of my favorite. Many times while working on understanding the meaning of parts of words, it is very rewarding to see the "lightbulb" moment where they begin to understand words on a whole new level.

There are so many ways the parts of words can be taught that it can be mind-boggling! I like to break it down into two sections - Greek and Latin. Did you know that 50% of words have a Latin origin and 50% have a Greek origin? So, this is a great place to start.

Direct Instruction with Lists
You can find list of root words, prefixes and suffixes all over the internet. It seems daunting sometimes when you see a long, involved list. However, start with the most common words adding and deleting a variety of prefixes and suffixes to show students how to combine the information to create different meanings. Scholastic has a list of common prefixes and suffixes here.

Prefixes and Suffixes
White, Sowell and Yanagihara (1989) found that approximately 20 prefixes were used in 97% of all English words. Begin by taking the 10 most common prefixes, teach them and then work from there. The same research team also determined the frequency of suffixes.  One way is inflectional endings: nouns (-s, -es),verbs (-ed, -ing, -en), and adjectives (-er, -est). Other suffixes are -ful, -less, -tion and -ly.  Rebecca Miller, Ph.D. recommends using a Prefix Suffix Flipbook. You'll find instructions to make your own here. She suggested flip books with the example of the prefix uni- with unicycle, uniform, and unicorn like the one below:

Games

One of the tutors I worked with introduced me to two card decks by Washington Reads, SocraTeaser and CaesarPleaser. I first use the card decks for instruction and then we play games with them, helping the students to become more proficient. CaesarPleaser focuses on the Greek origins of English words. There are three sets of cards - root words (black), prefixes (green) and suffixes (read). Students take turns choosing one of each and forming words, discussing the meaning of the parts of each word. SocraTeaser is based on the Latin origins of English. Two or more players can play a rummy type of game with SocraTeaser.

Working on parts of words can be daunting, but when students learn the "equation" of the longer words prefix + root word + suffix = target word, they can begin to understand how to break down and change word meanings. More importantly, teaching one root word, prefix or suffix opens up a whole avenue for learning that expands to multiple variations of that word and helps students decode meaning.

Vocabulary Discussion to Teach Word Meanings

     Educators and speech language pathologists are all too familiar with the myriad of activities used for teaching vocabulary, but sometimes the best way is the old-fashioned way - classroom discussion. Engaging students in active discussions about word meanings can be very rewarding.
     During classroom discussion, students can learn a great deal from their peers and add to their "experiences" about the target words. Steven Stahl's Vocabulary Development makes some good points about discussing vocabulary as a class:

Discussions can clarify misunderstandings 
Give and take discussions can help students make connections about words they partially know or only knew in one context. Making these misunderstandings public allows the instructor to "shape them into conventional meaning." Most likely, if one student misunderstands the meaning of a word, you've got several more students in your discussion that don't understand it either.

Practice and Preparation
While students are waiting to be called upon, they are able to rehearse, practice and prepare their own response for the discussion. Only one child is called to answer a question or add to the discussion, but all of the students around him are practicing what they might say and are thinking about what they know about the vocabulary word. This act of students practicing "covertly" can lead to increased vocabulary learning and a deeper and broader understanding of the word.

Using the Text
Research has shown that learning words in text improves comprehension. It's recommended teachers should chose the words for discussion that are important to the text. For example, if the class is reading Lois Lowry's Number the Stars and comes across the sentence, "Kristi dawdled just behind them or scampered ahead, never out of sight," two of the words give context into Kristi's motive or emotion. Dawdle is walking slowly, gently or powerfully, and means the character is oblivious or wasting time. Students can discuss how dawdle and scamper provide added inferential information and give insight into why Kristi is walking in such a way.

Experiences
Classroom discussion or even one-on-one discussion, can provide the student with added experiences that help them recall the meaning of the word. When trying to recall what a word means while reading or taking a test, the previous discussion might trigger associations to help with word retrieval.  "Oh, yeah, I remember we talked about that in class and Jake said...." or "it was really funny when Ashley said ___ about this word."

Technology and Classroom Discussion

Finally, some schools in our area us smart board technology during classroom discussion. The instructor uses computers and tablets hooked up to a large screen that acts like a large classroom tablet. You display the app or program on the board and then teachers and students can touch the board like a tablet or phone to interact with the software. Our iPad vocabulary apps, InferCabulary and WordQuations, have been used with smart board technology and some pretty amazing discussions arose in this classroom exercise.  With InferCabulary we've heard, "No, prominent can't just mean sticking out like that tree, because you see that picture of a green eye?" WordQuations really lends itself to helping students make connections using an "equation" to determine the meaning of verb synonyms along with vine-like videos.

Low tech and high tech classroom discussions are important for students to understand new and lesser-known vocabulary words words in a deeper and broader way.

Breadth and Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge

       We have had the privilege of speaking at various conventions and meetings talking about the InferCabulary and WordQuations methods for vocabulary. In our talks we always include background in vocabulary knowledge/research and discuss how important it is for students to know vocabulary broadly and deeply.

Rebecca Silverman and Anna Hartranft discuss the dimensions of vocabulary in terms of breadth and depth in their book, Developing Vocabulary and Oral Language in Young Children. 

Breadth refers to "having at least surface-level knowldege" of many vocabulary words. For example, I've heard and read the word, perspicuous. I know it has something to do with the word "look," but I'm not sure I could use it correctly in writing or while speaking. This means I have a surface-level knowledge of perspicuous, but not a strong, healthy knowledge.

Depth of vocabularly refers to a "robust" or strong, healthy knowledge of a word. It involves knowing the "many different facets of words," including how it sounds (phonology), the written form (orthography), other forms of the word (morphology), it's grammatical use (syntax), meanings and how it relates to other words (semantics) and how to convey meaning to others (pragmatics). Whew! That's a lot of knowledge - deep and broad knowledge.

Having broad and deep knowledge of a word means that when children hear or read the word, they will fully understand it. This is what we need to be working towards in the classroom and in language therapy. Completing worksheets, taking quizzes, and using vocabulary words in a sentence does not always go far enough into helping our students with language-based learning difficulties tap into a deeper knowledge of vocabulary.

Words and their Concepts

In order for students to effectively learn vocabulary, it is essential that they learn the relationship between spoken/printed words and the concepts that the words represent.  According to Smith (1995), concepts are like the building blocks—the basic units of belief and thought.  Words are simply the labels that are attached to these beliefs and thoughts.  Whenever a person has a frame of reference (also known as background knowledge) for these concepts, the underlying meaning is understood, so the word is often remembered. For people who do not have language disorders, these words will be easily stored and retrieved.  The depth of understanding of the new concept continues to grow as the person learns more about the concept by reading about it and/or experiencing it personally.  The understanding of the concept is fine-tuned, and oftentimes, words can be added to convey these slight nuances.  

According to Shane Templeton and John Pikulski of Houghton Miffilin,  vocabulary knowledge can grow in four ways:

·   Elaboration of a vocabulary word—a student might learn that “cat” as a pet actually can apply to large, wild cats, such as lions

·    New words can be linked with understood concepts—miserable, a new word, can be linked to the understanding of “sad.”  Or, prosperous, with the idea of having a lot of money

·   New concepts can be connected with known words—learning that “resist” is not just applicable to physical resisting (pushing back against an object), but also resisting temptation (emotionally pushing)

·   Learning a word and a concept together—learning a new concept, and at the same time, being introduced to a novel word, such as metamorphosis 

How we teach new words will depend on which of the above processes is occurring for the

student. It is easiest--for most students--to learn a new word that can be linked to a  known concept. Many times, a simple explanation is enough for the new word to be learned. It is hardest to develop a concept and a label for the concept—the student must develop what is known as a “schema,” then link the novel word to this new schema.  Therefore, more time will be spent on this process.  Because we want students to understand words in a deep, broad way (Gaves, 1994,) we need to provide them with scaffolding so that novel words can be linked with known words and concepts as frequently as possible.  Words and concepts are inextricably linked. Depending on the role these new words play, teachers must expend different levels of instruction in order to teach them effectively.

Activities to Support Vocabulary Development

Now that you have a great user-friendly vocabulary definition, how do you help your students “own” the meanings? How do you support their learning of these vocabulary terms?

Beck, McKeown and Kucan’s Bringing Words to Life is one of several books we love that gives practical suggestions for supporting vocabulary learning. In it, the authors give activities that can be used to support the understanding of the vocabulary terms. Likewise, in Developing Vocabulary and Oral Language in Young Children, Silverman and Hartranft list activities to help students "play with words."

To give you some examples of how to use these activities, we’re going to use words from our InferCabulary2 iPad app: conspirator, din, horde, and mourner. You could work with the student on these four words using InferCabulary2 and then engage in activities to support the learning of these four terms. 

Activities could include:

Word Associations

This is a commonly used method for reinforcing and supporting the understanding of vocabulary terms by speech language pathologists. It looks something like this:

• ·      Which word goes with “thief?” (conspirator)
• ·      Which word goes with “a loud unpleasant noise?” (din)
• ·      Which word goes with “gang?” (horde)
• ·      Which word goes with “grieving?” (mourner)

Asking important questions of your students to help them “associate” the meaning of the words helps the student process the information and creates a deeper understanding of the vocabulary word.

Relate to Personal Experiences

This question activity helps a student associate his own experiences with the vocabulary word.

• ·      Have you ever done something wrong with a friend and gotten in trouble? (conspirator)
• ·      Have you ever heard a really loud noise? (din)
• ·      Have you ever gone to a large concert? (horde)
• ·      Have you ever gone to a funeral or lost someone you love? (mourner)

      Often students can’t relate to the words because they don’t know how to associate the word to their own experience. Your job is to help them find that connection.

Word Lines

Put the word and its synonyms on a word line or continuum. Using the word horde, I created a word map using Inspiration Maps for iPad. You could also do this low tech using paper and pencil or sticky notes.

Talk about which is “more,” crowd or horde, mob or multitude, gang or horde? The student will begin to understand how their new vocabulary word relates to synonyms of the word. Adding a new set of words to the meaning "a large group," will enhance the meaning and establish a deeper knowledge of the word.

Drama
Have the students act out the word. For example, conspirator could be acted out by brainstorming ideas of what friends could get into trouble doing. Use all the verbs from the vocabulary list and have the children act out each word in order for other students to guess.

No matter what activities you use for vocabulary learning, make it fun! When kids are having fun, both sides of the brain are engaged leading to deeper learning and retention of words.