Frequency Matters in Vocabulary Instruction

We've gotten into the habit of teaching a vocabulary with a "one and done" practice. Teach a set of words and then move on to the next list the following week. In fact, we should really be re-teaching vocabulary words, because frequency matters. When studying third graders, researchers found that "semantic and lexical knowledge accrues over time" (McGregor, Shane & Ball, 2007).

In order to improve the depth of vocabulary knowledge, repeated exposure to Tier 2 words is a must. Multiple exposures, allows a child to add more features and contexts to the words they are learning. It helps them to store words neurologically and continually refine that storage to include synonyms, word parts and other semantic features. Continually building on the knowledge of a word helps a child internalize the meaning and own it.

We need to change our vocabulary instruction model from a "one and done" to a continual learning cycle. Robust vocabulary instruction should be a continually evolving process that keeps students engaged while reinforcing their word knowledge.

Fostering Independent Vocabulary Skills

We all have a lot of tools in our vocabulary tool boxes as teachers and speech language pathologists, but one of the most important tools isn't necessarily in the box. It's in how we teach vocabulary. Helping students foster an awareness of how to independently learn new words they are reading is just as important as learning word meaning.

Motivate your students to grow their vocabulary skills and they will be better learners for it.

Talk in front of your student, doing a Think Aloud, so they can see how you process new words. Going through the process aloud you can talk about how your figure out the parts of the word and the context. Where might you have seen that word before? What examples can you think of and how would you use it in a sentence. If someone asked me, what would I say the definition of that word is?


Then have your students practice. Have your class work together to figure out the meanings of new words, so students can model for each other how the process works. It requires more interactions with your students and class, but isn't that what teaching is all about?

Top 5 Reasons Why Vocabulary Matters

There has been a big push the last 10-15 years to improve a student's vocabulary skills, but do you know why? Here are the top 5 reasons why vocabulary is so important:

1 It Improves Reading Comprehension. Research has shown that kids need to understand 98% of the words they read to understand what they are reading. Improving vocabulary skills will improve their understanding of novels and textbooks.

2 It's Important to Language Development.  Children who develop a rich vocabulary tend to be deeper thinkers, express themselves better and read more. Improving language and literacy skills early in life will help them be more successful academically and communicatively.

3 Communicating Ideas. Successful communication or "saying what you mean" is dependent upon a good vocabulary base. Using the right words when talking, makes you a more effective communicator.

4 Expressing Yourself in Writing. Having a good vocabulary to draw from can help you write more effectively. Students need to use a more formal tone when writing - not conversational language - and to do that, they need a richer vocabulary to tap into those words we don't use when we speak.

5 Occupational Success. Researcher Johnson O'Connor found that "a person's vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success."* Success in the business place depends on your communication skills.

We've developed visual vocabulary tools to improve students' vocabulary skills K-12. Our iPad apps (InferCabulary and WordQuations) are on the APP Store and InferCabulary Pro will be ready for sale at ASHA 2016 in Philly. Take a minute to check them out.

*https://litemind.com/top-3-reasons-to-improve-your-vocabulary/

Deena Seifert, M.S., CCC-SLP

Co-founder, Communication APPtitude LLC

Students Creating Definitions

How do you define a word so that others understand? Students are expected to know how to do this, but many struggle to create definitions. They've "miss" the lesson either figuratively or literally. When working on definitions with students, I lay out 3 post it notes like this - only I use pictures instead of words for younger students.

I ask the student to say something about the word using guidelines from the post it notes. For example define the word KITTEN.

A kitten is a kind of thing is it? (category) animal/pet/baby animal. 

What does it do? (function) purrs, drinks milk, meows

What does it look like? (attributes) four legs, whiskers, tail, baby cat, different colors of fur

Practicing with a variety of nouns, now the student has a "road map" for how to define a word.  Helping students define/describe words is the first step in improving oral expression and a stepping stone to other explanations. It also helps them craft definitions for words in a way they can understand and store the information for future use.

Categorization for Vocabulary Storage

When we work with students, we ask them to identify items in categories, such as animals, as well as sub-categories, such as farm animals, insects, birds, reptiles, ocean animals, fish etc.

By working on categories and sub-categories, we require students to use more specificity in their storage. Metaphorically, rather than clothing being all thrown into one giant "hamper", we are asking clothing to be put into specific drawers. This helps with future recall of words, so that children do not rely on "thing" or "stuff" when trying to retrieve words in conversation.

Working on cross-referencing words is also key.  Here is a picture of a chart/matrix my student completed today, cross-referencing words from a word box into Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables according to where they grow (i.e., Tree, Vine, Ground).  Categorization is SO key for vocabulary development and retrieval!

Mnemonics, Test-Taking Strategy

Last week, my fourth grade student, Gabe, needed help memorizing facts for his Iditarod Trail literature test.  Try as he might, he continued to struggle recalling facts using the "read/re-read" method he was attempting.  He knows that our brains are much better at memorizing silly information, so we got SILLY!

He needed to recall that the native people of Alaska like to be called Inuit. So I wrote "it" on a teeny, tiny piece of paper and ate it! He then pointed to my stomach and said, "in...you...it" with a big grin at the "aha moment".

He also needed to memorize the towns where the Iditarod raced.  He needed to know that Wasila was the "Official Start" and Anchorage was the "Ceremonial Start". We broke down the meaning of official (he was familiar with the pop gun that an official discharges at a running race) so we drew a picture of the "official". Then, Gabe drew the dogs and sled, and we brainstormed the name "Wasila" What sounds like "Was"? He came up with "wasp".  So, to make a silly story, and recall Wasila associated with the start of the official race, we had the W-A-S-p sting the dogs in W-A-S-ila, which made them run.  To memorize Anchorage as the town where the Ceremonial Start occurred, we looked at pictures of ceremonies. Champagne was in many of the images, and he is familiar with the cork popping.  We drew a picture of a champagne glass, then, to recall "Anchorage", we pretended to pour champagne into the A-N_C_H_O_R and visualize the silly scene (liquid spilling from the far side of the anchor as people drank from it). This helped him recall A-N-C-H-O-R-age as the town.

It may take some creativity and a little bit of extra time, but many students really benefit from the use of mnemonics for recall of factual information.

Think-Alouds in Vocabulary Instruction

It's not a new term, but it was new to me - Think-Alouds. It's just like it sounds - "think aloud." It was first used by an engineer with IBM to think through the steps the user would take to use what they were building giving insight into using the product.

In education it's a strategy that teachers and speech language pathologists can and do use to give students insight into how we learn and know a vocabulary word at a higher level of understanding (metacognitive level). The Think-Aloud procedure gives students information about what we find interesting and important about a word. It helps them see how we think through the process of figuring out the meaning of a word. I think many of us use this technique with our students, but didn't always know the name for it.

An example of a Think-Aloud would go something like this. We are reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird together when we come across the word imprudent when describing one of Atticus' first clients.

"...were imprudent enough to do it in the presence of three witnesses..."

Me:  "Have you ever heard the word prudent? Do you know what it means?"

Student: "Yes, I've heard the word, but I don't know what it means."

Me:  "Prudent describes doing something good for yourself, like stretching before you exercise, or drinking water instead of soda. Prudent would be choosing a healthy snack instead of a donut. Can you think of an example of prudent when you are listening to your music that is too loud?"

Student: "I could turn it down, so I don't hurt my ears."

Me: "Right. The prudent thing to do would be to protect your hearing by turning your music down when you are listening with your earbuds. This passage uses the word imprudent. What does "im" do to the meaning. In this case "im" means "not." So imprudent means..."

Student: "...not prudent. So in To Kill a Mockingbird they did something that was not good for them?"

Me: "Yes. What is this passage about? What did the Haverfords do in this passage that got them in trouble?"

Student: "They sent a blacksmith to hurt someone because of a horse and it got them in trouble."

Asking questions and thinking through the process aloud with your student helps them learn how to do the same as they are reading and encountering new vocabulary. Using think-alouds can help students tackle new vocabulary to boost understanding. Research has shown the more engaged we are with students while learning vocabulary, the higher their level of understanding.

Communication APPtitude joins TEDCO

We are excited to announce that we have joined the TEDCO Technology Commercialization Fund (@MDTEDCO) portfolio.  After successfully pitching Communication APPtitude’s plans to build InferCabulary Pro last month, we were pleased to learn our application for funding was accepted.  We are grateful for the funding and collaboration opportunities this will provide. We are also grateful to the @TUIncubator for their guidance and support. We will now be able to scale our unique visual vocabulary method, InferCabulary, so that it will be web-based and device agnostic. It will now contain thousands of words and allow teachers to track student progress.  Thank you TEDCO, we look forward to working together!

Previewing Texts for Reading Comprehension

Students in my private practice walk through the door with newly assigned literature texts every week. Many of them have never encountered the book they are reading before the book was placed in their hands. Getting a student ready to read a new text is something I enjoy and there are a lot of resources available today that makes that job easier.

Read a text summary
A book jacket or a review on Goodreads or Amazon.com is a great way to preview a text with a student. This gives them the context of the story and sets the stage for what is to come. After reading the summary, I ask some simple questions. What do you think the main character is like? How will they solve the problem mentioned? How do you think it will end? 

Videos
Next, I like to visit Youtube with the student and find a 2 or 3-minute selection of a video based on the book. This allows my student to picture the main character in their head, see the setting and start forming a basis for how to make a "movie in their head" for the story action. I'm careful not to spend too much time on Youtube as teens can too engrossed. I'm familiar with the reading material in my area for middle school and high school, so I have some go to videos for books they are reading.

Vocabulary
We preview vocabulary assigned with the book/novel for our next step. In The Red Pony, the first chapter contains words like: saunter, rambunctiousness, and contemplative. We break down the meaning of saunter, for example, using our WordQuations® method.

• Vocabulary word: saunter
• base word is WALK
• speed is SLOW
• heaviness is GENTLE or POWERFULLY
• emotion/motive is RELAXED

So when someone is sauntering, they are walking slowly, powerfully or gently, in a relaxed way. Who would walk that way? Possibly a cowboy, since the title is about a pony and a cowboy takes care of horses. I would introduce other vocabulary such as, meander and swagger, also WALK words.

Organization
How is the text organized? The Red Pony by John Steinbeck is organized in a series of stories rather than chapters. This is important for the student to know when reading and discussing the novel in class. Some books are organized into chapters and others into sections of chapters. Building a roadmap on how to navigate a new text involves understanding how the text is laid out.

Background
Finally, do a little research on the author or time period in which the book was written. Determine if there is a personal aspect from the story to the author's life.

Based on these strategies, my student now knows a little more about the book/novel she is reading. It seems less daunting and more like an adventure. Better yet, comprehension improves because we have laid the foundation for a better understanding of the text.

Focus on Word Endings!

I recently worked with a Junior in high school who had failed two recent vocabulary quizzes using her usual method of writing the word on one side of an index card and the definition on the back. 

On these quizzes, she was required to do two things: 1) match the word with the definition; and 2) choose the correct word to fit into a sentence (demonstrating deep comprehension of the word meaning).  Because her memory for rote information is so good, she was 100% accurate with the definitions. She had NO mastery of these words, whatsoever!  She missed every item on the fill-in-the-blank section, because she did not truly understand the meaning of the words (language-dense, confusing definitions). Therefore, she was not able to use the word in context.

Sadly, this is incredibly common!

In addition to working on morphology (i.e., prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots) on her next set of vocabulary words, we spent a significant amount of time discussing strategies for fill-in-the-blank scenarios.  Not only was I attempting to help her learn the new words in a deeper way, but teaching her metacognitive skills to infer meaning for future words AND teaching her metacognitive skills to more successfully respond to fill-in-the blank tests.

This young lady had such a lack of syntactic awareness, she could not even narrow down her choices.  For example, of the four words, two were verbs, one was a noun and the last an adjective, but she did not recognize that fact. Nor did it guide her in choice-making. Prior to our metacognition work, she made her choices randomly and missed every item.  After our work, she was 50-60% accurate on this section on the next three quizzes, raising her grades from Fs to Cs. (More practice is needed!)

We spent time reviewing the parts of speech, focusing on endings.  For example, words that end in
-ous, -ic, -al will be adjectives. Have the student say the sentence with a common adjective, like "big" and hear although it might sound silly, if it sounds like a sentence that could work.  Words that end in -tion or -ism, for example, will be nouns.

Several great websites have lists of these word endings, so we did not reinvent the wheel, but utilized these resources: http://www.englishhints.com/list-of-suffixes.html, http://kidspicturedictionary.com/word-must-know/prefixes-suffixes/adjective-suffixes-noun-or-verb-suffix/, and http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/comsuffixes.htm.