Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading/Writing Workshop Journal

A MiddleWeb Listserv Project

Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli also posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.

This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject matter into her reading and writing workshop approach. In her first journal of the year, she explains the rationale behind this move and some of her thinking about how she hopes to accomplish this goal.

Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here. Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.

If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's Journals, find out how here.


2003-04 Reading/Writing
Workshop Journal
Week #07

Teaching Vocabulary with Informational Text

Let's forget copying definitions from the dictionary and memorizing long lists of definitions for vocabulary words and multiple choice vocabulary tests. The best way to help kids learn new vocabulary words and concepts is to use context.

Trust me on this! I'm a trained professional. (Yea, right!) If you want kids to learn new vocabulary, use context.

It starts (if you're lucky) when a student tells a teacher that there's a new and confusing word or concept.

For the record, there are two kinds of context for vocabulary words and concepts -- the one that is explicit enough for kids to do on their own, from the text, and the one you help kids build by mediated instruction. In Words, Words, Words, Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12, Janet Allen explains the difference.
When we are planning vocabulary instruction, the context helps us decide whether or not we have to give explicit or mediated instruction. If the context is specific enough for students to recognize, define, or make sense of the word and if there is enough information to allow students to connect the word to their background knowledge, no additional instruction is necessary. If not, the word or concept requires teacher mediation. (p. 18)
I've developed a procedure for mediating vocabulary instruction for my kids. I do this to help them build context when they cannot connect a word or concept to their background knowledge. The procedure has six parts.

PROCEDURES FOR MEDIATING
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

--Clarifying unknown words and concepts (Highlighting and using sticky notes as you read)

I let the kids tell me which words in their reading of informational text require mediated vocabulary instruction. As we do the book introduction (see last week's journal about guided reading) and read the text for the first time, kids point out words they need to clarify. They write them on sticky notes or highlight them in the text. If they don't know the meaning of the word, I add it to my list of vocabulary.

Even if I go through the text before we read to identify words they may not know, we always find other words that I didn't realize needed to be clarified. Allowing them to participate in the search for vocabulary makes it much more valuable for them.

Some examples of words kids need to clarify from books we use for guided reading:

"How Volcanoes are Formed"

erupt, magma, surface, dormant, extinct, solid, crust, active, pressure

"What Zookeepers Do"

pachyderms, commissary, browse (what animals eat not how they eat), veterinary hospital, habitat, eucalyptus, incubating, candling, enclosures , Arthropod house, venom

--Using instructional conversation to draw on background and prior experience.

We talk and talk about the vocabulary they need to clarify. Often I use the small group, guided reading time for this "instructional conversation" about vocabulary.

The Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence at the University of California, Santa Cruz has developed these "Indicators of Instructional Conversation."

The teacher:

--arranges the classroom to accommodate conversation between the teacher and a small group of students on a regular and frequent basis.

--has a clear academic goal that guides conversation with students.

--ensures that student talk occurs at higher rates than teacher talk.

--guides conversation to include students' views, judgments, and rationales using text evidence and other substantive support.

--ensures that all students are included in the conversation according to their preferences.

--listens carefully to assess levels of students' understanding.

--assists students' learning throughout the conversation by questioning, restating, praising, encouraging, etc.

--guides the students to prepare a product that indicates the Instructional Conversation's goal was achieved.
-- Researching a thesaurus to search for homonyms

In order to get kids actively involved in understanding new vocabulary, everyone has a thesaurus. Something about using the thesaurus to find synonyms for new vocabulary helps kids learn the concepts.

Sitting in a small group, everyone looks up the new vocabulary in a thesaurus and chooses the synonym that helps them understand the word. Everyone has a graphic organizer and adds the synonym they choose-a word that can take the place of the new vocabulary-to their organizer.

The synonyms we found for "scientific" were: technical, methodical, exact, systematic, logical, precise, and controlled. The antonym was "disorganized."

--Completing a graphic organizer for "Making Connections"

I've adapted a graphic organizer from Words, Words, Words, p. 136, to help teach new vocabulary. I use small group time to work on the organizer together. We're not to the stage of "working independently" yet. Additionally, we can use the time we work on the organizer for more instructional conversation. Talking about the new concepts helps the kids learn them.

Some of the connections kids make to the word, "scientific":

"It reminds me of when my sister said she cut a squid in half in 7th grade."

"It reminds me of growing a plant in 4th grade and then I took it home."

"When I watched 'Dexter's Laboratory' he would say 'scientific' a lot."

"It reminds me of when I went to the Imax Theater because at the Imax Theater I learned good stuff."

"It reminds me of when I went to the Science and Space Museum."

"I remember when I saw the Discovery Channel when they did science with a the shark."

"It reminds me of Harry Potter when they were cutting a plant but it was a plant that had a face."

--Continued use of new vocabulary over time (for review and reteaching)

As teachers, we need to find ways to keep the words that our students are learning "alive." They need to be out in circulation. Kids need to use them in conversations, in reading, and in writing. I've found three ways to do this.

Classroom list of new vocabulary-I keep a class list of the words we learn during the year. We refer to this list frequently.

Individual vocabulary lists-Students keep lists of words they need to clarify and post-its they use during reading in their composition books and writer's notebooks.

"Word of the Day"-Sometimes when we need a sponge activity in class, something to fill in a little bit of time, we see how many different ways we can use one of the words from our classroom vocabulary chart. It's an easy way to review and makes for some great conversation.

--Referencing a "Vocabulary Wall Chart" for developing independence

I adapted and compiled these ideas for students to use when they are unsure of the meaning of a word. I teach these "strategies" one at a time to the kids so that having them all at once doesn't overwhelm them. I think teachers on a team or at a grade level should all have this wall chart in their classes and refer the kids to it. (Download a PDF version of the wall chart here.)

The idea is that they pick one strategy that will work for them and try it on a word they need to clarify. They don't use all of these suggestions on one word.
Use context clues - Use other words in the sentence or paragraph to figure out the meaning of the unknown word or phrase.
Example: In the story, Holes, the main character must undertake a treacherous journey to escape from camp by crossing the desert without water to drink.

Use apposition. In apposition, the unknown word is followed by the definition, which is set off by commas.
Example: Magic Johnson is a famous entrepreneur, someone who sets up and finances new commercial enterprises to make a profit.

Use word structure. Use parts of the unknown word such as a prefix, suffix, root word, word family, etc. to figure out the meaning.
Example: The physicist Einstein explored uncharted territory with his Theory of Relativity.

Use prior knowledge. Use what you already know about the topic to figure out what would make sense.
Example: "I don't like your attitude," she said.

Use a thesaurus or a dictionary.

If you want to read more about how I teach vocabulary there are two Reading Workshop journals about my work.

--Week #13, "New Words and Vocabulary Development"

--Week #26, "Dipping into Donovan's Jar: New Ways to Learn Words"

That's it, really, except that if you ever have the chance to teach new vocabulary to kids, one thing is certain--as long as we continue with the stuff that doesn't work, we can expect that kids will continue to struggle with learning new words and concepts.


SEE Juli's Curriculum Map for Content Literacy - Unit One

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