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 #08
Ideas about Teaching Vocabulary
from My Internet Friends
The "Age of Immediate Communication" is upon us. Whether it's
DSL, cable modem, WiFi, Blackberry, or an Internet Cafe in Katmandu, however
your connections to the Internet, email and IM (Instant Messaging) now consume
many hours of "free time."
I spend my "extra" time participating in numerous educational
listservs on the Internet. (My favorite, of course, is the Reading/Writing
Workshop Project Listserv on MiddleWeb.) Why? Because since I started reading,
writing, and exchanging emails in this way my teaching practice and my thinking
about teaching have completely changed. I now understand that "the
experts," those folks we need to answer our questions about teaching,
are actually our colleagues. People, like ourselves, who on a daily basis
are in the trenches teaching and learning from their students.
Vocabulary, a huge instructional roadblock, frequently appears in our conversations.
It's a constant challenge to all of us p; how can we help kids learn
new words and concepts? And how can we assess this learning?
What follows are emails filled with the wisdom of teachers who strive to
find the best ways to teach and assess vocabulary in their classrooms. This
wealth of information about learning new words and concepts serves as an
incredible resource and a testament to all the thought and hard work that
teachers contribute to their profession. It's action research of the best
kind -- research that has a direct impact on student learning.
A big, "Thank you!" to Joanne, Wendy, Carla, Rick W., Paul, Margie,
Mary Ellen, Melba, Kelly, Heather, mrd cool, Ellen, Elisa, Mary Anne, Patty,
Jennifer, and all the other wonderful teachers who contribute so much to
our listserv conversations.
Teaching Vocabulary: What Works for Teachers and Their Students
(Emails taken from listserv conversations about teaching vocabulary)
--This conversation about vocabulary started when Joanne wrote in to
the listserv for help about how to test vocabulary words and concepts.
From: Joanne (about working with resource students)
The vocabulary matching was by far the "worst" section for each
of the students, so
I might rewrite that as a fill in the blank and reduce the number of vocabulary
words
to just the ones I feel are essential to know, as opposed to what an A student
should
know. Does that sound ok? Or do I need to include "Paleolithic Era"
and "primary
source" even though those terms aren't as essential (imo) as "fossil"
and "hunter-gatherer"
and "Ice Age".
Am I on the right track here? Mind you, we discussed ALL the words numerous
times,
used them repeatedly, and they had a study sheet with the words and the
definitions.
What is the "easiest" way (for them) to show mastery of subject
vocabulary? I'm thinking
matching was a very confusing method for most of them.
Then, lastly, how does a teacher differentiate between the material being
too difficult and the fact that, perhaps, they just didn't study?
From: Mendy
The string about the test/and appropriate questions has really piqued
my
interest. Does anyone have any suggestions for testing vocabulary in a
more friendly way than matching? I run into the same problems as Joanne
on my quizzes and tests, and recently I've been thinking that matching
lends itself to memorization rather than a working knowledge of
vocabulary.
Any thoughts or suggestions of how to test content vocabulary?
From: Carla
I usually ask students to use the word in a sentence of their own.
Often my
students can define words but can't use them and I don't really see the
point of that. I try to make sure that I use the words often so that they
become part of their working vocabulary. If many of my students can't write
sentences using the words, it usually means that I've forgotten to model
enough, so I make a better effort and then retest. But for me, the best
test of understanding is when the words start to pop up in their own
writing.
From: Joanne
Mendy,
See Rick Wormeli's article is in the October 2003 issue of NMSA's magazine
"Middle Ground." I receive it as a member of NMSA (National Middle
School Assn).
I checked, but this current issue isn't (yet) available at the www.nmsa.org
site.
Rick, as always, has some good hints in the article. Relative to matching,
He states,
"When asking students to do a matching activity, write the definitions
on
the left or at the top and list the words from which they are to match their
answers on the right or the bottom. This way, students are scanning work
lists to find the correct response, not reading through every single
definition. It's faster and less tiring for them, but serves the same
purpose."
So that is one idea, and sure enough, I did it backwards. He recommends
using a variety of questions/prompts, such as match, true/false, fill in
the
missing word, multiple choice, definition, and essay or short answer. Of
course, he recommends non-traditional formats, also, such as "design
a new
country to demonstrate geography proficiency . . ."
Here's one idea I want to incorporate into vocab at some point. He writes:
"A traditional test question would be, 'Define the Latin word root
terra.' A
test question that pushes students a bit farther is, "In the spaces
below,
write what you think each real or nonsense word means or could mean. As
long
as you capture the essence of the root words, the answer will be correct.'
Terratempo:
Zotox:
Photophobia:
Lithjector:
Sophipsychia: etc "
Now, with my 6th graders, I would do this, but probably with prefixes like
pre- ......... prerock
neo- .......... neogrunge
un- ........... unwet
uni- ........... unithought
bi- ............ biwheeled
Actually, maybe I'd have my students come up with their own weird words....
using defined prefixes, but including the appropriate definitions. Some
of
my resource students might not do well with that approach, but perhaps I
could give a choice to students.... work from the given list or make your
own....... either way, showing comprehension of the prefix (or root, or
whatever we were working on.) Hmmmmmmmmm so many ideas. What do folks
think?
From: Rick Wormeli
Hi Joanne, Mendy, and others -- My students really get into the
coining of
new words and trying to guess others' words and definitions. The game's
afoot, as they say, and students try to out-do each other and me with their
cleverness, even in between classes. I find if I get into the fun of it
with them, they go even further.
One other idea, and I think someone else mentioned that Kylene Beers
promotes this as well, is the idea of total immersion in the vocabulary.
That means that I try to work in the words every day of the week, even
casually, in and out of class. With some groups some years, I even give
points or I do a little dance or something fun with students for each time
they weave a vocabulary word meaningfully into a conversation or writing.
The idea is to create a habit of using the word, prefix or root -- to make
it a natural reference, not something only used for school and tests.
Toward that end, I'm a big believer in Word Walls in which the vocabulary
terms are listed large enough to be seen anywhere in the room on a large
sheet of mural paper (or something similar) posted at the front of the room.
If the words are in constant sight, they're used. If they're displayed only
on a notebook page that only sees the light of day when dragged from the
depths of a backpack to do homework, they will never live.
From: Paul
Just an alternative view here... How about not testing? The average
kindergarten kid knows 10,000 words and that was done without vocabulary
tests. When a kid hits 18 they know between 30,000-40,000 words. That 18yr
old kid that knows 10,000 more words than his friend did not get them
through vocab tests. Giving them vocab words without a real reason to use
them is like giving them a hammer but no nails. Just live and talk with
them. Kids are wired to pick up vocab - it is an instinctual thing -- an
oral process. Trying to learn new words from a list on a piece of paper
and
then not being able to use them for any purpose other than for a grade kills
the spirit. No adult would want to learn like that.
At the very least have them pick a topic they are interested in and have
them create their own new vocab list every week.
Paul
From: Mendy
Joanne, I agree with you 100% on the need to assess vocabulary in
content areas - especially social studies which has so much reading.
Based on input here though I'm re-considering HOW I assess them on
vocabulary. I try to focus on the words that the kids will need
"forever" in history classes/life and I use a word wall for these
"permanent words". However, on tests, I do give the dreaded matching.
I'm leaning toward having the kids use them in either an original
sentence and/or using some sort of fill in the blank/cloze where the
words have to be used in context. I'm still WAY open to suggestions.
From: Margie
Right now, I am going to stick with fill-in-the-blank sentences
and just learn to teach
vocabulary better. It seems to me a good compromise between the two extremes
of
merely matching word and definition and having the create their own sentences.
I
will be content, at this stage anyway, if the words become at least part
of
their reading vocabulary (that is where I am taking the vocabulary from--their
reading) and from their work on ways to make the words part of their speaking
and
writing vocabularies as well. One step at a time...
From: Mary Ellen
I have been struggling with vocab development/use, too. I use the
Sadlier program which does have lots of activities and challenges for
my students. But I soon realized that they cannot use the words
appropriately ---- they don't own them. Last spring, I began a process
whereby they have to take the 20 words and wrap them into 10 sentences.
They have to include context clues to meanings and can't change parts
of speech. It has been a struggle but we are coming through. I still
am concerned over whether they, in fact, know the words but
standardized testing (that old witch of an assessment) does show great
progress. I ask myself, though, do they know the words? Can they ID
the meanings when seen in other context? I feel that spelling and
vocabulary acquisition is a tough issue and it seems to have been one
for years. How did we learn vocabulary when we were students? Hm...
just my random thoughts as I move through this early Sunday morn.
From: Rick
Joanne, There is a lot of good research and common sense that shows
the
positive effects of learning vocabulary words for their own sake -- whether
they're related to the unit of study or not. I agree with you that we need
to identify words that are important to learn regardless of their curriculum
use, and teach them to students. The research is pretty clear, however:
no
more than 8 to 10 words per week. Any more than that and we're in the land
of diminishing returns. We want students to remember these words and their
definitions beyond the end of the school year. If we do 20 words a week,
students don't retain them nearly as well when we do just the 10 per week.
So, every year I sit down figure out 300 or so of the most important words
kids should learn (including Latin word prefixes and roots) and chart their
presentation for the year. I know we've already talked about such word
lists on the listserv, so listers can probably get such lists from previous
discussion strings.
From: Mendy
Rick wrote: The research is pretty clear, however: no more than
8 to 10 words per week. Any more than that and we're in the land of
diminishing returns.
Just a question/thought about this --
Is this 8-10 words a week per class, or 8 - 10 words a week period? I
know I don't give more than 5-8 words per week in my content because I
can spread it out over the unit, but a child in my class is also getting
vocabulary from science, it's being used in math class whether or not its
being formally assigned, and a list of ten to twenty words from our
language arts teacher. This doesn't include specialized vocabulary from
specials such as art, music, technology, etc.
Any thoughts?
From: Rick
Hi Mendy -- Learning vocabulary that is integrated with the units
of study
is separate from this. For example, if students are completely immersed
in
studying the microscope, Mesopotamia, or the chromatic scale, they're
exposed to unit-specific terms every day and in a variety of ways. The 8-10
to which I was referring would be words outside of the units of study -
words learned for their own sake, not necessarily tied to a specific unit.
The specialized vocabulary can be learned in addition to the 8-10 stand
alone words. Does this make sense?
From: Melba
This conversation string is just what I want to read about at this time.
Our literacy focus this year is vocabulary. What is everyone's opinion of
using SAT words to build vocabulary? They will most likely not be related
to the content the students will use in their classes. We tried this last
year
where we had one word a week, shared over the PA. Our teachers found it
to be "another thing" they had to do that was totally unrelated
to their content,
did not see the benefits, and did not really do much about it except post
them
up on their word walls. Is there any merit to doing this? They are getting
vocabulary lessons from their teachers, but we are not where we need to
be
with this skill. I am asking about the idea of using words just for the
sake of
learning them, like Rick W. said earlier. My question is how effective is
this?
Is there research to support it? I know if I open this can of worms again,
I will feel better if I can support it with research.
--On another listserv, Kelly wrote in to ask for good advice for how
to teach
vocabulary which started another conversation.
From: Kelly
Do any of the mentors have good advice for how to teach vocabulary?
I have
never seen it taught very well or in an engaging manner. I'm at a loss for
how to tailor the words to my different reading abilities, as well. I have
a
word wall, but I don't know which words to post for all 4 classes. Vocab
was
easy for me because I loved literature and language, so I took all the
advanced courses I could-- even Latin and etymology. Most of my kids read
on
a 2-4th grade level in the 7th grade! Advice?
From: Heather
I'm not a mentor, but I did do my masters thesis on vocabulary!
What I did
was have the students first do a graphic organizer (word, definition,
examples/pictures) then each group of about 5 students got one word that
they had to present in a creative way to the class. The rule was they could
not use the word. They could act it out, draw it, whatever else they
wanted. The rest of the kids had to guess the word. This worked very well!
My students started using the words in their writing, classroom speech,
and
even would point the word out when they found it in a text!
From: mrdcool
Pre-teaching vocabulary is an essential pre-reading strategy if
the
reading is going to have several unknown and essential words. Kylene
Beers has a strategy she presented at a workshop called Alpha boxes.
Essentially, kids look through the text to find "interesting, unusual,
and/or unknown words," alone or with a partner. Kids place words in
the correct box; i.e., words that begin with a b go in the b box, etc.
After a given point in time, you have kids share their words, and you
highlight/add the words you think are most essential for understanding.
See if anyone knows the meanings of those words, and talk about the
meaning. THEN, have kids read the text. There are other strategies
for during and after reading.
From: Ellen
Subject: More about Kylene Beers strategies
You might want to take a look at the vocabulary strategies Beers
has on
her website; on the left hand side click on lesson plans, and the side
menu that appears will have a category for vocabulary:
http://www.allamericareads.org/
From: Elisa
Subject: vocabulary-what works!
One idea that I've tried with my students comes from Kylene Beers.
I'm not
sure what she calls it but basically it goes like this. Before teaching
a
unit or a text, you would choose anywhere from 10 -15 words (maybe less)
that are key to the story in some way. Then, you ask the kids to make a
prediction about which of the following categories the words might go into:
characters, plot, setting, problem, solution, or don't know. Then you could
ask them to write a gist sentence using some of those words and maybe relate
it to what they think the story might be about. I know I'm not getting it
exactly the way Kylene intended it but you can probably find a better
description in her book, When Kids Can't Read.
From: Mary Anne
Subject: Comics and vocabulary
Hi all--
One of my favorite comics to use with kids is BC. The author often writes
definitions for common words in uncommon ways. One of my favorites is his
definition for BUC-AN-EER. (Being from Tampa Bay this has a bit of cultural
literacy
for the kids.) His definition--the going rate to have your ears pierced!
The kids love coming up with their own!
Mary Anne
From: Melba
Subject: Re: vocab/bell work S.S.
Try this one. If you have enough words for group work, then divide
the words
by the number of groups you have and let each group define, illustrate,
use in
context their words. Then each group presents their short list to the class
while
the rest take notes. If you tie it to their lesson, which you already said
you do,
let them act the words out if possible. I saw our Texas history teacher
do this
when he was teaching the court system. The kids had a blast and most importantly,
they still remember it!
From: Patty
Subject: Vocabulary
At this time, I teach 8th grade Literature, so I solicit vocabulary
words from the
other 8th grade teachers and use THOSE words (which I believe to be a more
practical use of vocab lists) on the weekly tests. I don't like to teach
words in
isolation, so the words we use on tests are words students need to know
for
other classes and for life!
From: Jennifer
Subject: Vocabulary squares
I have used vocabulary squares in the past. You draw a square on
a piece of
paper (draw it so two can fit one on top of the other on the same page)
Inside the square, draw two horizontal lines about 1/2 inch apart through
the middle. Then, divide the top part in half with a vertical line and the
bottom part in half with a vertical line- this way, you have four small
squares and one thin rectangle through the middle. In the top left square,
write Part(s) of speech, in the top right square write synonyms/antonyms,
in
the bottom left square write picture and in the bottom right square write
definition(s). Then, the word goes in the rectangle in the middle. Hope
that all makes sense!
A fun vocabulary review is to tape a word to a student's back and the class
has to give clues (parts of speech, prefix/suffix, defintions) until the
student can guess the word- the student could be holding a list of all
possible words- they can also do this in small groups if demonstrated really
well.
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map for Content
Literacy - Unit One
Read next week's journal
Read last week's journal
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
Back to Juli's journal index
Back to the Writing/Reading Workshop Index Page