Word Consciousness
Awareness of words and their meanings as well as interest in their usage.
Conversational vocabulary (Tier 1)
Informal
... [Show More] language: most basic, everyday speech that is familiar to students
Academic Vocabulary (Tier 2)
Formal language: high frequency words that are found in many different subject discipline (Ex. examine, identify, authority)
Content Specific Vocabulary (Tier 3)
Subject specific vocabulary: found in science, math, social studies (ex. hypothesis, photosynthesis)
Systematic Explicit Instruction
High structure and sequenced instruction
Needs to be very interactive
Matthew Effect
"Rich get richer and the poor get poorer"
The gap between strong and weak readers will only widen when no one is catching any literacy difficulties and students are not receiving proper instruction
3 types of vocabulary practice
deliberate, spaced, and retrieval
- goes well with "I do, we do, you do", modeling and instruction
Wide reading
Reading a wide variety of genres, styles, and purposes
Will expose students to more reading and will help them learn more vocabulary
Cognates
Words that look similar and have the same meaning in two languages. (good to connect with for ELs)
Semantics
Meanings of words, phrases, and sentences
Morphology
The structure and form of words (affixes and roots)
Listening Vocabulary
words you understand when listening to others speak.
Speaking Vocabulary
words you use when you talk. smaller than listening vocabulary
Writing Vocabulary
words you use when you write.
sight vocabulary
words that a child can immediately recognize and pronounce correctly while reading
Meaning Vocabulary
words you understand when reading silently.
background knowledge
Reader's knowledge about the topic
- Students will have a harder time comprehending what they have read if they lack essential background knowledge
The Role of vocabulary in Fluency
knowing the meaning of words will help in achievement of swift and accurate word recognition
Role of vocabulary and reading comprehension
Students vocabulary is key indicator and predictor of Students understanding of what they are reading
(Comprehension = being able to explain words and their meanings)
Role of Academic Language and Comprehension
If there is a lack of proficiency with academic language that can prevent proper comprehension
Role of Background Knowledge and Comprehension
to comprehend a text readers need to have developed:
- meaning vocabulary
- academic language knowledge
- background knowledge
Important words/Vocabulary to teach:
For fluency: The more frequent a word appears the more important it is to teach
For Utility: Is knowing the word essential for comprehension? if yes, it should be taught
Level of Knowledge: The less a student knows about the word, the more important it is to teach it (especially unknown words)
Non technical words Students need to know
Identify, define, illustrate, summarize, classify
Morpheme
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or any affix
bound morpheme
A morpheme that must be "bound" with another morpheme to form a word and cannot occur alone (Ex: un-, -est, -es, -ed, pre-)
free morpheme
a morpheme that can stand alone as a word (ex. test, walk)
Research Based Instruction Strategies:
- Provide Students with vocabulary definitions that are kid friendly and easy to understand
- After S learns vocabulary have them read it in a sentence, paragraph, then write using the target word(s)
- Students need to speak, read, and write words they are learning
GIVE AS MUCH EXPOSURE AND PRACTICE AS POSSIBLE
4 components of vocabulary instruction
1. Direct instruction of specific words
2. Teaching students independent word learning strategies
3. Developing word consciousness
4. Encouraging wide reading
Contextual Redefinition (Direct teaching of specific words)
use of context surrounding the target word and cooperate learning
Semantic/word Maps (Direct teaching of specific words)
Place the target word in center and have supporting information in outside bubbles to help activate prior knowledge
Semantic Feature Analysis (Direct teaching of specific words)
A graphic organizer using a grid to compare a series of words or other items on a number of characteristics.
(looks at meaning, context)
Morphemic Analysis (Independent word learning strategies)
Students looking at parts of words and using affixes and roots to determine the words meaning
Contextual Analysis (Independent word learning strategies)
Students using context clues to figure our the meaning of unknown words
Definition Context Clue
When the author puts the meaning of the word in parenthesis or states the definition in the following sentence.
Synonym Context Clue
When the author gives the reader another word that means the same or nearly the same as the unknown word.
Antonym Context Clue
When the author gives a word that means the opposite of the unknown word.
"Example Context Clue"
When the author gives examples that clearly help the reader understand the meaning of the unknown word.
Using the dictionary(Independent word learning strategies)
Simply looking up words in the dictionary
Students need to know:
- Guide words
- Alphabetical order
Homophone
Words identical in pronunciation, but of different origin and meaning. (Ex. Sundae, Sunday)
homogrpah
(rarer) 2 words with the same spelling but different pronunciation (Ex. Cool wind, wind the clock)
Idiom
A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally. (Ex. It's raining cats and dogs)
etymology
The history and development of words
Importance/ how to use wide reading
- Students are exposed to and can learn thousands of words by simply reading independently
- More reading = more vocabulary and words
- Has Student focus and read new and different topics and material
Vocabulary for listening and speaking
- teacher read-aloud with different genres (even more exposure to reading and vocabulary)
Vocabulary for reading and writing
- reading that includes target vocabulary words
- Students USING the words to write, applying vocabulary to writing activity
Sentence Structure (key concepts)
- Students need to learn subject and predicate, independent and dependent clauses
- know what a fragment and run-on sentence is AND avoid them
Syntax
The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
(Ex. Sentence order: Article, adjective, noun = The yellow house)
Instruction Strategies and Activities for Class (Vocabulary particularly for ELs)
- Teach word morphology (Highlight common roots/affixes)
- Pre-teach vocabulary (gives ELs context)
- Provide sentence frames for written and oral responses
- Add pictures, videos, and real life things to lessons
- teach meanings of common affixes
- draw and provide pictures of meanings of words
- Create word webs and diagrams
- Explain idioms and confusing figurative language
Instruction Strategies and Activities for Class (Vocabulary particularly for ELs) CONT.
- Teach cognates (relate information to students prior knowledge of first lang.)
- provide concrete examples
To Assess Vocabulary:
Vocabulary assessment is best in context
- target word is underlined or italicized in a phrase or a sentence (student is asked to define)
- Chose a synonym and ask the student to identify the synonym of the target word
- Analogies: Ex. head is to body, as _____ is to mountain (answer should be peak)
CLOZE Procedure
A technique in which words are deleted from a passage according to a word-count formula or various other criteria. The passage is presented to students, who insert words as they read to complete and construct meaning from the text.
Assessment for language and sentence structure
How does vocabulary connect to comprehension
Adequate vocabulary understanding is important to comprehension
ELs and vocabulary
They will need extra support with vocabulary, academic language, and building background knowledge
Frayer Model for Vocabulary
A graphic organizer that helps break down a word
Vocabulary journals
A good tool to have students collect words.... they either write down their knowledge or inquiry about target words or words they come across in reading
Comprehension
The readers understanding of what is being read
Levels of Comprehension Skills:
Literal, Inferential, and evaluative
Literal Comprehension Skills
Skills are those that measure the ability of a reader to understand surface level text
Can be found in the text
(Ex. Recall order of events or cause and effect)
Inferential Comprehension Skills
skills that measure the ability of a reader to interpret what they have read
- reading between the lines and applying background knowledge to the text
Evaluative Comprehension Skills
Skills that measure the ability for the reader to make judgement and opinions based off what they have read
- Cannot be found in the text
Simple Sentence (Sentence Structure)
has 1 independent clause (1 subject and 1 verb)
Complex sentence (Sentence Structure)
Contains only 1 independent clause and at least 1 dependent clause.
connected by sub-coordinators (because, since, after, although, when)
Compound sentence (Sentence Structure)
Contains at least 2 independent clauses (no dependent)
connected by coordinators/conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, yet, so)
compound-complex sentence (Sentence Structure)
2 or more independent clauses and 1 dependent clause
How Word analysis and Fluency affect comprehension
automaticity theory: Student needs to be able to decode and understand the meaning of the text to eventually be able to comprehend
How vocabulary affects comprehension
If there is no understanding of the words in the text, then there will be no greater understanding of the meaning of the text/overall comprehension
How academic language affects comprehension
This is more prevalent for older grades
Students will need to understand academic language for subject material comprehension
How background knowledge affects comprehension
A lack of background knowledge of a topic is a key predictor of poor comprehension (ex. A student may not understand a text about farming if they have never heard of it or done it themselves)
Examples of literal comprehension:
"In the text"
- identify explicitly stated main idea
- identify details and sequencing of events
- Identify clearly stated cause and effect
- Identify components of story grammar: plot events, Characters, setting, conflict and resolution (ONLY if clearly/explicitly stated)
Examples of Inferential comprehension
"In your head"
- Inferring main ideas
- making comparisons
- cause and effect relationships (not explicitly stated in text)
- Drawing conclusions and making predictions with text evidence
- Inferring themes (if not stated explicitly in the text)
Examples of Evaluative Comprehension
"In your head"
- Recognize instances of bias
- Recognize unsupported assumptions/faulty reasoning in text
- Distinguish facts and opinions
- Judge text content, characters (Ex. "Did the characters do the right thing?)
- Analyze the themes (Ex.Does the theme make sense?)
Important information to know in a paragraph:
-Identifying the topic and the topic sentence
- expressing the main ideas
(knowing a topic sentence will increase the chance of knowing the purpose or meaning of the paragraph)
Comprehension lessons should be:
- done in a small group
- have discussion and be engaging
- in smalls groups with students all at the same reading level
KWL charts (to activate background knowledge)
K- what do you KNOW?
W- What do you WANT TO KNOW?
L- What did you LEARN?
Picture Walk (pre-reading strategy)
-teacher guides students through a discussion of pictures in a book before reading
Strategic Reading (during reading strategy)
-Visualizing
-Paraphrasing
-Clarifying
-Predicting
-Generating questions
-Summarizing
-Adjusting reading rate
Visualizing (Strategic reading)
"seeing" the action of the story in your head
Paraphrasing (Strategic reading)
stating in your own words something that happened in the story
Clarifying (Strategic reading)
Stopping when you are confused and doing something to help you understand
Predicting (Strategic reading)
making an educated guess to what will happen next
Generating questions (Strategic reading)
stating questions that will be answered in subsequent sections of the text
Summarizing (Strategic reading)
reducing what has been read to a few sentences that contain the main events and themes of the story
Adjusting reading rate (Strategic reading)
Changing the pace of reading according to text difficulty
post reading strategies
Discussions are key
- Summarize and retell the key events, main ideas, and themes of the story
- Sharing personal perspectives: "Did you have a favorite part of the story? Favorite character? Why?
- Text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections
- creating visuals or graphics about what they read
Good strategy for teaching reading strategies....
Gradual Release of Responsibility!!!
I do, we do, you do!
For strugglers and comprehension
lessons on word analysis, fluency, vocabulary, academic language, background knowledge
- provide grade level text orally
For ELs and comprehension
Transfer prior knowledge
complete through assessment to determine reading strategies, those lacking should be taught
Assessment for reading levels
Informal reading inventory (IRI)
Reading levels show:
% of words Student read aloud correctly
% of comprehension question Students answer correctly
Assessment for Comprehension
Use QARs (Questions answer relationships)
Ex of QARs
- Right there
- Think and Search
- Author and You
- On my own
Right there questions
For literal comprehension:
answers are easily found in the text
Think and Search Questions
For literal comprehension:
Answer is in text but are scattered or in two different parts
Author and your questions
For Inferential or Evaluative Comprehension:
answer is not in text and the reader uses what they know and what the author has written to answer questions
On my Own Questions
For Inferential or Evaluative Comprehension:
not in the story, using more personal perspective to answer questions
Retells for Comprehension Assessment
Retelling stories is good for younger readers
2 types of retelling:
- Unaided: No guidance or prompting from Teacher
- Aided: Student needs Teacher to ask open ended questions to answer
T needs a checklist of items that the student should mention (Look for key elements of the story: characters, setting, plot events)
Oral think alouds for assessment
A tool to assess which Student monitors their own reading, rereads what they dont understand
Writing for comprehension assessment
Ex. Write a summary of what you just read
Narrative/Literacy Text
Written accounts of actual or fictional events
A type of writing that involves the elements of plot
(Ex. short stories, novels)
Elements of Plot
Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution
Folktales
A fairy-tale type story coming from spoken tradition (passed down generations)
- provides reader with moral at the end
Modern Fantasy
stories that play with the laws of nature and have known authors. animal fantasy, with beats that can talk, stories with toys and dolls that act like people, and stories with tiny humans.
Ex. Charlottes WEb
High Fantasy
Fantasy stories that take place in another world.
Examples: Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, City of Ember
science fiction
A type of fantasy that uses science and technology. (Robots, time machines, etc.).
Contemporary Realistic Fiction
takes place in the present day in the real world.
historical fiction
A type of realistic fiction that takes place in a particular time period in the past. Often the setting is real, but the characters are made up from the author's imagination.
biography
story of a person's life written by another person
Lyric
A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world.
Ballad
A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas
Couplet
Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
Epic
A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
Sonnet
a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.
To look at characteristics of a genre look at:
- Characters
-Plot
- Setting
- Mood
- Theme [Show Less]