Building Vocabulary 101 Slide Script 1 Building Vocabulary 101 Hello and welcome to An Overview of Building Vocabulary 101. In this course we will explore the word study program Building Vocabulary from Word Roots, in order to support effective classroom implementation. This is a self guided session tailored for individual pacing. During this session you will have the opportunity to respond to interactive questions, complete checks for understanding, and reflect on what you you ve learned. Please be certain to listen to all commentary and read all of the associate resources and materials, to ensure comprehension of the essential content within this session. 2 Session Objectives In this session, participants will establish or review their knowledge of the Word study program in grades four through eight. 3 Vocabulary and Comprehension Explicit Instruction in vocabulary development has been shown to greatly improve students reading comprehension and command of academic language. The Common Core State Standards uses the term academic vocabulary. The goal when using The Building Vocabulary Program is to provide students with strategies that will help them continuously build academic vocabulary, so that they can participate in academic processes across content areas. Take a moment to read the statements demonstrating the correlation between vocabulary and comprehension. 4 Explicit Vocabulary Acquisition We know that vocabulary is critical for reading comprehension. Research shows a clear correlation between diversity in background, including socio-economic status and the level of student vocabulary development in the home. The need for explicit vocabulary is underscored in order to address issues of access. Diversity in background can be described from various perspectives all of which play a role in a student s language acquisition and familiarity with academic vocabulary. Much of the research in this area, however is focused on the correlation between socio-economic status and vocabulary acquisition. Take a moment to review the points. 5 Long Term Effects of Poor Vocabulary Acquisition We know that vocabulary acquisition at an early age is crucial for life long success. 6 Check for Understanding 7 The MCCRS and Vocabulary Vocabulary acquisition is important for success in school and life. To that end, explicit vocabulary instruction is included in the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards, tested on the PARCC and implemented via the City Schools Models of Effective Instruction. Take a moment to review the standards that either call out vocabulary explicitly, or expect appropriate usage. 8 PARCC Model Content Frameworks This reference is included in all ELA PARCC Model Content Frameworks and provides recommendations about the study and application of vocabulary. Again, this underscores the
importance of explicit vocabulary instruction as a recommendation for curriculum and instruction. 9 Model of Effective Literacy Instruction Grades 3-5 The City Schools Model of Effective Literacy Instruction recommends that during the literacy block 20-30 minutes of time should be dedicated to Word Study and Language Acquisition. In grades four and five, Building Vocabulary is implemented during this block. 10 Model of Effective Literacy Instruction Grades 6-8 In grades 6-8, the City Schools Model of Effective Literacy Instruction explicitly includes word study as a component that runs throughout lessons. As you will see, the word study block may include systematic phonics, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. This is outlined in red and should represent 5-10 minutes of the lesson time. This is the appropriate time to use the Building Vocabulary program. 11 Check for Understanding 12 Explicit Instruction So far we have discussed the importance of vocabulary acquisition and explicit vocabulary. Let s transition into how the Building Vocabulary program supports these expectations. Take a moment to read the quote from the creators of the Building Vocabulary program explaining their approach to word study. The goal of word study is to give students the tools that they need to ascertain the meanings of words in a variety of context as opposed to trying to memorize the meaning of individual words. The program literally helps students understand how words are built and apply those understandings in multiple contexts. The approach used in Building Vocabulary truly aides students in understanding how words work. This practice hinges on students understanding of morphology. Morphology is the study of the structure of words, and highlights the prefixes, suffixes, and bases. Let s take a moment to talk very briefly about morphology, as an introduction to Building Vocabulary 13 Morphological Analysis In order to understand more about WHY this program is successful, let s talk briefly about morphology. 14 The Study of Word Parts The study of word parts including prefixes, roots, and suffixes is called morphology. To explain morphology, let s take a look at the word itself. You can break words down into morphemes, or the smallest meaningful parts. Separated, the first part here is known as the base. Here, you might think that morph is a prefix. However, a root is the portion that cannot be broken down. A base can have affixes added to it. Morph means shape, structure or form. The suffix of this word is ology, Which means study of.
If we put these together, morphology refers to the study of the structure of words. If students knew the affixes, which are prefixes, roots, and suffixes, then they can apply those understandings to new words and begin generating meaning themselves. This is how Building Vocabulary works. Now that we have a bit more context, let s dig into the program. 15 Program Overview The program provides explicit instruction in vocabulary word acquisition and vocabulary building strategies with a focus on the connections between the study of morphology and academic language proficiency. 16 Program Overview None slide read 17 Teacher s Guide None slide read 18 Guided Practice Student Books Slide read *If you do not have student consumables, all of the student materials can be printed from the DVD. 19 Guided Practice Student Books Each lesson in the Guided Practice Book includes 5 parts to be completed once per day over the course of a school week: Part A Meet the Root Also called Divide and Conquer, this section provides the foundation for all activities that follow. Students are asked to identify Greek and Latin roots and conquer words by writing the meaning of each word part and finally, the meaning of the entire word. This section is intended to be used as explicit instruction so the teacher can assist students with the word meanings. Part B Combine and Create Students compose English words from the word roots. Part C Read and Reason students read a variety of passages that use word roots in context and then answer questions in pairs or small groups about the root-based vocabulary. Part D Extend and Explore students work individually and in partners/small groups to create applications for the new vocabulary. Part E Go for the Gold includes a variety of vocabulary activities and games for additional word-root practice and review. 20 Professional Development DVD The professional development DVD includes videos of lessons modeled in real classrooms at different grade levels. This DVD provides the opportunity to learn from professional development facilitated by the authors, four renowned experts in the field of vocabulary instruction. 21 How to Use the Program With Building Vocabulary, you can. Establish a daily routine for vocabulary instruction Teach each lesson over the course of the week, with one lesson part each day Use gradual release (move from teacher led instruction to independent practice Use the assessment section of the Teacher s Guide to give a diagnostic pre-test and unit tests to measure student growth and mastery
View model lessons on the Professional Development DVD to gather ideas for best practice You can extend this by creating a vocabulary rich environment display word families on walls, give students extra credit for completing fun vocabulary building activities Highlight vocabulary words and word parts when they are used in other parts of the curriculum Create additional activities that highlight vocabulary words when they are used in other parts of the curriculum 22 Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Effective Vocabulary Instruction can also include the following types of instruction and benefits: Wide Reading encourages vocabulary acquisition. This is a positive consequence of independent reading and increasing reading volume (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985). Direct Teaching of Important Individual Words allows students to learn new words through various teacher-directed instructional strategies (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). Teaching Word Learning Strategies enables students to independently learn new word meanings when they learn to use word learning strategies, such as exploring context and analyzing prefixes (Edwards, Font, Baumann, & Boland, 2004; Graves, 2000). With Fostering Word Consciousness, vocabulary develops when students engage in various activities to increase language play, word choice in writing, and sensitivity to word parts (Nagy & Scott, 2000). 23 Embedding the Learning The City Schools curriculum for provides opportunities to draw connections between vocabulary study and the rest of lesson 24 Curriculum Grades 4 and 5 In grades 4 and 5, at the beginning of a module, the vocabulary words for the module are categorized according to Tier level. You can draw connections between the word roots and word families in the Building Vocabulary curriculum and Tier II words that correspond with the lesson. Though we don t explicitly discuss the tiers of words in this session, know that the common core calls out academic vocabulary, which falls into Tier II, as words that are able to apply across content areas, yet are not domain specific. These words include analyze, establish, complex, and verify, to name a few. 25 Curriculum Grades 6-8 In grades 6-8 the vocabulary words for the module are categorized in terms of type of terminology including Academic, Literary and Content. You can draw connections between the word roots and word families in the Building Vocabulary curriculum. Please also note that additional vocabulary activities are found throughout the modules instructional guide.
26 The curriculum for grades 6-8 also includes vocabulary specifics in the word study section. In the weekly planning sequence you will see that Word Study is divided into two sections. Rev it Up contains a list of vocabulary words and Building Vocabulary contains the word Roots of focus for the week. As you continue with the lesson, it is best to draw attention to these word and word roots when they are repeated in reading selections and other parts of the curriculum. 27 Weekly Planning Sequence Students acquire vocabulary words through repetition, therefore in addition to explicit instruction it is important for teachers to take every opportunity to help the students use the vocabulary words and notice when their vocabulary words and word roots are used. Some ways to help students are: Highlight roots learned in Building Vocabulary in the texts your students are reading daily. Provide opportunities for students to discuss vocabulary words in the texts using the morphology learned in Building Vocabulary. Encourage students to use vocabulary terms learned in Building Vocabulary in their own writing. 28 Check for Understanding 29 Check for Understanding 30 Next Steps The purpose of this foundational course was to introduce the Building Vocabulary program and demonstrate the role that it plays in the City Schools curriculum. It is critically important that you continue your learning and gain an even deeper knowledge of the program. Please continue learning by clicking the link in the final bullet and implementing the next steps. 31 Additional Resources To learn more about the Building Vocabulary Program, please click on the links below provided by Teacher Created Materials and program developers. 32 Thank You Read slide