IEL: Focus on Phonics and Vocabulary

1. IEL: Focus on Phonics and Vocabulary NJDOE - Office of Literacy

2. Critical Elements • Motivation and Background Knowledge • Phonemic Awareness • Phonics • Vocabulary • Comprehension • Fluency • Writing

3. What was your experience with phonics as a student?

4. Background Knowledge Systems • Graphophonic (Linguistic) Students know the core structure of their oral language ; English is CVC • Syntactic (Grammar) English and most languages are NP + VP. English is highly structured and controlled by word order. • Semantic (Vocabulary) English is a conglomerate, freely borrowing from many languages (Freeman, D. E. & Yvonne S., 1994)

5. Characteristics of Strong Phonics Instruction • Clear, direct and explicit • Ample modeling of applying phonics skills • Focuses on reading words and connected text, not learning rules • Contains repeated opportunities to apply learned sound-spelling relationships to reading and writing

6. Phonics Development and the Alphabetic Principle • The Probable Acquisition System for English Language Background Students • Using a CVC approach, explicit systems introduce • Initial consonants • Final consonants • Medial short vowels • Medial long vowels

7. Phonics and Vocabulary • Phonics instruction needs words to make sense to students • Depends on building the connection between phonemic awareness and background oral proficiency • Words must have meaning to connect to students • Depends on oral proficiency and background knowledge

8. Phonics Development and the Alphabetic Principle • Introduce and Practice with the usual, less common graphemic representations (digraphs) • Letters “ai” , and “ay” make the /e/ long “a” sound • Letters “ee”, and “ea” make the /i/ long e sound • Introduce and Practice even more less frequent graphemic representations • Letters “gh”, and “ph” usually make the /f/ sound, “ph” can occur anywhere, but “gh” only occurs medially or at the end, and it is not always true. Example “igh” negates the “gh” (high), and there are other possibilities as well “bought”

9. Phonics Development and the Alphabetic Principle • Introduce and Practice the most unusual graphemic representations – Late Decoding • ough = rough - /rəf/ • ough = doughnut - /donət/ • ough = bought- /bכt/ • ough = bough- /baU/ • and then there are: house, courtesy, numerous, would, pour, hour

10. Instructional Strategies with Early Phonics Blending: isolated sounds join together to form words /k/ /æ/ /t/ = cat Whole word to part(s): What is the first sound you hear in cat = /k/ Rhymes, families: the _at family = cat, bat, hat

11. Late Decoding • All these acquired skills are applied to compound words and other polysyllabic words • Compounds like doghouse, blackboard, etc. • With polysyllabic words a new situation presents itself – stress and intonation so that sound/letter arrangements change • Apply/əplaI/ becomesapplication /æplIkeﮐən/ which becomes applicable /əplIkəbəl/ or /æplIkəbəl/

12. Syllabication Generalizations • If the word is a compound word, divide the word between the two words that comprise it • Inflectional endings such as ing, er, est, and ed often form separate syllables • When two or more consonants appear in the middle of the word, divide the word between them (CVC + CVC) words • When only one consonant appears between two vowels, divide the word before the consonant

13. Structural Analysis- PrefixesGuidelines • Explicitly define, model, and practice • Discuss prefix “warnings” • Teach only the most common prefixes

14. Structural Analysis- SuffixesGuidelines • Explicitly define, model, and practice • Teach suffix “warnings” concerning spelling changes • Teach only the most common suffixes

15. Guidelines for Roots Instruction • Teach common Greek and Latin roots in grades 3 -8 to give students access to a larger number of words • Teach Greek and Latin roots in categories (i.e. number, size, body) • Focus on the most common, high-utility roots

16. Word Analysis Games • Word Webs w/Latin and Greek Roots • Root Search • Word Detectives • Password

17. What was your experience with vocabulary as a student?

18. Vocabulary and Comprehension One of the oldest findings in educational research is the strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. (Stahl, 1999, p. 3)

19. The Role of Vocabulary • All of the energy and time expended in acquiring the “decoding” system is applied to known and unknown vocabulary • Initially efforts are made to present common CVC words so that the “rules apply” • -cat, dog, run, and, at, etc • However, dolch/sight words must be introduced immediately for the earliest reading to take place

20. Multiple Unknowns The gobbledorph drined a bleen in the shile to rend its crill.

21. Who drined the bleen? What did the gobbledorph drine? Where did the gobbledorph drine the bleen? Why did the gobbledorph drine the bleen in the shile? 1. 2. 3. 4. Comprehension Questions:Please answer in complete sentences.

22. Vocabulary and Decoding • Children who are capable decoders often experience difficulty in reading when they encounter too many words for which they have no meaning. (Rupley, 2003) • Thus, an extensive vocabulary is the bridge between the word-level processes of phonics and the cognitive processes of comprehension. (Kamil & Hiebert, in press)

23. Vocabulary and Background Knowledge • Children’s vocabulary knowledge closely reflects their breadth of real-life and vicarious experiences. • If children have printed words in their oral vocabulary, they can easily and quickly sound out, read, and understand them, as well as, comprehend what they are reading (National Reading Panel) • There are profound differences in vocabulary knowledge among learners from different ability or socioeconomic (SES) groups from toddlers through high school. (Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002, p. 1)

24. Vocabulary Acquisition • Students arrive with social (kitchen) English knowing (orally) most dolch words and critical “irregulars” like are, was, been, etc. • Vocabulary instruction unfolds similarly to phonics instruction with CVC words preceding late decoding words, compounds, polysyllabic etc.

25. Immediate Considerations • ELLs do not arrive with social English • Students, who have been read to, will enter with broader experiential vocabulary (incidental vocabulary – huff and puff)

26. Differentiating Instruction for ELLs • ELL students need opportunities to actively engage with new words. • Thematic approaches which involve the development of conceptual networks. • ELL students require instruction in both basic and sophisticated vocabulary words. • Explicit instruction of idiomatic expressions and figurative language.

27. What Does it Mean to Know a Word? (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

28. What does scientifically-based research tell us about vocabulary instruction? • Most vocabulary is learned indirectly: Children learn word meanings indirectly in three ways: • Conversations with adults. • Listening to adults read and engaging in conversations about books. • Reading extensively on their own, encountering unfamiliar words.

29. Some vocabulary should be taught directly: Direct instruction includes: • Teaching specific words before reading. • Providing instruction over an extended period of time and working actively with words. • Using new words in different contexts. • Repeated exposure and active engagement.

30. Vocabulary Pyramid • Tier 3 Mitosis, ubiquitous • Tier 2 Journey, defiant, • Tier 1 (at-Dolch), (love-sight), (play-everyday words)

31. Vocabulary Tiers Tier 1 • You can see it, touch it, draw it • It is used in everyday speech (social English) Tier 2 • Common words you run into in school and reading • You can use Tier 1 words as synonyms or explain through situations

32. Tier 2 • Gigantic is very, very big • Journey is a trip, it is when you go to a new place with your family or friend • Don’t use Tier 2 unknown to explain a Tier 2 unknown • Gigantic = enormous • Journey = excursion

33. Multiple Meanings and Tier 2 • Students will acquire most common meaning first height = tall(ness) • Additional meanings need to be explicitly taught The height of the Roman empire was reached in the first century C.E. Height = zenith, apex (Synonyms may not be very helpful) Use graphic organizers

34. Tier 3 • Content or usage specific words, rarely used: Ubiquitous (rarely used), photosynthesis (content specific)

35. What words should I teach? • Since text may have many unknown words, direct vocabulary instruction is time consuming, and most text can be understood without knowing the meaning of every word; • Teach: Tier 2 vocabulary Useful words that students will see or use repeatedly. Difficult words that have multiple meanings. Important words that are significant for understanding concepts within the text. (could be Tier2 or Tier 3)

36. Direct InstructionVocabulary Learning: • A few key words are taught within meaningful contexts. • Words are related to students prior knowledge in ways that actively involve them in learning. • Student-centered activities are available in classroom centers. • Students are given multiple exposure to the words. • Students are taught to identify root or base words through the use of prefixes, suffixes and other word parts. Learning a definition is not learning a word. Students must relate it to other concepts and words they already know.

37. A Word about Word Walls • They change with growth of vocabulary • They have purpose(s) • New words from readings • (Story word wall, content word walls, wow words, Tier 3 ) • Tier 2 words (prefer) that are hard to spell (bought) • Words that are useful in writing (although, even though,…transition words)

38. Building Word Knowledge with English Language Learners: Many ELL students bring a rich store of first language word knowledge that can serve as a foundation for learning new words in English. • Cognates (words similar in English and the first language) • Many Tier 2 and even Tier 3 words in English are everyday Tier 1 words in Spanish Preocupado preoccupied (worried) Valiente valiant (brave) Significar significant (mean)

39. Vocabulary Strategies • Concept Definition Map • Cloze Procedures • Vocab-O-Grams (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2002)

40. What do I take from this? • When reading, students must be able to decode the word • Students will immediately attempt to relate sounded out word to oral vocabulary and background knowledge • Read, read, read to students because most vocabulary acquisition is incidental • Some vocabulary must be explicitly taught • Tier 2 words are critical

41. Resources: Beck, Isabel, McKeowon, M, & Kucan, L, (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instructiion, Guilford. Bos, C.S., & Vaughn, S. (2002). Teaching Students with Learning and Behavior Problems. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Balajthy, E., & Lipa-Wade, S. (2003). Struggling Readers: Assessment and Instruction in Grades K-6. New York: Guilford Press. Catts, H.W., & Kamhi, A.G.. (1999). Language and Reading Disabilities. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Cooper, J.D. (2000). Literacy: Helping Children Construct Meaning. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Cunningham, P., & Allington, R.L. (2003). Classrooms that Work: They can all read and write. New York: Harper Collins.

42. Resources: Freeman, Yvonne & Freeman, D. (1994). Between Worlds: Access to Second Language Acquisition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Kamil, M.L., & Hiebert, E.H. (in press). The teaching and learning of vocabulary: Perspectives and persistent issues. In E.H. Hiebert & M. Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing scientific research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lehr, Fran, Osborn , J. & Herbert, E. (2003)A Focus on Vocabulary, Pacific Resources for Education and Learning Peregoy, S., & Boyle, O. (2001). Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL: A Resource Book for K-12 Teachers. New York: Longman. Rupley, William H , John Logan, & William Nichols (2003) Vocabulary Instruction in a Balanced Reading Program, EBSCO. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read (2001). The Partnership for Reading: National Institute for Literacy; National Institute for Child Health and Human Development; and the U.S. Department of Education.

43. Contact NJDOE – Office of Literacy 609-622-1726