Academic Vocabulary: From Drab to Fab !

1. Academic Vocabulary: From Drab to Fab! Presented by Mrs. Gilberte Pascal Henry County Literacy Coach

2. Norms for Today’s Work • We will be active learners & listeners • We will be respectful • We will be positive • We will put our phones on silent or vibrate • We will refrain from sidebar conversations

3. Opening…Setting the Tone

4. What is the Make-Over Plan?Goals for Today’s Session Teachers , you will • Understand the purpose for academic vocabulary work and how it ties to key governing instructional standards • Be able to see how Tier 1, 2, and 3 words differ • Describe and explain what academic vocabulary words are • Be supplied with an instructional protocol for implementing academic vocabulary work during your daily instruction

5. Expectations of the Common Core Shifts

6. Expectations of the CCGPS • Language Anchor Standard #6 • Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression

7. Grade Specific Standards

8. Grade Specific Standards

9. Building Background

10. What Do I Know? Task: You will listen to a series of statements. Raise your hands for statements that are true and keep your hands down for those that are false.

11. True or False • Academic vocabulary terms or Tier 2 words are content specific and text supported words that students are unfamiliar with. Due to their specialized nature, teachers explicitly teach them. • Using the practice of giving students words on Monday, writing the words multiple times on Tuesday, finding definitions on Wednesday, writing sentences on Thursday, & giving a test on Friday to acquire new vocabulary is an example of best practices. • Young students lack vocabulary knowledge, so it is ineffective to expose them to complex text with challenging vocabulary words. • Importance and utility, instructional potential, and conceptual understanding are 3 factors that can help denote a word as being a Tier 2 or academic vocabulary word. • A strong vocabulary supports readers in tackling increasingly more complex text. • Tier 2 words and academic vocabulary are synonymous terms

12. Characteristics of the Word Tiers

13. What are Tiered words?

14. Word Sort Task: Given the set of words in the baggy and with a partner, sort the words under one of the 3 categories of tier levels. Record the words under the category where they best fit on page 5 in your booklet. You will have 5 minutes

15. Word Sort Activity Word Bank Neurons Go Explain Prepare Big Play Loam Amphibian Boy Evaluate Zygote Schema Illustrate Display House

16. Word Sort Activity Word Bank Neurons Go Explain Prepare Big Play Loam Amphibian Boy Evaluate Zygote Schema Illustrate Display House

17. Why is academic vocabulary important work? • They are high yielding words and are seen often in written material • They facilitate the comprehension of academic text • They are not easy to learn and require deliberate action from stakeholders • They are used to articulate simple things in precise ways • Unlike Tier 3 words, they are not scaffolded in text

18. Picking the Right Spot… Sets You Up for Success!!

19. Vocabulary Casserole Ingredients Needed: 20 words no one has ever heard before in his life 1 dictionary with very confusing definitions 1 matching test to be distributed by Friday 1 teacher who wants students to be quiet on Mondays copying words Put 20 words on chalkboard. Have students copy then look up in dictionary. Make students write all the definitions. For a little spice, require that students write words in sentences. Leave alone all week. Top with a boring test on Friday. Perishable. This casserole will be forgotten by Saturday afternoon. Serves: No one. Adapted from Kylene Beers’ book “When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do”

20. Where can I get academic vocabulary words? • Language-rich literary books that • Relate to grade level concepts • Relate to grade level content • Support grade level standards • CCGPS & GPS standards • Verbs and key nouns • Academic vocabulary word lists • Berkeley Unified School District

21. Which Word Should I Pick? Task: Using your grade level standards, you will highlight words you think would be ideal as academic vocabulary words to teach to your students. Please use the highlighters that have been provided in your bins. You will have 4 minutes

22. How Do You Know if You Have a Tier 2 Word or Not? • Use this criteria for selecting words; a yes to all three questions would indicate that you have a Tier 2 word • Is this a generally useful word? • Does this word connect to other words & ideas that are being covered in the curriculum? • Is this a word that will aid students in comprehending text and building conceptual understanding? Let’s try this strategy with explain and now amoeba

23. Let’s Try Evaluating Some Possible Tier 2 Words A yes to all three questions would indicate that you have a Tier 2 word

24. Let’s Try Evaluating Some Possible Tier 2 Words A yes to all three questions would indicate that you have a Tier 2 word Do you think explain is a Tier 2 word? Let’s see if it is by asking the 3 key questions.

25. Let’s Try Evaluating Some Possible Tier 2 Words A yes to all three questions would indicate that you have a Tier 2 word Ameba is a word that children would be unfamiliar with, but let’s put it to the test.

26. Let’s Try Evaluating Some Possible Tier 2 Words A yes to all three questions would indicate that you have a Tier 2 word. Now you try this test with one of your highlighted words. Is it a Tier 2 word? Why or why not?

27. Teaching Academic Vocabulary Terms

28. Did You Know? • As early as 1941, researchers have estimated that there is a gap of approximately 5,000 words between high achievers and low achievers. • Preschool or children’s books expose you to more challenging vocabulary than do prime-time adult TV shows. • Vocabulary can be learned through reading and talking. • Research shows a student in the 50th percentile in terms of ability to comprehend the subject matter taught in school, with no direct vocabulary instruction, scores in the 50th percentile ranking. • The same student, after specific content-area terms have been taught in a specific way, raises his/her comprehension ability to the 83rd percentile. • First grade children from higher SES groups know about twice as many words as children from lower SES groups. • High School seniors near the top of their class know about 4 times as many words as their lower performing classmates. • The amount students read is strongly related to their vocabulary knowledge. Taken from “Building Academic Vocabulary Beverly Public Schools K-5 Handbook” http://www.beverlyschools.org/district/files/Curriculum&Instruction/Building%20Academic%20Vocabulary%20handbook.pdf

29. The Aim For This Work The following exchange occurred in a first-grade classroom in February: Jason: Is this going to be an ordinary day? Ms. H: What would make it ordinary? Jason: If we did the same old thing. Ms. H: What might make it not ordinary, make it exceptional? Jason: If you gave us prizes for being good – I mean exceptional and mature. Beck, McKeown, & Kucan(p.47, 2002)

30. Food for Thought In order for students to be able to use a word effectively in either speaking or writing they need to have explicit, scaffolded instruction. Kate Kinsella, 2010

31. Text Talk Strategy for Working with Academic Vocabulary in Grades k-2 • Read a language-rich story • Contextualize the word within the story • Have learners say the word • Provide a student-friendly explanation of the word • Present examples of the word used in contexts different from the story context • Engage children in activities that get them to interact with all of the words they have learned • Have children say the word • Close with a combined review of all of the developed words

32. An Example of Teaching Vocabulary Using Text http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHE78WSBpP8

33. Your Thoughts? As children are developing their reading and writing competence, we need to take advantage of their listening and speaking competencies to enhance their vocabulary development. Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002

34. Picking the Right Book – How Can We Do It? • Select • Language-rich texts • Look For • Words that would be unfamiliar, understandable, and useful (The U³ Rule) • But Be Sure Not to • Use the books that young learners are using to learn to read to teach new vocabulary • Due To The Fact That • Learners can understand more advanced text when it is presented orally, • Don’t Disregard • Simple texts

35. Let’s Give the U³ Rule a Try Task: Using any book on your table, read a few pages and select 3 words that you could use as academic vocabulary terms. Check and see if they meet the requirements of The U³ Rule. A yes to all three questions would indicate that you have a Tier 2 word

36. How Can We Build Context Within a Text? • Connect the word directly to how it was used in the story • It creates a point of entry for understanding what the word means

37. Why Have Children Say New Academic Vocabulary Words? • Allows students to become familiar with the sounds in the word • Creates the potential for phonemic awareness work • Forms the foundation for • remembering the term • making connections to roots and their inflection forms

38. What Is a Student-Friendly Explanation of a Word? • Explains in simple terms by • Characterizing • Explaining in everyday language • Add an example to clarify the meaning • Consider things that children engage in, • enjoy doing, or • are interested in.

39. How Can We Deepen Academic Vocabulary knowledge? • Change the context of the word • Children typically limit word use to the initial context • Use different examples

40. An Example Child 1: I would be reluctant to leave my teddy bear in the laundromat. Teacher: Well, that’s just like what Lisa did in the story. Try to think about something you might be reluctant to do that is not like Lisa. Child 2: I would be reluctant to leave my teddy bear in the supermarket. Teacher: Okay, that’s a little different than what Lisa was reluctant to do, but try to think of something that you would be reluctant to do that is very different that what Lisa was reluctant to do. Child 3: I would be reluctant to leave my drums at my friend’s house. Teacher: That’s pretty different from what Lisa was reluctant to do, but can we think of something that you would be reluctant to do that isn’t about leaving something somewhere. Child 3: I would be reluctant to change a baby’s diaper! Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (p.52, 2002)

41. interaction with Academic Vocabulary words… • Facilitates opportunities for learners to engage repeatedly & deeply with terms • Fosters giving responses and explaining examples

42. Activities – Strategy #1Q.R.E Questions, Reasons, & Examples Students are asked to provide explanations about events centered around questions or examples. The Purpose Students are asked to defend their thoughts & ideas based on their understanding of the word.

43. Q.R.E Examples • If you are walking around in a dark room, you need to do it cautiously. Why? What are some other things that need to be done cautiously? • What is something you could do to impress your teacher? Why? What is something you could do that might impress your mother? • Which of these things might be extraordinary? Why or why not? • A shirt that was comfortable, or a shirt that washed itself? • A flower that kept blooming all year, ore a flower that bloomed for 3 days? • A person who has a library card, or a person who has read all the books in the library? Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (p.56, 2002)

44. Activities – Strategy # 2Decisions, Decisions! Making Choices Similar to doing a “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down” activity, but students express themselves by stating a word or phrase if the accompanying statement is true. They can say an alternative term or nothing if there is not another word. The Purpose Students have to make choices based on their understanding of the term.

45. Decisions, Decisions - Example • If any of the things I say might be an example of people clutching something say “Clutching.” If not, don’t say anything. • Holding on tightly to a purse • Softly petting a cat’s fur • Blowing bubbles and trying to catch them • If any of the things I say would make someone look radiant, say “You’d be radiant.” If not, don’t say anything. • Winning a million dollars • Walking to the post office • Getting a hug from a favorite movie star • I’ll say some things, if they sound leisurely, say “Leisurely.” If you’d need to be in a hurry, say “Hurry.” • Runners in a race • Sitting and talking with friends • A dog lying in the sun Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (p.56-7, 2002)

46. Let’s Reflect for a Moment • Your Turn • Think about 1 new bit of information you have learned today that you can use with your students • Share your “Aha” with the person next to you • Volunteers will be elicited to share their new insight and that of their buddy with the group You will have 3 minutes for this activity

47. Closing the Vocabulary Session with Deep Review The closing should feature a review of all of the words covered during this block of time Start this segment by stating, “We have talked about 3 words, ______, ______, and _____. Let’s think about them some more.” Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (p.57, 2002)

48. Closing – Activity #1Building Relationships Relating Words Consider how you might connect the words based on how the word can be expressed, physical actions, synonymous meanings, etc. The Purpose Aid students in making connections and thinking deeply about how words might relate to each other.

49. Building Relationships Example In the case of reluctant, insisted, and drowsy, we noticed that each word might be expressed through facial expressions, so that is what was done. Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (p.57, 2002)

50. Sentences Combine all the words into one sentence. Include a question to encourage students to think and explain their thoughts and ideas. Example “Would you prefer to budge a sleeping lamb or a ferocious lion? Why?” Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (p.58, 2002)