Comp 10/11: Vocabulary, Academic Language and Background Knowledge Flashcards
(39 cards)
Listening Vocab
words you understand when listening to other people speak
Speaking Vocab
words you use when you talk; smaller than listening vocab
Writing Vocab
word you use when you write
Sight (reading) Vocab
words you can recognize and correctly pronounce
Meaning (reading) vocabulary
words you understand when reading silently
1. Unknown
2. Acquainted
3. Established
Target Words
small groups of words that are the focus of small group instruction
Non-technical Academic Language-
necessary to perform school tasks such as evaluate, illustrate, summarize and classify
background knowledge
refers to what you know about a topic before hand
In order to comprehend a text, a reader must have adequately developed: ____, _____, and _____.
meaning vocabulary, academic language knowledge, and background knowledge
Tier 1 words are
simple words that most children will know without instruction
ex: flower, rain, sun
Tier 2 words are
words that appear in several contexts across two or more areas of student
ex: climate, tropical, territory
Tier 3 words are
the most difficult because they are only used in one specific are of study
ex: mitochondria, osmosis, mitosis
Factors to consider in developing students’ vocabulary, academic language, and background knowledge are ____, _____, and ____.
o Frequency
how often will the students encounter the word
o Utility
is it essential to comprehending the text?
o Level of knowledge
the less students know about the word the MORE important it become to teach it
Research Based Principles of Vocabulary Instruction
A.
B.
C.
D.
1.
2.
3.
4.
A. Instruction Must Fit the Age and Ability of the Student
B. Lessons Must Provide Examples of How Target Words are Used in the Context of Sentences and Paragraphs
C. To Learn the Meanings of Words, Children Must Have Repeated Exposure to the Words
D. Vocabulary Instruction Involves Each of the Following:
1. Direct instruction of specific words
2. Teaching students independent word-learning strategies
3. Developing word consciousness
4. Encouraging wide reading
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION: What are the 3 direct teaching teaching of specific words strategies?
o contextual redefinition
o semantic maps
o semantic feature analysis
Direct teaching of specific words: Contextual redefinition
o teacher shares words and students on their own write a definition or their best guess
o teacher gives students sentence with word and has students work in groups to come up with improved definition using context clues
o teacher gives another sentence and students improve definition
o students volunteer/share their definition
o teacher gives actual definition
Direct teaching of specific words: Semantic Maps (aka: Word Maps, Semantic Webs)
o teacher places target word in center with lines branching out to other bubbles with topics that students need to fill in with words and phrases
Direct teaching of specific words: Semantic Feature Analysis
o good activity for a set of words that share at least one characteristic
o using a chart with the target words on the left vertically and the traits on the top horizontally
o students write “+” under each trait the word shares
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION: What are the 3 INDEPENDENT word-learning strategies?
Morphemic analysis, contextual analysis, using dictionary
Independent learning strategies: Morphemic analysis (aka: structural analysis)
Requires students to look at parts of words to determine their meaning which can be: prefix, suffix, root word, synonyms, antonyms, and Greek and Latin roots and affixes
Independent learning strategies: Contextual analysis
*difficult strategy to teach because many texts have few clearly stated context clues or span across several sentences
when children use contextual clues to figure out the meaning of words on their own
1.Definition context clue: author provides the definition for the target word in a text.
2. Synonym context clue: another word in paragraph is the synonym for target word
3. Antonym context clue: another word in the paragraph is the antonym for target word
4. Example contextual clue: author lists examples of the word in the text
Independent learning strategies: Using the Dictionary
Students learn the meaning of the word by looking for the definition in a dictionary
*However:
o dictionary needs to be developmentally appropriate with illustrations and child friendly definitions
o children need to know how to find the word and which definition to choose from multiple
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION: what are the 4 ways to develop WORD CONSCIOUSNESS?
o Synonyms and Antonyms
o Homophones and Homographs
o Playing with words: Idioms and Puns
o Etymology
Word consciousness: Synonyms and Antonyms games
o teacher chooses 5 target words from a paragraph, then the teacher has a word bank with 5 synonyms/antonym of the target words and 5 that are not
o student has to read the paragraph and circle the 5 synonyms/antonym of the target words
o OR play games with whole class once everyone has been introduced to the word pairs
o teacher gives everyone a word and they have to find their synonym/antonym partner
