Teaching Vocabulary:

Intentional, Explicit Instruction

Lynn Figurate
Riverside County Achievement Team
Indio, CA
lfigurate@rcoe.us
 Session Goals
• Review scientifically based reading research
on vocabulary
• Review research-based methodology for
vocabulary identification strategies
• Practice direct vocabulary instruction for
specific words and word parts
• Rehearse the strategies of how to use
context clues and the general mood to
determine the meaning of unknown words
• Develop a collaborative culture by sharing
best practices
Figurate Out

• Discuss with your partner:

"Paula put down her pirn, wrapped herself
in a paduasoy, and entered puerperium."
− Story about birthing
− Pirn — tool for weaving
− Paduasoy — silken robe of Japanese
style
− Puerperium — the time that was the
beginning of labor to birth
The Five Pillars of Reading
Instruction

• Phonemic
awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
 • Framework for Reading •
MOTIVATION
DECODING COMPREHENSION
Word
Academic Comprehension
Recognition Fluency Strategies
Language
Strategies

Background Knowledge

Comprehension Monitoring
Concepts of Print
Phonemic Awareness

Syntax & Text Structure

(Re)organizing Text
Vocabulary
Sight Words

Automaticity
Phonics

John Shefelbine/Developmental Studies Center [See p. 20 of the CA Reading/ELA Framework]

Research About Vocabulary
• Kindergarten students’ vocabulary size is a predictor
of comprehension in middle school (Scarborough, 1998)
• Students with poor vocabulary by third grade have
declining text comprehension scores in fourth and
fifth grade (Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin, 1990)
• A school emphasis on word identification skills in the
early grades without emphasis on books with
challenging vocabulary results in poor reading
comprehension in middle elementary students (Becker,
1977)
• Vocabulary instruction has a strong connection to
comprehension (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Perfetti, 1983)
• Pre-instruction of words gave students 33 percent
greater contextual understanding (Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki,
1984)
Words Heard in an Hour

• Poverty: 615 words

• Middle class: 1,251
words
• Professional: 2,153
words

Hart and Risley, 1995

Registers of Language
1. Frozen
Language that is always the same

2. Formal
The standard sentence syntax and
word choice of work and school

3. Consultative
Formal register when used in
conversation

4. Casual
Language between friends that is
characterized by a 400- to 800-word
vocabulary

5. Intimate
Language between lovers or twins
"Reprinted with permission from aha! Process, Inc.
www.ahaprocess.com"
Where Do We Find Those Rare Words
To Increase Our Vocabularies?

• Printed Text
− Newspapers - 68
− Adult books - 52
− Comic books - 53
− Children's books - 30
• Television
− Adult shows - 22
− Children’s shows - 20
− Cartoons - 30
• Adult Speech
− College grad - 17

Hayes & Ahrens, 1988

NRP Recommendations
• Taught directly and
indirectly
• Repetitions
• Rich context
• Active learning
(thinking)
• Use multiple
vocabulary
instruction methods
NRP, 2000
Choosing the Right Words
• Tier-One Words
− Basic words
o run, ball, is

• Tier-Two Words
− Academic words
− Found in many curriculum
areas
o vocabulary, example,
create, impossible
• Tier-Three Words
− Content words
− Low-frequency words
o nutrient, cellophane,
photosynthesis
Beck and McKeown, 1985
Some Words To Teach
F re q u e n t A c a d e m ic W o rd s
h ttp ://w w w .v u w .a c .n z /la ls /d iv 1 /a w l/fre q u e n t.h tm l
A v e ril C o xh e a d M A (V U W )
E m a il: A v e ril.C o xh e a d @ v u w .a c .n z

S u b lis t 1 o f 1 0
a n a lys is is s u e s
a p p ro a c h la b o r
a re a le g a l
assessm ent le g is la tio n
assum e m a jo r
a u th o rity m e th o d
a v a ila b le occur
b e n e fit p e rc e n t
concept p e rio d
c o n s is te n t p o lic y
c o n s titu tio n a l p rin c ip le
c o n te xt p ro c e d u re
c o n tra c t p ro c e s s
c re a te re q u ire d
d a ta re s e a rc h
d e fin itio n re s p o n s e
d e riv e d ro le
d is trib u tio n s e c tio n
e c o n o m ic s e c to r
e n v iro n m e n t s ig n ific a n t
e s ta b lis h e d s im ila r
e s tim a te s o u rc e
e v id e n c e s p e c ific
e xp o rt s tru c tu re
fa c to rs th e o ry
fin a n c ia l v a ria b le s
fo rm u la
fu n c tio n
id e n tifie d
in c o m e
in d ic a te
in d iv id u a l
in te rp re ta tio n
in v o lv e d
(Refer to packet for copies.)
 Direct Vocabulary
Instruction― Teaching a Word
Definition Examples

Explanation Nonexamples

Word

Picture Questions and Answers

(Refer to packet for copies.)

Teaching a Word

1. Select a word
• Find “Goldilocks” words
• Parts of speech

2. Find a good definition

• Choose a student-friendly
dictionary
− Longman Dictionary of American
English
− Newbury House Dictionary of
American English
• Explore e-resources
− www.dictionary.com
− www.wordsmyth.net
Teaching a Word

3. Provide a student-friendly explanation

or description of the word
• Teacher and students decide together

4. Present examples of the word used in

contexts different from the story
context
• Use synonyms if possible

5. Give nonexamples of the word

• Use antonyms if possible
• Predict what students may confuse in the
definition or explanation
Teaching a Word
6. Provide a nonlinguistic
representation of the word

• Drawing pictures

• Physical models

• Kinesthetic activity

• Graphic organizers

• Mental pictures/keyword method

Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001
Teaching a Word

7. Solicit questions and answers to

check for understanding
8. Put the new words in a Vocabulary
Log
9. Provide multiple exposures to target
words through rich instruction
• Semantic mapping/nascent nomenclature
− nurse, thermometer, germs
− virus, anesthetic, prescription
− syndrome, placebo, litmus
• Linear arrays/word lines
− slow-fast
− hard-easy
 Direct Vocabulary Instruction―
Word Parts

Word parts include prefixes, roots, and suffixes

• Building a bridge to other vocabulary words

• Introspective
− Prefix: INTRO―within or inward
− Root: SPECT―look
− Suffix: IVE―to tend to or to lean toward
• Definition―to tend to look inward
Word Parts―Frequency of Prefixes
The Most Frequent Prefixes in The American
Heritage Word Frequency Book, Carrol et
al., 1971
Prefix Words with the prefix
un- 782
re- 401
in-, im-, ir-, il- (not) 313
dis- 216
en-, em- 132
non- 126
in-, im- (in or into) 105
over- (too much) 98
mis- 83
White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989) contend that only these nine need to be systematically taught.
Teaching Prefixes

Day 1: Introduction and four

facts about prefixes
Day 2: Explicit instruction on the
first three prefixes
Day 3: The prefix removal and
replacement strategy and
three more prefixes
Day 4: Review and assessment
on the four facts about
prefixes, the steps of the
prefix removal and
replacement strategy,
and the meanings of the
six prefixes taught
Baumann and Kame’enui, 2004.
Indirect Vocabulary
Instruction― Context Clues
1. Repeated, multiple exposures
• To learn a word in context, students need to
be exposed to the word at least six times
Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki, 1984

2. SCANR technique
• Substitute a likely synonym for the unknown
word
• Check the context for clues that support the
choice
• Ask if the substitution fits the context clues
• If not, determine if it needs a new idea
• Revise the idea so it better fits the context
Jenkins, Matlock, and Slocum, 1989
Context Clues
3. Categories of Natural Context

Misdirective Nondirective
There’s a wireless and lots of Paula put down her pirn, wrapped
books. herself in a paduasoy, and entered
puerperium.

General Context Directive Context

Eagles eat carrion mostly in the Eagles have talons, or claws, to help
winter, when other food is hard to hold slippery, wriggling fish.
find.

Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002

Context Clues Strategies
1. Definitions or synonyms
• Look for words or phrases that mean about the
same
• Usually follow a comma, a dash, or words like or,
is called, that is, in other words
2. Concrete examples
• The author provides examples to clarify a
difficult concept or idea
• Look for signal words: such as, including, for
instance, to illustrate, are examples of, for
example
3. Description clues
• The author may use many sentences to describe
a word
• Keep reading. Sometimes the meaning is in the
next paragraph
Materials from Reader’s Handbook: A Student Guide for Reading and Learning, Grades 6-8, by Laura Robb
et al. copyright © 2002. Displayed with special permission of Great Source Education
Group/Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.
Context Clues Strategies

4. Contrast clues
• Look for the opposite meaning or a
situation that illustrates the opposite
meaning
5. Unstated or implied meanings
• Sometimes you have to use what you know
to figure out what the author is trying to
say
6. Repeating words
• Writers like to make sure we know the
meanings of hard words so they use the
word a number of times
Adapted from Reader’s Handbook, Great Books, 2002.
Indirect Vocabulary Instruction―
General Mood
Look Inside, Look Out

Word

Inside the word Outside the word

Word Prior Context General

Parts Knowledge Clues Mood

Herman & Weaver, 1988

 Summing Up Vocabulary

• Vocabulary is important because

− readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words
they see in print
− readers must know what most of the words mean before they
can understand what they are reading
• Vocabulary can be developed
− indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen
to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own
− directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual
words and word-learning strategies

Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, 2001