Vocabulary Building 2 Pdf
Karlyn Hemmerling
Daily Skill Building: Vocabulary is an award-winning, full year vocabulary curriculum for grades 1-8. This simple, straight-forward approach to vocabulary building is easy to use and encourages independent study.
It can be a useful strategy to introduce key words and phrases before starting a new topic. This can be done via a list with visuals on an Interactive White Board (IWB), displayed on a poster, word wall or word mat, or a handout given out at the end of the previous lesson for homework. EAL learners will need time to read the words and phrases, look up any that are unfamiliar in a bilingual dictionary or ask someone to help translate them. They can then refer to their list during the lesson. Many of the resources on this website contain lists of key words and phrases for the topic, for example Tudor Word Mat.
EAL learners who are literate in their first language can be given their own word book where they can write down all their new vocabulary arranged either alphabetically or by subject. This could include space to include words from their first language, synonyms and antonyms, pictures and the word used in a sentence. The learner should be encouraged to write the definition in their first language, rather than just the word. If a teacher is introducing vocabulary that is likely to be new to all members of the class, such as subject specific or technical vocabulary, then the EAL learner is also unlikely to know the word, or understand the concept, in their first language, so a translation of the explanation is more useful than a translation of the word or phrase.
Top tip: Repetition is key to building vocabulary. Decide on a limited number of really crucial words or phrases for each topic and set up learning activities that will involve EAL learners in repeatedly using these words and phrases in speech and writing.
Researchers such as Halliday (1975, 1993), Cummins (2008), and Thomas and Collier (2002) that have been influential in the development of EAL good practice have highlighted the difference between conversational fluency and the academic language that takes longer to develop.
There is also a body of research that suggests that vocabulary knowledge underpins reading comprehension, e.g. Joseph and Nation 2018, Oakhill and Cain 2012. This means that EAL learners, including those who are at the Fluent proficiency level, need support to build their English vocabulary to help them, for example, access original source material in history, or unseen poetry in English literature exams.
In order to build their English vocabulary, it is important that EAL learners have the opportunity to revisit target language regularly, as recommended by Alali and Schmitt (2012), to ensure that they understand it fully and are able to use it appropriately.
Today on the podcast we're joined by Tanya Wright, author of A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day, the newest addition to The Classroom Essentials Series. We're also joined by series editor Katie Wood Ray.
Katie: Good afternoon, Tanya. I'm so excited to talk to you about your new book. It's the next installation in the classroom essential series. It'll be out in October. A Teacher's Guide to Supporting Vocabulary Development Across the Day. So congratulations, first of all, on having finished it. And we're so excited to have you be a part of the Heinemann family. You've written lots of other things and other books, but this is your first Heinemann book. So congratulations.
Katie: Well, it's interesting that you say that because that's one of the first things I wanted to talk about. I took a walk this weekend with my three and a half year old nephew and my sister was with me too. And I was just thinking about, it's such a joyful time right now in his development. And it's really all... So much of it is about words. His approximations are so wonderful and he's leaning in to trying to understand what things mean. He's interested in words. He ask us what we mean by things. And it's just so joyful. And I was thinking about your book and that's really the stance that you bring to this work, is clearly the stance of the book. And just, that as adults, we should both marvel at the learning children are doing and also just find joyful ways to support them in it. And just curious about how you came to that stance?
Tanya: Well, I think like you said, children love to communicate. They need lots of words to communicate. Words help them describe their world. Words help them to share their learning and their ideas, and they really want to do that. So I think we should get excited about it. I think when we think about vocabulary as a list of flashcards or something like that, that we have to cover. That's not really how words are used or how they feel in the world. In real life, we use words to help us communicate. To help us read, write, speak, listen, and learn. And that's how I think we should think about vocabulary for kids and in our classrooms and in our families, in our homes.
Katie: I was thinking about this too. I mean, you and I've been working on this project for a couple of years now, and I don't think I've ever asked you this, but I'm curious about how vocabulary became your lane as a researcher? How did you get... I know you started out as a kindergarten teacher and then when you became a researcher, how is it that vocabulary became the thing that, that you wanted to study?
Tanya: I have to say I've always loved words. I've always loved to write. And I've always liked to think about the best words to communicate with. But I honestly don't think I was the greatest vocabulary teacher when I taught kindergarten. I don't think I was always aware of how important it was unless it led to misconceptions for kids. So I was aware of it when kids were confused, but I wasn't necessarily aware of that as an all the time thing that I could help them with and help to focus on. And then when I got to study more about literacy and reading development, I really learned a lot about how important words are for helping kids to both read and write and communicate.
And it just became really clear to me that this is such an important area to focus on, to support kids literacy development, but also the neglected area often in classrooms. And I don't think that's anybody's fault or anybody's trying to do a bad job. I just think sometimes with younger kids, we're not necessarily focusing on that, because we have so much other stuff to focus on. But I think once we do pay attention to it, there are lots of opportunities to build vocabulary across the day, as part of the work and the learning that we're already doing with kids.
Katie: And I know, I was rereading some of the book this morning ahead of talking to you. And I was reading again about a couple of studies actually that you talk about in there, that really looked at vocabulary instruction in the early grades and found that a lot of it really didn't make that much difference in kids vocabulary trajectory and how much they were learning and how that was a catalyst for you too, I guess, in your own research. Was some of it just a recognition that what we are doing, isn't working?
Tanya: So when I went back to graduate school, I obviously had to do a dissertation to get my doctorate. And so what I decided to do for my dissertation is go and visit a bunch of kindergarten classrooms all around a large Midwestern state that you could probably guess which one it is, if you look up where I live. And we visited 55 different classrooms for 660 hours. And what we did, is try to find vocabulary instruction happening in those classrooms.
And it turns out we didn't find even one single lesson that focused on vocabulary across all those hours. But what we did find were teachers explaining words to kids across the day. And especially in certain parts of the day, like during read alouds of literature and informational text, during science and during social studies.
And that's not really surprising because those are really big learning times when new ideas from books, new ideas from content area learning are coming into the day. All of this made me think a lot about what's happening in classrooms and how we can put more emphasis on vocabulary to make sure that kids do have some lessons. For example, some lessons around what to do when they get to a word that they don't understand. What could they try as an independent reader? How can they use words in their writing, interesting words, right?
These seem really important, but also to really think about vocabulary across the day and to take advantage of the opportunities kids have to learn when they are participating in read alouds or science and social studies, learning or math or the arts, right? There's so many wonderful opportunities to learn new words when we learn new things and taking a look in classrooms really helped me to see those opportunities.
Katie: I think one of the things that made me reach out to you the very first time I did, years ago about writing for teachers for Heinemann, was because I noticed that you did such a great job of, for lack of a better word, translating research into practice, and really being clear about the practical implications of what research shows and that just shines through in this book. And it made me wonder a little bit too, about how the things that you have chosen to study, like you just described. Whether they start out as questions of practice that you're then researching, how do you decide which path to go down next and what you're going to study?
Tanya: For me, it always starts with practice. What I'm really interested in, is the interactions between teachers and children and children and children in classrooms, and how those support kids literacy development. So everything about my work always comes from that place of wanting to help teachers, to really think about how to get the most out of the time they have with kids and how to really help kids to grow as literacy learners. That's what I'm passionate about. I always say, when I'm going to think about, if I should do a project or do a research study, I say to myself, "Is this going to help kids become better reader, writers, speakers, listeners?" And if the answer is yes, then I get super excited about the project or the study. And if the answer is no, it's probably not the right thing for me to work on.
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