Learning Words Inside and Out Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey San Diego State University ...
-
Upload
yadira-isbill -
Category
Documents
-
view
227 -
download
5
Transcript of Learning Words Inside and Out Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey San Diego State University ...
Learning Words Inside and Out
Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
San Diego State University
www.fisherandfrey.comBooks.heinemann.com/wordwise
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
I’ll go back to school and learn more
aboutthe brain!
400+ Page text
“Somites are blocks of dorsal mesodermal cells adjacent to the notochord during vertebrate organogensis.”
“Improved vascular definition in radiographs of the arterial phase or of the venous phase can be procured by a process of subtraction whereby positive and negative images of the overlying skull are superimposed on one another.”
Skills Versus Strategies?
I don’t know how you’re going to learn this, but it’s on the test.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Quick, Build Background!
Expand Understanding Through Reading
Reading Increasingly Difficult Texts
Read “Non-Traditional” Texts
• To date, over 100 YouTube videos!
• PBS (The Secret Life of the Brain)
• Internet quiz sites about neuroanatomy
• Talking with peers and others interested in the brain
But, the midterm comes
17 pages, single spaced
Besides Some Neuroanatomy, What Have I Learned?
• You can’t learn from books you can’t read (but you can learn)• Reading widely builds background and vocabulary• Interacting with others keeps me motivated and clarifies information and extends understanding• I have choices and rely on strategies
An Intentional Vocabulary Initiative
• Make it intentional through word selection and intentional instruction.
• Make it transparent through teacher modeling of word-solving and word learning.
• Make it useable with collaborative learning.• Make it personal by fostering student
ownership.• Make it a priority with schoolwide practices. Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Step 1: Make it Intentional: Selecting and Teaching
Words
TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
“I do it”
“We do it”
“You do it together”
Collaborative
Independent “You do it alone”
A Structure for Instruction that Works
But Which Words Do We Teach
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Influence of Background Knowledge
Catherine the Great, a minor aristocrat from Germany, became Empress of Russia when her husband Peter, the grandson of Peter the Great, was killed.
Types of Vocabulary
• Tier 1/General – Commonplace; learned from interactions
with texts and people
• Tier 2/Specialized– Change meaning with context (“polysemic”)
• Tier 3/Technical– Specific to the disciplineA starting point for selecting vocabulary
General Vocabulary
On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, Royal Governor of His Majesty’s Colony in Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports from the frontier. The French were causing trouble again, pushing their way into British land. There was a whiff of war in the air.
Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginia’s western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even said that their colony stretched across the continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to a map to see North America as it really was. (Allen, 2004, p. 1-2)
Specialized Vocabulary
On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, Royal Governor of His Majesty’s Colony in Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports from the frontier. The French were causing trouble again, pushing their way into British land. There was a whiff of war in the air.
Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginia’s western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even said that their colony stretched across the continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to a map to see North America as it really was. (Allen, 2004, p.1)
Technical Vocabulary
On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, Royal Governor of His Majesty’s Colony in Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports from the frontier. The French were causing trouble again, pushing their way into British land. There was a whiff of war in the air.
Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginia’s western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even said that their colony stretched across the continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to a map to see North America as it really was. (Allen, 2004, p.1)
The Problem: Too Many Words!
• 17 words identified in 2 paragraphs
• Ideal is 8-10 a week for deep teaching (Scott, Jamieson-Noel, and Asselin, 2003)
• Must be narrowed, but how?
Questions for Selecting Vocabulary
1. Representative
2. Repeatability
3. Transportable
4. Contextual Analysis
5. Structural Analysis
6. Cognitive Load
• Is it critical to understanding?• Will it be used again?• Is it needed for discussions or
writing?• Can they use context to figure it
out?• Can they use structure?• Have I exceeded the number they
can learn?
Adapted from Graves, 2006; Nagy, 1988; Marzano & Pickering, 2005
Step 2: Make it Transparent: Modeling
Teacher Modeling
• Brief (5-10 minutes) think-alouds
• Identify unfamiliar words to learn procedures for discerning meaning
• Show students how to look inside (morphology and structure) and outside (context clues and resources) words
What to Model?
• Comprehension• Word Solving• Text Structure• Text Features
Morphology and Word Parts
• Affixes
• Root words
• Derivations
• Cognates for English learners
• Beware of false cognates! (embarrassed/embarazada)
Context Clues• Definition/Explanation
• Access to clean water would ameliorate, and improve upon, living conditions within the village.
• Restatement/Synonym• Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the
village such that life would be tolerable for the people who live there.
• Contrast/Antonym• Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the
village whereas continued reliance on a polluted river will exacerbate a bad situation.
• Inference/General Context• Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the
village. Clean water would make life tolerable as residents could focus on other pressing needs such as finding food and shelter.
• Punctuation• Access to clean water would ameliorate--make tolerable--living
conditions within the village.
But Context Isn’t Always Enough…
The documentary film March of the Penguins was a surprise hit in 2005. However, the movie neglected to point out that the population of emperor penguins is thinning.
Since the 1970s, the penguins’ neighborhood has become increasingly warm. The Southern Ocean experiences natural shifts in weather from one decade to the next, but this warm spell has continued, causing the thinning of sea ice. Less sea ice means fewer krill, the penguins’ main food source. Also, the weakened ice is more likely to break apart and drift out to sea, carrying off the young penguin chicks, who often drown.
Is global warming responsible for the thinning of penguin population? Scientists believe so. (Gore, 2007, p. 94)
Think aloud to clear up confusions about skinny penguins!
Resources
• Peer resources from productive group work
• Dictionaries• Bookmark Internet
resources • Model how you use
these (Phone a Friend, dictionary use on doc camera)
Discussion Questions
What might teacher modeling contribute to your students’ learning?Describe word-solving approaches you can model for your students.What do you believe is necessary in order for students to begin to take on what is being modeled for them?
Step 3: Make it Useable: Collaborating with Peers
Tips for Productive Group Work
• Establish purpose (content, language, and social goals)
• Variety is the spice of life
• Integrate activities into content flow
Fostering Collaboration
• Partner and small-group discussions
• Jigsaws• Student think-alouds• Reciprocal teaching• Co-constructed graphic
organizers• Semantic feature
analysis
Contributions to Science
Philosophers Major Wars
Greek City-States Government Structures Gods and Goddesses
Ancient Greeks
Round in shape
Orbits a star Large
Concept Circles: “Planet” before August 2006
9
Round in shape
Orbits a star
Concept Circles: “Planet” after August 2006
Sufficient gravity to sweep its orbit
Size dominates its region ofspace
PLUTO
Victor’s Shades of Meaningin Sixth Grade English
Step 4: Make it Personal: Individual Activities
Challenges to Independent Work• 28% of high school teachers “often or
very often” run out of time in class and assign the content for homework (MetLife, 2008)
• Should follow modeling, guided practice, and collaborative work with peers (Fisher & Frey, 2008)
Conditions that Support Independent Learning
• Choice
• Differentiation
• Relevance
Goal is application of learning
operations
division
multiplication
addition
subtraction
variable
factors
expression
percent
Real numbers
numerator
denominator
Ordered pairs
functions
integers
polynomials
Learned
these in
elementary
Algebra
words Fractions
Words I
don’t know
Bao’s Concept Open Sort in 8th Grade Algebra
Word Level A
Level B
Level C
Example Definition
Motion 10/1 10/15 The car was in motion when the driver attempted to stop.
When an object changes position over time in relation to a reference point
Speed 10/1 The driver was speeding when she was pulled over by the cops.
How fast an object moves. Add rate Ğ itÕs the rate of how fast the object moves
Force 10/1 10/15 10/21 The force of the carÕs impact crushed the tree.
A push or pull
Friction 10/1 10/21 Friction helps the carÕs breaks lower the sp eed of the car in motion.
force that opposes motion between two surfaces that are touching
Level A = a word that is new to me Level B = a word I have heard and can either define or give an example of, but not both Level C = a word I’m familiar with and can both define and provide an example
Tino’s Vocabulary Self-Awareness Chart in Physics
Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B C-D E-F G-H
I-J K-L M-N O-P
Q-R S-T U-V-W X-Y-Z
Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B C-D
crater
E-F G-H
I-J K-L
lava
M-N
magma
O-P
Q-R S-T U-V-W
volcano
X-Y-Z
Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B
ash
C-D
crater
cinder cone
E-F
flow
G-H
I-J K-L
lava
M-N
magma
magnitude
O-P
Q-R
Rim of Fire
S-T
shield volcano
tremor
U-V-W
volcano
vent
volcanologist
X-Y-Z
Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B
ash
active
balsat
C-D
crater
cinder cone
caldera
E-F
flow
eruption
extrusion
G-H
geothermal
harmonic tremor
I-J
intrusion
K-L
lava
lahar
M-N
magma
magnitude
mantle
O-P
obsidian
pahoehoe
pillow lava
Q-R
Rim of Fire
S-T
shield volcano
tremor
U-V-W
volcano
vent
volcanologist
X-Y-Z
xenoliths
Amy’s Vocabulary Card in Chemistry
Step 5: Make it a Priority: Creating a Schoolwide
Focus
Why Go Schoolwide?
• Schoolwide focus is one of the most important actions a middle or high school can take to improve achievement (Langer, 2001; Reeves, 2000)
• Focus on literacy schoolwide leads to long-term improvement in climate, achievement (Fisher, Frey, & Williams, 2002)
Two Schoolwide Initiatives
• Words of the Week (WOW Words) to focus on “SAT words”
• Wide reading to build background, increase exposure, and foster interest in reading
Words of the Week
• Five words a week (Fid, Fi: to trust)– Affidavit, confidant, defiant, fidelity, infidel
• Grouped by affix or derivation
• Departments propose words
• Goal is to build vocabulary and teach patterns for unfamiliar words
• Introduced in English classes
WOW at Northview (MI) High School
Created by Tricia Erickson’s Art and Technology Students
Incidental Learning Through Wide Reading
• Cumulative effect of reading: 60 minutes per day x 5 days a week= 2,250,000 words per year
• 2,250 words learned per year this way (Mason, Stahl, Au, & Herman, 2003)
A bargain, considering that only 300-500 words can be directly taught
each year
Who benefits? How?
• Text must be at independent level (you can’t learn from books you can’t read)
• Older readers learn more words than younger readers
• Stronger readers learn more words than struggling readers
• The words they are likely to learn are those they know a little bit about
8 Factors for SSR
• Access• Appeal• Environment• Encouragement• Staff training• Non-accountability• Follow-up activities• Distributed time to readPilgreen, J. (2000). The sustained silent reading handbook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Discussion Questions
It’s not enough to list the Words of the Week; they need to be taught. How do you believe the vocabulary cards reinforce and expand word learning?Why does game playing reinforce learning? How does motivation play a role in learning?What can students learn about adult reading habits through SSR?
Learning Words Inside and Outside
When our teaching is at its best, our students learn take what they’ve learned inside our classrooms to their outside lives. Vocabulary doesn’t exist between the school bells—it is carried with each learner for the rest of their lives.