What is vocabulary?
- It is the knowledge of words and their meanings.
Vocabulary instruction involves much more than looking the words up in the dictionary and using the words in a sentence.
Four components of an Effective Vocabulary Program
- Extensive independent reading to help expand world knowledge
- Specific word instruction to help improve understanding of texts containing those words
- Instruction in independent word-learning strategies
- Word-consciousness and word-play activities to motivate and enrich learning
Today I would like to introduce Components 2-4 and what I will be writing about in my upcoming posts called "Vocabulary Matters: Strategies that Work"
I will be referring to a book entitled "Vocabulary Handbook" written by Linda Diamond and Linda Gutlohn. I was very fortunate to have taken several workshops from Linda Diamond and it truly changed the way I approached teaching vocabulary. I hope you will take this journey with me and find some great ideas and strategies to try with your students. Today is an introduction to what I will sharing with you in the coming weeks. I hope to give you research-based knowledge, practical applications and sample activities to improve vocabulary instruction. It will include:
Word learning Strategies
- Dictionary use
- Morphemic analysis- figuring out a word's meaning by analyzing it's meaningful parts: morphemes (root words, prefixes, suffixes)
- Contextual analysis- figuring out the meaning of an unknown word by looking closely at the text surrounding the word.
Along with word learning strategies there will be information to help:
- Cultivate word consciousness- getting our students to become aware of and interested in words.
- Give students multiple exposures to words in multiple contexts
- Restructure strategies- making sure that students fully understand the instructional task.
- Foster incidental vocabulary learning- through engagement in rich oral language experiences, listening to books during read alouds and reading widely on their own.
You can download a copy of Part I by clicking on the image at the top of the post. I hope you will let me know if this is helpful for you.
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Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.
How much time do you spend each day on vocabulary instruction?
This is so timely for me. I was just looking for vocabulary resources for my first graders last night. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Hope you will follow my blog so you will know when I post Part 2.
DeleteArlene
All the title one schools in my district are implementing SIOP this year and vocabulary is a HUGE component to this. Looking forward to your posts!!
ReplyDelete❤ -Stephanie
Falling Into First
Stephanie, I'm so excited that your district will be implementing SIOP this year. I used SIOP for 8 years and also became a Trainer for teachers and other Trainers.
ReplyDeleteArlene
What a great post. Vocabulary is such an important part of a child's education. I'm glad to see you focusing on it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Yvonne. I've been wanting to do this for awhile.
DeleteArlene
Vocabulary is an often difficult concept to teach- even with gen ed students. Thanks for the great information!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Tessa. Stay tuned for more.
DeleteArlene
Wow! Brilliant! You really know what you are talking about!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Jennifer.Next post we get onto specifics.
DeleteArlene
Great post! The importance of vocabulary keeps coming up in professional conversations. The lack of vocabulary in some children really limit what they can do in all areas of the curriculum. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSally from Elementary Matters
Thanks so much Sally. I have a lot more to share!!!
DeleteArlene
Thank you, I learned so much tonight! Thank you!!!
ReplyDelete~Fern
Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!
Fern Smith's Pinterest Boards!
Thank you for the reminder how important vocab instruction is. I think this is what I'll focus on just before and during dismissal time. Looking forward to your next post (following by e-mail notification). (BTW, I found you thru Pinterest.)
ReplyDeleteTerri Brown
Sounds like the perfect time to get in some extra vocabulary. You will be amazed what an extra 5 or 10 minutes a day can do to help increase a student's vocabulary. Glad you found me.
ReplyDeleteArlene
This looks great! I'll share it on FB.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Michelle.
ReplyDeleteArlene
:)
ReplyDeleteThank you! This is perfect. We are doing a book club at our school with "Bringing Words to Life". I'm going to start following your blog. Great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThis is great! Thank you! I'm going to follow your blog. Great ideas! We are doing a book club with " Bringing words to Life".
ReplyDeleteIn Grad School at Appalachian University, we read Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Beck and McKeown. Since then, vocabulary has been a huge part of my first grade classroom. I have created several lessons using Tier II voc. in some of the best Children's Literature. Here is one I created for Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly. It is free on TPT.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fancy-Nancy-Bonjour-Butterfly-Vocabulary-Lessons
I have shared them with all my K-2 friends and they love them.
Can't wait to see your next post.
:)
Tamera
MyHeartBelongsinFirst
Kaizactan2001@yahoo.com
I found your blog on Facebook. I can't wait to read all of your vocabulary strategies. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTracy
California
So glad you found my blog and hope you find some great strategies to use in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteArlene