Wielding Word Wizards

 Vocabulary-Building Techniques and Tips

Integrating Technology into Vocabulary Instruction:
Website Use:
      wordcentral.com
      vocabulary.com
      wordplays.com
      wordle.net -creation of word clouds based on provided text
      wordsift.com -alternate word cloud tool
      trackstar.4teachers.org -create online field trip for students
      vocabulary.co.il
      visualthesaurus.com
      freerice.com -Online vocab game that donates rice to countries in need
 Current Event Websites for Children:
      timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news -Time for Kids
      weeklyreader.com/featurezone -Weekly Reader
       kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids -National Geographic Kids   
       sciencenewsforkids.org -Science News for Kids

"We can all remember learning lots of new words the year we had a teacher who was an avid punster, a crossword puzzle aficionado, or a general lover of word play." (Blancowicz)
"Parents of struggling readers often ask us how they can help their children. Along with saying, 'Read to them,' we now make sure to add, 'Play word games with them."  (Blancowicz)

Improving Vocabulary Acquisition in the Classroom:
a) Attitude, attitude attitude!
"Teachers who model and encourage adept diction foster curiosity and interest about word in their students." (Allen 366) 
It is the teacher's responsibility to promote interest in vocabulary acquisition through modeling an interest and enthusiasm in continuous self-improvement in her  classroom.
b) Choosing Appropriate Words 
"Tier 2 includes words that are key to comprehension and are frequently used by 'mature language users'" (Allen).
"Tier-two words are words many students don't know but will need to know" (Allington)  
   Teachers need to chose words from the "second-tier". That is, they should chose words that are common and used by mature speakers and writers, but that perhaps most of the classroom has not yet been exposed to. Of course, this instruction comes after the students have developed a base vocabulary to work off of. 

c)Maximize Exposure
"To have an effect on reading comprehension, vocabulary instruction should include multiple exposures to a word, teach both definitions and contexts, and engage students in deep processing" (Bek et. al., 2008)
  Whether through the use of word walls, vocabulary-focused skits, or repeated read-alouds, each teacher needs to find their own way to expose students to age-appropriate vocabulary and relate it back to the students in a concrete and meaningful way.  
d) Draw attention to different levels of word knowledge
"1- I have never heard that word
2- I heard the word but I don't know what it means
3- I think I know what that word means
4- I'm sure I know what that word means
5- I can make a good sentence with that word" (Allington)
  Allow students an opportunity to display their relative, individual knowledge of the instructed words by holding up the appropriate number of fingers before, during, and after vocabulary instruction.
e)Word Consciousness
The ultimate goal of this integrated instruction is that students will begin learning words on their own, voluntarily. As Teachers, we hope to instill a desire to continue our own education inside and outside the classroom.


 How much of a role should technology and online games have in classroom instruction, whether for vocabulary instruction, online field trips, or other purposes?
 

Allen, Stephanie and Holly Lane. The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth.
Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.
Blanchowicz, Camille and Peter Fisher. Vocabulary Lessons: Research points to four practices that teachers can use to expand students' vocabularies and improve their reading.
Dalton, Bridget and Dana Grisham. eVoc Strategies: 10 Ways to Use Technology to Build Vocabulary.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654931174/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654931165/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654931153/

Developing Thoughtful Comprehenders

 Fun and Exciting Comprehension Strategies:

 

Books provide a great opportunity for self-expression; allow

them to get into their "interview characters" (3) maybe even having

the interviewer pkay one of the characters in the book as well. 

1). Literature Conversations: Remember to treat every text as a conversation piece, and open up the conversation to the entire
                                               class by asking open-ended, primarily opinion and experience based questions that can relate 
                                               to the given text.
 2) Questioning the Author: Split up an in-class reading into sections, position your classroom in a circle, and draft up  
                                              questions that focus on what message and information the author is trying to convey,
                                              highlighting what the student is already expected to know as a reader. 
3) Oprah Winfrey Interview: The teacher can set the classroom up into an interview room, with an interviewer
                                               and the cast of a specific book at the forefront. The teacher 
                                               begins the activity as the interviewer the first few times, and slowly releases autonomy
                                               over the activity to her students over the year. *this activity is a great opportunity for self-
                                              expression and for the students to take on the persona of the characters.        

Remember to institute the Gradual Release of Responsibility model in your activities. Begin by modeling what behavior you expect and then allow the students to garner more and ore responsibility until they are able to lead the activity themselves. This may take a month or it might take a year, depending on the activity. 

How would you determine as a teacher how quickly to let your students assume responsibility for certain activities? 

And finally, Happy Belated Halloween!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654895437/

 

Disclaimer: I have been doing my readings according to the original syllabus on accident, and thus these readings are for last week, and last week's blog is technically on the material we were to have read for this week. 

Pardo. What ever teacher needs to know about comprehension.
Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.

Comprehension Strategies

Making Connections: Our Own Daily Lives and Experiences

"Smith (1975) defined comprehension as 'relating new experiences to the already known... Anything [readers] cannot relate to what they know already will not make sense; it will be nonsense"(Gill 108).

"Using the think-aloud strategy, Mrs. Hope guided the students to categorize their connections by modeling text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connections. Through this categorization, students better understood ways in which to connect and make meaning with texts" (Gregory 516).

Comprehension is inclusive of the reader, the text, and the purpose. Why are you reading a certain piece of literature? More importantly, why are you trying to make your classroom read it? What sets this work apart, i.e. what makes it worthy of instruction?

There has been a large push recently toward integrating text into every aspect of a student's day, beyond just Language Arts class and into Science, Math, and every mundane activity from lining up to looking around a classroom. Children are exposed to text rich environments, and need to learn quickly the importance of text in order to learn most effectively. This can be modeled by parents and teachers, from writing a letter to writing memos to sending emails. 

However, when it comes to making children most invested in improving their reading, students have to be presented with passages that are INTERESTING TO THEM. They have to be able to connect it to something they've done, read, heard, or seen in order to assimilate it with their current knowledge or schema of the world. This idea of text connections can be introduced as early into schooling as kindergarten, perhaps through a catchy, easily memorizable song like the one shown above. 

How should a teacher introduce texts into a class with a broad interest range? In your opinion, how effective is a biannual interest survey for a teacher to keep on file?


Gill, Sharon. The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction.
Gregory, Anne and Mary Cahill. Kindergarteners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers.

Fostering Fluency

What Exactly is Fluency?

For those of us who are unaware of the variable 

components of fluency, myself included, they are as follows:

1) Accuracy 

2) Rate or Speed

3) Prosody

all of which combine to influence:

4) Comprehension (Deeney)

Although the menagerie of assessments available for determining "fluency" often focus simply on accuracy and rate only, we as teachers need to remember that:

"Although such quick assessments may not be definitive, they do provide teachers and school administrators with a method for screening new students tracking sstudents' ongoing progress in the various dimensions of reading fluency, and identifying the students who may require additional assessment and instruction." (Rasinski 47)

The tests themselves may not determine fluency, but they surely aid in developing a knowledge base of what type of reader a student is, which is valuable as an aid for drafting future lesson plans.

 Prior to being able to TEACH anything, a teacher must first LEARN about their students and their various learning styles. 

The following website offers a lot of helpful activities for fostering fluency, 

ranging from individualized to whole-classroom instruction:

http://www.readingresource.net/readingfluency.html

How apparent do you think this shifting viewpoint (or shifting common knowledge) of fluency is going to affect one-minute assessments and other similar activities and their use in the classroom?

How important is using a word wall for fostering fluency in your future classroom? 

Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Fostering Fluency: Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write. 
Deeney, Theresa. One Minute Fluency Measures: Mixed Messages in Assessment and Instruction.
Rasinski, Timothy. Creating Fluent Readers. 

Making Words: Enhancing the Invented Spelling-Decodinh Connection

"

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654693404/

"Clarke (1998) compared the effectiveness of invented spelling versus an emphasis on correct spelling in first-grade classrooms. The children who had invented spellings were superior to the others on measures of word decoding at the end of the year, In general, as children improve in the phonetic sophistication of their invented spellings, their later success in learning to read words becomes much more likely"

(Cunningham & Cunningham 107)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654693398/

The shift from proposing a classroom wherein students are expected to learn to spell correctly immediately to one wherein incorrect spelling is, not only accepted, but also rewarded, is an interesting topic of research in early childhood education. My mother still has some of my "early writing" impregnated with incorrect spelling like the example on the left; in fact, I even have some pieces of writing from when I worked at a daycare, as well as some from my niece when she was younger. 

It is incredibly crucial to not just view this as a cute habit of young writers, but also as a stepping stone into more effective writing. In fact, as the quote above suggests, fostering this type of behavior, as well as successfully bridging the gap into correct spelling with phonics instruction in the classroom, can be a key indicator of future spelling success.

But then the problem arises:

How does a teacher transition from rewarding invented spelling to fostering correct spelling without the children responding negatively to the shift in values?

What are some ways that a teacher can promote invented spelling while also teaching phonics instruction? Would this best be handled in a personal or group setting?

Cunningham, James and Patricia Cunningham. Making Words: Enhancing the invented spelling-decoding connection.

What Can I Say Besides "Sound it Out"?/ Teaching Phonics and Spelling Patterns

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654646309/

"Further, a developmental process is involved in learning to read words, and at different stages of development children read words in qualitatively different ways"(Clark 446)

English Language Learners (ELL), otherwise referred to students with English as a second language (ESL), have to learn English in an entirely different manner than students who grew up in an English speaking home. 

Often their comprehension of teachers is much lower, and they may feel frustration from being unable to express their knowledge in the language which the classroom is taught. Teachers need a general understanding of the student's primary language and the phonetics involved in order to properly apply comparable concepts to their English instruction.
For example, with Spanish ESL students, the teacher should primarily focus on the letters in the English alphabet that are similar in Spanish, such as p, b, t, k, m, n, f, s, and w, and then move onward to differing letters after the children have built up some comprehension confidence. The teacher needs to understand that an a in Spanish sounds like an e in Spanish in order to better detect spelling/ pronunciation issues and deal with them most properly. This is why having teachers who excel and professionalize in ESL instruction are an important component to any culturally diverse school. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654646307/

The above book is continued instruction on scaffolding, this weeks topic, as applied to ELL and ESL students. 

1. How best could a school that does not have a budget to hire ESL teachers specific to common second languages increase their capability to teach such students?

2. How best would a teacher integrate these students' necessity for a differentiated teaching style into an integrated, diverse classroom?

Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.

Clark, Kathleen. What Can I Say Besides "Sound it Out"? Coaching Word Recognition in Beginning Reading.

Developmental Appropriateness in the Classroom

"Teachers of young children, whether employed in preschools, child care programs, or elementary schools, have a unique responsibility to promote children's literacy development, based on the most current professional knowledge and research." (IRA, NAEYC)

Three helpful tips for teachers hoping to implement structural changes in their classroom:

1). Rather than teaching letters explicitly, such as the much utilized "letter of the week", begin teaching through association and analogies, such as with the names of fellow classmates and popular icons.
***However, there is a fine line between making much-needed associations and teaching children to value things that aren't conducive to healthy lifestyles.
ex. The article associates the letter Mm with 
McDonalds. I don't think that fast food is something
that primary school children should value, lest they 
become, as the baby above, desensitized to media. 

2). Develop a process for your classroom to decode unfamiliar words: 1) Look at beginning letters and make associations 2) Look in middle for familiar syllables 3) Look at end letters and make associations

3) Integrate phonemic awareness activities into the classroom that are fun for the children, but deliberate on the part of the teacher. 
*** Don't be afraid to use technology and multimedia! http://pbskids.org/games/rhyming.html

What is the importance of a joint position between the IRA and the NAEYC, endorsed by a number of other organizations? What type of impact and reverberations could the suggestions wherein have on the public education system?
Think back to your childhood and your favorite books age 4-6. Are any of them able to be translated into a phonemic awareness activity? How would such an activity be organized?

Bell, Donna and Donna Jarvis. Letting go of the "Letter of the Week".
International Reading Association and National Association for the Education for Young Children. Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children. 
Yopp, Hallie and Ruth Yopp. Supporting Phonemic Awareness Development in the Classroom.