Eng Ed 275 – Week 9 – Chapter 7 – Nicole Kavajecz
Academic Vocabulary refers to frequently used words in language arts, social studies, science, and math (Tompkins, Smith, Campbell, & Green, 2019, p 220). These words are used in all types of materials from oral to written, and students who gain fluency and comprehension of these common terms will be greatly benefited in their ability to easily make sense of the material. Some examples of academic vocabulary for primary grades are character, graph, and sentence. For middle grades, a few examples are bias, justify, and prey. In upper grades, common academic vocabulary examples are irony, plagiarize, and variable.
There are three tiers of words (Tompkins, Smith, Campbell, & Green, 2019, p 220-221). Tier 1 is basic words and includes terms used socially and informally at home and in play. Tier 2 is Academic vocabulary and includes terms which applications are wide in variety. Expanding students’ knowledge of these terms has a powerfully positive impact on their learning. Tier 3 is specialized terms, which refers to technical and content-specific terms. For example, a musician uses terms such as rhythm and timbre in their craft, while a wood craftsman uses planer and chisel for theirs. Teachers expand students’ knowledge of these words during thematic units and on an as-needed basis. Using a word wall of specialized terms that students can add to all year long has benefits such as students are able to view and remember the words far beyond the single sentence discussion of their meanings during a lesson.
There are 4 levels of word knowledge: unknown word, initial recognition, partial word knowledge, and full word knowledge (Tompkins, Smith, Campbell, & Green, 2019, p 222). Unknown word means the student does not recognize the word at all, and they cannot make any connections about the word. Initial recognition is when a student has heard or seen the word before, but does not know the meaning. Partial word knowledge refers to the stage where the students know one meaning of the word, and can use it in a sentence correctly. Full word knowledge is demonstrated when the student knows all the meanings of the word and can use it several ways correctly. Word consciousness is developed in students who display characteristics including using words skillfully, deeply appreciate words, identify differences in social and academic language, understand the power of word choice, and are motivated to learn more words.
Tompkins, Smith, Campbell, & Green suggest it is not enough to have students memorize one definition of a word (2019, p 225). Students need to learn more about words for full understanding and competent application. Therefore, they suggest a variety of word study concepts and strategies. Multiple meanings of words develop from wordplay and figurative language, such as the words bank and vaporize. Leading students through creative writing activities can be useful in a classroom to help them understand context implies meaning. Synonyms are words with similar meanings. A classroom application would be a discussion of character traits for the school, where students would present synonyms for the traits the teacher shares. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite. Students use these words in disagreements, so persuasive writing activities or formal debates can encourage development of academic or specialized vocabulary words for a specific content area. Homonyms can be confusing because they are spelled or pronounced the same but mean very different things. Students who can effectively understand the difference between common homonyms such as there-their-they’re will be successful in determining meaning far into their future. Root words and affixes are important for a teacher to encourage deep understanding because of the real-world application. A great activity for students on this topic of word study would be to have them search for a specific root or affix in posters they see, then try to figure out the meaning with their base knowledge. Etymologies is a fascinating topic for many students because of our rich cultural heritage which assisted in forming the English Language. Reading Old-English at too young of an age might perpetuate phonetic spelling, but would be interesting for students to make connections about why English seems so complex as well. Figurative meanings and literal meanings is a topic essential to students making connections to meaning. The use of idiom posters to help students understand literal and figurative can be helpful, where the student would draw a photo of ‘literally out of breath’ vrs ‘figuratively out of breath’. In the former the student would draw a corpse, and the latter an exhausted runner.
Using strategies such as word walls, mini lessons, explicit instruction, word-study activities are crucial to engaging students and developing their interest in learning words (Tompkins, Smith, Campbell, & Green, 2019, p 239-240). Word study activities such as word posters, word maps, possible sentences, dramatizing words, word sorts, word chains, and semantic feature analysis are all classroom applications which will assist in developing student applications of words. Word learning strategies including context clues, analyzing word parts, and checking the dictionary are three effective ways students complete their application of word learning. Graves (2006) recommends teaching students what to do when they encounter an unfamiliar word. First, they re-read the sentence. Second, they use context clues to determine meaning and if they cannot they continue to the next step. Third, the examine the word parts looking for familiar roots or affixes and if they are still not successful they continue onto the next step. Fourth, they pronounce the word to see if they recognize it when they say it and if they are still unsuccessful they proceed to the final step. Fifth and last, they look the word up in a dictionary or ask a teacher for help.
Assessing vocabulary knowledge is important, but often standardized tests and informal assessment quizzes focus on single meaning of words (Tompkins, Smith, Campbell, & Green, 2019, p 246). Using rubrics, quick writes, word sorts, visual representations, reflection, journals, conferences, and observations are all ways a teacher can begin to get a better picture of what words the students know. However, it is a complex and challenging task for teachers to assess because there are no grade level standards which state precisely what grade-level words students need to know.
References
Tompkins, G. E., Smith, C., Campbell, R., & Green, D. (2019). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (Seventh ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Pearson Australia.
Graves, M. F. (2006). The vocabulary book: Learning and instruction. New York: teachers College Press.
