tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71154937940209219732012-01-23T05:35:36.606-08:00Bridging the Verbal DivideSusan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.comBlogger761100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-48076624606950212992012-01-22T00:01:00.000-08:002012-01-22T11:14:10.609-08:00

Please cast your vote, everyone! In the past, Vocabulogic readers have participated in a number of surveys, similar to pop quizzes. The results provide a springboard for discussion, especially in cases where the answer is complex, or not quite clear. For examples, see The Popular Prefix in- (Survey)  and The Slippery Suffix -er (Survey). It has been many months since our last survey. Long

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-31934724405458735532012-01-08T00:01:00.000-08:002012-01-22T03:10:08.882-08:00

Coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), the Common Core State Standards have swept the nation, and nearly every state has sanctioned the call for students to read more complex texts. In response, publishers are rapidly preparing more challenging texts, referring to the exemplars listed in Appendix B of the Standards, including works by Sophocles,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-37570884785228834692011-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:002011-12-25T01:56:35.110-08:00

 Joyeux Noël  The elves are making merry--no Sunday post today, but if you've a moment, reflect on The Power of Words, a brief video created in the UK by Purple Feather. This video illustrates several topics discussed in Vocabulogic, especially word choice and connotations. It's received millions of hits, so perhaps you have seen it. Thanks to Lynn for sharing! It has been a treat to correspond

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-80775567666015905852011-12-11T00:01:00.000-08:002011-12-11T00:02:25.366-08:00

Something new this time! This is a special treat, just in time for the holidays! It is my pleasure to share a few thoughtful yet brief podcasts on vocabulary, from The Voice of Literacy (dot) org. I have listened to each podcast below and have read manuscripts written by each expert. Drs. Neuman and McCutchen discuss their specific line of research, with practical applications for pedagogy.

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-13323016505189953232011-11-27T00:01:00.000-08:002011-11-27T10:45:41.333-08:00

Timothy Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University. He has written over 200 articles and has authored, co-authored or edited over 20 books or curriculum programs on reading education. He is author of the best selling book on reading fluency entitled The Fluent Reader, published by Scholastic. His scholarly interests include reading fluency and word study, reading

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-35741677264460084032011-11-13T00:01:00.000-08:002011-11-20T13:33:16.046-08:00

New release: Just out this month, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offers up The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.  I have been using the Fourth Edition for about a decade, with no complaints. Because this resource provides etymological information as well as denotations and illustrations, I referred to it when writing my supplemental curriculum: Vocabulary through

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-78085948644010414482011-10-30T00:01:00.000-07:002011-10-31T21:11:01.444-07:00

This post is courtesy of Gail Kearns and Andrew Biemiller. Gail Kearns is a reading specialist and former teacher who founded a diagnostic and remedial reading clinic in Concord, Massachusetts. She worked for Jeanne Chall at Harvard University as a research assistant on readability projects and on the first edition of the Diagnostic Assessments of Reading (DAR); more recently she co-authored the

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-59487431788165974832011-10-16T00:01:00.000-07:002011-10-16T10:30:26.061-07:00

I offer up a sampling from my book collection. These books might nurture interest in various aspects of language and accelerate lexipensity. Titles are listed in order, from simplistic to advanced. Enjoy! ---------------Picture Books------------------- Sunshine, Moonshine, by Jennifer Armstrong. A lovely rhyming picture book, suitable for preK to 2. Use this book to develop awareness of compound

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-80781748741089960232011-10-02T00:01:00.000-07:002011-10-26T22:01:38.861-07:00

So, I knew piano was a short form of pianoforte but did not realize cello was a truncated form of violincello. I can see WHY it was clipped--quite a mouthful. In linguistics, words that are truncated are called clippings (the clipped form is clips). According to Aronoff and Fudeman, "a clipping is a word-formation process by which a word is created by lopping off part of another word, e.g.,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-39295945271342416902011-09-18T00:01:00.000-07:002011-09-18T03:59:17.731-07:00

Pete Bowers here--one third of the authors of this collegial conversation. This week’s post is a unique one. The text of this post was not written with the intention of becoming a public post, but it was inspired by a previous Vocabulogic post by Dr. Geri Mohler, an education consultant. Sharon Reichstein is a teacher of Grade 5/6 students with learning and/or reading difficulties in Ottawa who

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-85262654750789714012011-09-04T00:01:00.000-07:002011-09-04T00:17:14.394-07:00

When speaking, we tend to assimilate one sound into another, to make it easier to say the word smoothly. This happens with many prefixes. For example, we say suffix, rather than the technically "pure" form of the word, *subfix. It is easier to say suffix.  The sound /b/ at the end of the prefix sub- has been assimilated into the sound /f/ at the beginning of the base fix. Spelling follows sound,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-87426871861845605802011-08-21T00:01:00.000-07:002011-08-23T13:25:48.656-07:00

This post is courtesy of Dr. Donald R. Bear. Donald is a professor and the director of the E. L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy in the Department of Educational Specialties at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is author of numerous articles and books, including Words Their Way, Words Their Way with English Learners, and Vocabulary Their Way. Donald began his career as a teacher

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-64072884968446743132011-08-07T00:01:00.000-07:002011-08-17T22:10:39.812-07:00

This post builds on a few other entries that address a specific affix, including The Slippery Suffix -er and The Popular Prefix in-. The lesson suggestions in this post may be modified to apply to grades 3-12, depending on the student. Perhaps we might even apply some ideas to first or second grade. Words ending with the suffix -ish are often adjectives, but this suffix has several senses. The

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-61584388942349606242011-07-24T00:01:00.000-07:002011-07-24T00:01:00.298-07:00

Our thanks to Dr. Shane Templeton for contributing this post.  A former classroom teacher at the primary and secondary levels, Shane’s research has focused on developmental word knowledge in elementary, middle, and high school students. He has published in a number of research and practitioner journals, and is co-author of Vocabulary Their Way and Words Their Way. His other books include

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com8Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA37.6436199 -121.867646412.183507399999996 -162.2973339 63.1037324 -81.4379589tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-54500701414746914032011-07-10T00:01:00.000-07:002011-07-19T18:36:03.641-07:00

Unless they consider meaning, children are prone to forget the words they decoded last week--or indeed, only yesterday. As described further below, we must go beyond phonics to make words memorable. We might help children consider several aspects of a word: Phonology: The sounds that make up the word. For example, cat has three sounds,  /k/  /a/  /t/ and catch has three sounds, /k/  /a/  /ch/,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA 94123, USA37.8020405 -122.4382307-37.3047815 75.84301929999998 90.0 39.280519299999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-89767651671409952212011-06-26T00:01:00.000-07:002011-06-26T07:49:16.296-07:00

Jacquelyn M. Urbani, Ph.D., contributed this post. Dr. Urbani specializes in reading research and in educating students who are deaf and hard of hearing, where learning to read and developing a broad vocabulary is particularly challenging. Her groundbreaking doctoral research involved helping teachers use dialogic reading procedures during storytime in deaf education classrooms. Before gaining

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-17603324380753759732011-06-12T00:01:00.000-07:002011-07-04T20:22:50.217-07:00

This post builds on the prior post, which described how to use storybook reading to build depth of word knowledge. Here, I describe a research-tested method for using storybooks to develop breadth of word knowledge so young children might learn many meanings relatively quickly, but not deeply. At the least, children need to be able to recognize a word when they hear it and understand its most

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-83304230561662593392011-05-29T00:01:00.000-07:002011-11-06T21:59:39.828-08:00

One established way to promote vocabulary is by reading aloud to children. Educators, including librarians and parents, are encouraged to read to children at every age, beginning in infancy. Children's books often contain rich and savory vocabulary. As shown on the chart, Hayes and Ahrens (1988) examined the words used in varied types of content. They found that, compared to the recorded

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-57531844677249810532011-05-15T00:01:00.000-07:002012-01-22T03:12:53.966-08:00

Thank you for participating in the prefix survey (641 responses). In this post, I discuss the prefix in- first. Then, I respond to the survey results. (Click images to enlarge and/or download them.) The prefix in- is a chameleon: It changes its color to blend in, so to speak, having four different forms, in-, im-, ir-, or il-, depending on the base or root to which it is attached. When the

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-26284106266312817782011-05-01T00:01:00.000-07:002011-05-29T09:36:56.484-07:00

This post is courtesy of Drs. Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher, professors at San Diego State University. Visit their website. They are the co-authors of several professional books for educators, including In a Reading State of Mind: Brain Research, Teacher Modeling, and Comprehension Instruction. Key ideas from their book are discussed below, where Nancy and Doug describe how to model "word

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-50906940543781611122011-04-17T00:01:00.000-07:002011-05-29T09:37:12.168-07:00

This post is courtesy of Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. Doug and Nancy are professors at San Diego State University and nationally known for their work with vocabulary and comprehension instruction. Visit their website. They are the co-authors of several professional books for educators, including Word Wise and Content Rich: Five Essential Steps to Teaching Academic Vocabulary.  Key ideas

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-49067234165966370032011-04-03T00:01:00.000-07:002011-04-25T16:55:08.443-07:00

This post is courtesy of Michael Coyne, associate professor in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut and a Research Scientist at the Center for Behavioral Education and Research. His research on beginning reading and early vocabulary instruction and intervention is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Michael is a former

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-91247898943484248932011-03-20T00:01:00.000-07:002011-06-08T17:02:14.470-07:00

Some time ago, a correspondent asked about the varied pronunciations for the word ask. "Why do people say axe instead of ask?" I was not sure how to respond; this query goes beyond my field of expertise. Finally I did some exploring, accessing a new book on language variation and several excellent websites (see links and references). What I found was interesting and surprising. Below, I discuss

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-29505006086683562142011-03-06T00:01:00.000-08:002011-03-19T15:45:25.691-07:00

Developing word consciousness in intermediate and secondary grades includes learning about dialect, slang, jargon, and register. Students need to become increasingly metacognitive with respect to these concepts. In this post, I juxtapose the four terms, speaking broadly. For more depth, follow the links. Dialect:  The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines dialect as, “a form of a language which

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-80531933208306305782011-02-20T00:01:00.000-08:002011-03-05T18:56:35.953-08:00

Thanks to Miriam Holt for contributing this post. She tutors students in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, both independently and with local tutoring agencies.  She has prepared over a hundred students for the SAT in the past six years and humorously admits, "I have come to respect the SAT." This post addresses five SAT tasks that are pertinent to reading and writing.  For each task, Miriam

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-34634678493415442852011-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:002011-03-01T08:29:44.037-08:00

(Please respond to the survey in the sidebar to the left.) Kathleen Lord is an assistant professor of Literacy Education at the State University of New York - New Paltz. Her research interests include comprehension, particularly pertaining to conceptual development and knowledge acquisition. Dr. Lord can be reached at lordk@newpaltz.edu.  Individually, I interviewed 102 fourth graders, asking

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-20749297696723361772011-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:002011-01-23T02:17:17.511-08:00

This post was contributed by Christie L. Cavanaugh, Ph.D. Christie has also written two prior posts describing thematic language centers for preschool, and language facilitation strategies. See  Part 1 here and Part 2 here, along with Christie's bio. To help my early childhood students deepen their ability to make connections between language and literacy, I gathered a variety of familiar games

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-65613973456252842972011-01-09T00:01:00.000-08:002011-01-16T01:17:35.025-08:00

Jill Castek is a post-doctoral scholar with the Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading project at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley where she develops and researches integrated science and literacy curricula. Jill is a literacy specialist with a decade of experience working with striving and struggling readers in grades K-12, especially students who are learning English.

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-69556054151275122022010-12-26T00:01:00.001-08:002011-03-19T15:54:27.331-07:00

Christmas Greetings! I hope you are making merry, because according to the Ngrams graphed below, the English culture as a whole may be losing its grasp on joy, at least as evidenced by how often, relative to other words, the words happy, glad, and merry have appeared in print in the last 200 years. Needless to say, I am making a gross assumption, doing exactly what we must not do when

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-32435802664316226782010-12-12T00:01:00.001-08:002012-01-09T18:50:10.033-08:00

Learning about the multiple meanings of words (e.g., to find -- a find) is included in the new and widely adopted Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. For example, the excerpt below was lifted from the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language. This anchor standard is identical for Grades K-5  and 6-12 and applies also to ELLs (English Language Learners). Vocabulary

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-64990103803648401182010-11-28T00:01:00.000-08:002011-04-25T19:03:15.295-07:00

If language is valued by the teacher, students know it. They sense that the teacher is unusually aware of words -- otherwise overlooked, as water streaming continuously away. Their teacher treats language like a fabulous dessert, greeting especially scrumptious expressions with delight.  It is possible for educators to ignite an interest in words and phrases that is almost tangible. This type of

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-42919234237879785892010-11-14T00:01:00.000-08:002011-01-08T14:06:11.230-08:00

As educators, we are concerned with how digital text might influence cognition, interest, and literacy. As I read downloaded e-books, I try to be aware of how I am processing--especially how well I am paying attention. What behaviors do I observe in myself as I read texts online? What does research have to say about this topic? Vocabulary: When reading digital text, I can tap a word to make its

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-46738899450080136362010-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:002010-11-01T08:48:49.827-07:00

Dr. Tom Bellomo teaches Applied Linguistics to a graduate cohort of reading educators at Stetson University; additionally, he teaches developmental reading and writing at Daytona State College. Morphological analysis is an integral part of the reading program for his college preparatory students, and he has developed a streamlined, informal curriculum to communicate essentials requisite for

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-88021707517267520882010-10-17T00:01:00.000-07:002010-10-18T11:20:10.969-07:00

Many thanks to Dr. Geri Marshall Mohler for sharing her engaging word-learning resources with us. Geri currently serves as an education consultant for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, working with accreditation and on standards development for reading and library specialists. Previous to her work at CTC, she worked for two years at the California Department of Education in the

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-76640029860330586472010-10-03T00:01:00.001-07:002010-10-03T00:29:14.917-07:00

We freely create new words without thinking too much about HOW it's done; we come by it naturally and take a curious delight in it. LOL, we get a fabjammin' kick out of it, all right, and the one with the greatest inpreciation of vocabulogic has the most fun! This Sunday, I am pleased to publish a brief video discovered on YouTube. The author (PlatanoAmarillo03) is unknown to me, but she may be

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-13241041788006290442010-09-19T00:01:00.000-07:002012-01-22T03:12:53.968-08:00

MA stands for morphological awareness, which involves understanding the internal structure of words, including knowledge of affixes and roots. It is a type of linguistic insight. Read more about MA. In a longitudinal study of growth curves across grades 1-6, Berninger, Abbott, Nagy, and Carlisle (2010) found that MA grew rapidly across grades 1-3 and continued to grow--more slowly--through grade

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-17721452742803732782010-09-05T00:01:00.000-07:002011-06-12T00:17:41.989-07:00

Lucy Hart Paulson, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, is a communication specialist for young children. She is on the faculty of the Communicative Sciences and Disorders Department at The University of Montana, sharing responsibilities for teaching, supervising, research, and outreach. Lucy provides professional development for a variety of audiences and is the lead author of the Early Childhood Language Essentials

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-5769649768710808412010-08-22T00:01:00.000-07:002011-02-26T12:53:28.375-08:00

In this entry, Carolyn Eddy offers suggestions for teaching Spanish-speaking students to more quickly grasp English by exploiting cognates and by teaching high frequency academic words that do not share the same root. She draws from research and from her own secondary and post-secondary experiences as a language learner. Carolyn recently completed her undergraduate work in Spanish Language and

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-17967598822792206442010-08-08T00:01:00.000-07:002011-06-12T00:15:52.656-07:00

Michele Berg, Ph.D. contributed the following post. Michele is the Director of the Center for Learning Disorders at the Family Service and Guidance Center in Topeka, Kansas (visit FSGC). Dr. Berg formerly founded and directed the Center for Learning Disabilities at the Menninger Clinic and served on the faculty of the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry for over twenty years. She specializes in

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-7379165390814662082010-07-24T21:55:00.000-07:002010-08-01T20:07:07.592-07:00

Joan Sedita contributed this post. Joan received her Masters in Reading Education from Harvard University in 1980 and worked at the Landmark School in Massachusetts until 1998 as a teacher, diagnostician, supervisor of tutorials, and high school principal. She was the founder and director of the Landmark College Preparation Program and director of the Landmark Outreach Teacher Training Program.

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-62716956636660964312010-07-11T00:01:00.000-07:002010-07-17T23:18:51.135-07:00

With so many readers on vacation, I am leaving the poll open for two weeks. Scroll down to vote and view results. These tools will help inform future topics and publication schedules. Feel free to add a comment if you wish to elaborate. Visit another educational site: Resources for Teaching Reading. I expect you will find something of interest. The focus is mainly on comprehension and critical

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-79191678011239830642010-07-04T00:01:00.000-07:002010-07-07T16:04:28.278-07:00

Recently, a blogger sent me a link to Wordle, a free program that transforms raw text into seemingly endless stylized arrangements. Words are sized in proportion to how often they occur in the text. To create this image of the Declaration of Independence (original text) I set Wordle to display a maximum of 60 words and to ignore common high frequency words (e.g., a, the, and, for). Then, I

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-44189266182576965872010-06-27T00:01:00.000-07:002011-05-28T18:14:37.038-07:00

Susie Goodin Susie M. Goodin taught elementary school in Vermont and California before the arrival of her four children. For the past 20 years she has developed and managed a variety of school libraries. She loves to be outdoors gardening, swimming and hiking, as well as avidly collecting children’s literature. Currently she is a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Education

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-18472246368899056632010-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:002011-04-30T22:07:01.891-07:00

Today, Christie Cavanaugh, Ph.D. continues her description of a preschool language intervention, providing specific examples and models to encourage rich use of oral language in early childhood. Readers are encouraged to download Christie's slides and use them with educators and parents. For part one, see last week's post. The reference to incidental teaching in last week’s post reminds us that

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Christie L. Cavanaugh, Ph.D. has been an educator for 30+ years, earning her degrees from Tusculum College, Vanderbilt University, and The University of Texas at Austin. She spent many of her 30+ years in early childhood settings, preparing future teachers, and providing professional development to educators in the areas of language and literacy. She continues this work as an educational

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Fran Mancino is librarian at St. Edward's University in Austin and has been actively involved with public and private libraries all her adult life. As a parent, she volunteered in school libraries and helped her children participate in story hour at the public library. Cleveland Public Library an early book mobile My love affair with libraries began as a small child when my Aunt Louise took me

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Peter Bowers contributed this post. Pete is a doctoral candidate at Queen's University, Canada and the creator of the WordWorks Literacy Centre. Pete authored a prior post on Vocabulogic. I am pleased to be invited to use this week’s post to describe our meta-analysis on morphological interventions (Bowers, Kirby, & Deacon, 2010) that comes out in the June issue of Review of Educational Research

Peter Bowershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05166925835424863954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-2869007912570381692010-05-23T00:01:00.000-07:002011-04-30T22:07:01.892-07:00

This post is courtesy of Dr. Michael Graves, Professor Emeritus of Literacy Education at the University of Minnesota. As a researcher, Mike has examined--and continues to examine--variables related to vocabulary development and instruction. His most recent books on vocabulary are written for teachers as well as researchers, including Teaching Individual Words: One Size Does Not Fit All (2009),

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-45946557301877589962010-05-16T00:01:00.000-07:002012-01-22T03:39:47.998-08:00

Definitions are denotations.What does the word snob denote? The emotions, images, and visceral responses associated with a word are called connotations. What does snob connote? Connotations can be positive, neutral, or negative and they are subjective, unique to the individual, even though most people would probably respond positively to fireplace and negatively to arson. English language

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In this post I discuss a comprehensive plan for vocabulary growth. This multifaceted approach could be implemented in summer school and throughout the year. I provide useful links and an expanding slide to facilitate the professional planning process.  Michael Graves is a senior scientist who has conducted a thorough study of the research pertaining to vocabulary instruction. In doing so, he

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With my first box of 64 crayons I was absolutely thrilled. I remember pouring over the varied shades of green, deliberating over my choice with great intent as if it really (really!) mattered. As with colors, we learn to appreciate words when they prove themselves uniquely useful--the only word in the world that will do. Help children get a feel for this. Teach them to appreciate shades of

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Greek and Roman mythology gave rise to a number of names, words, and phrases including ambrosia, echo, psyche, oracle, hypnosis, Morpheus, Titanic, narcissistic, Zephyr, siren, Achilles' heel, the Midas touch and Pandora's box (not to mention some months of the year and names of  planets). Many of these connotative words have found their way into commercial enterprises like Midas Muffler, Oracle

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Types of blends. Click to enlarge. (Gries, 2004) Slanguage. Spanglish. Vocabulogic. Linguists call them "blends" because words are smashed together, leaving out at least one letter in the process, merging sounds and meanings. A blend is also called a portmanteau, a two-sided suitcase, so coined by Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland.  Michael Quinion describes blends more fully at World Wide

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If we want to promote comprehension we must strive to convey academic vocabulary in every subject area throughout the day, and at every grade level. The specific term academic word does not refer to domain-specific vocabulary like photosynthesis or decimal. An academic word is often the scholarly counterpart to a high-frequency common word. For example, the verb show is a common word but

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-28833974809232764042010-03-21T00:01:00.000-07:002011-02-26T12:36:11.886-08:00

Hirsch (2006) describes a knowledge deficit in rich and poor alike, yet most severe in impoverished conditions. This deficit is troubling because knowledge facilitates comprehension and cognitive processing (Willingham, 2006). The good news? With informational reading materials educators can promote content knowledge and vocabulary simultaneously (earlier post).  For example, consider the

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Years ago, as a particularly bitter winter retreated from Wisconsin, my mother pointed to a tree near the window. “See the buds on the branch, Susie.” I searched, the two of us peering together through the glass, until finally I saw something that resembled unpopped popcorn kernels. Small, knobby, not much of a muchness at all. Mom then explained that the tree had been sleeping all winter and now

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-60373797238924188922010-03-07T00:01:00.000-08:002011-04-30T13:57:48.422-07:00

Dr. Alexis Filippini contributed the following post. Alexis is assistant professor in the Department of Special Education at San Francisco State University. Dyslexia, the most prevalent specific learning disability, is typically characterized by phonological processing deficits that contribute to difficulty decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling), and slow, inaccurate reading (Lyon, Shaywitz,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-73072806098815365372010-02-28T00:01:00.000-08:002010-06-30T14:30:12.233-07:00

Dr. Marcia Henry contributed the following post. Marcia is known for morphology research and her work with the International Dyslexia Association. Useful publications for teachers of reading and spelling include WORDS and Unlocking Literacy. Thanks, Susan, for inviting me to participate in Vocabulogic. I’d like to introduce a framework for teaching morphemes that has been useful for me.

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-85004834715466745022010-02-21T00:01:00.000-08:002011-02-26T12:59:28.119-08:00

Dr. Vicki Gibson contributed the following post. Vicki is known for her work with preschool (the We Can method/program), primary grades, and differentiated instruction.   At-risk readers and writers benefit the most from explicit vocabulary instruction in every subject area (Baumann & Kame'enui, 2006). What makes a lesson explicit? Consider the implications of one prefix in particular:

Vicki Gibson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12790240659339543175noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-35226305926494519392010-02-14T00:01:00.000-08:002012-01-22T03:12:53.969-08:00

Responses varied among the 134 who took the word relations quiz. The task was to decide whether the two words share a root meaning. If two or more words share a core meaning and also a similar root spelling, it makes sense to consider a morphological relationship, even if the meaning only partially overlaps, as in thermos and thermostat, and the vowel sound shifts from one word to another, as

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-38892766244658407352010-02-07T00:01:00.000-08:002011-04-30T13:57:48.424-07:00

When life throws something extraordinary at us, we invent a new word to express our amazement and awe. Today brought several new words describing a snowstorm. Meteorologists went wacko. On Sunday we can expect to hear more newly minted words describing the Super Bowl and the soaring achievements of the Who Dat Nation. Ever notice how creatively sportscasters and meteorologists craft words? Do

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English is not only a complex sound-spelling system, posing a potential challenge for learning to read (Seymour, 2007), it is also a large language, rapidly assimilating words from all over the globe. Linguist David Crystal (1995) estimated at least a million 'words' in the English language, including single words as well as compounds and phrases like son-in-law, polar bear, and a bolt from the

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-58753952405575411402010-01-24T00:15:00.000-08:002010-06-04T23:51:15.586-07:00

poll by twiigs.com The poll has closed. Thank you for participating! Exactly 50% of the 98 voters viewed English as more complex than German, Spanish, and French, at least from a reading and spelling perspective. Yes, several researchers would agree.    (Click image to enlarge) Orthography has to do with the writing and spelling system. Seymour, Aro, and Erskine (2003) analyzed various

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-77925780657022505492010-01-17T00:03:00.000-08:002011-04-30T13:58:38.807-07:00

Dr. Jan Hasbrouck contributed the following post. Jan's research interests include fluency, educational leadership, literacy coaching, etc. Helpful guides for teachers include The Reading Coach: A How-To Manual for Success.  I have been involved with issues related to reading fluency for over thirty years. My interest in this topic started when I was a reading specialist, working with

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“Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant who, let him but wax unbound, would make it a sport to seize the pillars that hold up the long-wrought fabric of human good, and turn all the places of joy as dark as a buried Babylon.” (George Eliot, English novelist, 1819-1880). If we do

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-31502668340496981182010-01-03T01:19:00.000-08:002011-05-02T15:13:26.659-07:00

Peter Bowers contributed the following post. Pete is a doctoral candidate at Queen's University, Canada, with expertise in orthography and morphology, as well as critical thinking. Visit his website: WordWorks Literacy Centre.  I’m delighted to accept Susan’s invitation to post an entry on her vocabulary blog. My goal is to illustrate the (perhaps surprising) view that studying spelling offers

Peter Bowershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05166925835424863954noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-907711130743735742009-12-27T09:33:00.000-08:002011-02-26T12:42:08.599-08:00

Metalinguistic awareness includes awareness of language at the level of the sound, the letter, the word, the phrase, the sentence, and the passage. Furthermore, metalinguistic awareness includes sensitivity to alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia, etc. Time spent becoming aware of these literary devices should theoretically contribute to interest in words, which in turn should promote vocabulary

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-1121600447579143722009-12-20T01:01:00.000-08:002010-05-25T15:49:25.878-07:00

Hodgepodge served here, a savory seasonal mix. Hodgepodge is an alteration of Middle English hochepot, from an Old French word for 'stew' (American Heritage Dictionary). Ever wonder about the meaning and etymology of nowell? With this word, we see how Latin, French, and English intermix within a family of words, and how spelling can deviate from the root. Click poster to enlarge or print.

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This post is courtesy of Dr. Andrew Biemiller, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto. Andy is an eminent vocabulary researcher and the author of Words Worth Teaching: Closing the Vocabulary Gap (see references). For more about his research and his book on words worthy of instructional time in elementary grades, also see the post by Michael Graves. By the end of the primary grades,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-47063542431786258542009-12-03T20:04:00.000-08:002012-01-22T03:12:53.970-08:00

By a slight margin, most of the 87 voters thought context explains word meaning about 25% of the time, for 1 in 4 words. That's about right, if we count less explicit clues, leading to a more general understanding of the word (Swanborn & deGlopper, 2002).Context varies, but in general, it does not provide an 'in-house' explicit definition. Case in point: When Tiger Woods apologized for his '

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-84542120803033013682009-11-29T17:31:00.000-08:002011-04-30T22:07:01.904-07:00

THE MAIN GOAL of this blog is to prompt vocabulary instruction, because word knowledge facilitates comprehension (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002). "The learning characteristics that have the strongest causal connection to academic failure are rooted in the area of language” (Coyne, Kame’enui, & Carnine, 2007, p. 38). What is needed is a persistent and consistent investment in word knowledge. That

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-23640156295100092522009-11-22T18:55:00.000-08:002012-01-22T03:12:53.971-08:00

Readers beware! Here be invented words on several topics, created for budding vocabulogicians. Verbiventing is a great way to develop word logic in children and adolescents. Invent words. Interpret other's inventions. Grow in word sense. 1) Naming the season: Whether we call it harvest, autumn, or fall, it's the most brightific season of all! Could the term fall simply refer to falling leaves?

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-50141555195473489532009-11-15T15:35:00.000-08:002012-01-22T03:12:53.972-08:00

In his post two weeks ago, P. David Pearson spoke of working actively with words in multiple contexts, with the habitat slide from Seeds and Roots.  David suggested adding a morphological setting. A morphological connection to habitat would include inhabit and inhabitants, the Spanish word hábitat, and perhaps habitual and habit. This relates to my earlier blog on making connections within and

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-74588085871874318182009-11-03T11:33:00.000-08:002011-08-20T23:52:23.618-07:00

This post is courtesy of Dr. P. David Pearson.  David is a faculty member in the programs in Language and Literacy and Cognition and Development at the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Dean from 2001-2010. Current research projects include Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading -- a Research and Development effort with colleagues at Lawrence

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Cognitively, we process words in morphological families (Baayen, 2007), but learners manifest differences in their awareness of these relationships (Carlisle, 2007). This awareness goes hand in hand with vocabulary development. I am not speaking about memorizing words so much as about finding meaning and logic within words. For example, the root -ug- (Old Norse) meaning 'dread, fear, horror,

Susan M. Ebbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407326546315049925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7115493794020921973.post-25344909810945678692009-09-28T13:45:00.000-07:002010-09-06T10:41:13.362-07:00

Adolescents who embrace a rationale for learning experience greater reward (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2002). They learn more and are likely to be more interested. A rationale is motivating. Develop motivation for attending to words. Prompt discussion with a quote from Plato perhaps: "When the mind is thinking, it is talking to itself."   Discuss the implications: To attend to words is to strive

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