The 90-Minute Challenge (Dare You!) by Carla Kessler

This post is provided by Carla Kessler, Director of Learning at LogixLab LLC, and creator of Word Lab Web. Formerly a Title I Coordinator and Learning Specialist, Carla has been recognized as an Outstanding Educator by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. As a 25-year veteran teacher of the middle grades, she has been recognized for her skills in implementing innovative curriculum that brings measurable results. Carla writes, "I have spent my career being a "peaceful warrior" in my efforts to advocate for effective student learning."

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I Dare You!! 

What am I daring you to do? I’m daring you to step back and redesign your teaching priorities for a whole month. I’m talking about putting less time into close reading and reading strategies and putting more time into highly focused word learning. For one month (Jan. 31 to Mar. 3), spend 90 minutes a week teaching vocabulary in your classroom. I’m challenging you to create a classroom environment where your students’ appreciation of word knowledge is heightened more than usual. 

I dare you to allocate 90+ minutes a week 

for direct instruction of word learning

for one month. 

Why? 

Because, “…correlations between vocabulary size and life chances are as firm as any correlations in educational research….there’s no better index to accumulated knowledge and general competence than the size of a person’s vocabulary.” (Hirsch, A Wealth of Words)

Because, “…vocabulary size is a convenient proxy for a whole range of educational attainments and abilities—not just skill in reading, writing, listening, and speaking but also general knowledge of science, history, and the arts.”  (Hirsch, A Wealth of Words)

Because as Marzano keeps reminding us, “The importance of direct vocabulary instruction cannot be overstated.” 

Because, "The number of words that students need to learn is exceedingly large; on average students should add 2,000 to 3,000 new words a year to their reading vocabularies" (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002). 

Because, ”The key to increasing upward mobility is expanding vocabulary.” (Carter, How improving Vocabulary Helps Human Flourishing)

Because, “Vocabulary is critical to an active imagination. A child’s ability to imagine things beyond their own senses is directly related to the depth and breadth of their vocabulary.” (Clarkson, Speaking of Imagination)

I can keep going...but you get the idea. 

During my tenure as Title I coordinator, I found teachers reluctant to give up reading-teaching time in order to make time for more vocabulary study. They had to reduce the teaching of reading strategies to make time. There is very little evidence that teaching a multitude of reading strategies improves reading but our teachers had become quite attached to the reading strategies protocols. 

We asked teachers to “just try it” for a while (just like I am asking you now) and see how it went. From there we were able to create a dialogue about prioritizing and what the research says. We changed our focus and started making much greater gains in reading scores. 

Join us in this challenge. Let's create a dialogue. During the challenge month, I will be sending encouragement in the way of research and ideas. At the end, everyone is asked to share their experiences. My hope is that this experience and subsequent dialogue will also give your students a lift in their reading scores and confidence. 

Guidelines for meeting this 90-Minute Challenge:

DO: 

1. Have your middle grade students pick words they don’t know from the context of what they are reading. Paired reading is one way to do this (see VOCABUTRIX for more ideas). 
2. Provide a common word list, that represents the expectations for word learning for your particular group and/or subject area. 
3. Provide personalized structured approaches for dealing with words in challenging texts (see Worder Nerds). 
4. Have students look up words on their phones, on tablets, or on computers. If you’re worried about using cell phones in class, see the tip below. 
5. Have students discuss aloud with their peers their personal connections to any aspect of the word that they have looked up. 
6. Have students discuss different contexts for the words they are learning and the “feeling” the words elicit based on their personal experience (connotations).
7. Do have students review their favorite new words, expecting that the exposure created by sharing personal connections will help the learning stick.

DON’T: 

1. Give everyone the same weekly word list with no opportunities for differentiation.
2. Avoid challenging texts for struggling readers. 
3. Expect students to learn vocabulary primarily via the dictionary.
4. Spend time memorizing rote definitions, without context. 
5. Assess progress by testing word knowledge independent of context. 
6. Feel obligated to teach every aspect of a word’s meaning (see We Don’t Know Words from Adam).

Tip: Cell Phones and Digital Dictionaries: 
Teaching your students dictionary skills is important but should not be required for learning word meanings. What’s important here is to get to a valid definition quickly. If students are allowed to use phones, have them download a dictionary app. Once downloaded, students can put the phone in “airplane” mode. A digital dictionary is of course also accessible from a tablet or computer. Once students can quickly look up words on digital devices, they often make it a habit, and what a great habit to encourage! 

So what do you think? Can you join us? We will help you along the way with tips, inspirations, and motivational support. For a month, January 31 to March 3, prioritize 90 minutes a week for vocabulary growth. Sign up or simply learn more at my webpage on Wordlab:The 90-Minute Challenge. 

Oh, and before you go, tell us in the comments area about any roadblocks to spending 90 minutes a week on word learning. We’d like to hear from you!

Video: The Joy of Lexicography (Erin McKean)

In the most recent post, I discussed the minimal reference to studying etymology allocated by the Common Core State Standards, and I attempted to make a case for spending some time on little word histories anyway, regardless of the Standards.

Today, a related topic -- lexicography.  Courtesy of TED Talks, I am excited to share Dr. Erin McKean's entertaining yet educational presentation on the nature of words, dictionaries, and lexicography, in general. This video lasts about 15 minutes, but it felt like 5, at least for me. Lots of laughter and jolly good word fun. Published in 2007, it's like a good book--even better the second time.

In the video below, Erin makes the case that a paper dictionary limits the amount of words that can "fit in the pan" (the book). She argues that in a digital environment there is no limit to the number of words that could fit. So, if not spatial constraints, why should a word be included in a dictionary? According to Erin, because we LOVE and USE the word. In The Joy of Lexicography, she says:

People say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anybody who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction. It doesn't make a word any more real than any other way. If you love a word, it becomes real.

Applications for older students: The video is suitable for older students. Teachers could share it when discussing the limitations of a paper dictionary, the rise of new media,  the legitimacy of words, the joy of word play and creative expression, etc.

Jamie's Journey: The Savannah (Ebbers)

Applications for younger children: Encourage children to invent new words, and let them know that you are interested in the words they use, whether new or old. One way to encourage word coinage is by reading the chapter book Frindle. (I'm calling my pen a "frindle" by gum, no matter what  the dictionary says!) Frindle is best suited for grades 4-5. Likewise, for grades K-3, in Jamie's Journey: The Savannah, I use the word dreamer in an unusual way. (Image text: "With his mat on his back and his dreamer unfurled, Jamie journeys through town to the end of the world.") This word lends itself to questions like "What is our dreamer, where is our dreamer, and how important is it, to have a dreamer?

Why bother? Word coinage and discussions about the dictionary encourage metalinguistic awareness, which in turn fosters comprehension. Also, word coinage is one aspect of word consciousness, one of the four components of a robust vocabulary program (Graves, 2006). This type of instruction is important for a number of reasons, including motivational and metacognitive aspects of learning to read, write, and otherwise express ourselves.

Courtesy of TED Talks, Erin McKean, The Joy of Lexicography (~15 minutes).

(Give the video a moment to load, or see it directly at this link.)

Erin McKean, lexicographer, is the CEO and inspirational force behind one of my favorite new and interactive dictionaries, Wordnik. This digital dictionary provides examples of contextualized word usage from Twitter, etc., word images from Flickr, and all the basic stuff a traditional dictionary offers. In addition, Wordnik encourages us (students, too) to contribute new words and new uses for old words.

Caution: A reader recently advised caution when sending students to the Wordnik site. Depending on the word -- in her case, explicit -- Wordnik may yield inappropriate images and quotations.

The Underestimated Verb and Morphological Reasoning

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I discuss verbs, including the verb-forming suffixes -ize, -ify, -ate,and -en, the verb-forming prefixes be-,  en-/em- and sometimes de-, and verbs that started life as a noun and underwent grammatical shift, as in table/ to table. 

In a Web search, I found that Amazon can "betterize" their recommendations, someone “argufied somethin’ fierce,” and someone else is "preparing to speechify." The Exploratorium addresses the psychology behind how to cute-ify any creature, simply by making the eyes bigger, the body plump or fluffy, etc.

Action verbs advance the plot, in life and in literature. Only the verb can stand alone as a complete sentence: "Go!" But verbs can be the very devil. In each instance below, the verb went awry:

• “How do you know if you don’t measure if you have a system that simply suckles kids through?”
•  “You know, this issue doesn’t seem to resignate with the people.”
• “They have misunderestimated me.”

(Bushisms, Weisberg, 2001)

How many English words are verbs? While nouns and adjectives make up 75% of the words in the English language, verbs only account for about 14%, according to Oxford Dictionaries.com (estimates only, based on main entry words).

However, this estimate does not take into account words with senses for different word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.). For example, snowplow is tallied as a noun, but it could also be tallied as a verb: “I will snowplow the driveway.” Thus, the estimate of 14%, or only 1 in 7 words, must be quite low, because converting a noun into a verb is fairly common in English (not necessarily true in every language).

The business of transforming a noun into a verb goes by many names: verbing, verbification, morphological conversion, grammatical shift, functional shift, zero-derivation, etc. Whatever we call it, one thing is certain: It provides for a great deal of versatility and flexibility of expression. If Oxford’s tally of verbs included multiple senses for each given main entry, the number of verbs in the English language would rise, significantly. 

And even though it is possible to convert words across grammatical categories, as from an adjective (green) into a noun (the putting green), verbing is by far the most common type of grammatical shift.

In “You’ve Been Verbed” Anthony Gardner writes: “Mothers and fathers used to bring up children: now they parent. Critics used to review plays: now they critique them. Athletes podium, executives flipchart, and almost everybody Googles. Watch out—you’ve been verbed.” (Update: Also see 10-27-2012 NYT post by Dr. Helen Sword, Mutant Verbs).

Nonetheless, there is some logic to the pie graph pictured above, despite the missing grammatical conversions. It is not surprising that nouns and adjectives outnumber verbs. We can apply one verb to a slew of nouns. For example, the possibilities are endless with the verb fix. Theoretically, we can "fix" any noun that exists!

How does morphology help us understand verbs?

Source: Vocabulary Through Morphemes (Ebbers)

Sentence order helps us understand grammatical function. In addition to sentence order, suffixes--and some prefixes--provide syntactic information. For example, words that end with –ize tend to be verbs, as in verbalize. Words that end with –ion tend to be abstract nouns, as in education and television. Words that end with –ic tend to be adjectives, as in exotic, heroic. The chart shows derivations of drama, formed by adding various suffixes. Read more about derivational suffixes.

When there is no verb-forming suffix, for example when the noun table is transformed to a verb, "Let's table the discussion" we must rely on sentence order to determine word class. Read more about words with multiple meanings, including suffix-less zero-derivations).

How is a verb formed, morphologically? A verb could be a morphologically simple word, with only one morpheme: run, eat, sleep. It could be morphologically complex, composed of more than one morpheme. This includes compound words that are verbs: downsize, whitewash, kickbox. A handful of derivational suffixes create verbs. I list them below.

• -ate, as in evaporate, calculate, demonstrate (more words)
• -ize, as in analyze, revitalize, theorize (more words)
• -ise (the British spelling for –ize) as in exercise
• -ify, as in justify, oversimplify, pacify, electrify (more from Word Detector)
• -en, as in moisten, sharpen, shorten (but not earthen, silken, etc.)
  

Prefixes can form verbs, too. The prefix en- creates verbs like endanger, enjoy, endear. This prefix is also spelled em-, as in embody, empower (see post on assimilated prefixes). Adding the prefix be- transforms a noun to a verb, as in befriend, bewitch, besiege. The prefix de- sometimes forms verbs, as in derail, defrost, and dethrone.

Reading research, morphological insight, and verbs: Researchers use contextualized (and sometimes isolated) invented words that contain real derivational suffixes to see whether or not older children (and adults) understand, even just subconsciously, how the derivational suffix indicates grammatical category. I have used the same process in my dissertation work, using real words and also invented words. Two examples from my test wordPLAY are shown below:

Can the rain ___?   vapor         vaporize      vapors         vaporizing 

We will ____ it.       borkize       borkous      borkment      borkly

Researchers have consistently found that poor morphological insight explains poor vocabulary knowledge: After all the other usual suspects have been accounted for, there is still a difference between students of high versus low vocabulary, and that remaining difference is partially explained when we factor in morphological knowledge. This difference begins in the primary grades and continues through high school and college for some students (e.g., Berninger et al. 2010; Carlisle, 2000; 2010; McBride-Chang et al., 2005, etc.; Singson, Mahony, & Mann, 2000, etc.).

What should students do? Learn words? YES! But also, learn ABOUT words--how they work, how they are formed, how to play around with them. And READ. And TALK. Absorb words, and their patterns. 

That's all. It's summer, almost. It's Sunday, spot on. Why not go outside and verb?

PS. Read more about the suffix -ify in Don't Be Iffy on -ify and see the worksheet that goes with it. Also see Teaching Verbs and Confronting the Skunk, by Georgia Scurletis, at Visual Thesuaurs.

References

Puzzling Plurals and the *Potatoe Incident

Thanks for participating in the Puzzling Plurals survey. In this post, after focusing on potato and other singular nouns that end with the open /o/ sound, I discuss the survey questions. To finish, I provide links to references, articles, and games.

It is evident from the survey results that "we" are perplexed. The English language is  puzzling, and plurals trouble all of us at times. As we know, they can certainly stress former US Vice Presidents--at least, that's the argument I make below.

"Now add one little bit on the end."

Some tricky singular-plural pairs are remnants of Old English, and flow from the Germanic layer of the language. Some are artifacts of Greek and Latin influence. Still others flow from Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, etc.

For example, take potato, a word that apparently traveled from native Haitian, was given a  Spanish spelling, and was adopted into English, from Sp. patata, from Carib (Haiti) batata "sweet potato." (etymology here). Basic English 101 says to make a plural, we add either the inflectional suffix -s or -es to the singular noun, right? But we typically add -es to words that end with hissing sibilant sounds like /s/, /z/, /sh/, /zh/ and /ch/ -- including wish-wishes, fox-foxes, and bus-buses. Now, potato does not end with a hissing sound, so why would the plural of potato be potato + es? We do not add an -es to pinto or pueblo, yet like potato, they came into English via Spanish. And if the plural is potatoes (and it is), then we should be able to figure out how to spell the singular simply by removing the final -s. Thus, we might deduce that the singular of potatoes is *potatoe. After all, someone (a teacher, or so the story goes) spelled it that way on the cue card for the ill-famed spelling bee. (See the *potatoe incident on YouTube.)

One can kinda-sorta see why Quayle's handler approved the cue card, and why the VP himself went along with it, telling the 12-year-old--who knew the correct spelling--to "add one little bit to the end" of his perfectly spelled potato. After all, there are just too many strange spellings to remember, and we never add -es to a noun that ends in a vowel.

Visual Thesaurus map for genie

But we do! Potato+es, echo+es, torpedo+es, tomato+es, and hero+es testify to it, while piano+s, inferno+s, video+s, rodeo+s and bistro+s refute it. Meanwhile, playing it safe, several sit the fence: ghettos or ghettoes, cargoes or cargos, flamingos or flamingoes, halos or haloes, tornadoes or tornados, etc. English is pickled with puzzles, and just when we find a pattern, the language genie attacks--sometimes we tangle with two genies at once--or genii?

I spell potato, you spell *potatoe? Pity the former Vice President, but pity even more the millions of English learners around the world. In fact, be gentle with all. From the survey results, even well-educated adults who use English with confidence all day fall prey to the unpredictable plural.

Below, I briefly discuss the survey questions. I note the percentage of 271 respondents who voted in favor of each phrase, deciding it was correct. Kudos (but not *kudoes) for resisting the dictionary while responding. Refer to the prior post to see the closed survey with graphed results and related comments.

• (82%) lots of data is correct. The singular is datum. 
• (55%) seven thesauri is correct. Thesauruses is listed in some dictionaries, but it only appears once every 1,356,110 pages, on average, according to Vocabulary.com. The singular is thesaurus. 
• (63%) a single bacterium is correct (like datum). The plural is bacteria. 
• (12%) six skinny mooses is not correct. The plural of moose is moose.
• (38%) one essential criteria is not correct. The singular is criterion; the plural is criteria.
• (26%) five octopuses is correct. Read about octopuses, not *octopi, below.
  
• (85%) four strong oxen is correct (like children, brethren, and extinct shoon, like shoe + -en; see shoe etymology). The singular is ox. 
• (63%) two loaded dice is correct. The singular is die (but dice is becoming more accepted as a singular form). Note the plural mice and lice are not expressed in singular as *mie and *lie.
• (89%) four flying fish is correct, but fishes would also be correct. 
• (71%) a strange phenomenon is correct (like criterion). The plural is phenomena. 
• (77%) some differing hypotheses is correct, ending with es. The singular is hypothesis (like crisis, analysis, thesis, parenthesis). 
• (13%) hundreds of hopping head lie is not correct. The plural is lice and the singular louse (like mouse, but not house and *hice)

English words reflect the spelling patterns of the parent language, but not with consistency. This is when we teach dictionary skills, an important aspect of vocabulary instruction. However, it is worthwhile to memorize the spellings of words we use frequently. Many of these words actually do conform to a plural-forming pattern. In Words and Rules, Stephen Pinker (1999, p. 26) theorized:

"The mind analyzes every stretch of language as some mixture of memorized chunks and rule-governed assemblies."

Rule-governed assemblies include spelling patterns. What are the spelling patterns for tricky plurals? Several experts have attempted to explain them, or list them. So, for your browsing pleasure, explore the following links -- there's even a game.

The Old English Plural by The Oxford Times

Tricky Plurals in English: Bacterias, Bacteriae, Bacteriums? Plurals of Loanwords in English, by Oxford Dictionaries-Oxford University Press (not sure if this will open without a membership). Here is an excerpt, explaining why *octopi is not the plural of octopus:

Tangled up in the coils of the language octopus
 X Sea lions are carnivores and eat fish, squid, octopi, crabs, clams, and lobsters. 
As the above example (taken from a US scientific publication) shows, a little knowledge of Latin and Greek can be a dangerous thing and sometimes leads people into error. The writer clearly knows that some Latin plurals are formed by changing the ‘–us’ ending of a singular noun into ‘-i’ for the plural, as in alumnus -> alumni. However, octopus is ultimately borrowed from a Greek word and not a Latin one, so it’s incorrect to form the plural according to the Latin rules. If you wanted to be ultra-correct and conform to ancient Greek, you’d talk about octopodes, but this is very rare: the Anglicized plural, octopuses, is absolutely fine. 

A Reference to Strange Plurals in English, at pipTALK Forums

Irregular Plurals and Nouns, at the University of Victoria Study Zone

One Fish-Two Fish, a game-like quiz at Sporcle (Try it!)

Minimum, Minima, and Other Irregular Plurals  by Bill Wilson, engineering

Strange Plurals at English Forums.com

Strange Plurals, an open list at Worknik

What is the Plural of Mouse? Quick and Dirty Tips by Grammar Girl


References:

Pinker, S. (1999). Words and rules. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Cheers,
Susan

The Rise of New Media, The Fall of Printed Books

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 Morphemes, now in its Second Edition.

How has Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) advertised the Fifth Edition of the dictionary? Marketing materials caught my interest with one question:

"Will this be the last print dictionary ever made?" 

Relative to this provocative question, the publishers made the book available in print,  online, and via a smartphone app. The question posed by HMH is probably precipitous, for not everyone has access to an e-reader. According to a March 2011 report by the National Association of College Stores, only about 15% of college students own any type of e-reading device (see post by Charles Schmidt). This percentage reflects an increase over prior years. It is logical to assume the numbers will continue to rise in future but it is also logical to assume that comparatively fewer K-12 school children have access to e-readers in the home. Perhaps they have access to the Internet at home. Perhaps not.

Recent trends indicate the end is coming--the age of print is already past its zenith. Certainly we have seen the rise of digital news over newsprint. Further, a number of magazines have transformed from print publishing to Web-based. For example, in 2009, Ecologist made the decision to stop printing their magazine, in favor of a digital version. See Why the Ecologist Has Gone Online, by Zac Goldsmith of The Guardian.

Students need to effectively use digital media as well as legacy media. The recently adopted Common Core State Standards reflect the expectation that students will become adept at learning from a variety of sources. Below, I show relevant English Language Arts Standards for grades five and six:

English Language Arts Standards: Reading: Informational Text: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Grade 5. RI.5.7.  Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

Grade 6. RI.6.7. Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

The standards indicate that adolescents are expected to draw wisely from new media and from old, to further along the quest for information and deeper understanding. This assumes a great deal, not least the availability of both types of media, but the goal is spot on.

The standards notwithstanding, even as digital technology moves forward at speed, reading research lags behind. The Web offers a number of advantages for fact finding and for social interaction, but when it comes to the psychology of reading, despite the hype for high-tech, there is little evidence supporting a learning advantage for children who use e-readers, apps, or engage otherwise in online reading. We do not know enough about whether e-books enable fluent reading in younger students, nor do we know enough about the conditions under which web-reading and e-books might best facilitate vocabulary growth or comprehension in older students. The adjustment to digital reading is complicated, from a cognitive perspective, in large part because the Web is designed to distract. The adjustment to Web-reading involves more than the relatively superficial transformation seen when society moved from reading scrolls to reading books or from listening to cassettes versus CDs. At this point, a great deal is unknown. Work is underway; researchers are investigating these urgent issues and more. See prior post on processing digital text.

Getting back to the marketing campaign for the Fifth Edition, linguist Ben Zimmer addresses the portentous question posed by HMH in his post, Is this the last print dictionary?  Another expert, Dennis Baron, discusses the marketing gimmick with a post titled The last print dictionary.  Each writer explores the future of printed books.

What say you? Will digital dictionaries replace printed volumes, or is HMH asking the wrong question, making it dichotomous? This query might apply to novels, children's books, textbooks, etc. Gabrielle E. Miller, guest writer for the electronic Washington Post, offers a perspective: Must we have the digital versus print battle?

Classroom application: Along these lines, I offer a bit of verse for preteens and young adolescents, to elicit discussion and debate regarding the relative merits of printed texts and digital media. Is the age of books coming to an end? If so, what of it?

The Age of Books

Crated, carted, cast aside,
printed works have liquefied
in shocking bouts of bookicide.

The printing press is done, perhaps,
and publishers have (boom!) collapsed
to clicky gadgets, gizmos, apps.

Digital books are all the rage,
touchless paper, turnless page.

Stores are only cyber spaces,
cold, electric, faceless places.

Bookshops closed, bookshelves cleared,
paperbacks have disappeared.

The age of print has culminated,
finished, finis, terminated.

                          ******

Make free use of the poem. I wrote it from a growing awareness of how new technology is influencing teaching, learning, and society in general at many levels. To prompt the spirit of debate I have taken a side, and it does reflect my love for books, but I see value in high tech and old, and I enjoy using my e-reader.

Want more? See the video for the book, titled It's a Book, by Lane Smith. Also, see the You Tube video The Help Desk, featuring medieval monks making the transformation from scroll to book. 

~Susan

Modeling Word Solving (Frey & Fisher)

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 solving" so students might learn to infer word meaning when reading independently. This entry builds on the previous post by Fisher and Frey, describing how to decide which words to teach.

Although selecting words worthy of being taught is one of the hardest things about explicit vocabulary instruction, modeling is one of the most underutilized instructional routines for ensuring students’ progress in word knowledge and word solving. Modeling word solving strategies does not focus on specific words, but rather the skills of figuring out unknown words. It’s habit building and students need to develop this habit if they are going to apply what we have taught them on their own.

Our thinking about modeling word solving focuses on students learning to look inside words and outside words for clues about meaning.

And we say this to them all of the time, “Let’s look inside the word and outside the word to see what we know.” That’s what we hope that they start to say to themselves, over time, as they come to words they don’t know.

In thinking about word solving, we have identified three categories worthy of attention during modeling: word parts, context clues, and resources (Fisher, Frey, & Lapp, 2008). Of course, modeling word solving should be integrated with other attempts at understanding the text, such as comprehension strategies and using text structures and text features. We are not suggesting that teachers focus only on modeling word solving, but rather add word solving in their shared readings and think alouds so that students have access to examples of expert thinking about words. As we will see in the examples below, modeling requires the use of an “I statement” in which the teacher shares his or her thinking with others.

Looking Inside: Word Parts

When readers come to an unknown word, one of the things that they can do is look inside the word to see if there are any clues to the word’s meaning. Understanding morphology, including prefixes, suffixes, roots, bases, and cognates, helps the reader make an educated guess about an unknown word. For example, if the reader has never been exposed to the word paleozoology, she or he can make an educated guess about this field using knowledge about prefixes and suffixes. In fact, the word is fairly easy to figure out when you remember that paleo- means old or ancient, zoo relates to animals, and -ology relates to the study of something.

But simply providing students with a morphology list is not likely to change their behavior when they come to unknown words. Instead, teachers need to model the use of morphology in understanding words. For example, while reading a sentence that contained the word heterozygous, the biology teacher modeled his use of morphology saying, “I know that hetero means different, so this must be the one that has two different alleles, or different versions, of a specific gene.”

Of course, morphology does not always work and students should be provided with examples that remind them to check other clues as well. Our favorite example of this occurred in an English as a Second Language classroom when the teacher got to the word repeat. She said, “I got this one. I know that re- means to do again. So I’m going to peat again. Wait, I have no idea what that means! I better check the context clues and look outside the word to see if I can figure this out.”

Looking Outside: Context Clues

In addition to looking inside words, students have to be taught to look outside of words to figure out their meaning. This happens through an understanding of context clues. Although context clues are not infallible, they can be helpful. There are a number of different kinds of context clues, such as embedded synonyms, antonyms, direct definitions, and the use of punctuation. Again, students need to be taught how to use these tools. Modeling provides students examples that can be built into habits.

For example, when reading about the “supermoon” predicted for March 19, 2011, the teacher noted the word fatalities in the news report. There had been quite a bit of news coverage around the world that this astronomical event, which brought the Moon into close range of the Earth, would cause widespread flooding and earthquakes. She made the connection between fatalities in the beginning of the sentence and the use of “the number dead” later in the sentence. Another example occurred when the teacher modeled using punctuation, in this case a dependent clause that contained additional and specific information about a more difficult word. As with word parts, teachers should also model when the use of context clues fail.

Again, the goal is for students to develop a habit that they can use independently when they come across unknown words. Like most of the systems we use when reading and trying to make meaning, they don’t always work. When these two systems--word parts and context clues--fail, it’s time to look further outside the word and use resources.

Looking Further Outside: Using Resources

“When all else fails, look it up” is a common motto of teachers, and with good reason. When the systems we have for figuring out unknown words within a the text do not help, it’s time to turn our attention to the resources we have at our disposal. Once upon a time, that was limited to printed dictionaries and glossaries. Today, we have a plethora of resources at our fingertips because of the Internet. For example, the visual dictionary is a great resource that student can be taught to use. The same holds for the many specialized dictionaries such as:

• Science: TSD: The Science Dictionary

• History: Babylon.com: History Dictionary

• Mathematics: A Maths Dictionary for Kids

• Art: Artlex Art Dictionary

• Sports and fitness: Babylon.com: Sports Dictionary

As with word parts and context clues, teachers should model their use of resources such as these as well as the appropriate ways to ask other people. This can be as simple as calling a friend on the classroom phone or texting someone for more information.

Modeling is an important part of explicit vocabulary instruction, but it is not sufficient in and of itself to ensure that students learn words deeply. In addition to modeling, students need intentional instruction and multiple opportunities to practice the words they are learning.

Editorial Note: To see how Frey and Fisher's "word solving" fits into the third of four components of a comprehensive vocabulary plan (Graves, 2006), read Four-Ply Vocabulary Plan.  To read about the problem with relying only on context clues to infer word meaning, read Context: Good News and Bad. To see another example of using morpheme clues and context clues to infer meaning and solve unknown words, see the portage example embedded in English: A Large Language. To see how the strategy discussed by Frey and Fisher applies to English Language Learners, see The Mindful Zen of Morphology. Also, for Spanish-strong language learners, see A Morphological Approach for English Language Learners by Carolyn Eddy. Finally, to see how to teach morphological reasoning in a deductive approach that prompts critical thinking, see the prior post by Peter Bowers.


References

Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Lapp, D. (2008). In a reading state of mind: Brain research, teacher modeling, and comprehension instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Making the Most of Web 2.0 Tools to Support Students’ Generative Vocabulary Learning (Castek)

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. Her classroom-based research examines the challenges and opportunities for reading, writing, and learning on the Internet and explores the contexts and conditions through which the new literacies of online reading comprehension are acquired.

Jim Baumann (University of Missouri) and Ed Kame’enui (University of Oregon) are editing a second edition of Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (Guilford Press) to be published in 2011. Bridget Dalton (Vanderbilt University), Dana Grisham (National University) and I were invited to submit a piece that addressed special topics in vocabulary instruction.  In our chapter, Using Multimedia to Support Students’ Generative Vocabulary Learning (Castek, Dalton, & Grisham, in process) we suggest that the use of digital media in vocabulary learning should not only be receptive (e.g., viewing vocabulary graphics), but also generative (actively engaging students in using language and media to express themselves and to create products that represent their new knowledge). We assert that this type of vocabulary learning empowers students as agents of their own learning. The act of creation supports ownership, introduces authentic reasons for learning, and tangibly links reading, writing, and communication in ways that mirror learning outside of school. This post draws ideas from the chapter and suggests ways to promote students’ active word learning using Web 2.0 tools. In this post, I discuss three ways to utilize digital media to enhance word knowledge. 

Vocabulary Videos: Today’s students have grown up with YouTube as part of daily life. Consider having students’ produce their own vocabulary videos (or ‘vocab vids’) -- 60-second videos that situate word learning in a specific context.  The varied student-created examples found at VocabAhead (e.g., the entry for amble and the entry for headstrong) illustrate how video creation and multimodal expression make the word learning experience more memorable for both the video producers as well as the viewing audience. For tips and tools for creating videos, see the teacher page at VocabAhead.

Vocab vids illustrate how meaning can be communicated in 60 seconds or less, with few or no props. Bridget Dalton and a teacher colleague partnered to create a model that illustrates the power of video to illustrate word meanings (see Figure 1, below). Using a flip camera, they shot a video illustrating the word overwhelmed. The video opens with a shot of a desk piled high with books. The teacher is sitting on the floor, hidden by the desk. Suddenly, his hand appears, pulling a book off. More books disappear as the teacher pops up repeatedly, looking increasingly distressed. At the end, the teacher appears with a sign displaying the word overwhelm, saying, “I’m distressed, drowning in a deluge of books. This is an overwhelming amount of books to read! Can you tell I’m feeling totally overwhelmed?!” Note that all of the italicized words were found during a Web search the pair did to prepare for the video. They used different forms of the word (overwhelm, overwhelmed, overwhelming) and incorporated related words (distress and deluge) to aid in the development of concepts. The strategic embedding of a word into a web of multimodal meaning helps make the word learning experience more memorable for both the video producers and the viewing audience.

 Figure 1: Vocab Vid
iIllustrating overwhelmed. 








Simulate Twitter to Promote Target Word Usage: Today’s widespread twitter phenomenon tells us something important about language use and engagement. In 140 characters or less, information about “what’s happening now” can be shared instantly with an online community. The defining characteristics of a ‘tweet’ are brevity, timeliness, and the ability to instantly respond to others. Without actually creating twitter accounts, educators can bring twitter-like experiences into the classroom to expand vocabulary learning. 

To model a vocabulary related twitter, provide a target word or concept and challenge students to keep a related stream of tweets going as long as they can. Set the expectation that both target words and related words must to be used in each post. Provide a context such as a breaking news event, a topic you’re studying in class, or a book you are reading. To simulate twitter in a closed environment, try Wallwisher. Once the topic themed-wall is set up, this free online application does not require individuals to login and everyone can post together in a shared space. Like tweets, comment space is limited (Wallwisher allows 160 characters). 

The following interchange may serve as a tangible example. Imagine reading and watching online news reports about an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Students could then create a twitter- like stream to express reactions and questions, using the target words pollution and disaster. Before beginning, discuss the words’ meanings. Then talk through a few examples, as follows.

Twitter-like stream

Student 1: Bad news. An oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. Pollution is going to be a problem.

Student 2: Oil will pollute the beaches. What a disaster!

Student 3: You can’t swim in polluted water.

Student 4: The seagulls and pelicans will be hurt by the oil. It gets on their feathers.

Twitter-like stream (examining the news event from the perspective of different stakeholders)

Shrimper: Major disaster. Oil rig blew and oil gushing in Gulf of Mexico. Pollution might wipe us out.

Oysterman: What about oyster beds? I have to fish. Polluted oyster beds mean no oysters. What a disaster for me and my customers.

Beach lover: Gulf Shores beach has black oil washing up. Seagulls coated. Can’t swim in polluted water.

Clean up crew: Dish detergent is the best thing to clean oil pollution from birds. Who knew?!!

Oil company: The faster we cap the oil rig, the faster the pollution stops. 

Have Fun with New Slang: The dynamic and inventive nature of language is dramatically evident in the torrent of new words we manage to create each year. While we all may feel the need to chillax (calm down and relax) in the face of students’ often unconventional vocabulary use, seize the opportunity to build word curiosity and playfulness. Two excellent Internet resources for learning about words and language are the Visual Thesaurus and the Oxford Dictionary of English. The latter posts a list each year of new words added to the dictionary. Another excellent resource is the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary.  Also, at Wordspy, Paul McFedries tracks published neologisms (new word creations, many of which are slang and/or linguistic blends). 

Technology and media can play an important role in developing students’ vocabulary through generative, multimodal expression. Giving students experience with the digital technologies required in the 21st century will be motivational as well as academically beneficial. 

References
Castek, J., Dalton, B., & Grisham, D. (in process). Using multimedia to support students’ generative vocabulary learning. In J. Baumann and E. Kame’enui (Eds.) Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Engaging Vocabulary Activities (Mohler)

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 Reading/Language Arts unit and for five years as a professor of reading/literacy at California State University, Bakersfield. Before coming to California in 2002, she taught English and reading in Nebraska middle and high schools for 18 years. Her major area of research is preschool literacy (see www.csub.edu/plpbakersfield).

In this post, I offer cognitively engaging activities for promoting word knowledge in the classroom. Prior Vocabulogic posts have made a strong case for the value of teaching vocabulary and morphology. Some of the best thinkers of our time speak to this, as illustrated in the collection of research-based quotes posted by Susan Ebbers. With such research in mind, I use this post to introduce "hands-on" activities for teaching dictionary skills, vocabulary and morphology. These activities are described in my Hands-On Vocabulary Activities packet, provided in pdf format and in Word format. These activities can be used in any content area and adapted to most learning levels (3rd to adult). Feel free to download the packet, adapt it for your own use and share it with others, freely, with my permission. A more extensive article, which contains short explanations of each of the activities, was published in 7-8-9, Poetry, Song and Rhyme (Mohler, 2009).

Vocabulary development is a reading component that is ongoing throughout life. Other components, such as phonemic awareness and phonics, have received much emphasis in English/language arts standards and curricula, but each of these, once learned, rarely needs to be re-visited. Academic language is a literacy area currently getting a lot of press. Academic language is more than vocabulary; however, it includes facility with intricate terms, complex sentence structure and syntax, text organization, and the function of transitions. Extensive and efficient vocabulary acquisition is a good place to begin developing academic language because direct instruction in vocabulary develops comprehension of academic language more than any other factor (Bromley, 2007).

To increase vocabulary, morphological awareness is essential (see many previous posts). It allows for independent access to the definitions of many words, without a dictionary, and provides a means to better understand definitions found in a dictionary and to make connections with similar words. In fact, by sixth grade, the meanings of about 60% of the morphologically complex words in school texts can be inferred by analyzing word parts in context (Nagy & Anderson, 1984). These “translations” may only imply meanings, but they can often result in a comprehensible definition. Either way, it is important that students develop the skills and knowledge to independently decipher the meanings of words using knowledge of morphology.

Many English words contain cognates—a word in a language that has the same origin, or root, as a word in a different language. Spanish-speaking English learners, in particular, need to know about cognates. Many common words in Spanish, for instance, are sophisticated words in English. The English word farming is cultivo or agricultura in Spanish. Cultivate and agriculture are English words related to farming that are derived from Latin roots, like the Spanish cognates are. Spanish-speaking students need to be recognized for their inherent understanding of words that may be unfamiliar to English-only students. (Read more about Spanish-English cognates).

Using the “Hands-On” Vocabulary Activities Packet 

(click images to enlarge and download)

The intent of the activities in Hands-On Vocabulary is to provide students with a fun way to learn about words, so they will be successful in figuring out the meaning of new or unknown words and feel comfortable using sophisticated words in speech and writing. Activities include:

• Activities 1-6: Dictionary use 
• Activities 7-10: Spelling practice
• Activities 11-24: Morphological analysis

The packet of activities includes mnemonics to help students memorize the meanings of many common prefixes and 10 root words. There are lists of affixes and root words alphabetized by word part and by meaning. Students learn how to use these resources to complete the activities. Examples of favorite activities are the “Affix/Root Word Scramble” (#18), “Sophisticated Sentences” (#21), and “Word Blocks” (#23). Each of these can be adapted for specific content area words and grow with the students’ increased knowledge of morphology.

I credit others (Ganske, 2000; Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008) for the activities that are similar to word sorts, which are a great way to practice making sense of pronunciations and spelling, and to help students see connections in words. To save the time and paper required to make the cards for sorting, many activities in the packet are designed so they can be printed and placed in page protectors or laminated. For example, the prefix activity shown here is easily used with a page protector. Students use whiteboard markers to mark and write answers.

Students who have experienced the variety of ways that words can be dissected, manipulated, and discovered will become confident, competent and curious word sleuths. I have used most of these exercises with a variety of student levels and abilities, including teacher candidates and graduate students to prepare them to teach morphology and to improve their own command of English. The activities are predominantly at the word level—sound, spelling and meaning. Sentence level and contextual activities can be incorporated through additional, integrated oral and written assignments throughout the day and year. It is also important that you model the use of morphology skills and encourage students to apply them when confronted with unknown words. Overall, it is your enthusiasm and spontaneity about words and their foibles that will create students who are interested in and knowledgeable about words.

Try these activities and see how well you do!
Questions? Send me an email (gerimohler@gmail.com) or post a comment. 

Works Cited

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Bromley, K. (2007). Nine things every teacher should know about words and vocabulary instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50(7), pp. 528-537.

Ganske, K. (2000). Word journeys: Assessment guided phonics, spelling and vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford.

Mohler, G. M. (2009). Hands-on vocabulary: Activities to develop word knowledge. In S. Neufeld & J. Sawkey (Eds.), 7-8-9, Poetry, song and rhyme (pp. 36-46). Costa Mesa, CA: California Reading Association.

Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 304-330.

Four-Ply Vocabulary Plan

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 arrived at the hypothesis that a comprehensive vocabulary program needs to include four broad components (Graves, 2000, 2006). According to Graves, teachers can convey word knowledge and kindle interest through an integrated four-ply approach that includes both explicit and implicit methodology--a design that envelopes both intentional and incidental word learning. The four components are listed below and described more fully in The Vocabulary Book (Graves, 2006).  

Provide rich and varied language experiences: Experience words and phrases through reading, listening, speaking, and writing across varied genres, including prose and poetry, narrative and informational texts. Read to and with students. Encourage students to read independently and in book clubs.

Teach individual words: Teach new words with explicit methods. Include a student-friendly definition, varied context, student-generated definitions, instructional-conversations with peers, interactive and responsive engagement, etc. etc. Use the method that best fits the word and the learner. This means we vary the method depending on the situation. 

Teach word-learning strategies: Teach and model how to infer word meaning from context clues. Teach and model how to infer meaning from morpheme clues. Teach students how and when to use a dictionary and a thesaurus.

Foster word consciousness: Kindle interest in the power and usefulness of words and phrases (see poetry post). Play with words and learn to enjoy them (see wordplay post).

Graves had only a hypothesis until his four components were systematically put into play in real time in a real classroom. Thus, Baumann, Ware, and Edwards (2007) worked with 20 fifth-graders for about 7 months, implementing this four-ply methodology and increasing the writing aspects of the study. This classroom included low-income students of diverse backgrounds. What were the results? The four-ply method resulted in vocabulary gains as measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Expressive Vocabulary Test. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed that the fifth graders grew in confidence and motivation. They were more apt to attack unknown words independently by addressing surrounding context clues and internal morpheme clues (prefix, base, suffix). Note, there was no control group, so findings are somewhat tenuous.

To learn how it was done, download Baumann et al. (2007) from The Reading Teacher. Read the article, perhaps dividing the faculty into four leadership teams, one for each component. If this plan is implemented with tenacity--not allowed to fall by the wayside--students are likely to make noticeable progress. If we persist and distribute the practice over time we should see gains, especially in receptive vocabulary. To facilitate the professional development process, I provide a summary slide.

Click image to enlarge. Right-click to save it.

References: 
  

Baumann, J.F., Ware, D., & Edwards, E.C. (2007). “Bumping into spicy, tasty words that catch your tongue:” A formative experiment on vocabulary instruction. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 108-122.

Graves, M. F. (2000). A vocabulary program to complement and bolster a middle-grade comprehension program. In B. Taylor, M. F. Graves, and P. van den Broek (Eds.), Reading for meaning: Fostering comprehension in the middle grades (pp. 116-135). New York: Teachers College Press.  

Graves, M.F. (2006). The vocabulary book: Learning and instruction. New York: Teachers College Press.

Holiday Hodgepodge

Greetings! 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).

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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 image to enlarge or print.

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Cashmas is coming! Consider the logic behind this slang term, quoted from the interactive but unofficial Urban Dictionary (beware, some content not suitable for school). "Cashmas is a celebration of materialism in which its celebrants attempt to flatter or impress relatives, friends, and acquaintances with the extent of their purchasing power." When last checked, approval ratings for this term were 1020 thumbs up, 427 down. Having students rate novel words in similar fashion should build word consciousness, resulting in vocabulary growth.

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Dickens is in the public domain. Visit Gutenberg.org to read A Christmas Carol, no charge. Visit Librivox.org to listen to the audio version, no charge. Hundreds more titles and authors are available. As educators, we can share these links with families and use them in schools. Prompt wide reading and active listening to expand word and world knowledge, something poor children typically lack (Biemiller, last post; Hart & Risley, 1995).

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Now, lest Dickens sic his spirits on us, let’s make merry! Bring on the figgy pudding (aka plum pudding, plum porridge, Christmas pudding, steamed pudding). Joyeux Noel!

Context: Good News and Bad

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 'transgressions' all of Googledom scrambled to comprehend the word. The top search term for 12-2-09 included 'transgression meaning' and 'transgression definition.' Gobsmacking, isn't it? Even knowing the context folks had to look up transgression (and they did look it up, because they were sufficiently interested--proving the power of motivation). 

As an aside, one might approach transgressions through morphology: The Latin root -gress- means 'to step.' Thus, transgress is to step across (to cross the line). Regress is to step backwards, while the opposite is progress, literally to step forward. Then there is Congress, a body that might yet learn how to step together (but I digress). Another approach is through classroom conversation, using transgress as a substitute for 'break the rules' when explaining the class norms or discussing an offense. This would situate an archaic but important word in classroom context.

"Context works well if you have a lot of it" (Kevin Feldman, email). The more we know about any subject, the more apt we are to utilize context to leverage our understanding. But in general, how reliably does context explicate word meaning?  Sometimes, context is direct and explicit but more often it is too general or even misleading (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002). According to a landmark study by Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985), average and above-average readers in eighth grade could infer unknown word meaning from context clues only 11% of the time, on average (but as mentioned earlier, Swanborn and deGlopper's estimate, allowing for partial knowledge, arrived at about 25% of the time).

Here is more promising news: Fukkink and de Glopper (1998) examined 21 research studies and determined that instruction in context clues yields a medium-sized effect on ability to derive word meanings. Thus, we can be taught to infer word meanings from context, but only when the context itself is sufficiently explicit and our knowledge base sufficiently robust. Want to increase the probability? Teach students to infer meaning from context clues and morpheme clues, integrating the two types of information (more on this later). Build background knowledge and schema, too (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987).

Provide multiple exposures to the novel word in varied context. As David Pearson said, "Read it! Write it! Talk it! Do it!" Persist. There are several effective and enlightening ways to teach vocabulary, and only one truly feckless approach--assigning a list of decontextualized words to be learned via the dictionary. That's been proven ineffective in several studies (e.g., Bos & Anders, 1990; Bos et al., 1989; McKeown et al., 1985). 

With that, I make my egress.