Learning Words Inside and Out

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

San Diego State University

www.fisherandfrey.comBooks.heinemann.com/wordwise

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

I’ll go back to school and learn more

aboutthe brain!

400+ Page text

“Somites are blocks of dorsal mesodermal cells adjacent to the notochord during vertebrate organogensis.”

“Improved vascular definition in radiographs of the arterial phase or of the venous phase can be procured by a process of subtraction whereby positive and negative images of the overlying skull are superimposed on one another.”

Skills Versus Strategies?

I don’t know how you’re going to learn this, but it’s on the test.

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Quick, Build Background!

Expand Understanding Through Reading

Reading Increasingly Difficult Texts

Read “Non-Traditional” Texts

• To date, over 100 YouTube videos!

• PBS (The Secret Life of the Brain)

• Internet quiz sites about neuroanatomy

• Talking with peers and others interested in the brain

But, the midterm comes

17 pages, single spaced

Besides Some Neuroanatomy, What Have I Learned?

• You can’t learn from books you can’t read (but you can learn)• Reading widely builds background and vocabulary• Interacting with others keeps me motivated and clarifies information and extends understanding• I have choices and rely on strategies

An Intentional Vocabulary Initiative

• Make it intentional through word selection and intentional instruction.

• Make it transparent through teacher modeling of word-solving and word learning.

• Make it useable with collaborative learning.• Make it personal by fostering student

ownership.• Make it a priority with schoolwide practices. Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Step 1: Make it Intentional: Selecting and Teaching

Words

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Focus Lesson

Guided Instruction

“I do it”

“We do it”

“You do it together”

Collaborative

Independent “You do it alone”

A Structure for Instruction that Works

But Which Words Do We Teach

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Influence of Background Knowledge

Catherine the Great, a minor aristocrat from Germany, became Empress of Russia when her husband Peter, the grandson of Peter the Great, was killed.

Types of Vocabulary

• Tier 1/General – Commonplace; learned from interactions

with texts and people

• Tier 2/Specialized– Change meaning with context (“polysemic”)

• Tier 3/Technical– Specific to the disciplineA starting point for selecting vocabulary

General Vocabulary

On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, Royal Governor of His Majesty’s Colony in Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports from the frontier. The French were causing trouble again, pushing their way into British land. There was a whiff of war in the air.

Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginia’s western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even said that their colony stretched across the continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to a map to see North America as it really was. (Allen, 2004, p. 1-2)

Specialized Vocabulary

On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, Royal Governor of His Majesty’s Colony in Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports from the frontier. The French were causing trouble again, pushing their way into British land. There was a whiff of war in the air.

Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginia’s western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even said that their colony stretched across the continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to a map to see North America as it really was. (Allen, 2004, p.1)

Technical Vocabulary

On an October day in 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, Royal Governor of His Majesty’s Colony in Virginia, sat in his office in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, reading the latest reports from the frontier. The French were causing trouble again, pushing their way into British land. There was a whiff of war in the air.

Dinwiddie must have realized that Virginia’s western boundary was fuzzy. Some Virginians even said that their colony stretched across the continent. But Dinwiddie knew that grand old claim was not realistic. He needed only turn to a map to see North America as it really was. (Allen, 2004, p.1)

The Problem: Too Many Words!

• 17 words identified in 2 paragraphs

• Ideal is 8-10 a week for deep teaching (Scott, Jamieson-Noel, and Asselin, 2003)

• Must be narrowed, but how?

Questions for Selecting Vocabulary

1. Representative

2. Repeatability

3. Transportable

4. Contextual Analysis

5. Structural Analysis

6. Cognitive Load

• Is it critical to understanding?• Will it be used again?• Is it needed for discussions or

writing?• Can they use context to figure it

out?• Can they use structure?• Have I exceeded the number they

can learn?

Adapted from Graves, 2006; Nagy, 1988; Marzano & Pickering, 2005

Step 2: Make it Transparent: Modeling

Teacher Modeling

• Brief (5-10 minutes) think-alouds

• Identify unfamiliar words to learn procedures for discerning meaning

• Show students how to look inside (morphology and structure) and outside (context clues and resources) words

What to Model?

• Comprehension• Word Solving• Text Structure• Text Features

Morphology and Word Parts

• Affixes

• Root words

• Derivations

• Cognates for English learners

• Beware of false cognates! (embarrassed/embarazada)

Context Clues• Definition/Explanation

• Access to clean water would ameliorate, and improve upon, living conditions within the village.

• Restatement/Synonym• Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the

village such that life would be tolerable for the people who live there.

• Contrast/Antonym• Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the

village whereas continued reliance on a polluted river will exacerbate a bad situation.

• Inference/General Context• Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the

village. Clean water would make life tolerable as residents could focus on other pressing needs such as finding food and shelter.

• Punctuation• Access to clean water would ameliorate--make tolerable--living

conditions within the village.

But Context Isn’t Always Enough…

The documentary film March of the Penguins was a surprise hit in 2005. However, the movie neglected to point out that the population of emperor penguins is thinning.

Since the 1970s, the penguins’ neighborhood has become increasingly warm. The Southern Ocean experiences natural shifts in weather from one decade to the next, but this warm spell has continued, causing the thinning of sea ice. Less sea ice means fewer krill, the penguins’ main food source. Also, the weakened ice is more likely to break apart and drift out to sea, carrying off the young penguin chicks, who often drown.

Is global warming responsible for the thinning of penguin population? Scientists believe so. (Gore, 2007, p. 94)

Think aloud to clear up confusions about skinny penguins!

Resources

• Peer resources from productive group work

• Dictionaries• Bookmark Internet

resources • Model how you use

these (Phone a Friend, dictionary use on doc camera)

Discussion Questions

What might teacher modeling contribute to your students’ learning?Describe word-solving approaches you can model for your students.What do you believe is necessary in order for students to begin to take on what is being modeled for them?

Step 3: Make it Useable: Collaborating with Peers

Tips for Productive Group Work

• Establish purpose (content, language, and social goals)

• Variety is the spice of life

• Integrate activities into content flow

Fostering Collaboration

• Partner and small-group discussions

• Jigsaws• Student think-alouds• Reciprocal teaching• Co-constructed graphic

organizers• Semantic feature

analysis

Contributions to Science

Philosophers Major Wars

Greek City-States Government Structures Gods and Goddesses

Ancient Greeks

Round in shape

Orbits a star Large

Concept Circles: “Planet” before August 2006

9

Round in shape

Orbits a star

Concept Circles: “Planet” after August 2006

Sufficient gravity to sweep its orbit

Size dominates its region ofspace

PLUTO

Victor’s Shades of Meaningin Sixth Grade English

Step 4: Make it Personal: Individual Activities

Challenges to Independent Work• 28% of high school teachers “often or

very often” run out of time in class and assign the content for homework (MetLife, 2008)

• Should follow modeling, guided practice, and collaborative work with peers (Fisher & Frey, 2008)

Conditions that Support Independent Learning

• Choice

• Differentiation

• Relevance

Goal is application of learning

operations

division

multiplication

addition

subtraction

variable

factors

expression

percent

Real numbers

numerator

denominator

Ordered pairs

functions

integers

polynomials

Learned

these in

elementary

Algebra

words Fractions

Words I

don’t know

Bao’s Concept Open Sort in 8th Grade Algebra

Word Level A

Level B

Level C

Example Definition

Motion 10/1 10/15 The car was in motion when the driver attempted to stop.

When an object changes position over time in relation to a reference point

Speed 10/1 The driver was speeding when she was pulled over by the cops.

How fast an object moves. Add rate Ğ itÕs the rate of how fast the object moves

Force 10/1 10/15 10/21 The force of the carÕs impact crushed the tree.

A push or pull

Friction 10/1 10/21 Friction helps the carÕs breaks lower the sp eed of the car in motion.

force that opposes motion between two surfaces that are touching

Level A = a word that is new to me Level B = a word I have heard and can either define or give an example of, but not both Level C = a word I’m familiar with and can both define and provide an example

Tino’s Vocabulary Self-Awareness Chart in Physics

Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B C-D E-F G-H

I-J K-L M-N O-P

Q-R S-T U-V-W X-Y-Z

Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B C-D

crater

E-F G-H

I-J K-L

lava

M-N

magma

O-P

Q-R S-T U-V-W

volcano

X-Y-Z

Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B

ash

C-D

crater

cinder cone

E-F

flow

G-H

I-J K-L

lava

M-N

magma

magnitude

O-P

Q-R

Rim of Fire

S-T

shield volcano

tremor

U-V-W

volcano

vent

volcanologist

X-Y-Z

Alphabet Vocabulary ChartA-B

ash

active

balsat

C-D

crater

cinder cone

caldera

E-F

flow

eruption

extrusion

G-H

geothermal

harmonic tremor

I-J

intrusion

K-L

lava

lahar

M-N

magma

magnitude

mantle

O-P

obsidian

pahoehoe

pillow lava

Q-R

Rim of Fire

S-T

shield volcano

tremor

U-V-W

volcano

vent

volcanologist

X-Y-Z

xenoliths

Amy’s Vocabulary Card in Chemistry

Step 5: Make it a Priority: Creating a Schoolwide

Focus

Why Go Schoolwide?

• Schoolwide focus is one of the most important actions a middle or high school can take to improve achievement (Langer, 2001; Reeves, 2000)

• Focus on literacy schoolwide leads to long-term improvement in climate, achievement (Fisher, Frey, & Williams, 2002)

Two Schoolwide Initiatives

• Words of the Week (WOW Words) to focus on “SAT words”

• Wide reading to build background, increase exposure, and foster interest in reading

Words of the Week

• Five words a week (Fid, Fi: to trust)– Affidavit, confidant, defiant, fidelity, infidel

• Grouped by affix or derivation

• Departments propose words

• Goal is to build vocabulary and teach patterns for unfamiliar words

• Introduced in English classes

WOW at Northview (MI) High School

Created by Tricia Erickson’s Art and Technology Students

Incidental Learning Through Wide Reading

• Cumulative effect of reading: 60 minutes per day x 5 days a week= 2,250,000 words per year

• 2,250 words learned per year this way (Mason, Stahl, Au, & Herman, 2003)

A bargain, considering that only 300-500 words can be directly taught

each year

Who benefits? How?

• Text must be at independent level (you can’t learn from books you can’t read)

• Older readers learn more words than younger readers

• Stronger readers learn more words than struggling readers

• The words they are likely to learn are those they know a little bit about

8 Factors for SSR

• Access• Appeal• Environment• Encouragement• Staff training• Non-accountability• Follow-up activities• Distributed time to readPilgreen, J. (2000). The sustained silent reading handbook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Discussion Questions

It’s not enough to list the Words of the Week; they need to be taught. How do you believe the vocabulary cards reinforce and expand word learning?Why does game playing reinforce learning? How does motivation play a role in learning?What can students learn about adult reading habits through SSR?

Learning Words Inside and Outside

When our teaching is at its best, our students learn take what they’ve learned inside our classrooms to their outside lives. Vocabulary doesn’t exist between the school bells—it is carried with each learner for the rest of their lives.