Subtest 2 Flashcards
5 types of vocabulary that everyone has
- Listening Vocabulary
- Speaking Vocabulary
- Writing Vocabulary
- Sight (reading) Vocabulary – words you can recognize and correctly pronounce
- Meaning (reading) Vocabulary – the words you understand when reading silently
What is the role of Vocab and Fluency in reading development?
Understanding the meaning of words makes it easier to recognize words and read fluently
What is the role of vocab and reading comprehension in reading development?
- Level of vocabulary is both a key indicator and predictor of understanding
- A child who comprehends a text will be able to define several key words in the text after they have read (vocab being a key indicator of comprehension)
- A test of target vocabulary in the text will be a good predictor
- Must understand words in reading to understand/comprehend
What is the role of Academic Language and Comprehension in reading development? (3 reasons)
- Children don’t understand what they have read because they have a lack of proficiency with academic language
- Failure to comprehend could be a failure to know the meaning of nontechnical academic language in which reading about any academic language will be frustrating
- Or the problem could be a lack of technical academic language in a specific area
What is the role of Background Knowledge and Reading Comprehension in reading development?
Background knowledge is a key predictor of how well a student will learn new information related to that content
To comprehend a text, a reader must have adequately developed…
1. Meaning Vocabulary (reading vocab)
2. Academic Language Knowledge
3. Background Knowledge
The Matthew Effect
If a child does not gain understanding of the meaning of words in grades K-2, then that child will fall further behind their peers who read a great deal.
3 types of words in vocabulary development
- Unknown Words - words you cannot define, even partially
- Acquainted Words – words you have some level of understanding, you know a part of their meanings
- Establish Words - you know well and immediately understand
The relationship between unknown words, acquainted words and established words
Words that are unknown become acquainted words and acquainted words become established.
3 Reasonable Criteria for Teaching Words
- Frequency – How Often will students encounter the word when they read?
- Utility – How important is the word? Is knowing the meaning of the word essential to comprehending the text?
- Level of Knowledge – The less students know about a word, especially an unknown word, the more important it becomes to teach it
Three tiers of academic words that students should learn
1st Tier – simple words, almost everyday words (flowers, water, rain), students will encounter many first-tier word when they read
2nd Tier – more difficult and appear in several contexts across two or more areas of study (peninsula, climate), these words should be the focus of vocabulary instruction
3rd Tier – most difficult, used only in one specific area (amoeba, protozoa) these should be taught as part of social studies or science instruction
Select words to teach based on the three criteria
frequency, utility, level of knowledge
Morpheme definition
the most elemental unit of meaning in a language, some words, and all affixes
Bound morpheme
affixes (prefixes and suffixes)
Free morpheme
can be uttered alone with meaning
Vocabulary instruction should be based on the following 3 principles
A. Instruction must fit the age and ability of the students
B. Lessons must provide examples of how target words are used in the context of sentences and paragraphs
C. To learn the meaning of words, children must have repeated exposure to words
Four components of vocabulary instruction
- Direct instruction of specific words
-Contextual Redefinition
-Semantic Maps
-Semantic Feature Analysis - Independent word-learning strategies
-Contextual Analysis
-Morphemic Analysis
-Using a dictionary - Developing word consciousness
-Synonyms and Antonyms
-Homophones and Homographs
-Idioms and Puns
-Etymology - Encouraging wide reading
How many new words should be introduced peer week/year?
9 per week (~350-400/year)
Three Strategies for teaching the meaning of words:
- Contextual Redefinition
- Semantic Maps
- Semantic Feature Analysis
Vocab teaching strategy: Contextual Redefinition (plus 4 Rounds of Definitions activity)
Use context surrounding the target word
example: 4 Rounds of Definitions activity
There should be space to write a definition after each word
1. Teacher displays the word, and students independently write a down a definition if they know one or they write “I don’t know”
2. Working in groups of three, the students come up with second-round definitions. Moving to the worksheet, students can write a new definition or stick to the one they chose in the first round. They can borrow a definition too.
3. Teacher displays a sentence in which the word first appears. The sentence is read aloud, and the teacher encourages a third round of definitions
4. Finally, the teacher asks for volunteers to read their definition and selects the one that is accurate and writes it on the board. The children copy the definition in the space where the appears for the fourth time.
Vocab teaching strategy: Semantic Maps:
Word maps or semantic maps (diagrams)
Useful in prereading instruction because they teach the meaning of words and help children activate their prior knowledge of the target word
Effective tool of a teacher guided discussion about a word
Vocab teaching strategy: Semantic feature analysis:
A good activity for a set of words that share at least one characteristic
Works well with words from social studies and science units
Teacher creates a grid that identifies traits of the target word
Independent word learning strategies:
Teachers should teach their students to use three types of word-learning strategies that they can use independently when they are reading
1. Morphemic Analysis
2. Contextual Analysis
3. Using the dictionary
Independent Word-Learning Strategies: Morphemic Analysis
Teaching Prefixes, Suffixes, and Root Words
1. Look at parts of words to determine their meaning, also called structural analysis
2. Teachers should teach lessons about prefixes, suffixes, common root words, synonyms, antonyms, and Greek and Latin roots and affixes
3. Use whole-to-part or part-to-whole approach
Independent Word-Learning Strategies: Contextual Analysis
Teaches children to use contextual clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words
Four Types of Contextual Clues
1. Definition contextual clue – the author provides a definition for the target word in the text. This is very common in elementary social studies and science textbooks.
2. Synonyms contextual clue – another word in the paragraph is a synonym for the target word.
3. Antonym contextual clue – another word in the paragraph is an antonym for the target word.
4. Example contextual clue – the author of the text has provided a definition of the target word by listing examples of the word in the text.
- Teacher should provide examples of each type of clue and model how they can be used
- Use think-aloud to demonstrate how to use each type of clue
- Release responsibility by stating that the children must find a particular type of clue in the paragraph
- Limits to using contextual clues to figure out meanings of these….it is a difficult strategy to teach. Many texts have few clearly stated contextual clues, such as the four categories listed above. More subtle clues, often spread over several sentences, are difficult to find and use.
Independent Word-Learning Strategies: Using the dictionary
- Use a developmentally appropriate dictionary, one with appropriate words, a large typeface, child-friendly definitions, and plenty of illustrations.
- Problematic strategy: process is slow and distracts from the meaning of whatever you are reading and the additional complexity of multiple definitions for a word
Teachers should prepare lessons that focus on the following:
1. Understanding alphabetical order to the third, fourth, or fifth letter
2. Using the guide words (first and last entry)
3. Dealing with the multiple meanings. As an exercise, children should be given several words with multiple meanings, and they should be given sentences for each words different meaning (foul). Children should then match the word with the correct sentence
4. It is important for teachers to first model the use of the dictionary, a reasonable amount of guided practice using the dictionary and then challenge them to find the meanings of words in the dictionary independently
3 broad categories of instructional activities that help children learn the meaning of words
(a) the direct teaching of specific words
(b) independent word-learning strategies.
(c) developing word consciousness which is an interest in words and their meanings.
Building vocabulary: Encouraging Wide Reading
The more a child reads the more words they will encounter in print
The often a reader comes across a word, the better the chance the reader will acquire an understanding of the word’s meaning. Children learn the meanings of thousands of words simply through independent reading. Variety in their reading material will build vocabulary faster and wider.
Instructional activities to support what students have learned
- Speaking/Listening
- Reading/Writing
- Structure of the Eng. Language (sentence structure, syntax, punctuation)
How to assess vocabulary and academic language: TESTS
- Use a word in sentence/multiple answer options
The key is that the target word, underlined or italicized, appears in a phrase or sentences
It does not appear in isolation
The possible definitions should all be phrases, not single words - Choose a synonym
Ask students to identify a synonym with a target word - Analogies
Two words that have a relationship are listed together, and then the target word appears
Ex. head is to body as ____is to mountain (peak)
How to assess vocabulary and academic language—USE IN CONTEXT
Tests have their limits—they measure student knowledge of word meanings in isolation words when they read, write, speak, and listen
Oral and writing activities can be very effective way to determine whether children have really learned the meanings of words
Example of fifth graders studying the American revolution; the teacher could have students write a letter to a colonial newspaper in 1775 to advocate for the colonies to break from England
How to assess morphemic analysis
Tests of morphemic analysis assess student knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, root words, and compound words
Some tests ask students to identify nonsense words with common prefixes or suffixes (really tests of prefix and suffix identification)
How to assess knowledge of language structures - CLOZE
CLOZE was developed to assess comprehension
A CLOZE assessment, the teacher selects a passage of about 300 words and deletes every tenth word, students try to figure out the missing words
To be more selective in deleting words students… so students can understand what part of speech is missing
Entry-level assessment
Whether too many words have been selected for an instructional unit, or whether additional words can be added
Progress-monitoring
Less formal and depend largely on teacher observation and analysis of students work products
Decide which words need to be retaught
(formative)
Summative Assessments
Challenge students to use words in context when they talk and write
The focus should be on determining whether students know words well enough to use them appropriately
Literal Comprehension
measure the ability of a reader to understand the surface meaning of a test. Literal comprehension questions have clearly verifiable answers in the text
Inferential Comprehension
measure the ability of a reader to interpret what they have read. Answers to inferential questions are not in the text—the reader must speculate based on the surface meaning of the text
Evaluative Comprehension
measure the ability of the reader to make judgement about what they have read. Answers to evaluative comprehension questions are not in the text.
How Word analysis and fluency affects comprehension
Automaticity theory states that reading requires the reader to perform, two main tasks
(1) decode words
(2) understand the meaning of the text
Fluent readers with advanced word analysis skills swiftly and accurately identify words, which frees their minds to deal with the meaning of the text
How vocabulary affects comprehension
If a student does not know the meanings of several words in a text, little chance the student will comprehend what they’re reading
How academic language affects comprehension
A lack of AL knowledge will be a serious impediment to comprehension
A lack of knowledge of ‘nontechnical’ academic language, words that appear in many social studies and science textbook chapters, will be a huge problem. (Analyze, compare, contrast). Lack of knowledge of the technical academic language words related to a single topic, could also block comprehension (in the study of mathematical operations with fractions, words, and phrases such as denominator, least common multiple, and numerator)
How background knowledge affects comprehension
Background knowledge is a key predictor of students’ comprehension of a selection
The role of sentence structure in facilitating comprehension
- More complex grammatical structures
- Fewer simple sentences
- More compound and complex sentences
- A simple sentence has one subject and one verb. Simple sentences are also called independent clauses
- A compound sentence has two independent clauses
Dependent clauses are joined by words called coordinators (for, and, nor, yet, but so) - A complex sentence has one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
The role of paragraph structure in facilitating comprehension
Understand the structure of paragraphs
Students should be taught how to write topic sentences expressing main ideas and how to provide supporting details for each topic sentence
Understand the role of topic sentences provide a better chance of understanding the meaning of paragraphs
The role of text structure in facilitating comprehension
Most social studies textbooks, science textbooks, and encyclopedia entries are written in standard patterns or structures…these are called expository text structure…information based and includes social studies textbooks, information books, encyclopedias, recipes, and how-to books.
Common expository text structure:
1. Cause and effect
2. Problem and solution
3. Comparison and contrast
4. Sequence
5. Description
Oral Language and Comprehension
- Children with advanced oral language skills usually have an easier time comprehending words, sentences, and paragraphs than their peers with less-developed oral language skills.
- Children will acquire an understanding of the meanings of some words by repeated hearing and speaking to them.
- Oral language activities, especially those in social studies and science, will enhance a child’s vocabulary, which in turn will aid comprehension
Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension
Listening comprehension activities can help children have better comprehension when they read
Thus, a well-designed listening comprehension activity, with the teacher reading aloud to students, can allow children to develop the more challenging comprehension tasks—inferential and evaluative comprehension
Strategic read-aloud
One structured format for listening comprehension lessons is called strategic read aloud
A common sequence:
1. Teacher chooses a text to read
2. Text is divided in two sections of about 250 words
3. Teacher provides preview of section before reading and teaches target words
4. Teacher reads the section aloud
5. After, teacher asks comprehension questions
6. Reread the text and children listen to target words
7. The next day, before starting a new section, the target words are reviewed
