Vocabulary instruction in content area classrooms.

1. Vocabulary development
Module 7
EDC 533
Dr. Laurie A. Henry

2. Words fill our lives
• Students encounter between 50,000 to 100,000
words during their school years
• Vocabulary acquisition increases by approximately
3,000 to 5,000 words per year
• Reading vocabulary of 25,000 by 8th grade
• Reading vocabulary of at least 50,000 by 12th grade

3. Vocabulary Instruction
• Blachowicz and Fisher (2000) suggest four
guidelines for vocabulary instruction:
1. Be actively engaged in understanding words and
related strategies
2. Personalize their vocabulary learning
3. Be immersed in words
4. Develop vocabularies through repeated exposures
from multiple sources of information

4. Balance
• Balancing explicit instruction and learning from the
context is key
• Instruction should be meaningful to students
• Help students make connections to their own
background knowledge
• Provide multiple exposures to words through a
variety of instructional techniques

5. Teaching vocabulary
• Context Clues
• Graphic Organizers
• Structural Analysis
• Student Self-selection

6. Context Clues
• Definition Clue: connects the unknown word to a known
word or words
• Example/Illustration Clue: provides a model or picture
that shows the meaning of the word
• Comparison/Contrast Clue: provides information about
something similar or something different from the
unknown word
• Logic Clue: provides a common-sense/contextual
connection to the unknown word
• Cause/Effect Clue: the reason/result relation allows the
reader to predict the word’s meaning
• Mood/Tone Clue: description of the mood related to the
word allows readers to predict the word’s meaning

7. Graphic organizers
• Visual representations of ideas
• Visual design helps student remember types of
information associated with the word or concept
• Can be used to prompt discussions
• Prompt further oral or written summaries
• Semantic maps, semantic question maps, concept
of definition, feature analysis chart, structural
analysis, etc.

8. Semantic map
• Activates prior knowledge
• Organizes knowledge about a specific topic
• Free form based on student’s responses
• Used before, during, and after reading
• Indicator of what students know (background knowledge)
• Provide a starting point for teaching
• Add information throughout a unit of study
• Use as a summative assessment to determine student
learning

9. Semantic map

10. Definition map
• Helps students construct meaning by making
connections between prior knowledge and new
topics
• Includes a definition, description, examples and non-
examples
• Used before, during and after reading
• Can be used to prompt students to provide an oral
or written summary of important key concepts

11. definition map

12. Structural analysis
• Helps students understand words and their
meanings
• Analysis of word structures (prefixes, roots, and
suffixes)
• Students break down and examine each part of a
word to determine meaning

13. Student self-selection
• Students choose the strategies that best help them
learn new vocabulary
• Helps students take ownership of their own learning
• Motivates students to monitor their own
understanding and learn new words
• Vocabulary bookmarks
• Self-collection strategy

14. General principles
• Teaching should demonstrate interest and excitement for
vocabulary
• Lessons should encourage connections
• Some words have multiple meanings
• Instruction should incorporate multiple exposures to
words
• Provide opportunities for students to use vocabulary in
multiple, meaningful ways
• Teach structural analysis related to specific content areas
• Focus on depth of understanding rather than coverage of
vocabulary

15. General principles
• Use multiple texts and multiple resources that
address the same topic
• Vocabulary teaching may need to be adapted based
on different content area concepts
• Students’ use of vocabulary should cut across the
curriculum (develop a common vocabulary)

16. Final thoughts