The NYS-MEP Comprehension Professional Learning Community met on January 13, 2022 for the fourth meeting in a series of seven. Please see the outline below of content discussed, as well as pre-reading, meeting materials, and additional reading resources and references.
Pre-Reading
- Highlights for Children, Inc., Little Great White by Pamela S. Turner
Meeting Materials
- PowerPoint Notes
- Comprehensive Glossary
- Six Handouts were referenced. You will find the links below along with additional reading suggestions for each topic.
- Signal Words adapted by Cynthia Lundgren from Beers, K. (2003). When Kids Can’t Read. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann– (İColorín Colorado!)
- Academic Words and Language based on Academic Word List compiled by Averil Coxhead (İColorín Colorado!)
- Academic Language Functions from Sarah Clyne (İColorín Colorado!)
- The Academic Word List (Averil Coxhead) article by Kinsella, San Francisco State University
- The 42 Most Common Greek Roots (Steven Gibson – Teacher Galaxy)
- Helping English language learners read… and succeed! Spanish-English Cognates/Cognados (İColorín Colorado!)
Session Outline
A. Vocabulary Selection
Tier 1 are everyday words, requiring little to no instruction since they are easily attained and mastered. These words include boy, house, run, happy, and so on. These “word meanings can be introduced or reviewed quickly and not given sustained attention” (Beck et al., 2002).
Tier 2 words require explicit instruction since they do not occur during students’ everyday conversations, for example, words such as resistance, comply, and defiant. Some Tier 2 words include academic words that appear across disciplines such as represent or conclude. Tier 2 words are especially useful to add when students already have ways to express the concepts represented by the words. Would students be able to explain these new words using words that are already well known to them? If that is the case, it suggests that the new words offer students more precise or mature ways of referring to ideas they already know about. These words offer more precise or more complex forms of the familiar words. That is, they are not the most basic or common ways of expressing ideas but they are familiar to mature language users as ordinary as opposed to specialized language (Beck et al., 2002).
Tier 3 words are discipline specific. These words are needed to learn information but are not used regularly beyond understanding the subject matter. For instance, a word like “taxation” is important during instruction about the Boston Tea Party. Opportunities to utilize the word in daily conversation is limited. These “words represent concepts that need to be developed as part of knowledge about topics within a specific content domain” (Beck et al., 2013).
Academic Words are those that are used in academic dialogue and content area reading and are not often encountered in general conversation. Examples include summarize, analyze, evidence, demonstrate, observe, infer, etc.
Handouts
- Academic Language Functions from Sarah Clyne (İColorín Colorado!)
- Academic Words and Language based on Academic Word List compiled by Averil Coxhead (İColorín Colorado!)
- Signal Words adapted by Cynthia Lundgren from Beers, K. (2003). When Kids Can’t Read. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann (İColorín Colorado!)
- The Academic Word List (Averil Coxhead) article by Kinsella, San Francisco State University
Additional Reading
- Article Academic Language (İColorín Colorado!)
B. Word Meanings
1. Student-Friendly Definition Websites
- Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
- Oxford Learner's Dictionary
- Merriam-Webster's Word Central now reprogrammed for superior word power and language fun! Alpha-bot, the word-spelling robot, hosts the latest amazing word game and challenges spellers of all ages.
- Kids.Wordsmyth - Choose one of the topics and click on a topic keyword to find a gold mine of related words.
2. Morphology
Morphological Awareness: Students understand how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes (ex. comply, compliance, compliant). This awareness supports decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development.
Handout
- The 42 Most Common Greek Roots (Steven Gibson – Teacher Galaxy)
Additional Reading
- Shanahan on Literacy Blog - What Should Morphology Instruction look like?
- Online Etymology Dictionary - "Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago." -Online Etymology Dictionary
- Reading Rockets: Common roots and affixes – article and examples
3. Cognates
Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation; 30-40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish.
Handout
- Helping English language learners read… and succeed! Spanish-English Cognates/Cognados (İColorín Colorado!)
Additional Reading
- Using Cognates (İColorín Colorado!)
- Search for Spanish Cognates
4. Semantic Gradients
Semantic Gradients broaden and deepen students' understanding of the meanings of related words. “Students consider a continuum of words by order of degree. Semantic gradients often begin with antonyms at each end of the continuum. This strategy helps students distinguish between shades of meaning” -Reading Rockets
Additional Reading
-
Reading Rockets: Semantic Gradients Article: Why use semantic gradients? | How to use semantic gradients | Watch a video | Examples of Semantic Gradients | Differentiated instruction | See the research that supports this strategy | Children's books to use with this strategy
C. Vocabulary Instruction Additional Reading
- Shanahan on Literacy Blog: Teaching Vocabulary - Word knowledge is multi-dimensional | Words don’t stick easily | Words need to be used in lots of ways | Words need to be connected to kids’ lives | Words need to be related with other words |
- AdLit (All About Adolescent Literacy): Teaching Word Meanings as Concepts
References
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Press.
Chi, M. T. H. & VanLehn, K. A. (2012). Seeing deep structures from the interactions of surface features. Educational Psychologist, 47, 177 – 188.
Donovan, M.S. & Bransford, J.D. (2005). Introduction. In M.S. Donovan & J.D. Bransford (Eds.), How students learn: History in the classroom (pp. 1-26). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Hattie, J, AC & Donaghue, G.M. (2016). Learning strategies: A synthesis and conceptual model. Science of Learning, 1, 1-13.
Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Lord, K.M. & Noel, A.M. (under review). Civic concepts: Opportunities to deepen elementary students’ knowledge of democratic governance and citizenship.
Lord, K.M., Noel, A.M., & Slevin, B. (2016). Social studies concepts: An analysis of the NAEP and states’ standards. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30, 389-405.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/24783.
Rugg, H. (1921). Needed changes in the committee procedure of reconstructing the social studies. The Elementary School Journal, 21, 688 – 702.
Shanahan, T. (2015/2021). Vocabulary teaching. Retrieved from https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/vocabulary-teaching#sthash.lB9uuREQ.uJ1cZiMP.dpbs
Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction, 4, 295 – 312.