Vocabulary

Teaching word meanings is different than teaching kids to read. Words can have multiple different meanings (polysemy) that can change over time and depend on the context the word is used in. Words can also act as different parts of speech depending on how they’re used in a sentences (noun, adjective, verb, etc.).

Semantics refers to the “study of word and phrase meanings (Moats, 2020, 304).” Semantics is closely tied to vocabulary study because knowledge of word meaning is required for vocabulary expansion.

When considering which words to teach students, it’s important to carefully consider which words to explicitly teacher. Fourth to eighth-grade students may encounter 1,000 to 3,000 new words each year in the texts they read, however, teachers only have time to explicitly teach a few words per day (Moats, 2020, 233-234). As Moats states, “even if 10 to 15 new word meanings are explicitly taught to a class each week, there would be time to teach fewer than 400 all year long” (Moats, 2020, 233-234).

A way to decide what words to teach is by applying the three-tier framework (Beck et al., 2013, 19-20). The framework isn’t specific to certain words but rather a way of considering how words relate to the current vocabulary development of the students.

Tier One Words

Tier one words are ones that are typical of oral language. They are words that are heard frequently in context and native speakers of the language generally know well.

Tier Two Words

Tier two words are wide-ranging and of “high utility for literate language users” (Beck et al., 2013, 20). These words are seen in written language of varying topics and genres. This is the tier that is ideal for choosing words to teach because students are likely to see them in written text again and will be able to apply their learning.

Tier Three Words

Tier three words are domain specific words, such as terms used in math or science that aren’t typically seen or heard in relation to other topics. Although students will need to learn words from this tier, they won’t often be chosen as part of a weekly word list or other generic vocabulary lesson because they are better taught in the context of the appropriate domain.

Explicit Instruction

Although many words will be learned implicitly by students, the carefully chosen words of vocabulary lessons need to be explicitly taught. Anita Archer’s model of explicit teaching is an effective model to follow. Her model can be summed up as “I do it, We do it, You do it” (Archer, 2010, 28-39). Videos of her teaching with this method can be found on her website Explicit Instruction. Use the side panel to navigate between videos.

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A vocabulary instructional routine must also accommodate for the evidence-informed principles and the contribution of other language systems (i.e., phonology, orthography, and syntax) necessary to develop deep understandings of word meaning.

Nancy Hennessy, 2020, p. 65

This statement stood out to me because it emphasises the importance of depth in vocabulary. When teaching a new word, it’s important to go beyond a short, surface level definition. It can be used as an opportunity to look at the sounds in the word, the morphology, and how it can be used in a sentence properly. By looking at the morphology of the new word, students can learn new letter patterns and meaningful parts that will help them understand other words they encounter. When there are many new words to students in a text, this may not be possible for every word, but by choosing the important words that can implicitly increase students vocabulary due to their morphology, those words should be given extra attention. Deeply exploring a few words every day can have a large overall impact on students’ vocabularies.

Effective vocabulary instruction involves presenting both definitional and contextual information of target words, ensuring encounters of words in varying contexts, and engaging students’ active processing of word meanings. Stategies can include:

• Weekly word lists
• Word relationships
• Word maps
• Word clouds
• Word journals
• Morphology
• Context
• Read alouds
• Routine verbal use (language-rich environments)

Example Vocabulary Lesson Series

I developed this lesson series after learning about effective vocabulary strategies. I relies on Shizue’s Path by Mark Sakamoto as an anchor book and was made with a grade 6 class in mind.

Ready to Learn More?

These two resources contain amazing strategies that can be applied in both primary and intermediate classrooms:

Are you a university student? Check your university library data base for these. They’re available through Queen’s University Library Omni database.

References

Archer, Anita L., and Charles A. Hughes. Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching. Guilford Publications, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unbc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=605347.

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life : robust vocabulary instruction (Second edition). The Guilford Press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1115202

Hennessy, N. L. (2020). The Reading Comprehension Blueprint: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text. Brookes Publishing.

Moats, Louisa Cook. (2020). Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.