Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge and Concepts

A1. Experiences, Concepts, and Words

• Vocabulary Word = Concept = Schemata
• Vocabulary knowledge is difficult to assess
• Vocabulary is in a state of constant change
• The process of learning vocabulary is twofold:
  • 1. New information is fitted into existing schemata, or
  • 2. Radically new or discordant information is accommodated through the modification of existing schemata

Top Nine Strange Words That Don't Exist in the English Language but Should

• Aquadextrous
• Carperpetuation
• Elbonics
• Frust
• Lactomangulation
• Peppier
• Phonesia
• Pupkus
• Telecrastination

A2. Types of Vocabulary

• Type I (sight words): look, car, computer, house, mother, basketball, etc.-requires little assessment
• Type II (words requiring context: i. e., homophones, homonyms, etc.): bow, minute, to, too, two, etc.-;lists, sorts,etc.
• Type III (technical words): judicatory, Cyrillic, juxtaposition, parse, parsimonious, etc. - major assessment

A3. Assessment through vocabulary instruction

• 1. Students should know both the context and the definition.
  • a. Definition - logical relation to other known words.
  • b. Context - knowledge of the core concept the word represents and how it may change in different contexts.
• 2. Students should exhibit "deep" processing.
  • a. Association - relate to another word.
  • b. Comprehension - applying a learned association.
  • c. Generation - creating a novel product.
• 3. Students should be able to give multiple examples.

B1. Assessing What Students Know about Words

• 1. Depicting Spatial Relationships with Graphic Organizers (Feature Analysis, List Group Label, etc.)

B1a. Assessing Vocabulary through Feature Analysis

B2. Vocabulary Assessment - Sometimes a Phonics Problem

• Most students already have a very large vocabulary.
• Being able to understand the meaning of a word is often as simple as recognizing something that we have heard when we see it in print.

B3. Assessment through Exploration of Word Meanings and Making Connections

• Morphemic analysis
• Word origins

B4. Vocabulary Assessment through Morphemic Analysis

• Definition: Defining a word by breaking it into its smallest parts of meaning.
• Example: PNEUMONOULTRAMICOSCOPIC-SILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS
  • Pneumono - related to the lungs
  • Ultra - transcending; super
  • Micro - small
  • Scopic - related to a viewing instrument
  • Silico - the mineral, silicon (sand)
  • Volcano - This is easy (lava, steam, dust)
  • Coni (konis) - dust
  • Osis - referring to a diseased condition
• A disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of very fine dust particles released by a volcanic eruption.

C1. Vocabulary Assessment through Definition, Clarification, and Extension of Concepts

• 1. Have students define concepts in the context of their use
  • Contextual Analysis
  • Contextual Redefinition
• 2. Have students show how to use outside sources
  • Dictionaries
  • Glossaries
  • Thesauruses

C2. Vocabulary Strategy - Contextual analysis

• Definition: Defining the word based on clues from the context in which it is used.
  • 1. Define: uxoricide
    • Uxoricide, which means to murder one's wife, is the ultimate form of marital abuse.
  • 2. Describe: vociferous
    • Their vociferous chatter made me wish I had earplugs.
  • 3. Contrast: loquacious
    • Mike was loquacious while Susan said very little.

C3. Vocabulary Strategy - Contextual Redefinition

• 1. Have students define word without any prior help (carapace, nonsectarian, insipid)
• 2. Ask if it could be done without a dictionary.
• 3. If not, give the following sentences:
  • Without its carapace. the turtle would be subject to certain death from its enemies.
  • Although he was a believer in God, he had a nonsectarian attitude toward religion.
  • His teaching lacked spirit. He had presented his lesson in a dull manner, failing to challenge or stimulate the students. The teacher knew he had made an insipid presentation.

D1. Assess Extension of Vocabulary Knowledge and Concepts

• Students make games and puzzles
• Students engage in meaningful writing assignments
• Students develop word analogies (black is to white, as night is to ____)