VOCABULARY PROCESSING: Multiple Strategies Approach

                                                          Presented by Karen Ricks

 

Students exposed to vocabulary in a variety of settings and through multiple activities have a much higher incidence of retention and understanding of the meanings and proper uses of words (Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995).  Although students can learn a cursory meaning of a word quickly,

it takes multiple interactions with a word over a period of time to establish Aextended mapping,@

or thorough comprehension (Carey, 1978).

Multiple exposures might include:

1.  Word association

2.  Introduction of realia

3.  Active learning process

4.  Vocabulary role play

5.  Meaning-based vocabulary games

6.  Use of the word outside of class in real life situations

 

Student=s ability to comprehend reading material is often limited by their understanding of the vocabulary into the contextual setting in which words are being used.

 

Identifying Key Vocabulary Words: The teacher identifies those words that are key to understand the text and bridge the path to comprehension for the students.  Careful analysis is required to ensure that appropriate consideration is given to all words that might play a role in the students understanding of the material.  The teacher=s task is to select those words or phrases that might interrupt the flow of understanding for students and to organize possible approaches for presenting this vocabulary to students.  The teacher should choose words carefully.  Don=t make the assumptions that all students know even the simplest of words. Special attention should be given to English language learners and words that have multiple meanings.  If students do not understand a word that was not preselected add that word to the list and incorporate it into the vocabulary processing activities

.

Assessing Prior Knowledge: Before the text is introduced, the teacher engages the students to activities that allows for the determination of students= levels of prior information, background knowledge, and vocabulary related to the material to be read.

 

Reading And Relating: During the reading you may choose to stop and check for understanding and to relate words and events to past experiences.  This will help students clarify the meanings, clear up misconceptions relative to the assigned reading.  This gives the teacher the opportunity to model some of her own strategies for processing text.

 

Making Connections: Spend time discussing the reading and reviewing the new vocabulary that has been processed.  Further use of these words serves to reinforce and solidify the connections.

 

Applying Words To Real Life: To encourage students to internalize new vocabulary, they must be prompted to use the words in real-life settings as much as possible during the initial phase of vocabulary development.  Have students keep a vocabulary log in which they relate instances in which they used the new word(s).

 

Conclusion: To move students from a superficial understanding of vocabulary (fast mapping) to a more in-depth conceptual knowledge (extended mapping) it is necessary to give them multiple exposures in a variety of formats or modes.

 

 

 

 

 

        KWL Chart

        (Ogle, 1986)

 

A large piece of paper is divided into three columns, labeled K for what the students Aknow@, W for what the students Awant@ to know, and L for what the children Alearned@ from the experience.  The topic of the text is discussed, and the children provide input for the various sections of the chart.  The assessment of background knowledge is most evident, of course, in the first two sections of the chart while the last section is reserved for review of comprehension and understanding.

 

 

     Focused Discussion

 

Use visual, illustrations, book covers, etc., to generate a short discussion about the test to be read.  Note students= conceptual understanding, connection to past experiences, and vocabulary used during discussion.

 

 

 

          Quick Write

 

Older students may be asked to write briefly what they know about the topic addressed in the chosen test.  These should be easily accomplished in a short period, such as five minutes or less.  The focus of these writing is on content rather than structure and might even take the form of a list or a conceptual web rather than narrative writing.

 

 Double-entry Journals

          (T-Charts)   

 

The teacher selects key concepts and vocabulary related to the text to be read and places them on the left side of a two column chart (T-chart).  The students are then asked to write brief summations of their knowledge relating to the chosen concepts and vocabulary.

 

    

 

 

 

       Think Aloud 

 

 

 

The teacher verbalizes for students the strategy that he would use to approach the unraveling of the meaning of unfamiliar words.  This might include one or more of the following:

*Clues from context - continue reading to determine if the word is later defined in the text or if Aclues@ in the text help to determine the meaning of the word.

* Clues from illustrations - examine illustrations related to the immediate text to see if they might provide clues to the meaning of the word.

*Drawing from personal and/or background experiences - does the word bring to mind any other similar situations you might have experienced that would provide clues to the meaning of the word?

* Intertextual experiences - relate to other books that may have been read on the same topic, or written by the same author, or contain similar situations related to the new vocabulary.

 

 

 Vocabulary Role Play

 

Using physicalization of words, that is acting out the words to help students internalize the new meanings and understandings.  This technique may be used at appropriate points during the reading of the text to provide physical experiences related to the word and clarify nuances of meaning. 

 

 Periodic Paraphrasing

 

Stopping at logical points in the text to summarize and paraphrase the sequence of events, new words, or unfamiliar phrases.

 

 

 

 

 Generating Sentences

 

Have students review how a word is used in the text, either from memory or by looking back in the text to find the word in a sentence.  After reviewing how the word is used, students are asked to create a sentence of their own that incorporates the vocabulary word in the same or similar context in which it is used in the book.  This may provide the opportunity to explore multiple meanings of words as students may create sentences using the word in a variety of contexts other than that presented in the book.  Although all of the multiple meanings presented would be Acelebrated,@ it is important that the students be able to present the word in the same context as it is used in the selected reading. 

 

 

   Sentence Prompts

 

Using sentence starters or fragments to prompt students to use new vocabulary encourages appropriate use of new words in correct textual settings.  Students are provided with a list of new vocabulary words and directed to place them in the appropriate sentence Astems@.

 

   Semantic Mapping          Based on Concept               

 

The central theme or idea of the story is used as the center point of a semantic map.  Other words in the vocabulary are then related to the central theme or idea.