Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Orientation
Introduce yourselves to your colleagues. Make sure to tell us what grade level and subject you teach and one interesting unknown fact about yourself. Also tell us if this is your first online professional development interaction web page and tell us your strategy for making your online learning experience the very best it can be. Share your experiences, fears, or thoughts!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Reading Games
PBS Reading Games
http://pbskids.org/games/reading.html
Fun Brain
http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html
Reading is Fundamental
http://www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet/gamestation.htm
Read Aquarium Comprehension Games
http://gamequarium.com/readquarium/comprehension.html
Education World
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/readingmachine.shtml
Game Goo. Learning that Sticks
http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
PBS Teacher
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/kidsclassroom/
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Vocabulary Websites
Excellent vocabulary resources!
www.espindle.org/roots.html
(A list of Greek and Latin prefixes, roots, and bases.)
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/
(A dictionary that includes audio and word history.)
www.m-w.com
(Merriam- Webster dictionary, includes audio and student friendly dictionary.)
www.kidbibs.com (Kidbibs)- click on pencil to see tips.
LearningTip #38: Getting the Details To Fit Together While Reading, Writing, and Studying-
Good information and ideas for semantic mapping
www.justreadnow.com/strategies/vocabulary.htm (contains concise definitions and models of vocabulary strategies)
www.resourceroom.net/index.asp (Site gives some good information about vocabulary instruction to students on either side of the learning spectrum.)
www.visualthesaurus.com
Website creates a visual web of words.
www.colorincolorado.org/pdfs/articles/cognates.pdf
A list of Spanish cognate listed alphabetically by English word.
Effective Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary
http://people.bu.edu/jpettigr/Artilces_and_Presentations/Vocabulary.htm
Teaching Vocabulary:
Two Dozen Tips and Techniques
Teaching Vocabulary:
Two Dozen Tips and Techniques
http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/teachingvocabularywords.html
Top 10 Tips for Teaching New Vocabulary Words
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber
Doing it Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary
Read Write Think
Project Read: Teaching Vocabulary
5 Best Ways to Introduce New Vocabulary
http://muskingum.edu/~cal/database/content/genscience6.html
Strategies for Teaching Reading and Vocabulary
Strategies for Teaching Reading and Vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary Instruction
Academic Vocabulary: Informational selections often contain a large number of words that carry meaning and are necessary for understand the text. Provide explicit instruction of vocabulary necessary for comprehension of text. Give a simple definition prior to reading, giving examples and non-examples, create semantic map of word or give multiple uses of the target word.
Explicit instruction of key words increases both vocabulary and reading comprehension and are especially effective for students with disabilities (Boardman et. al.(2008).
Six-Step Process for Building Academic Vocabulary: (Marzano & Pickering, 2005)
1. Teacher provides a description, explanation, or example.
2. Students restate the definition in their own words and add it to academic notebook.
3. Students produce a non-linguistic representation- a picture, symbol or graphic.
4. Students engage in activities that provide multiple exposures to terms over time.
5. Students periodically discuss terms with each other
6. Students periodically revisit terms through games.
Keyword Method: (Mastropieri, 1988) In the keyword method, students are creating a mnemonic device by connecting an image to a definition. Students are asked to identify a word that is acoustically similar to part of new word. Then associate a graphic representation using the keyword and to the definition of the new word. i.e., associating abundance to bunny and drawing a picture of a bunch of bunnies. (Keyword is a highly effective strategy for students who have reading difficulty. It promotes strong recall of the word definition.)
1. Visual Learners
Effective vocabulary instruction allows students to PROCESS new words through activities that reinforce meanings. Word meanings are learned gradually, the more students interact with words, the deeper the students understanding. It takes about 12 interactions with a word to develop a deep understanding. (Beck et al., 1985) Activities for deep processing of words are more effective when the students’ individual modality of learning is considered.
- Word Journals with thematic dividers. Categorization of words helps student to organize and build word banks in their brains. Encourage students to record the context in which they hear of see any of the words.
- Word Maps: A graphic representation of a word. Typically a word map focuses on three questions. What it is? What is it like? and What are some examples? (Word maps work well with nouns or concepts.)
- Word Web: A semantic map of related concepts and words. These words can be further grouped into like categories and connected to the web.
- Word Ladder: Use word ladders to rank synonyms from weakest to strongest. Word ladders encourage students to consider the range of meanings conveyed by a group of words that may extend from synonyms to antonyms, the place of studied words in that range, and the value of word choice to convey specific shades of meaning in the appropriate context. (Ladders work well with adjectives and adverbs.)
- Analogies: Students learn words with more depth when they see relationships between words.
- Drawing or Visualization: Students should be encouraged to create pictures to visual the words in a concrete way.
- Venn Diagram: Used for comparing and contrasting terms and ideas. (How it is alike and how it is different?) i.e., ocean vs. pond
2. Kinesthetic
- Dramatization of new words (pantomime words). i.e., word charades.
- Concentration: Use word cards and definition cards to practice associating words with specific meanings.
- Collaborative questions and answers: Assign a word to student pairs. On one card have them write a question for the word. On another card have the students write the answer to the question. Mix the word cards together and randomly distribute to all students. Collaboratively have the students find the matching pair of questions and answers. Have the new pair read the question and answer out loud.
3. Auditory
- Word Discussion: Having discussions about words and how they relate to themselves and each other help students build personal connections to the words and allows for deep processing.
- Dictionary Game: Using a student friendly dictionary, students look up a word from a word list and reads definition, omitting the word. The other students consult the list and guess the word. If they are incorrect, the dictionary reader reads the next definition until someone guesses the word. Once the definitions are exhausted, the reader goes to a new word. The student who guesses correctly then becomes the dictionary reader.
- Hearing Word Forms: Read a sentence aloud that contains a related word form of a vocabulary word. Have students identify the related vocabulary word from their list. (i.e., transit – transition, transitory)
- APPLY the new words through activities that access higher level thinking skills. (Analogies, Word Families, Semantic Mapping, Contextual Application) These activities challenge students to go beyond directly instructed vocabulary to build connections and experiences with a richer vocabulary.
1. Contextual Application
- Written: Have the students write stories using the new word.
- Speaking: Have students use new words in conversations.
- “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”: Give groups a list of words and a scenario. Have the students in each group write sentences and discuss how words can be used in the scenario. Affixes can be added to the words to change part of speech. Choose a score keeper for each group who tallies a point for each word use. Teams compete against each other to see who can use the most words in conversations.
- Listening: Use new words in conversations and instruction with students. Provide these new words to other staff who work with the students. Help students become “word detectives” by rewarding points to students who notice word use.
2. Semantic Mapping: (Graphic Organizers) Support students in organizing the concepts and relationships important to a given theme. Adding words and categories helps elaborate the “big picture” by connecting new words to original word or concept. Through semantic mapping, students can show the mental connections between the terms and concepts. The cognitive processes which the child employs through semantic mapping helps him/her put the pieces together in a meaningful whole.
3. List Group Label: Have students list all the words they can think of that relate to a given topic. Working in cooperative groups, compare words and look for commonalities and organize words in categories. Once words are grouped, decide on a label for each group.
4. Open Word Cards Sort: Give cooperative groups word cards related to a given topic. Have students sort words into categories and determine the main topic. This activity aids students in understanding the relationships between words and concepts.
5. Root Cards Concentration: Can be used with known prefixes and suffixes to strengthen students’ understanding of word structure and the roots connection to meaning.
6. Pass Word: Similar to the old game show, Password. Place students into teams. Give one student on each team a list of words. This student must get their team to say the word without using the word, or any derivation of the word, or gestures. The team that says the most number of words in a given time wins.
7. The Pyramid Game: Similar to $100,000 Pyramid . This game helps students determine the common attributes of a list of vocabulary words so they can name the category describing the term. Draw a triangle shape on the board divided into 6 sections (three on the bottom, two in the middle and one on top). Write a category in each section. Have students divide into pairs or teams with one facing the board and the rest with the back to the board. The student who is facing the board gives words that are items that pertain to that category. When someone in the team guesses the category, the person facing the board moves to the next category. The group that completes the pyramid stands up, thus signifying that they have won.
8. Word Journal: Students build schematic maps of word relationships through concept/content interaction.
- Theme Headings:
Communication: Language and Writing
The Five Senses: Seeing,
Movement
Living Things: Plants and Animals
Work and Money
Measurement and Time
Law and Order
The Earth, Sky, and Water
Health
Behavior and Personality
Appearance
Relationships
Good and Bad
Place and Position
Food
Work and Money
The Mind and Body
Society
Figurative Language
Word consciousness refers to an awareness and interest in words. It is knowledge that words have multiple meanings in various contexts and a desire to select just the right word to convey just the right meaning. In order to develop word consciousness, students must receive quality vocabulary instruction through a variety of approaches, including additive and generative vocabulary instruction. Students must also receive explicit instruction in academic vocabulary.
- Word Plays- riddles, games, jokes, quotes, and puzzles
- Word Wizard- bringing in examples from home of words taught at school
- Teacher uses sophisticated words in the classroom ex. “The door is ajar. Could you shut it please?”
- Teacher models interest in words. i.e., “I just found this great word in a book.”
- Vocabulary as a School Wide Focus. i.e., WOW (Word of the Week)
Indirect Vocabulary Instruction
Indirect vocabulary instruction: Teach students to UNLOCK the meaning of new word when they are reading independently.
1. Contextual Analysis: Use context clues strategies. (RAPS)
- READ the sentence that includes the new word and the surrounding sentences. (read)
- LOOK for:
- words that mean opposite (antonyms)
- what kind of thing the word is (object, concept, or action)
- how something is done
- what the word is like (compared with)
- what the word is not like (contrasted with)
- what the word is used for
- words related to the word (objects or ideas related to the new word)
- words that mean the same thing (synonyms, descriptions, or definitions)
- the location or setting
- THINK about the context clues, what other useful information do you know? (ask)
- PREDICT a meaning for the new word. (predict)
- CHECK your meaning in the sentence. (say)
2. Structural Analysis: Use Latin and Greek roots and affixes to infer word meaning.
3. Reference Sources: Use reference tools such as student friendly dictionary and thesaurus.
Look up base word. Find a synonym and check the meaning by replacing the word in the sentence.
Direct Vocabulary Instruction
Direct vocabulary instruction requires selecting a few useful and important words to teach explicitly. Teachers must provide a student friendly definition and encourage students to be activity involved with the word meaning. It is important to provide multiple exposes to the selected words in a variety of contexts over time.
Tier 2 Words: Beck and colleagues suggest that teachers focus vocabulary instruction on Tier 2 words.
- Tier 1 words are words students are likely to know (e.g., baby, funny). These are basic words that do not usually require instruction in word meaning. English language learners, who need instruction in more basic vocabulary, may require instruction in Tier 1 words.
- Tier 2 words appear frequently in many contexts, are words that can be worked with in a variety of ways, and are words in which students have a general knowledge. These words will add precision and specificity to their language. (e.g., obstacle, compromise). Concentrate on these words during your instruction.
- Tier 3 words appear rarely in text or are content specific (e.g., irascible, biogenetics). These kinds of words are encountered infrequently, so it is usually not recommended to devote a lot of time to teaching these words. Academic vocabulary are often Tier 3 words, teach these as needed in content area.
Basic Text Talk Instructions: (Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002) Text Talk is a good method for word explanation with repeated oral readings.
1. Read the story. (If a word is import for comprehension, stop and give a short explanation.)
2. Conceptualize the word within the story.
3. Have children say the word.
4. Provide a student-friendly definition.
5. Engage them in activities using the word.
6. Have children say the word again.
*Note: If the teacher is reading the selection, word instruction can come after reading the selection. Conversely, if the students are reading the selection, word instruction should come prior to students reading.
The STAR Model: (Blachowicz, 2005)
S = Select (Select words essential to comprehension; words that have a high degree of utility. Select four to six words that are fundamental to retelling or summarizing the text.)
T = Teach (Before reading, teach words that are key to comprehension but are not explained in context. During reading, use contextual clues to help students discover meaning. Provide a student friendly definition if students are unable to accurately define the word and have the students make a personal connection to the word.)
A = Activate (Provide activities in which the students will be actively involved in hearing, reading, and writing the target word. Engage in activities that connect the new word with known words or ideas. Have students act out or demonstrate word meanings.)
R = Revisit (Use additional activities to revisit target words providing multiple exposures in a variety of context over time.)
Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade
Students who read with understanding at an early age gain access to a broader range of texts, knowledge, and educational opportunities, making early reading comprehension instruction particularly critical. This guide recommends five specific steps that teachers, reading coaches, and principals can take to successfully improve reading comprehension for young readers.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide.aspx?sid=14
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide.aspx?sid=14
Effective Vocabulary Instruction:
The Institute of Education Sciences’ meta- analysis of reading interventions recommends explicit teaching of vocabulary as part of all reading and language arts classes and as a part of all content area classes such as science and social studies (IES, 2008).
- An effective approach to vocabulary instruction will include the regular and direct teaching of a chosen set of words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002). These words will not only be important as individual words, but they must also serve as anchors and examples for independent learning. Researchers estimate that only 250 to 500 words a year are taught formally (Stall, 1999).
- Teach Tier 2 vocabulary. These are words that “appear frequently across a wide variety of domains.” Tier 2 words are words “that can be worked with in a variety of ways so that students can build rich representations of them and of their connections to other words and concepts.” These are words for which students have a “general concept” and that add “precision and specificity” to their language (Beck, McKeown, and Kucan, 2002).
- Provide multiple interactions of new vocabulary that allow for deep processing of word meanings. It is better to cover a smaller number of Tier 2 words than it is to cover a larger number of words in a superficial way. Using multiple-choice items alone is not sufficient. (Stahl, 1999). (Blachowicz and Fisher, 2000).
- Provide strategic vocabulary instruction that provides students with the tools they need to unlock meanings of new words using context clues, word roots, and reference skills (National Reading Panel, 2001).
- Provide instruction in word structure to increase vocabulary development. Many English words are not isolated items, but are built through combinations of prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Many of them are taken from Latin, Greek, and/or the Germanic roots of our language. The knowledge of these individual parts can be used to help discover the meaning of the whole (Zutell, 2005).
- Students build schematic maps of word relationships through concept/content interaction (Zutell, 2005). Vocabulary instruction should include a focus on “developing label packets of experiential knowledge” in order to enhance students’ background knowledge (Marzano, 2004).
- Rich and robust vocabulary instruction goes beyond definitional knowledge. Students should be actively involved in word learning and the learning should include a personalized component (Blachowicz and Fisher, 2000).
- Provide multiple exposure and high-quality instruction of words over time. Studies have shown that children who received at least 6 days of rich vocabulary instruction showed significant gains in word learning versus children who received only 3 days of vocabulary instruction (Beck and McKeown, 2007).
- In the primary grades, research has shown that repeated reading combined with word meaning explanation is an effective strategy for vocabulary acquisition. Kindergarten children benefitted from more than two readings with word explanation; first and second graders benefitted from just two readings with word explanation (Biemiller & Boote, 2006).
Instruction in vocabulary is more than looking up words in a dictionary and using the words in a sentence. Vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies. According to the Center on Instruction, vocabulary instruction can be divided into four areas.
- Additive vocabulary instruction which focuses on specific words instruction.
- Generative vocabulary instruction focused on word-learning strategies, in order to promote indirect vocabulary acquisition through wide or extensive independent reading.
- Academic vocabulary instruction focuses on specific words and strategy instruction to enhance comprehension of texts in academic content areas. (many Tier 3 words)
- Promoting word consciousness, an awareness and deep interest in words, through word-play activities, word journals, word of the day activities, word wizard competitions, and other activities to motivate and enhance vocabulary learning (Torgesen et.al., 2007).
Teachers should individualize curriculum (goals, methods, materials, and assessment) to meet the needs of the diverse learners in their classes. To ensure that all students succeed, it is necessary for vocabulary instruction to be flexible; engaging students in the process of increasing vocabulary using multiple modalities of learning and allowing students the freedom to express their understanding in a variety of ways.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Graphic Organizers
A graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task. Graphic organizers are also sometimes referred to as knowledge maps, concept maps, story maps, cognitive organizers, advance organizers, or concept diagrams.
http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm
http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm
Reading Worksheets
At ereadingworksheets.com, I provide teachers, parents, and motivated students with the best available reading worksheets, resources, and activities available on the web absolutely free of cost. By using a skill focused approach to teaching, my students have demonstrated tremendous growth according to our state reading exam. I’m happy to help other educators by sharing these useful resources for all reading skills ranging from comprehension to language arts. Though I’ve been using these activities with my 7th and 8th grade students, I believe that the assignments on this website should be used for students grade 6-12, but with a few modifications, these activities can be adapted for any grade level. For each reading worksheet there is a PDF (good for printing), an htm file (to preview without downloading), and rtf file (to modify the assignment in your word processor). Using the RTF files, you can do anything from personalizing each activity to removing or including challenging vocabulary words. I hope that you find this website useful and may you see the same growth and success in the classroom with your students as I have seen with mine.
http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/
Alabama Core Reading Standards and other Resources
The goal of the Alabama English Language Arts curriculum is for all students to achieve English language literacy in order to be college- and career-ready. This is accomplished through a sequential, comprehensive curriculum that develops lifelong, critical thinkers who approach problem solving with confidence.
The academic content standards in this course of study are based on and include all standards in the 2010 Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects as well as supplemental content designed to strengthen the standards for Alabama’s students. The grade placement and examples for some standards in Grades 9-12 have been altered from the Common Core State Standards to better align with Alabama history standards.
The academic content standards in this course of study are based on and include all standards in the 2010 Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects as well as supplemental content designed to strengthen the standards for Alabama’s students. The grade placement and examples for some standards in Grades 9-12 have been altered from the Common Core State Standards to better align with Alabama history standards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)