Editor’s Note

Early vocabulary knowledge predicts later reading success. A new study published in Reading Research Quarterly shows that using multiple methods of vocabulary instruction is more effective than any single method. This award-winning article from our archives explores research-based strategies for teaching vocabulary to preK–3 students.

Small Kids, Big Words

Research-based strategies for building vocabulary from preK to grade 3

By LAURA PAPPANO

 

Small Kids, Big Words

Morning meeting begins with—no surprise—the weather. But when preschool teacher Radha Hernandez describes the drenching winter downpour, she doesn’t reach for a rainy day symbol to stick on a calendar. She reaches for words.

“I was curled up under the covers. I was cozy, toasty warm and outside I heard an am-a-a-a-zing thing,” says Hernandez, a founding teacher at Lee Academy, a pilot school in Boston serving children from age three to third grade. “Thunder! Thunder! I heard thunder outside my window. It was a loud, crashing, booming sound.”

The ten children clustered in a horseshoe on the rug (two others will arrive later) perk up. Timmy insists he didn’t hear it. No one believes him, but he stands his verbal ground. “I didn’t want to hear it and so that is why I didn’t listen,” he says.

Molly, who’s four, adds, “I guess he was ignoring it.”

It is, of course, always cute when small kids use big words. But a growing body of research and classroom practice show that building a sophisticated vocabulary at an early age is also key to raising reading success—and narrowing the achievement gap. At schools like Lee Academy, teachers are overcoming the age-old habit of speaking to young children in simplified language and instead deliberately weaving higher-level word choices into preschool and primary grade classrooms. Whether it’s a discussion at morning meeting, informal talk at the block area, or a selection of read-aloud books, teachers are exposing younger children to language that, in many cases, exceeds the vocabulary level of a typical conversation between college graduates.

Since researchers Todd Risley and Betty Hart articulated the power of early communication at home on children’s future literacy in their landmark 1995 book, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children, there has been a shift in thinking about how teachers should use words in the earliest years. Instead of sticking with simple words that children can easily grasp (and maybe sound out), researchers say that teachers should help students stretch their capabilities to build a vocabulary that can serve as a reservoir for conceptual understanding. These words are being highlighted in new curricula and teaching practices aimed at students in preK through third grade and beyond (see sidebar “Vocabulary Development from PreK–3”).

 

Vocabulary Development from PreK-3

Daniel Pallante, president of the Ohio Educational Development Center and founder of the Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project (CLLIP), whose program has been used in Ohio schools for the past decade, helps teachers teach high-level words to children at different ages. Here are some of his guidelines for early vocabulary building:

Preschool: Teachers should pick out four to five Tier 2 words a week that relate to “big-time” concepts like “ocean,” which not only connect to children’s experiences but can be extended to touch on larger concepts and related words.

Kindergarten: As children get into word reading, it’s valuable to talk about the structure of words: how words—like block towers—can be taken apart or built from smaller pieces, and how that changes what they mean. He suggests concentrating on four to five words a week.

First grade: Children are ready to amplify their vocabulary learning by drawing inferences around six to seven target words each week.

Second grade: Students are ready to develop dictionary skills around seven to ten target words a week to begin to investigate multiple meanings.

Third grade: Students may target eight to ten new words weekly, extending their dictionary skills to think about which of a target word’s multiple meanings may be most relevant for a particular discussion.

For all students preK–3: Teachers should use interactive strategies to engage students. For example, if a story uses the word “risk,” a teacher might say, “I am going to give you some scenarios and if I describe one that is taking a risk, say, ‘Oh no!’” A teacher might then describe going swimming without a lifeguard (risky) and checking out a library book (not risky). Teachers can also send students home to find all the places a certain word turns up or make versions of Jeopardy to play in the classroom. “We have teachers who tell us they won’t read a book any more without doing these interactive strategies,” he says. “They say, ‘Otherwise it’s not fun for me or for the kids.’"

“When you hear adults talking to children in preschool, they are often using very low-level, common words as opposed to rarer and more high-level words,” says Judy Schickedanz, professor at the Boston University School of Education, whose Opening the World of Learning (OWL) curriculum is used at Lee Academy. “If we want to close the achievement gap, we need kids to have a more technical vocabulary.” Schickedanz believes exposing children to specialized words related to specific fields gives them access to sophisticated ideas and jumpstarts higher-level learning.

Read more ... http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/192