Poems to Use With Notice and Note

This week on the Notice and Note Book Club found on Facebook, Kylene Beers asked teachers to post some of their favorite poems they use with the Signposts. Here are some of the favorites. These come directly from other teachers and can be found online.

·         “Children’s Rhymes” by Langston Hughes ends in an important and powerful Tough Question as the narrator wonders if liberty and justice are truly for all.

·         Another poem by Langston Hughes, “I, Too” illustrates a Contrast and Contradiction. The narrator, a black person, is sent into the kitchen to eat while the white people gather around the table. So, one group of Americans are treated one way while another are treated another. Stopping to ask, “Why would this person be treated this way?” is critical.

·         And Hughes’s “Mother to Son” is nothing but Words of the Wiser.

·         At a lighter level, Judith Viorst’s “Some Things Don’t Make Any Sense at All” ends with a Tough Question as the child wonders why if he’s so perfect his mom is having another baby.

·         Maya Angelou’s “Still, I Rise” offers examples of Tough Questions and Again and Again. And her “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” offers an extended example of Contrasts and Contradictions.

·         “Forgive My Guilt” by Robert Coffin offers an example of a Memory Moment as the narrator, an adult, reflects on a moment he spent as a boy.

·         “Elana” by Pat Mora begins with a Memory Moment and then offers a wonderful Contrast and Contradiction as a mom decides to learn to speak English.

·         Her poem “Sonrisas” is an amazing poem of Contrasts and Contradictions. That one also offers powerful Again and Again lines as “coffee” and “smiles” are both used—in very different ways—in both stanzas. I like using this poem with kids because this is a great example of Again and Again that is also Contrasts and Contradictions.

·         Shel Silverstein’s “Listen to the Mustn’ts” offers children a great look at Contrasts and Contradictions. When I shared this with third graders, they immediately began talking about “why would some people act this way” meaning always telling kids what they can’t do. It was an amazing conversation.

·         “Morgan’s Curse” by Silverstein offers Tough Questions.

A LOT of the Shel Silverstein poems are all about Aha Moments, though the character doesn’t say “I realize” or “I understand.” They are moments (usually the last line) in which the character figures out something. For instance, in “I cannot go to school today” the little girl gives a long list illnesses she is feeling and therefore must stay in bed and not go to school. In the last line, she realizes it is Saturday and runs out to play. It’s a perfect Aha Moment! In the same way, Viorst’s “Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog” is humorous and one of the best examples of an Aha Moments that the mother is about to have that I’ve seen!

A Pre-Reading Strategy: Tea Party by Kylene Beers

This strategy gets students to consider parts of a text before reading it. The teacher takes actual phrases from the text about to be read, and writes one on each index card to hand out to each student. Several students can have the same phrase. When students receive their cards, they walk around the classroom, share their cards, listen to others, and discuss how the cards might be connected and make inferences as to what the text might be about. After this, they get into smaller groups to discuss what they’ve learned from the cards and what they think are possibilities for setting, characters, and problems in the text. We need to remind dependent readers that comprehension begins before they read a text. It is not simply a set of comprehension questions that one completes after the reading is done. The meaning-making needs to occur even before they start the text.

What Doesn't Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon

JUNE 3, 2016

By Nell Duke

The number one concern that I hear from educators is lack of time, particularly lack of instructional time with students. It's not surprising that we feel a press for time. Our expectations for students have increased dramatically, but our actual class time with students has not. Although we can't entirely solve the time problem, we can mitigate it by carefully analyzing our use of class time, looking for what Beth Brinkerhoff and Alysia Roehrig (2014) call "time wasters."

Consider the example of calendar time. In many U.S. early elementary classrooms, this practice eats up 15-20 minutes daily, often in a coveted early-morning slot when students are fresh and attentive. Some calendar time activities may be worthwhile. For example, teachers might use this time for important teaching around grouping and place value. But other activities are questionable at best. For example, is the following routine still effective if it's already February and your students still don't know:

Yesterday was _______.
Today is _______.
Tomorrow will be _______,

Does dressing a teddy bear for the weather each day make optimal use of instructional time? Some teachers respond, "But we love our teddy bear, and it only takes a few minutes!" But three minutes a day for 180 days adds up to nine hours. Children would also love engineering design projects, deep discussions of texts they've read, or math games.

5 Less-Than-Optimal Practices

To help us analyze and maximize use of instructional time, here are five common literacy practices in U.S. schools that research suggests are not optimal use of instructional time:

1. "Look Up the List" Vocabulary Instruction

Students are given a list of words to look up in the dictionary. They write the definition and perhaps a sentence that uses the word. What's the problem?

We have long known that this practice doesn't build vocabulary as well as techniques that actively engage students in discussing and relating new words to known words, for example through semantic mapping (Bos & Anders, 1990). As Charlene Cobb and Camille Blachowicz (2014) document, research has revealed so many effective techniques for teaching vocabulary that a big challenge now is deciding among them.

2. Giving Students Prizes for Reading

From March is Reading Month to year-long reading incentive programs, it's common practice in the U.S. to give students prizes (such as stickers, bracelets, and fast food coupons) for reading. What's the problem?

Unless these prizes are directly related to reading (e.g., books), this practice actually makes students less likely to choose reading as an activity in the future (Marinak & Gambrell, 2008). It actually undermines reading motivation. Opportunities to interact with peers around books, teacher "book blessings," special places to read, and many other strategies are much more likely to foster long-term reading motivation (Marinak & Gambrell, 2016).

3. Weekly Spelling Tests

Generally, all students in a class receive a single list of words on Monday and are expected to study the words for a test on Friday. Distribution of the words, in-class study time, and the test itself use class time. What’s the problem?

You've all seen it -- students who got the words right on Friday misspell those same words in their writing the following Monday! Research suggests that the whole-class weekly spelling test is much less effective than an approach in which different students have different sets of words depending on their stage of spelling development, and emphasis is placed on analyzing and using the words rather than taking a test on them (see Palmer & Invernizzi, 2015 for a review).

4. Unsupported Independent Reading

DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), SSR (Sustained Silent Reading), and similar approaches provide a block of time in which the teacher and students read books of their choice independently. Sounds like a great idea, right?

Studies have found that this doesn't actually foster reading achievement. To make independent reading worthy of class time, it must include instruction and coaching from the teacher on text selection and reading strategies, feedback to students on their reading, and text discussion or other post-reading response activities (for example, Kamil, 2008; Reutzel, Fawson, & Smith, 2008; see Miller & Moss, 2013 for extensive guidance on supporting independent reading).

5. Taking Away Recess as Punishment

What is this doing on a list of literacy practices unworthy of instructional time? Well, taking away recess as a punishment likely reduces students' ability to benefit from literacy instruction. How?

There is a considerable body of research linking physical activity to academic learning. For example, one action research study found that recess breaks before or after academic lessons led to students being more on task (Fagerstrom & Mahoney, 2006). Students with ADHD experience reduced symptoms when they engage in physical exercise (Pontifex et al., 2012) -- ironic given that students with ADHD are probably among the most likely to have their recess taken away. There are alternatives to taking away recess that are much more effective and don't run the risk of reducing students' attention to important literacy instruction (Cassetta & Sawyer, 2013).

Measure of Success

Whether or not you engage in these specific activities, they provide a sense that there are opportunities to make better use of instructional time in U.S. schools. I encourage you to scrutinize your use of instructional time minute by minute. If a practice is used because we've always done it that way or because parents expect it, it's especially worthy of a hard look. At the same time, if a practice consistently gets results in an efficient and engaging way, protect it at all costs. Together we can rid U.S. classrooms of what does notwork.

Notes

• Bos, C.S. & Anders, P.L. (1990). "Effects of interactive vocabulary instruction on the vocabulary learning and reading comprehension of junior-high learning-disabled students." Learning Disability Quarterly, 13, pp.31-42.
• Brinkerhoff, E.H. & Roehrig, A.D. (2014). No more sharpening pencils during work time and other time wasters. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Cassetta, G. & Sawyer, B. (2013). No more taking away recess and other problematic discipline practices. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Cobb, C. & Blachowicz, C. (2014). No more "look up the list" vocabulary instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Fagerstrom, T. & Mahoney, K. (2006). "Give me a break! Can strategic recess scheduling increase on-task behaviour for first graders?" Ontario Action Researcher, 9(2).
• Kamil, M.L. (2008). "How to get recreational reading to increase reading achievement." In 57th Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, pp.31-40. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
• Marinak, B.A. & Gambrell, L. (2016). No more reading for junk: Best practices for motivating readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Miller, D. & Moss, B. (2013). No more independent reading without support. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Palmer, J.L. & Invernizzi, M. (2015). No more spelling and phonics worksheets. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Pontifex, M.B., Saliba, B.J., Raine, L.B., Picchietti, D.L., & Hillman, C.H. (2012). "Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder." The Journal of Pediatrics, 162(3), pp.543-551.
• Reutzel, D.R., Fawson, P., & Smith, J. (2008). "Reconsidering silent sustained reading: An exploratory study of scaffolded silent reading." Journal of Educational Research, 102, pp.37–50.

Modeling Writing

How do we teach children to become better writers? Model. Model with your writing, student writing, writing from other classrooms, models from Lucy Calkins books… Just Model.

Maybe you’re a great writer, but you are uncertain how to show your students. Maybe you’re uncomfortable because you don’t feel you learned to be a good writer. Believe it or not, you know more than your kids and modeling is the best way to teach your students.

It’s unfair to ask kids to do something that hasn’t been demonstrated for them.

Writers are the best writing teachers. The only way to become better at something is to practice. It’s important to practice what you preach. If you want your students to publish one writing piece a month, then consider publishing one of your own every month. Model your writing in front of your students, using your own writer’s notebook. Let them know what you have written, want to add next, and will be working on before the next writing lesson.

Student models are also important. Have students share their writing daily. Don’t just ask kids to share, ask for students to share things that fit the lesson or models a technique they have learned. When items like this are shared, other students in the class will strive to meet the model.

Sometimes you need to look other places to find student models. Don’t be afraid to ask other teachers to share student writing that demonstrates a skill you are working toward. There are also student exemplars in the Lucy Calkins writing units.

Ask your coach if you need help getting started!

Best Practices for 

Displaying Print in Your Classroom

Creating effective anchor charts  with your students and incorporating them into daily instruction is very powerful.  Using authentic print is definitely meaningful to the children. It is exciting to watch students learn to use the anchor charts to develop and extend their literacy and mathematical practices. 

Examples of Commercial Print

Examples of Authentic Anchor Charts

“When information is presented only in spoken form, 10 percent is recalled after seventy-two hours.  Add visuals and 65 percent is recalled in that same time period. (Medina, 2008)”      Brain Rules    

Does the print displayed in your classroom on charts and displays:

• build a sense of individual and group ownership over the classroom?

• model teacher and student handwriting versus store bought commercial print?

• acknowledge and celebrate every child’s effort?

• have a meaningful connection to current learning?

• serve as a teaching tool for students to utilize during their independent work?

• highlight authentic reading and writing tasks and strategies- those that are purposeful and meaningful in real life?

• generate excitement about learning?

Yes? No? Sometimes?

Not sure how to accomplish this?

Directions: Click the link by The Children's Literacy Initiative below and check the strategies under the following effective practices that you'd like to implement in your classroom.

Plan how and when you will implement these strategies with a colleague or coach.

https://www.cli.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Best-Practices-for-Displaying-Print-in-My-Classroom.pdf

Thinking About Reading Strategies With Students

Jennifer Serravallo explains that a strategy is a series of actionable steps, a process to help readers tackle a skill that is not yet automatic for them.

She explains that strategies expand beyond comprehension into other areas of reading such as decoding, reading with fluency, developing stamina and engagement, writing about reading, and conversing about texts.

Strategies Help a Learner Become Skilled

For readers, Jennifer says that it’s helpful to go a step beyond saying “You should visualize when you read” to saying, “When you are reading a story, imagine yourself to be in the place. Use your senses to experience the world of the story. Describe what you see, hear, smell, feel.” This is shown to the right. In this example you can see how a student might use his senses to think through a piece of text. For someone who isn’t yet able to visualize, this helps them see things much clearer and makes the visualization doable. Eventually you will want the students to demonstrate automaticity with visualization, but practicing the skill in this way will help build up to being independent.

Strategies for More than Comprehension

Reading is complex and multi-faceted. Depending on the reader, one of a number of goals may emerge as most important. Some students may need support with one area of comprehension or another while others will need to work on being able to decode the print or read the text with fluency. Staying engaged and focused while reading may also be areas to address. Strategies can help here, too.

For example, instead of saying to a reader “read for the whole 30 minutes without getting distracted,” we may find it helpful to explain to them how to do that. The picture below explains to the reader how to stay engaged with reading. The teacher might say, “Set page goals in your book by reflecting on your log. Mark your brief stops with sticky notes. When you read and get to a sticky note, stop and think if you were focused or distracted. Decide to read on, or re-read.” 

Taking it to the Classroom

Strategies are at the core of everything you do when you are teaching reading. During whole class mini lessons, make sure to not just demonstrate but to also articulate a strategy, making clear how a reader uses the strategy. When you pull your students into a small group, form the group based on a strategy they could all use to improve their reading. Finally, when you meet with students one-on-one in conferences, do more than just talk to them about their book; support them with their individual reading goal by introducing and helping them to practice a strategy.

Be aware of who is doing most of the talking during a conference or a small group. If the teacher is doing most of the talking then the teacher is also doing most of the thinking. In The Reading Strategies Book, Jennifer give a list of prompts such as questions, directives, and compliments to keep the students active in thinking and learning. 

Serravallo, Jennifer. "Expanding Our Approach to Reading Strategies."MiddleWeb. Heinemann, 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.

Thinking About Reading Strategies With Students

Jennifer Serravallo explains that a strategy is a series of actionable steps, a process to help readers tackle a skill that is not yet automatic for them.

She explains that strategies expand beyond comprehension into other areas of reading such as decoding, reading with fluency, developing stamina and engagement, writing about reading, and conversing about texts.

Strategies Help a Learner Become Skilled

For readers, Jennifer says that it’s helpful to go a step beyond saying “You should visualize when you read” to saying, “When you are reading a story, imagine yourself to be in the place. Use your senses to experience the world of the story. Describe what you see, hear, smell, feel.” This is shown to the right. In this example you can see how a student might use his senses to think through a piece of text. For someone who isn’t yet able to visualize, this helps them see things much clearer and makes the visualization doable. Eventually you will want the students to demonstrate automaticity with visualization, but practicing the skill in this way will help build up to being independent.

Strategies for More than Comprehension

Reading is complex and multi-faceted. Depending on the reader, one of a number of goals may emerge as most important. Some students may need support with one area of comprehension or another while others will need to work on being able to decode the print or read the text with fluency. Staying engaged and focused while reading may also be areas to address. Strategies can help here, too.

For example, instead of saying to a reader “read for the whole 30 minutes without getting distracted,” we may find it helpful to explain to them how to do that. The picture below explains to the reader how to stay engaged with reading. The teacher might say, “Set page goals in your book by reflecting on your log. Mark your brief stops with sticky notes. When you read and get to a sticky note, stop and think if you were focused or distracted. Decide to read on, or re-read.” 

Taking it to the Classroom

Strategies are at the core of everything you do when you are teaching reading. During whole class mini lessons, make sure to not just demonstrate but to also articulate a strategy, making clear how a reader uses the strategy. When you pull your students into a small group, form the group based on a strategy they could all use to improve their reading. Finally, when you meet with students one-on-one in conferences, do more than just talk to them about their book; support them with their individual reading goal by introducing and helping them to practice a strategy.

Be aware of who is doing most of the talking during a conference or a small group. If the teacher is doing most of the talking then the teacher is also doing most of the thinking. In The Reading Strategies Book, Jennifer give a list of prompts such as questions, directives, and compliments to keep the students active in thinking and learning. 

Serravallo, Jennifer. "Expanding Our Approach to Reading Strategies."MiddleWeb. Heinemann, 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.

"Just Right" Books

For years, teachers have used the “five-finger rule” to help students choose “just right” books. It goes something like this:

• ·        Pick a book.
• ·        Open to a page in the middle.
• ·        Read the page.
• ·        When you get to a word you don’t know, put your finger up.
• ·        Five fingers means the book is too hard.
• ·        Zero fingers means to book is too easy.

This method helps us to know students are reading at their “instructional level,” which will challenge but not frustrate students. But, what about interest? Where do books that interest students fit into the mix?

According to Timothy Shanahan, the “five-finger rule” is just not backed by research. He argues that students in 2^nd grade and above are motivated by and can learn from a wide range of text levels, including those much tougher “that we might not have dared to use in the past.” “Our relatively easy book matches may be holding kids back, preventing them from exposure to more-challenging features of language and meaning.” (Research behind his argument.) The students “curiosity about the content of the harder materials outweighs their fear of failure.”

Shanahan also states that giving students more challenging text will not hurt their decoding. After 2^nd grade tough texts “have not been found to slow kids’ reading development or to disrupt their growth in decoding ability.”

The overall recommendation is to give students texts at all levels and provide the appropriate amount of support.

A Student-Centered Classroom With Flexible Seating

This week Kari and I are sharing an article with you about the use of flexible seating in your classroom. Research has shown many positive benefits of using flexible seating including increased engagement, higher academic performance, and improved behavior. These benefits and the research that was referenced are outlined in this article by Kayla Delzer, a teacher and educational consultant. She states, "Redesigning a classroom or implementing unassigned flexible seating is a shift in both structure and teaching philosophy -- an entire mindset shift." I hope you will take some time to read and think about this article. Could this be something that will work for you and your students?

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flexible-seating-student-centered-classroom-kayla-delzer

How was your year?

It may seem early to start thinking that way, but it’s time to start reflecting. I start to think through my year by reflecting on what went well. What can I celebrate about the school year? (Some of you may be thinking about celebrating the survival of the school year.) If you truly think about what happened this year you will find many small successes and hopefully some big successes too.

What surprised you this year? Did something go well that you thought would flop? Did something go terribly that you thought would be incredible? What did you learn from that? Look for a common theme that connects the things that went well. Incorporate those into other lessons.

What will you change for next year? Classroom layout? Daily procedures? Workshop structures? How will you prepare yourself for next year? Thinking about your goals now could help you to focus for next year. Just remember not to set too many goals. Set aside a little time over the summer to think about things you would like to change. Do the research to find best practices. And as always, don’t hesitate to contact your coaches.

In the next few weeks we will send out some ideas that may shift your ideas on ordinary and give you some goals for next year.

Raising the Quality of Word Work

This week we are revisiting word work. As Gail Boushey and Joan Moser write in The Daily 5, the proper goal of word work is to give students the opportunity to “experiment with spelling patterns, memorize high-frequency words, and develop a genuine curiosity and interest in new and unique words. By playing with words, word patterns, word families, prefixes, suffixes, and so on, students hone their knowledge of words and increase their writing skills." Teachers can help their students meet this goal in beneficial and meaningful ways by thinking of word work as a way for students to learn how words work and as a way to help them become better readers and writers. Here are some ways to make word work time more beneficial for your students.

Word Sorts

Sorting words is an activity that is strongly advocated by the word work wizards Donald Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, and Francine Johnston. Word sorts engage students in analyzing words by sorting them into categories. Categories can be anything from consonant sounds to vowel sounds, word families, affixes, or even what the words mean, to name a few. The category can be determined by the teacher (closed sort) or by the student (open sort). Sorting focuses children's attention on what they already know about words and encourages them to focus specifically on the similarities and/or differences between selected words. It provides children with multiple exposures to selected words and requires them to think about the words from a particular perspective.  Google “short ‘a’ word sort” (or word sort on any element of study), and you will find many ready-to-go sorts. Or you can always create your own.

Making Words

This activity, developed by Pat Cunningham, engages children in making smaller words from a “mystery word.” Students work with letter cards or letter tiles. They start by making two-letter words and then three-letter words, and they continue until they have used all of the letters to make the mystery word. After this activity is done as a whole-class or small-group activity, it can easily be repeated as an independent task. Have the children record the words that they make on paper.

Classroom Word Hunt

Give students a sheet of spelling paper attached to a clipboard and send them off on a hunt. Ask them to find words in a specific category. There are almost endless possible choices for the category. A few examples are words in plural form, words with long vowels, words with short vowels, words with two syllables, words with three syllables, and words with silent letters. Rather than having students look through books, limit the hunt to words already present in the classroom environment, which includes anchor charts, bulletin-board displays, name tags, procedural charts, labels, word walls, and vocabulary charts. Again, this activity can be teacher directed or student directed.

Children's Literature Focused on Words

Students can do word work by reading books that focus on words. Here is a list of a few books with some very brief descriptions. 

1. Andy, That’s My Name (DePaolo, 1999) is almost wordless, except for a boy adding to and moving around the letters in his name. This provides wonderful practice for the -an word family.
2. There’s an Ant in Anthony (Most, 1992) is a story of a boy who finds the word ant in different words.
3. Dear Deer (Barretta, 2007) helps to shed some light on confusing homonyms.
4. Once There was a Bull … (Frog) by Rick Walton (1995) is a very clever book about compound words.
5. Here Comes Silent e! (Hays,2004) is a beginning reader in the Step into Reading series. The main character, a boy with a lowercase e on his shirt, goes through the story changing bit into bite, kit into kite, and pin into pine. Of course, the children can follow up by creating their own list of CVC and CVCe pairs of words.

Word Games

There are three categories of word games: teacher-made games, store-bought games, and online games. Children get tremendous joy and valuable practice from teacher-made games. Make Go Fish cards or Dominoes with sight words or vocabulary words. Go to http://www.mes-english.com/games/boardgames.php to get blank game boards. The students roll a die and go around the game board. They must be able to read the word on the square where they land. The game squares may include sight words, vocabulary words, words that feature a particular phonics element, or words that come from a particular family. You can make the game a little more interesting by including squares that have instructions such as, “Miss one turn,” “Roll again,” or “Go back two squares.” You will never need to make any game more than once—laminate it the first time and keep it for years. Attach it to a file folder for easy storage and for retrieval whenever students are ready to practice the skill that the game focuses on.

Games from the store can be very appealing to students. For grades 1-3, try Scrabble Junior, Boggle Jr., The Great Word Road Race, What’s Gnu?, Zingo (Word Builder or Sight Words), or Appletter. For grades 3-6, try Bananagrams, Scrabble, Boggle, or Tapple. Teach a few students how to play each game, and let them teach the rest.

Along with teacher-made and store-bought games, online word games are a good option for students as well. There are many good spelling apps and spelling sites that would be beneficial for your students to learn about words.

Word Production

Younger students benefit tremendously from producing letters and words in different ways. Give them whiteboards, magnetic letters, letter tiles, letter stamps, Wikki Stix, Play-Doh, cereal, and macaroni. The action of writing and saying the words helps to ingrain those words and letters into their long-term memory.

Frost, Shari. "Raising the Quality of Word Work." Web log post. Choice Literacy, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Vocabulary Part 2

Last week we started to share the basics of vocabulary instruction in the classroom and expressed that we must be strategic. Teachers must provide students with multiple exposures, use tiered vocabulary, create a print rich environment, and gather effective strategies. Today’s post will focus on some simple activities you can use in your classroom starting tomorrow!

Making Meaning: This is a before and after reading strategy. Teachers use a chart with 3 columns (new words, before reading, and after reading) for filling in the new words. Before the students read, brainstorm what kids already know about each word and fill in the information. After reading, the chart is completed with information they learned about each word from the text.

Click here for the word document.

Vocabulary Anchors: Try this strategy using an interactive board during whole group instruction. Introduce new vocabulary using similar vocabulary. For instance, to introduce the word “colony”, you could identify the word “state” as a similar term. “State” should activate the students' prior knowledge. They will be able to identify characteristics of a “state” and list them on the board (+ part of the paper). Next, they will think aloud while reading about a colony to brainstorm ways that a colony is unique (-).

Click here for the word document.

Vocabulary Frames: Make vocabulary cards into a higher order thinking strategy. Students place the vocabulary term in the center of the card. In the right corner they develop a definition based on their understanding. In the left corner, they write an opposite of the center word. In the lower left corner they use the word in a sentence. Finally, they draw a picture about the word in the right corner.

Why Vocabulary Is So Important!!

Systematic vocabulary instruction is a key component to improving student achievement and reading comprehension. Word learning is directly connected to teaching content at any level and should be taught with a strategic plan in mind.

There remains a gap between implementing effective vocabulary instruction and what often takes place in the classroom, so vocabulary instruction is important. 

These 5 simple steps will make selecting and teaching vocabulary easier than you might think.



Understanding the key characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction is important for K-12 educators. Why? Because they serve as the foundation for selecting instructional strategies and digital tools to support word learning.

“Top 10” Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction include:


Multiple Exposures: Word learning is shaped through multiple exposures in varied contexts. (Probably THE MOST important idea when it comes to learning new words.


Frontload Key Vocabulary: Before reading text or learning new content, introduce key vocabulary that is critical to understanding. Elicit background knowledge, create conversation and connections, and display or point out the words so that students will recognize them.
Nonlinguistic Representations: When learning new vocabulary, have students create pictographs, mental images, and pantomime word meanings in order to increase the likelihood of remembering new words.

Check out 7 more key characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction here.



Tiered vocabulary is an organizational framework for categorizing words. Understanding tiered vocabulary has practical applications for implementing the standards and classroom instruction.

The Three Vocabulary Tiers

     Tier 1: Common, Known Words     Examples: big, small, house, table, family

In other words, Tier I words are basic, everyday words found frequently in conversation and are part of most children’s vocabulary.

Tier 2: High-Frequency Words or Cross-Curricular Vocabulary     Examples: justify, explain, expand, predict, summarize, maintain

Tier 2 words are made up of are general academic words and have utility across a wide range of topics. Another way to think of Tier 2 vocabulary is as cross-curricular terms. For example, the term “justify” and “predict” frequently appear in Science, Social Studies, and English texts. It is important to keep in mind that Tier 2 words are learned primarily through reading and explicit instruction and are key to building a strong academic vocabulary

Tier 3: Low-Frequency, Domain-Specific words     Examples: isotope, tectonic plates, carcinogens, mitosis, lithosphere

Tier 3 words are domain specific vocabulary. Words in this category are low-frequency, specialized words that appear in specific fields or content areas. We anticipate that students will be unfamiliar with Tier 3 words. Beck suggests teaching these words as the need arises for comprehension in specific content areas.

The more you understand and sort vocabulary into the Tier 2 and Tier 3 words, the more instructional implications you’ll find. For example, the tiers will help you create content vocabulary lists. In addition, they’ll provide a focus for instruction and specific words to focus on during instruction.



A print-rich environment is not only important for early literacy development but supports word learning as well. Students learn words through direct instruction, but also develop their knowledge and exposure to new words indirectly through independent reading, word walls, and exposure to print across the school day.

Key elements of a literacy-rich environment include classroom libraries that include: 

*a variety of genres and text types, 
*content posters,
*anchor charts that are teacher-made and co-created with students, 
*word walls, 
*labels, 
*literacy workstations, 
*writing centers, 
*computers, 
*display of student work, 
*displays of books & information, 
*bulletin boards, and 
*plenty of opportunity to read, write, listen, and speak. 



Building a toolbox of effective instructional strategies is essential for creating a language-rich environment that fosters and supports word learning for every student. The best vocabulary strategies engage students in learning words through a variety of strategies that include personalization, visualizing and creating other nonlinguistic representations, identifying synonyms and antonyms, verbalizing, writing in notebooks and journals, and playing with words through game-like activities.



Digital tools have proven quite promising to support word learning. Compared to their more traditional counterparts, online tools provide a broader array of information about words and word meanings. In addition, some tools allow teachers to easily customize words so that students can practice, review, and play games with content or unit-specific words.

Digital tools allows students to:
*hear pronunciations
*read words in a variety of authentic examples
*view photos and images related to words
*reinforce word learning through interactive games
*play with and manipulate language
*discover rhyming words, and
*collaborate with classmates to create virtual words walls.

Final Thoughts
Using these steps teachers become intentional in their vocabulary instruction and become excited about word learning and regularly identify, instruct, and have conversations around words with their students.

The best part is that teachers soon begin to observe measurable growth in their students.

Tyson, Kimberly. "{5 Steps Series} 5 Simple Steps for Effective Vocabulary Instruction L Dr. Kimberly's Literacy Blog." Dr Kimberlys Literacy Blog. N.p., 04 July 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.

Comprehension Strategies 3

In order to make students active participants in comprehension we must provide many opportunities for them to work with strategies. This week we will continue the discussion about the importance of explicitly teaching students how to achieve mastery in the seven areas of comprehension. 

This is the third blog post of a series on strategies to help students comprehend within all the areas of comprehension. This post will cover; “determining theme,” “Synthesize Information,” and “Fix-Up Strategies” (See previous blog posts to review the seven areas of comprehension and the first two strategies.)

Area of Comprehension: Determine the most important ideas or themes- Proficient readers understand the most significant events in fiction, and the main ideas in nonfiction.

Strategy: Chart

          To determine importance, you consciously prioritize information to make decisions about what’s essential and what is less essential. In order to make this process more visible for students, model for the students using a gradual release. 
          Start by reading an article or short story to the class. While reading highlight the details you feel may be important and make notes in the margin about why you think it is important. Use a chart with three columns (main idea, details, and response: lingering thoughts questions, and connections) to sort the important information.                   Read through the highlighted section and the notes to sort the first half of the article. Have the students work together to complete the chart. Help students to understand they are not searching for a right answer, but trying to understand their reading deeper. Once the chart is done, model summarizing the information. Then release students to try the rest of the article on their own.

Area of Comprehension: Synthesize information- Proficient readers can figure out how parts of a text fit together, and understand cause/effect.

Strategy: Somebody Wanted But So

            Somebody wanted but so is intended to help students think about the text and pull out the most critical pieces of information. This strategy can be used with both fiction and nonfiction. It is different than a retell, because a retell recounts the text in the correct order while a summary provides the essence of the text.

           

Area of Comprehension: Use "fix-up" strategies (monitor for meaning)- Proficient readers monitor their own understanding, fix confusion as it arises, and understand new vocabulary.

Strategy: Syntax Surgery

            The strategy syntax surgery is a good fit to help students clarify confusions that might occur while reading. To use this strategy students must be able to write and draw on the text. Students will be looking for how one word, phrase, sentence, or figure connects to other parts by drawing lines and arrows connecting the parts.

To see some strategies in action, watch this video. (You will see a combination of a signpost, sketch to stretch, and syntax surgery. The video is about 12 minutes.)

Strategies from: Reading Nonfiction: Notice&Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies  and Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst

Comprehension Strategies Week 2

This week we will continue the discussion about the importance of explicitly teaching students how to achieve mastery in the seven areas of comprehension. Teachers need to give students the opportunity to be active participants in the process and use the strategies we teach them as they read.

This is the second blog post of a series on strategies to help students comprehend within all the areas of comprehension. This post will cover; “questioning” and “drawing inferences” (See previous blog posts to review the seven areas of comprehension and the first two strategies.)

Area of Comprehension: Questioning - Proficient readers use questioning to help them clarify ideas and deepen understanding of what they are reading.

Strategy: Students create text-dependent questions 

            Here is a way to make students in charge of creating their own questions about their reading. 
           1. Use a short text that may be challenging for the students.
           2. Read the text out loud as the students follow along or have them read it on their own.
           3. Have them mark spots where they feel confused, have a question, or wonder about something.
           4. Have them reread the text pausing at each spot they marked to write a question or comment about the confusion they felt or what they were wondered.
           5. Collect the students' questions and post them.
           6. Have the students (in pairs and as whole class) discuss the most interesting or important questions and make notes about their thoughts while referring back to the text.
This structure has the students reread a text several times, generating their own questions, and collaborating on possible answers.     

Area of Comprehension: Drawing inferences - Proficient readers elaborate upon what they read and draw conclusions by going beyond what is written on the page.

Strategy: Signposts and Anchor Questions 

            For students to become independent readers, they need to have questions in their repertoire, apply them appropriately, and let the questions lead them to other questions. The six Notice and Note Signposts (Contrasts and Contradictions, Aha Moment, Tough Questions, Words of the Wiser, Again and Again, and Memory Moment) help students notice something in the text and then stop to note what it might mean. Each signpost requires students to ask themselves an anchor question that goes with each signpost, so it is important to teach both the signpost and the anchor questions to students. As students are regularly using the signposts and anchor questions they will begin to make inferences, make connections, offer predictions, and think deeper about their reading.

Strategies from: Reading Nonfiction: Notice&Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies  and Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst