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| Overview |
 Contemporary researchers agree that a direct systematic approach for teaching vocabulary should be established in classrooms. However, researchers differ on which words to teach. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan suggest teaching words that students will encounter often and across domains. Marzano recommends teaching subject-specific terms to enhance academic success. Using Karen Hesse’s Come On, Rain, this lesson combines the suggested approaches and extension activities of both research groups to directly teach two academic, three concept, and five robust vocabulary words. The four-step routine modeled in this lesson will help teachers and students EASE into meaningful vocabulary instruction throughout the year.
This lesson plan was developed as part of a collaborative professional writing initiative sponsored by the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP) at Kennesaw State University.
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| From Theory to Practice |
The authors of Bringing Words to Life suggest that “a robust approach
to vocabulary involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought-provoking,
playful, and interactive follow-up” (2). They add that “vocabulary
work in middle school and high school should allow deeper explorations of language—how
language gives meaning and how words mean what they mean” (85). In their
vision of best practices, vocabulary is “more rooted to a text
and dealt with in a way that both teaches the words and brings enriched understanding
to the text” (85).
Marzano agrees “direct instruction in vocabulary works” (68), and even mentions the work of Beck and McKeown in explaining that “effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions” (70). Marzano’s approach for effectively teaching vocabulary consists of six steps that are very similar to the approach described in Bringing
Words to Life. He encourages nonlinguistic representations to build vocabulary, and clarifies that he means “not just mental pictures,” but also "associated sounds, smells, and sensations of touch or movement” (21). Marzano encourages the shaping of word meaning through multiple exposures including the process of creating metaphors. He states that, “Research indicates that metaphor activities can help students better understand the abstract features of information. . . . In terms of vocabulary instruction, a teacher might present students with metaphors or ask them to create their own metaphors” (73).
However, Marzano writes that “Beck, McKeown, and Kucan’s focus on tier-two words as the appropriate target of vocabulary instruction” is a mistake (88). He stresses that “subject-specific terms are the best target for direct vocabulary instruction” and provides a list of 7,923 subject-specific terms in the appendix of his book.
Further Reading
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. Bringing Words to Life:
Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: Guildford Press, 2002.
Marzano, R. Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
- create definitions and examples for new vocabulary.
- create similes.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
- Select a short and high-interest text to read aloud to students. This
lesson uses Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse, but any similar book would
be appropriate.
- Select 10 vocabulary words to explicitly teach in connection to the text.
These words could consist of the following:
- 1–2 words that explain the overall concept or theme of
the text
- 2–3 subject-specific words that you want students to use while discussing the text and generating their own writing
- 3–5 rich vocabulary words that are found in the text.
- Create overhead transparencies or other format for sharing word pronunciation and description.
- Choose a short, current news article for students to analyze in Session
Two. See Time
for Kids for suggestions.
- Preview the handout EASE Summary of Sequence of Instruction to become
comfortable with this strategy.
- Test the Venn Diagram on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
Instruction and Activities
Session One:
ENUNCIATE and ASSOCIATE
- Write the following words on the board or chart paper: anticipate, optimist,
pessimist, simile, metaphor, vivid, listless, waver, sway, descend, and sprout.
- Using the EASE Sequence of Instruction, teach the word anticipate. View the sample transcript to see how it is done.
- Continue this process with remaining words.
- Show students the cover of
Come On, Rain! Ask them what they think the girl is ANTICIPATING.
(Possible response is rain.)
- Read Come On, Rain! aloud to the class.
- Use these questions to generate discussion of the book and understanding
of the vocabulary words listed on the board or chart paper.
- Was Tessie a pessimist or an optimist?
- What are the verbs the author uses BEFORE the rain comes?
- What are the verbs the author uses AFTER the rain comes?
- Compare the images before and after the rain comes.
- If desired, share the Five Senses Example with the students so they
can see how to record their observations.
- Pass out copies of
the Five Senses Handout, and have students find examples where the
author appeals to each of the five senses.
Session Two:
SYNTHESIZE and EMPHASIZE
- Arrange students in small groups or cooperative pairs.
- Give each group a
copy of the handout Pessimist or Optimist Handout.
- Ask students to sort the verbs on the handout into the
following categories: Actions of an Optimist, Actions of a Pessimist,
or Actions of Either.
- Have students use the print or online Venn diagram to organize their responses.
- Explain that for each verb students place in a circle on the Venn Diagram,
they should write an explanation of why the verb belongs there.
- Talk about
the choices with the class—which
choices present more positive than negative descriptions.
- Give each group the short, current news article that you have selected.
- Ask each group to read article and decide if it is a better example of optimism
or pessimism.
Session Three
- Review the definition
of simile, which was explored in the first session.
- Write the following
sentence on the board: “I am sizzling like a hot potato.” Alternately,
if enough copies of the book are available, direct to students to the page
3 of Come
On, Rain! and read the sentence aloud .
- Explain that although the “I” in the sentence is being compared to a hot potato, it is “sizzling” that makes the simile vivid for the reader.
- Show them that the sentence “I am like a hot potato” is not
as vivid as the sentence “I
am sizzling like a hot potato.”
- Show students a second simile in the book Come On, Rain!: "Her long legs, like two brown string beans, sprout from her shorts."
- Let students work in small groups or pairs to decide what is being compared
and what word gives the simile life.
- Share a third simile in the book (or have students find it if copies are
available): “ . . . while the music from Miz Glick’s phonograph
shimmies and sparkles and streaks like night lightning.”
- Ask students to explain what is being compared and which words make the
simile come alive or vivid.
- For additional practice, pass out copies of the handout Least Vivid
to Most Vivid and ask students to
look at word choice.
- Allow students to create their own similes, using the vocabulary words
as idea starters. Model a few of your own first.
- Continue these strategies with the students as additional texts and new
vocabulary are introduced.
Extensions
- Invite students to revise and edit the similes they have
found and created in this lesson into poems. As they prepare their writing,
ask students to underline any word they used from the current vocabulary
study. Encourage students to delete the words look, hear, taste, smell, and feel.
Suggest they think of other ways to “Come On” to begin their
writing.
- To further explore vocabulary, invite the students to
identify vivid verbs that they can use in future descriptive
writing. Ask students to locate at least one verb to dissect on a Word
Jar Slip for homework.
Distribute a Word Jar Slip to each student. Choose a
word to use as an example. After their first use of the Word Jar, ask students
to bring in several Word
Jar Slips per
week. Weekly, at the start or end of a class, choose
several Word Jar Slips to share with the class. You will be surprised how
many new and powerful words you are adding to your students’ vocabulary.
- Using the Word Map, students can further explore vocabulary words and make additional connections.
Web Resources
- Time for Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/
- Find current event news articles for students to use as you generate class discussion for authentic use of targeted vocabulary.
- Merriam-Webster OnLine
http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm
- This site is the online version of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Students can access the site to look up words and definitions. There is also a Word of the Day to help students build their vocabulary.
- Word Central
http://www.wordcentral.com/
- On this site, you can look up words in the Student Dictionary, build a Dictionary,
and explore the Daily Buzzword (the word of the day).
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Encourage or require students to use the vocabulary words that the class explores
in their writing. Students can underline or otherwise highlight these words in
their texts so that you can easily see their use and check the passages for student
comprehension. After students have used vocabulary words successfully in their
writing, ask them to complete
Writer’s Self-assessment Questions to help gauge their understanding of the words
and engagement with the process:
- What is the most vivid part of the writing you just completed? Explain.
- What part of your writing would you describe as listless?
- Did you use a simile or metaphor in your writing? What is it? If you did not, create a simile or metaphor to include now.
- After this lesson, are you pessimistic or optimistic about the kind of work you will do in this class? Explain.
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3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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