Warm-Up

1. Warm-Up • Sit in groups of four at a numbered table. • In your group determine the percent of informational and literary text our students should be reading at each grade level.

2. Answers to the Warm-Up

3. Essential Questions • How do we ensure the texts our students are reading are in the appropriate text complexity? • How will I teach vocabulary to increase student comprehension?

4. Shift Happens • With your partner place the shifts and definitions into your template. • Have two people join your group and check your answers. • Be prepared to come to the Elmo and justify your answers. • Review Answers

6. What’s New with Vocabulary? From Tears to Tiers

7. Vocabulary is defined as all the words an individual knows. • A student must know approximately 95% of the words to comprehend what is read or heard. • 80% to 90% of what is tested on high stakes standardized tests is based on vocabulary and concepts. • Explicit vocabulary instruction closes the achievement gap.

8. Why Students Struggle With VocabularyMeaningful Differences(Hart & Risley, 1995)

9. They do not expand their vocabularies and background knowledge. Children who fail at early reading, begin to dislike reading. Their limited vocabularies interfere with their comprehension. They read less than their peers who are stronger readers. Their limited comprehension contributes to reading failure. The Matthew Effect (Stanovich, 1986)

10. Shift: Academic (Tier 2) Vocabulary • Rationale: Teachers need to spend more time on academic vocabulary (Tier 2).

11. No More Tears !

12. Maybe think of Tiers as Crayons… Crayola: Which box will make the best picture? Box of 8: Brown Box of 64: Sand, Tan, Khaki, Copper Box of 120: Almond, Antique Brass, Beaver, Cornflower, Tumbleweed, Chestnut

13. Tier Example

14. Group Activity • Create a tiered vocabulary hierarchy diagram for your group’s Tier 1 word. • Discuss your Tier 1 Word with your partner and brainstorm Tier 2 words that have a similar meaning. • Think about Tier 3 words and be sure that you add the discipline where the word would be found. • Share Out /Hang

15. Academic Words: • Are critical to understanding academic texts • Appear in all sorts of texts and are highly generalizable • Require deliberate effort to learn, unlike Tier 1 words • Are far more likely to appear in written texts than in speech. • Often represent subtle or precise ways to say otherwise relatively simple things • Are seldom heavily scaffolded by authors or teachers, unlike Tier 3 words Beck, et al

16. Criteria for selecting words to teach • Importance of the word for understanding the text • What does the word choice bring to the meaning of the text? (E.g., precision, specificity?) • General utility of the word • Is it a word that students are likely to see often in other texts? Are there multiple meanings? • Will it be of use to students in their own writing? • Students’ prior knowledge of the word and the concept(s) to which it relates • How does the word relate to other words, ideas, or experiences that the students know or have been learning? • Are there opportunities for grouping words together to enhance understanding of a concept?

17. How do I determine that a word is TIER 2?

18. Practice time… • Read the excerpt from Volcanoes on the following slide. • With a partner, use the Tier 2 determination chart to identify examples of Tier 2 and Tier 3 words. Volcanoes, Grades 4-5 Text Complexity Band, from Appendix A, pp. 33-34.

19. In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formed or why they spouted red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study volcanoes. They still don’t know all the answers, but they know much about how a volcano works. Our planet is made up of many layers of rock. The top layers of solid rock are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is so hot that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called magma. Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the crack in the Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma pours forth on the surface, it is called lava.

20. Tier 2 Words In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formedor why they spouted red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study volcanoes. They still don’t know all the answers, but they know much about how a volcano works. Our planet is made up of manylayersof rock. The top layers of solid rock are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is so hot that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called magma. Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the crack in the Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma pours forth on the surface, it is called lava.

21. Tier 2 and Tier 3 Words In early times, no one knew how volcanoesformedor why they spouted red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study volcanoes. They still don’t know all the answers, but they know much about how a volcanoworks. Our planet is made up of manylayersof rock. The top layers of solid rock are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is so hot that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called magma. Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the crack in the Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma pours forth on the surface, it is called lava.

22. Know What, So What • Know What: • Tell something you know about each of the three tiers of vocabulary.

23. A Word on Word Lists: Caution • Words should not be learned in isolation • Students need to hear them, read them, speak about them, write about them, including writing their own definitions • They need context (Note: p. 25 CCSS Language Standards) • Remember: Lexile levels are being ramped up; therefore, so is vocabulary

24. Careful Selection of Tier 2 Words • In school settings, students can be explicitly taught a deep understanding of about 300 words each year. • Divided by the range of content students need to know (e.g., math, science, history, literature), of these 300–350 words, roughly 60 words can be taught within one subject area each year. • It is reasonable to teach thoroughly about eight to ten words per week. -- more at K-12 Teachers: Building Comprehension in the Common Core (Oregon)

25. The Six-Step Process forTeaching New Terms- Marzano • Step 1: Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term. • Tell a story that integrates the term. • Use video or computer images as stimulus for understanding the term. • Find or create pictures that exemplify the term.

26. Step 2: Ask the student to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words. • It is important when asking students to restate or describe that the student does not simply copy what you have said.

27. Step 3: Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term or phase. • Draw the actual thing • Draw a symbol • Draw and example • Represent by graphics • Dramatize the term- cartoon bubble

28. Step 4: Engage student periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms. • Highlight a prefix or suffix that will help them remember the meaning of the term. • Identify synonyms or antonyms for the term. • Draw and additional picture or graphic. • List related words.

29. Step 5: Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another. • Think, Pair and Share • Step 6: Involve students periodically in games that allow them to play with the terms. • Pictionary

30. From the New to the Known

31. Word Rating

32. Letter Rating

33. Vocabulary Chain vent

34. 12 Powerful WordsIt is important that our students are exposed to and understand the 12 Powerful Words. • Trace • Evaluate • Describe • Explain • Compare/ Similarities • Predict • Infer • Formulate • Support • Summarize/Retell • Contrast/Differences • Analyze

35. Suggested Follow-up Activities • Work in grade level teams to analyze anthology vocabulary to categorize into Tier 2/Tier 3 vocabulary. • Share identified vocabulary words through cross-grade level articulation. • Utilize a vocabulary strategy discussed in this presentation. Share the strategy and results with your grade level team.