The VINE project: Reading, Writing, and Word Consciousness Judith A. Scott Education Dept UC-Santa Cruz

1. The VINE project: • Reading, Writing, and • Word Consciousness • Judith A. Scott • Education Dept • UC-Santa Cruz

2. The VINE project (Vocabulary Innovations in Education) • US Dept of Education funded grant 2006-2009 • 34 4th and 5th grade teachers • 9 school districts, urban, suburban and rural • Approximately a third of the students are ELs with over twenty different heritage languages

3. Presenters today are 9 of the teachers: • Deborah Christie (Valencia, PVUSD) • Erin Devera (Hughes, Santa Clara USD) • Margarita Dreyer (Green Acres, Live Oak) • Buzz Gray (Gault School, SCCS) • Javon Hoang(Hughes, Santa Clara USD) • Susan Hull (Santa Clara, USD) • Dolores Hutson (Del Mar, Live Oak) • Danette O’Keefe (Christopher, Oak Grove) • Jenny Rodriguez(Hughes SCUSD)

4. Members of the research team: • Katharine Davies Samway – PI • Education Dept. SJSU • Susan Flinspach (UCSC) • Tatiana Miller (Bay View School, SCCS and UCSC) • Ondine Gage-Serio (UCSC) • Charlotte Zeamer (UCSC) • Path Star (UCSC)

5. Goal of the VINE project • -- to help students, particularly ELLs and those traditionally underserved by schools develop word consciousness and an understanding of how to use academic language as a tool of communication.

6. Goals of today • Introduce and develop the concept of word consciousness • Practical, concrete activities that build word consciousness

7. What is word consciousness and why is it important? • an interest in and awareness of words • the ability to reflect on, and manipulate words as units of language

8. Word consciousness helps students become aware of words in ways that go beyond a particular set of words.

9. This awareness goes across the curriculum and is infused into everything you do

10. On average, teachers spend: < 6% of a school day attending to word level knowledge (including spelling) in all subject areas < 2% focusing on words in subjects other than language arts (Scott, Jamieson-Noel & Asselin, 2003)

11. Word consciousness: • Increases the amount of time spent paying attention to words • Changes the way teachers look at word learning

12. Music Appreciation Art Appreciation Word Appreciation

13. Metaphor: TEACHING ABOUT RECYCLING

14. Metaphor: • Learning about recycling: • Build awareness, • Reinforce it in action • Learning about word consciousness: • Build awareness, • Reinforce it in action

15. Purpose of learning new word meanings: to understand them when we are listening and reading (receptive vocabulary) and to be able to use them when we are talking and writing (productive vocabulary).

16. Vocabulary teaching and learning refers to teaching and learning a particular type of language - the language of books and schools

17. Words that go beyond the 5,000 most frequent words used in English or conversational words

18. Words tied to specific content: • molecular, settlers, ecosystems, hypotenuse • or • Words that add richness and depth to writing: • despicable, vacillate, translucent, grim

19. If you think about the challenges of learning words in an academic setting, vocabulary learning becomes an equity issue.

20. By the time children enter kindergarten, a conservative estimate is that native speakers know 4,000–5,000 word families in oral language.

21. It is estimated that the average native English speaking student learns 2000-3000 new words every year Much of that word learning comes from wide reading and informal vocabulary coaching

22. Mom, what’s the difference between a yacht and a freighter?

23. Ever-widening gap between readers and those with access to informal vocabulary coaching, and those who are less skilled in reading who do not have as much access to informal vocabulary coaching.

24. Projected Growth of Root Words in Highest vs. Lowest Groups

25. Several researchers recommend limiting the number of words that are taught, and spending at least 20 minutes on each word. Reading programs in California have been analyzed, and they focus on approximately 200 vocabulary words per year.

26. Is this going to close the vocabulary gap? NO!

27. The Vocabulary Pyramid (Lubliner & Scott, 2008) Word Problem Solving Word Consciousness Wide Reading & Read Alouds Rich Oral Language

28. Rich Oral Language Wide Reading & Read Alouds Word Consciousness Problem Solving Word

29. If we want students to learn the language of school we need to actively, explicitly and thoroughly marinate students in opportunities to see, hear and use these words.

30. Good news!!!

31. We have scientific, experimental evidence through this research that developing word consciousness WORKS to improve student vocabulary achievement (Random-intercepts HLM model: t611 = 3.34, p < .001)

32. Vocabulary Growth

33. Why is this important? Scientific, experimental evidence that focusing on vocabulary in an environment that honors teachers’ professionalism and develops students’ metacognitive awareness of how language works, using real texts, the writing process and rich discussions about language development WORKS to improve student achievement, particularly for English Learners

34. What does this look like in classrooms? Workshops will show you some ideas!

35. For more information about our federally funded grant to explore word consciousness with 4th and 5th grade teachers, please contact: vineproject@ucsc.edu or visit us at our website vineproject.ucsc.edu.