Ponti Portfolio!

PORTFOLIO 4

VOCABULARY

WHAT? & WHY?

WHAT?: The following tier two vocabulary were selected as targets in this intervention. In the following list, student friendly definitions are hyperlinked to the targeted vocabulary words from Chapter 1 of James Ponti's Framed!:

technically "Technically they classify me as a 'covert asset,' which sounds very James Bond spylike..." (p.7)

classify "Technically they classify me as a 'covert asset,' which sounds very James Bond spylike..." (p.7)

asset "Technically they classify me as a 'covert asset,' which sounds very James Bond spylike..." (p.7)

covert "So the covert part is good for both of us." (p.7)

counter "I'm pretty sure Ben Franklin was dead about a hundred and fifty years before the Dumpster was invented," I countered. (p.8)

abduct ”But I think it's okay to lie when you've been abducted.” (p.12)

scowl "The smile turned into a scowl and I was worried that I'd offended him." (p.12)

swerve "Just then he swerved to avoid another car, blasted his horn, and yelled what I assumed were choice Romanian curse words." (p.13)

ominous "The 'or else' was ominous, and combined with the continued lack of..." (p.14)

veer "I wasn't sure about my pronunciation, but it must have sounded Romanian enough because moments later he veered over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes." (p.15)

antagonize "Survival Step 3 — Do Not Antagonize Your Captor..." (p.16)

inevitable "He reached down and pressed his beefy hands against the sides of my head, and I waited for the inevitable crushing of my skull." (p.16)

rapport "Rapport had finally been established." (p.16)

ruthless "...to come face-to-face with Nicolae Nevrescu, a ruthless gangster known as 'Nic the Knife.' He was the..." (p.17)

WHY?

Choosing which words to teach is just important as the method of vocabulary instruction. Only a small number of words can be repeatedly presented in a meaningful way when directly teaching vocabulary. The target words above were selected to maximize frequency, functionality and the degree to which words supports academic learning.

Tier 2 words are more common in written language than in spoken language language and they appear frequently in many topic areas of written language. In order to target exclusively Tier 2 vocabulary, the exclusion criteria of words common in oral language (Tier 1 vocabulary) and domain specific words in written language which appear infrequently in many contexts (Tier 3 vocabulary) were applied to the text.

More Tier 2 words were identified than time allowed for to teach, three questions were asked to refine the target word list: (1) Can the word be worked with in a variety of ways?; (2) is the word central to understanding the material and used frequently in the text?; and (3) Will the word be important in future texts the student will read? (Beck et al, 2002). Only words for which all questions could be answered affirmatively were be kept.

Vocabulary that supports literacy is not organized in any innate order or hierarchy of word learning, however, productive words are learned earlier than productive forms (Beck et al., 2013). Also, compound words tend to be acquired earlier than derived words, and root words are outnumbered by those constructed through compounding or derivation and compounding is more productive than derivation (Ukrainetz, 2015).

Morphological family size and productivity, or the number of different roots that can combine with an affix, as well as transparency, or how clear derived forms relate (in sound, spelling or meaning) to the root, are functions of frequency type. Words with small morphological size were culled from the word list and roots inflected with derivational affixes allow teaching of prefixes and suffixes were prioritized for retention.

Frequencies provide useful information but using frequency counts as the primary source for identifying words can be problematic (Beck et al., 2013). Prioritizing vocabulary with affixes and words with high frequency counts using Google's Ngram Viewer were the final step in selecting words to be targeted in intervention.

Activities

Activity 1

The first activity involves preteaching vocabulary by chapter to provide multiple exposures in different contexts, reading the text aloud, and opportunities which encourage the student to process words deeply using varied cues to supplement word learning.

The student is asked to represent their understanding of vocabulary by drawing a picture or symbolic representation of a word. Involving the student in a discussion about possible sentences that use the targeted word before the reading will further increase the frequency of exposure of word meaning and allow him to apply the word in different contexts. In discussing vocabulary, the student will be encouraged to give examples or the way they have heard the word in their day to day interactions.

During the read aloud, the student is encouraged to use word learning strategies to independently figure out the meaning of words in the chapter. The reading provides an advantage in learning vocabulary by linking the context of the story with the word's meaning. The student will learn more independently if they have the tools to unlock word meaning in context. Using context clues, word parts (e.g., affixes) and cognates foster understanding of how words work and the appreciation he can figure out the meaning of unknown words on his own. Words that crucial to comprehension are clarified by the clinician, giving a brief explanation before reading on in the text.

A more in depth discussion where the student tries their hand at teaching the word's meaning, either to the clinician or another student in the group would take place after the reading as well. Finally the student would be encouraged to add representations of any new word meanings or uses learned from the reading to their drawing.

Activity 2

Identifying the relationship between words are another way to promote deep learning. The second activity does not need to be executed in sequence or take place on the same day as the first activity. The second activity involves students constructing visual supports and speaking/listening as well as writing because using multiple modalities is a best practice of direct instruction lessons.

The clinician will ask the student to compare the meaning of one vocabulary word with another word (e.g., swerve/veer, ominous/inevitable, etc.) drawing a venn diagram on a whiteboard to show the similarities and differences brought up by the group of students.

A quick write is a brief written response to a question or probe that requires students to quickly explain, comment or reflect on an assigned topic. For example, who in the three people at school with whom you have good rapport? Or, what might be something that would make you veer off the road?

Competitive games engage students and have a positive effect on their learning because of the external motivation they offer and opportunities they provide to help vocabulary the student has learned generalize to their natural lexicon. The commercially available boardgame Apples to Apples can be modified by adding cards for new vocabulary to practice synonyms or antonyms.

The two student expressive language group could also be asked to simply fold a paper into four parts with the word in the middle and surrounding sections devoted to examples of the word that did not come from the text, synonyms of the word, antonyms and a word definition generated by the students. The students are encouraged to take turns providing answers and write the definitions in their own words, but are allowed to consult an online dictionary.

Discussing alternate word meanings enhances recall of vocabulary words and having the student predict the meaning of an unfamiliar word sharing a root with the target allows learning generalize to untrained words. The Visual Thesaurus allows the clinician to have these discussions by plotting the word along with morphological and semantic relatives in a visual diagram. Finally, students would be given the task to find one of the words they discussed within their environment, newspapers, funnies, etc., before the next session.

About Remington

Remington is a sixth-grade student referred for evaluation from to address delays in expressive language. The student's primary caregivers and classroom teachers reported concerns about Remington's lack of speech progress, repetitive play at school, adaptive skill deficits and solitary play. Remington's IEP team completed a psycho-social evaluation in June of 2015. His results on the EOWPVT-4 indicated Remington's receptive single word expressive vocabulary fell within the Very Low range (Standard Score of 69; Percentile Rank 3). Current school based benchmark scores on the most recent STAR Reading assessment estimates Remington's reading abilities in the 1st percentile compared to other students his age. The team determined Remington met the criteria for Speech and Language Impairment and recommended that he be included in an intensive language program that provided language support for academics throughout the day. Remington's medical history was unremarkable, with no known hearing or cognitive impairments.

Goal Based on Grade 6 California Common Core State Standard:

L.6.6

Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Goal: By 1/17/2024, Remington will independently demonstrate understanding of meanings of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, in 80% of opportunities, independently, as measured by the clinician in 4 out of 5 trials.

Objective 1: When provided an incomplete cloze sentence and a word bank, Remington will produce the target vocabulary word that correctly completes the sentence, with 80% accuracy, independently, as judged by the clinician.

Objective 2: When verbally presented with 10 target vocabulary words, Remington will independently produce a synonym and antonym for each in spoken language, with 80% accuracy, independently, as judged by the clinician.

Objective 3: When presented with a picture card of a target vocabulary word, Remington will define the target vocabulary using a complete spoken sentence, with 80% accuracy, independently, as judged by the clinician.

References

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. Guilford Press.

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2015). School-Age Language Intervention: Evidence-Based Practices. PRO-ED, Austin.

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