No More "Look Up the List" Vocabulary Instruction

by Charlene Cobb, Nell K Duke, Camille Blachowicz, Ellin Oliver Keene

Overview

“Just as word learning is incremental, so is learning about vocabulary instruction. Teachers need exposure to research, best-practice strategies, and fellow practitioners.”
—Charlene Cobb and Camille Blachowicz

The way we’ve learned influences the way we teach, but the vocabulary instruction many of us received—looking up words and writing sentences or completing worksheets— just doesn’t work. So what can we do instead?

No More “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction is your guide to engaging, research-proven practices for teaching words effectively. Practitioner Charlene Cobb and researcher Camille Blachowicz share why old-fashioned methods don’t work, what the research shows does work, and how to put the research into action.

Charlene and Camille answer teachers’ most commonly asked questions about vocabulary instruction, including:

• How many words, and how do I select them?
• How can I foster student independence using dictionaries and glossaries?
• How do I find time for meaningful vocabulary instruction?
• How can I assess and hold students accountable?

“Without practice in the full range of ways we use a word,” write Charlene and Camille, “our word knowledge is limited and falls from our grasp as the next cycle of words enters.” No More “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction offers a solution—deepen students’ engagement with words, increase their exposure to them, and expand their word knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780325049205
Publisher:	Heinemann
Publication date:	02/06/2014
Series:	Not This, But That
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	1,075,662
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 13 Years

About the Author

Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad. Her emphasis is long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning.

Ellin recently published The Literacy Studio: Redesigning the Workshop for Readers and Writers which is focused on an up-to-date conceptualization of Readers/Writers’ workshop. She is the author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2018); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), co-author of Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2^nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1^st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals.

Nell K. Duke, Ed.D., is a professor in literacy, language, and culture and also in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Duke received her Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Duke’s work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in economic poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include the development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. She has served as Co-Principal Investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations.

Duke has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. In 2014, Duke was awarded the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association, and in 2018 she received the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit for outstanding contributions to research, theory, practice, and policy. She has also received the Michigan Reading Association Advocacy Award, the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, the Literacy Research Association Early Career Achievement Award, the International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Research Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award, and the International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Duke is author and co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent book is Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of Informational Text through Project-based Instruction. She is co-author of the books Reading and Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices; Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to Five; Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills From Birth to 5, now in its second edition; and Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K–8 Classrooms. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Effective Literacy Instruction: Research-based Practice K to 8 and Literacy Research Methodologies. She is also editor of The Research-Informed Classroom book series and co-editor of the Not This, But That book series.

Duke has taught preservice, inservice and doctoral courses in literacy education, speaks and consults widely on literacy education, and is an active member of several literacy-related organizations. Among other roles, she currently serves as advisor for the Public Broadcasting Service/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ready to Learn initiative, an expert for NBC News Learn, and advisor to the Council of Chief State School Officers Early Literacy Networked Improvement Community. She has served as author or consultant on several educational programs, including Connect4Learning: The Pre-K Curriculum; Information in Action: Reading, Writing, and Researching with Informational Text; Engaging Families in Children’s Literacy Development: A Complete Workshop Series; Buzz About IT (Informational Text); iOpeners; National Geographic Science K-2; and the DLM Early Childhood Express. Duke also has a strong interest in improving the quality of educational research training in the U.S.

Camille Blachowicz is coauthor of the Heinemann title No More Look Up the List Vocabulary Instruction, part of the Not This, But That series edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. Camille is Professor Emeritus at National Louis University where she is Codirector of The Reading Leadership Institute, a professional learning network of literacy staff developers. She is also Co-Principal investigator of the Multifaceted Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction Program. She has researched, written, and presented extensively on the topic of vocabulary instruction which is the subject of three of her books. Camille was a Fulbright and Spencer Fellow and editor of the Journal of Reading Behavior. She was named to the roster of Outstanding Teacher Educators in Reading by the International Reading Association and is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Charlene Cobb is coauthor of the Heinemann title No More Look Up the List Vocabulary Instruction, part of the Not This, But That series edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. She is Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in East Maine School District 63, in Des Plaines, Illinois. She has worked in the area of literacy for over twenty years as a teacher, reading specialist, professor, and consultant. Charlene has worked nationally with schools and districts to support literacy programs and is particularly interested in the literacy development of linguistically diverse learners and struggling readers. She has contributed several articles to the International Reading Association journal, The Reading Teacher and has coauthored two books on the topics of literacy and vocabulary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction Ellin Oliver Keene xiii

Section 1 Not This

"Look 'Em Up, Write the Definition, Write a Sentence" Charlene Cobb 1

Learning Words Means Using Them 2

We Need to Question the Way We Were Taught 2

Why We Struggle with Change 3

Teachers' Common Questions, Familiar Answers, and Some Considerations for Change 3

Word Selection: How do I select words and when should I teach them? 4

Independence: How can I help my students become independent word learners? 6

Time: How can I find time for vocabulary instruction? 11

Assessment: How can I assess and hold students accountable? 13

Effective Vocabulary Instruction in Every Classroom 16

Section 2 Why Not? What Works?

What We Know About Vocabulary Acquisition and What It Means for Instruction Camille Blachowicz 17

What's Lost When We Tell Students to "Look Up the List" 17

Goals of Section 2 20

Essential Understandings: How We Learn Words 21

Understanding 1: Our depth of word knowledge is defined by how we use words 22

Understanding 2: We need to have a reason to learn new words. Engagement matters 23

Understanding 3: Words are concepts related to other words and can have multiple uses, which means that our knowledge of words can deepen 26

Understanding 4: We learn words through both intentional instruction and incidental means 26

A Framework for Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction 28

Providing Rich and Varied Language Experiences 29

Fostering Word Consciousness 30

Teaching Word-Learning Strategies 31

Teaching Individual Words 31

The Need for Flexible Instruction 32

Teacher Questions: Research Responds 36

Word Selection: How do I select words and when should I teach them? 36

Independence: How can I help my students become independent word learners? 38

Time: How do I find time for meaningful vocabulary instruction? 39

Assessment: How can I assess and hold students accountable? 40

Moving from Understanding to Practice 41

Section 3 But That: Flexible Instruction for Vocabulary Learning Camille Blachowicz Chariene Cobb 42

Fostering Word Consciousness 44

Stock the Classroom with Engaging Books 46

Play Games 46

Use Every Moment 47

Let Students Choose 47

Teach How Words Work 47

Teaching Individual Words 52

Explanatory Example 52

Semantic Word Sorts 54

Fostering Rich and Varied Language Experiences 56

Charting and Mapping Relational Sets 57

Vocabulary Framing 59

Vocab-o-gram 59

Knowledge Ratings 62

Possible Sentences 63

Teaching Word-Learning Strategies 65

Using Context 65

Using Word Parts 66

Using References 68

"And Now for Something Completely Different": Engaging Review 68

Semantic Word Walls 68

Be a Mind Reader 69

Being Accountable 71

Components of Accountability 71

Defining the Role of Assessment 72

Evaluating Your System of Accountability 73

Assessment Strategies 74

Next Steps 80

Afterword Nell K. Duke 81

References 83