This post is the second in a series of posts on teaching vocabulary. If you’re new here, we suggest you begin by reading the first post in this series, click here. Each post will focus on building inclusive, culturally responsive practices around one aspect of Micheal Graves’ Four Principles of Effective Vocabulary Instruction (The Vocabulary Book: Learning and Instruction 2005).
Why does explicitly teaching individual words matter?
Explicit vocabulary instruction is a powerful tool when approached through culturally responsive lenses. By thoughtfully teaching high-leverage words, we can:
Support students in accessing complex texts and new content.
Build bridges between students’ pre-existing language practices and domain specific vocabulary tied to school curriculum or topics of interest.
Position all students as language experts with valuable linguistic knowledge to share.
Create opportunities for cross-linguistic connections that deepen overall vocabulary understanding.
Research confirms that explicit word instruction is highly effective (National Reading Panel). While we can't teach every new word students will encounter, strategically teaching select words through culturally responsive practices pays dividends in student learning and engagement.
Four Tips for Explicit Word Instruction:
Select words with care. In any given text or unit, students are likely to encounter many new words. It would be inefficient to provide in-depth instruction on all potentially unknown words, not to mention that students would likely experience information overload, making the actual word meanings less likely to stick. We particularly appreciate the framework that Jan Burkins, Kari Yates, and Katie Cunningham propose in Shifting the Balance: Six Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Grades, Grades 3-5. They suggest analyzing potential vocabulary to teach through the lens of the three U’s by finding words that are:
Urgent to the text or context,
Uncommon or unlikely to be words students already know,
Useful across multiple contexts and to the current topic or text at hand.
Additionally, you might select words with a particular lens on centering student’s prior linguistic knowledge by looking for:
Words that allow students to make connections between familiar vocabulary (including more common words in English and words they know in languages spoken outside of school) and rarer words that they are more likely to encounter in text.
Cognates that connect to students' language knowledge.
Words that validate and expand students' cultural knowledge.
Lean on familiar structure. When teaching a new word it can help to have a predictable structure to plan and deliver instruction. Give a kid-friendly definition : “Formation means the process of how something is made or shaped over time. For example, the formation of mountains can take many years.” When possible, provide additional definitions in any other languages that are represented in your classroom. Analyze the word structure, morphology, and cognates: “The word formation is made up of the root, form, which means shape, and the affix -ation, which makes a word into a noun. You know that word part from other words like application and creation. You might know similar words, or cognates, in other languages like formación in Spanish.” Clarify the word context and put it into a sentence. “You can find the word formation in sentences like, ‘The formation of the Mekong river took many years because the water must wash away the dirt to make is path.’” Invite students to generate their own examples based on their lived experiences and to create connections to various cultural contexts. Connect the word into larger semantic and morphological networks. Develop word webs based on the morphology and meaning of the words. Invite students to include translations of related words and contexts and create space for discussing how different concepts may be expressed across cultures. While you might structure your teaching of new words in loosely the same way, you’ll want to be mindful that certain types of words will benefit from particular kinds of support and you’ll want to adapt your structure to account for differences between words. For example, a concrete process word like formation might be best explained with a timelapse video of mountain formation, a more abstract concept word like justice might warrant a conversation about examples and nonexamples.
Anchor new word learning in context. Move beyond traditional memorization of word lists by anchoring new words into context. You might be particularly responsive to student knowledge and interests when selecting topics for study as well as work to create deliberate links between topics from core curricula and state standards and students' own lived experiences.
When teaching new words in any topic or domain, begin by giving students the opportunity to activate their own pre-existing vocabulary networks about a topic. For example, before beginning a text or unit, invite children to teach each other about any words they already know about that topic. This helps to position students as already being knowledgeable about words and content and also gives us a glimpse into some of the information they already have before engaging in shared content.
Additionally, using a shared text, video, or hands on experience can make new word learning “stickier” for kids. This allows students to begin thinking of words as being a part of larger semantic networks around different topics and create space for them to anchor new vocabulary and new knowledge onto the things they already know. For example, first graders who are reading Rasha Hamid’s How to Bird as part of a larger unit on birds might learn words like: robin, nest, fledgling, feathers, wings, and migration. Having students talk and think about how words around a topic might fit together can help students deepen their understanding of the new words they are learning. Give kids repeated opportunities to hear and use the words they are learning. Knowing a word is not an all or nothing proposition. Instead we go through phases of building our word knowledge, moving all the way from vague familiarity (i.e. “I think I’ve heard that word before…”) to being able to use a word expressively in multiple contexts.
Doing things like introducing vocabulary within a text set can channel kids to hear and use new words across multiple days and contexts. For example, the first grade students studying birds, might read How to Bird as they build up their vocabulary around the topic, then have additional opportunities to put their new vocabulary to use as they participate in a virtual interview with an ornithologist and go birding in a local park.
You might also play quick games like word associations (e.g. “How is the word formation linked to the word landform?”) or example/ non example challenges (e.g. If I say a word that tells about a bird’s body, say bird. Feather? Raincoat? Beak? Fledgling?”) to challenge kids to engage with new words across the day. Low stakes opportunities to play with language can also include invitations for kids to try out new English language vocabulary, and also words from the other languages represented in their classrooms. This playing with words deepens understanding of the individual target vocabulary words as well as of how words work in general.
This post is part of our Vocabulary Instruction Series. Stay tuned for deep dives into the other three pillars of effective vocabulary teaching.
References Cunningham, Katie, et al. Shifting the Balance, Grades 3-5: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. 1st edition, Routledge, 2023. Graves, Michael F. The Vocabulary Book: Learning and Instruction. Second edition, Teachers College Press, 2016.