In Service

Many of the school districts that I am working with this year have identified vocabulary development as an area in need of attention. Instructional practices are lagging behind what current research suggests might work best to help our students build deeper understandings about words.

Digging into this issue quickly leads most teachers to the realization that there are “too many words” in their content area, and many teachers struggle to define which words students should be held accountable for learning…..and how teaching and learning words might vary, depending on how the word might be used by students long-term.

I’ve spent the last year learning as much as I can about vocabulary instruction, and like so many others, I still often feel like I am swimming in a vast ocean of information that we’ve only begun to dip a toe into. Much of what I share with teachers comes from Robert Marzano’s work, but I found Janet Allen’s book, Words, Words, Words  to be helpful as well, in that it provides solid information about tiering words, a process that enables teachers to begin “categorizing” the many words that their students confront in a given year. Once this task is accomplished, decisions can be made about how to best instruct and assess around the words. Allen provides important strategies for practicing and assessing vocabulary that move beyond defining words and using them in sentences (which, apparently, some studies have shown causes regression in vocabulary development over time).

Many of the teachers that I worked with last year revamped their instructional practices and have begun incorporating the use of word walls, performance-based assessments, and considerations for learning styles. Several districts have developed grade-level formative assessments that will be used to study vocabulary development over the course of the year, using writing samples and rubrics that are very similar to the 6+1 Traits rubrics that so many of us are familiar with.

I am eager to see how these assessments work for teachers…specifically, whether or not they provide them with the information that they are hoping to gather.

I am also eager to hear from others who might be focusing on vocabulary instruction and assessment………it seems to be a solid place to begin helping students maximize their learning potential.