COR - The Components of Reading - Part 5 - Vocabulary

VOCABULARY

Continuing our series on COR Instruction, where we highlight the activities explored in the HOT ROD activity books (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading of Decodables), this month’s topic is Vocabulary. For more information about decodable books, visit the page on our website titled "Decodable Books."

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One of the main features of HOT ROD books is their focus on providing decoding practice within a meaningful context, utilizing key vocabulary that can be used to address a variety of COR skills. 

Vocabulary is a foundational building block of both listening and reading comprehension, but it can be challenging to include robust vocabulary in a Structured Literacy lesson when focusing on the limited syllable constructs often found in decodable books and stories. On the other hand, even the most basic word forms can provide opportunities for exploring advanced vocabulary, especially when multi-syllable words are included. Consider these words based on closed syllables with short vowel sounds from Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold - asp, vast, crag, smelt, crept, pox, kestrel, linnet, prospect, gallant, Vulcan, scandal, rascal, tempest, vespid.

When vocabulary is based on rich content, comes from material related to the curriculum, is used for additional activities that address skills like cognitive flexibility, morphological awareness, sentence structure, and more... repeated exposure to words happens naturally.

We know it is beneficial to pre-teach new words before students are asked to read them in context. However, it is also vitally important to teach students strategies for determining the meaning of new words independently. Students with reading challenges require even more exposure to a word than their peers, so even if they have already been introduced to a definition, it is still beneficial to explore it in context. Context is especially significant for understanding words with multiple meanings. Consider these multiple-meaning words from Gods and Gifts: bat, drill, hog, rat, pelt, land, last, spit, bluff, band, top, spin, class, jam, craft.

Multiple Meaning Word Search 

To promote both vocabulary and reading fluency, instruct students to:
1) Reread a story and create a list of any words that may have multiple meanings.  
2) Write down all the possible meanings of the word.
3) Reread the context to determine which meaning fits that word as it is used within the story.

Rereading helps students develop confidence and fluency, but there needs to be a meaningful reason for rereading, or it feels like busy work. Tying rereading into vocabulary instruction gives students a purpose for tackling a text more than once. 

Word Clues
Searching for the meaning of a word within the context of the story is a bit like being a word detective. It's helpful to teach students the specific ways a text can reveal the meaning of a word. The Hank the Tank Activity Book (based on the decodable chapter book - Hank the Tank: Animal in the Spotlight) contains three levels of activities to help students develop the skills needed to use context clues to determine the meaning of a word. The activity for Level 1 is available in a PDF below

Level 1 – Seek and Find: Sometimes the meaning of a new word is given within the context of a nearby sentence. Authors of children's books frequently provide definitions directly within the text. In the activity below, students underline the provided definition. Get the FREE PDF for this activity.

When reading books with your students, be aware of examples of "planted" definitions and direct your students to reread a sentence or paragraph to see if they can find it. Practice this skill often so they will know how to use it during independent reading.

The following activities are taken from the background section of the story and are not decodable, so you may need to read the sentences aloud to students. One of the strengths of HOT ROD books is a strategy called Pair and Share Reading. The adult reads the sections that are not decodable to provide background and context, while the student reads decodable sections containing words with syllable structures that have been previously taught. Using this strategy, upper-level Tier 3 vocabulary can easily be introduced to students with low levels of decoding skills. Here is an example incorporating the word hyperphagia.

Late summer is when bears go into hyperphagia in Tahoe. They binge eat everything they can find to build up fat reserves. Sometimes they double their body weight.

Word and Definition: Hyperphagia is when bears binge eat everything they can find to build up fat reserves. 

Level 2 – Making Inferences: Sometimes hints about a word’s meaning are given, but the meaning is not stated outright. For this activity, students are asked to write down what they think the word means based on the clues. Look for opportunities in the stories you read with your students to demonstrate how to make inferences about word meanings.

Here's an example from the Hank the Tank Activity Book, using the word' canids. In this example, hints about the definition are provided. From the information given, depending on the extent of their background knowledge, a student might be able to deduce that canids are animals in the dog family.

Bears have developed a fear of canids. A barking, snarling dog looks just as dangerous to a mother bear as a wolf or coyote.

Word and Definition: A canid is an animal like a wolf or coyote. These are animals in the dog family.

Level 3 – Opposite Meanings: Sometimes the context tells us the opposite of what a word means. Look for negative words like no, don’t, instead, unfortunately, or any other words that have prefixes like un. as a clue that the information may be hinting at an opposite meaning. Then write down what you think the word really means.

Here's an example from the Hank the Tank Activity Book using the word instincts.

When a bear loses its instincts, it has unnatural impulses to do things like eat garbage.

Word and Definition: If losing instincts results in unnatural impulses, we can deduce that instincts are natural impulses.

Independent Learning
Students typically learn around 2,000 to 3,500 new words per year, about 6 to 10 new words per day. This includes both explicit vocabulary instruction and implicit or incidental learning from reading and other experiences. 

By teaching strategies for determining the meaning of new words independently, we empower students to improve their ability to learn words incidentally and become lifelong learners, continually adding new words to their lexicon. This is vital, as we cannot possibly teach all the words students need to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.

See last month's post or COR Instruction and Morphology.

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References:

Wright, T.S., & Neuman, S.B. (2015). The power of content-rich vocabulary instruction. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 41 (3), 25-28.

Shanahan, T. (2015). Are you lactating? On the importance of academic language. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 41(3), 14-16.