June 16- Vocabulary

Vocabulary:
    Vocabulary is a vital part to being able to read, and also understanding what you read. Studies have found that a students vocabulary is one of the best indicators for reading comprehension. And a receptive vocabulary is also one of the best predictors of a students decoding skills. However, studies have also found that there is a gap in students vocabulary word banks, and unless a larger emphasis is placed on vocabulary the gap will continue to widen, making it even harder for low-performing groups to catch up to their peers. Therefore, it has become essential for teachers to incorporate more vocabulary lessons and exposures into their teaching methods. Teaching must include multiple exposures to a word including: definitions, context, and a deep processing ability for students. According to Lane and Allen there are four types of vocabulary: oral which includes words we understand when we speak to one another, print which is the words we understand when we read, receptive is the words we understand when we listen or read, and productive which encompasses words that are used during speaking or writing. Going along with these types of vocabulary are the different levels of comprehension. The first level is when a student is exposed to a word they have never seen before, the second is when they have seen the word before, but do not understand the meaning, the third is when they have seen the word and have some context of the meaning of the word, and the last stage is when they can see and recognize a word and its meaning. As a teacher, it is crucial to know what level students are on with the majority of words they are exposed to. For teachers to increase students vocabulary they must expose students to a wide reading variety, give instruction of individual words, provide students with word learning strategies, and help students develop a word consciousness. As students develop they will make connections between words and their prior knowledge and experiences with that word. The study done in the “Early Catastrophe” article focused on 42 families with children. The study began when they were 7-9 months old, and included families in a range of demographics. They observed until the time that these children were 3 years old. Based of the evidence they found, children grew more like their parents in stature and activity levels, in vocabulary resources, and in language and interaction styles. They also found that children that came from families on welfare not only had smaller vocabularies, but they were also adding words to their vocabularies at a slower pace. These findings show the importance and correlation families play in a child’s development with their vocabularies. These results were found based on the evidence that children from welfare homes were having only half as much experience per hour as the average working class family’s child, and less than one-third that of a child from a professional family. This translated into children from welfare families having 13 million fewer words cumulative  than the average child in a working class family. They also found that welfare children received much less praise and much more criticism compared to children from working class and professional families. These findings can provide teachers with information on the gap that forms between students when they enter school, and tell them that the reason this gap exists is directly correlated with the experiences they receive at home.
    While all of this information is important, there is good news. Students from these low-literacy homes can reverse the path they are going down. Studies show when these students are placed in high-literacy classrooms the trend for literacy learning can be reversed. What does all this information mean for teachers? Well it means that we have a very important and crucial job in the early elementary grades, not only to promote students vocabularies, but to help reverse vocabularies that would be heading in the wrong direction. There are many things that are needed to do this. Word awareness is one thing that needs to be done by teachers, where you expose students to words through word play, like using a word wall and attached activities. Also rich instruction to develop important vocabularies, along with building strategies for independence, which includes instruction for dictionary use and independent reading. The last important component is engaging students actively with a wide range of books. Through all of this instruction and engagement, students vocabularies will be enhanced. It is also very important to remember not to use words below students level of understanding, and if you want students to have rich vocabularies you must challenge them by leading by example.