This document discusses creating vocabulary-rich classrooms. It provides research and strategies for developing students' academic vocabulary through everyday language use. Teachers can model more sophisticated vocabulary to gradually enhance students' vocabularies. The document outlines Marzano's six-step process for teaching vocabulary and provides classroom examples. It also summarizes a study on using structured think-alouds to support online vocabulary learning. Developing academic and domain-specific vocabulary through intentional exposure and practice can boost students' language and thinking skills.

1. Vocabulary-Rich
Classrooms
Lauren Lemar Colleen Egan
Kristina Blakely Jennifer Cortez

2. Audit Log
Kristina - Slides 3-7 (Research for academic language)
Colleen - Slides 8-19 (Explanation of marzano’s &
activity of application of marzano’s)
Lauren - Slides 20-26 (explanation of domain specific
vocab & Ehri & Ebner study)
Jen - Slides 27-30 (explanation of study parameters &
activity with blog)

3. “A man with a scant vocabulary will almost certainly be
a weak thinker. The richer and more copious one's
vocabulary and the greater one's awareness of fine
distinctions and subtle nuances of meaning, the more
fertile and precise is likely to be one's thinking.
Knowledge of things and knowledge of the words for
them grow together. If you do not know the words, you
can hardly know the thing.” - Henry Hazlitt, American Journalist
Pigliucci, Massimo. (2009). Thinking about science: Essays on the nature of science. RationallySpeaking.org: New York, NY.

4. Vocabulary-rich classrooms foster the
language development of learners of
all ages. General academic
vocabulary, curricular vocabulary,
and vocabulary used in everyday
conversations in the classroom can
all be emphasized to support the
development of students’ language.

5. What the research says...
In a 2010 article from The Reading Teacher, University of Florida professors
Holly Lane and Stephanie Allen discuss classrooms that epitomize
vocabulary integration through everyday language use. Lane and Allen
assert that teachers can gradually enhance students’ vocabulary through
modeling sophisticated vocabulary on a day to day basis in classrooms as
young as kindergarten. The findings of their research indicate that
fostering incidental learning and word consciousness through frequent and
deliberate modeling of sophisticated vocabulary can add significant
breadth to students’ vocabularies. Augmenting the sophistication of labels
for familiar ideas continually scaffolds students’ vocabulary development.
Lane, H.B., & Allen, S. (2010, February). The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word
Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth. The Reading Teacher, 63(5), 362–370.

6. Classroom examples
Kindergarten: When assigning classroom jobs, one teacher moved students
from using the label “weather watcher” to a more sophisticated term,
“meteorologist.” Further, the meteorologist was supported in advancing
from words like “cold” to describe the weather, to words such as “rather
brisk.”
Fourth Grade: One teacher models and practices giving compliments with
her students every morning during a morning meeting. She demonstrates
how to be complimentary toward another, and supports students as they
advance from using basic adjectives like “nice” and “happy” to more
sophisticated words like “courteous” and “jovial.”
(Lane & Allen, 2010)

7. Important Aspects to Consider
When shifting to a word-conscious classroom:
● Be purposeful about choosing words to introduce.
○ Create lists of important words that correlate with classroom routines and curricular
topics.
○ For each word, add a more sophisticated substitute.
○ Keep the amount of words manageable for the students.
● Use more difficult synonyms for familiar words and concepts. For new words and concepts,
begin with simple words.
● Many words can be taught by replacing a familiar word in context (i.e. “Students, please keep
all of your project supplies in the vicinity of your tables as we line up for lunch.”) Other, more
complicated words will still need explicit teaching.
● Encourage and model the use of sophisticated vocabulary throughout the day- not just for
academic purposes.
(Lane & Allen, 2010)

8. Marzano’s 6 Steps to Teaching Academic
Vocabulary
1. Give a description, explanation or example
(include non-linguistic representation for ELLs -
picture or video)
2. Have students restate and write the
description in their own words (let ELLs use
native language)
3. Students draw picture, symbol or graphic that
represents the word.

9. Marzano’s 6 Steps to Teaching Academic
Vocabulary
4. Engage students periodically in activities and
encourage them to add extra understanding to
their definition.
5. Give students opportunity to discuss the
terms with one another (Allow ELLs to use their
native language).
6. Have students regularly play games with the
terms.

10. Step 1 - Provide a Description
-Looking up words in dictionaries is not useful for teaching vocab
- Provide a context for the term
- Introduce direct experiences that provide examples of the term
- Tell a story that integrates the term
- Use video as the stimulus for understanding information
- Ask students to investigate the term and present the information
to the class (skit, pantomime, poster, etc.)
- Describe your own mental picture of the term
- Find or create pictures that explain the term

11. Step 2 - Restate the Description in
students’ OWN words
- Teacher should monitor and correct student
misunderstandings
- Must be student’s original ideas, not
parroting the teacher
- Students should also rate the word based on
self-reflection of their understanding

12. Step 3 - Students construct picture
- Model, model, model
- Provide examples of student’s drawings (and your own)
that are rough but represent the ideas
- Play “Pictionary”
- Draw an example of the term
- Act out or dramatize the term using speech bubbles
- Let them find a picture on the internet, if
necessary

13. Step 4 - Regularly use the term in
classroom activities - elaborate
- Highlight prefixes, suffixes, root words that will help them remember the
meaning of the term
- Identify synonyms and antonyms for the term
- List related words
- Write brief cautions or reminders of common confusions
- Translate the term into another language for second language students
- Point out cognates to words in Spanish
- Write incomplete analogies for students to complete
- Allow students to write (or draw) their own analogies
- Sort or classify words

14. Step 5 - Ask students use the word
when talking to each other
- Think-Pair-Share
- Compare their descriptions of the term
- Describe their pictures to one another
- Explain to each other any new information they have
learned (“aha’s”)
- Identify areas of disagreement or confusion and seek
clarification
- Students can make revisions to their own work

15. Step 6 - Regularly Play Games with
Academic Vocabulary
Just a short list- there are MANY more
- Pictionary
- Memory
- Jeopardy (vocab words are on the board, players make up a question to
define)
- Charades
- Name that Category ($100,000 Pyramid)
- Password
- Bingo (you give definition, kid marks the word)
- Create a skit (assign groups of 3-4 kids 3 vocab words to make a skit out
of) - Swat Game (post 2 sets of words, kids on 2 teams compete to find
words first and swat with fly-swatter)

16. Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (2005). Building academic
vocabulary teacher's manual. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision & Curriculum Deve.

17. Let’s try writing your own description
for an academic word.

18. Play Fly Swatter Game
- Divide class into 2 teams
- Each team sends one member up at a time
- Teacher reads a definition
- First student to hit the correct word with
the fly swatter wins a point for his or her
team

20. Domain Specific Vocabulary
“Teaching specific terms [academic vocabulary] in a specific way is the
strongest action a teacher can take to ensure that students have the
academic background knowledge they need to understand the content
they will encounter in school”
This refers to our Domain-Specific Academic Vocabulary, also known as technical vocabulary,
content-specific, or Tier 3 words.
(Marzano & Pickering 2005)

21. General Academic Vocabulary
Words “which are used across content areas, have abstract definitions, and
are a challenge to master”
(Townsend 2009)
Also described as “words whose meanings often change in different content
areas” and that “writers of texts as well as teachers often assume
students know their meanings.”
(Hiebert & Lubliner 2008)

22. Integrating Vocabulary & the Internet
Within the article by Ebner & Ehri, it is noted
that the Internet provides access to
definitions of words through a search, read
it in context, click on words to open a
separate page, see the word described in a
variety of contexts.

23. Integrating Vocabulary & the Internet
With the use of a structured think-aloud, students will
remain engaged in online vocabulary activities.
“Moving from an incomplete to a comprehensive
understanding of a word requires multiple and varied
encounters with the word.”
Ebner, R. J., & Ehri, L. C. (2013). Vocabulary Learning on the Internet: Using a Structured Think-Aloud Procedure. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,
56(6), 480-489. doi:10.1002/JAAL.169

24. Integrating Vocabulary & the Internet
Even though the internet offers a variety of sources, students need to know
how to determine what is important and will reach their ultimate goal of
vocabulary acquisition.
Research Suggests Students:
1. Set goals, activate prior knowledge, and put in time
and effort to achieve goals.
2. Exercise self-control and self-observation of learning.
3. Engage in self-reflection of learning and outcomes.
(Ebner & Ehri 2013)

25. Integrating Vocabulary & the Internet
As students are using Internet sources, the
use of think-alouds can allow “students to
acquire meaningful word knowledge from
multiple, often successive, sources of
information while avoiding online
distractions.”
(Ebner & Ehri 2013)

26. Think-Aloud Procedure
1. Forethought Phase: Think aloud to plan about the online action that will
help them achieve goal.
2. Performance Phase: Monitor and think aloud about if what they were
doing was helpful.
3. Self-Reflective Phase: Self-evaluate the effectiveness of actions.
Overall, students using the think aloud process, demonstrated significant
vocabulary gains in a study completed.
(Ebner & Ehri 2013)

27. Important Notes on Ebner & Ehri Study
(2013)
● Study was done on college aged students
● Participants were placed in 1 of 2 scenarios
o Structured Think Aloud
 Given Prompts (Oral & Written)
 Asked every 2 minutes to review prompts
o Unstructured Think Aloud
 Asked every 2 minutes what they were
thinking...no formal prompts used

28. Study Findings
Ebner & Ehri, 2013, p. 486

29. Let’s Try it Out!
Go to www.ltre511.weebly.com

30. Implications for Practice
● While this study was done with college aged
participants, the authors suggest using this
model within the middle & high school
classrooms.
● Metacognition is key - this will help
students stay focused while using
technology as a learning tool.

31. ● Do you have any final questions or
comments regarding strategy use in
vocabulary-rich classrooms?
● Please complete the survey that we send to
you via email. Thank you!