JANET ALLEN

INSIDE
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WORDS Ed
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TOOLS FOR TEACHING

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ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
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GRADES 4–12
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CONTENTS
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Instructional Strategies and the Tools

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That Support Them v

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Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
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CONCEPT CIRCLES 13
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CONCEPT LADDER 19
CONCEPTS AND VOCABULARY: CATEGORIES AND LABELS 25
CONTEXTUAL REDEFINITION 31
DICTOGLOS 35
FOCUSED CLOZE 39
FRAYER MODEL 43
FREQUENT CONTACT 49

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“I’M THINKING OF A WORD . . .” 55

I SPY: A WORD SCAVENGER HUNT 59
LEAD 63
LIST-GROUP-LABEL 69
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS 75

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POSSIBLE SENTENCES 81

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PREVIEWING CONTENT VOCABULARY 87
SEMANTIC FEATURE ANALYSIS 91

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SEMANTIC MAPPING 97

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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 101
THINK-PAIR-SHARE: COLLABORATE FOR UNDERSTANDING 105

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VOCAB-O-GRAM 109
WORD SORT 115
WORD WALLS 119
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INTRODUCTION
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One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have

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the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right
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moment.
—Hart Crane
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Why another book on teaching vocabulary? I have pondered that ques-

tion several times in the course of writing this book. When I wrote
Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4–12 in 1999, I
began the first chapter with a quote from Baumann and Kame’enui: “We
know too much to say we know too little, and we know too little to say

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that we know enough. Indeed language is difficult to put into words”

(1991, 604). Since I wrote that book eight years ago, there have been
many books and research studies highlighting the role of effective vocabu-
lary instruction in reading, writing, and critical thinking. Yet, as I work in
schools and classrooms across the country, I continue to see teachers and

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students struggling to find ways to make content vocabulary accessible

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and meaningful. The research is there but the classroom application for
that research is still in its infancy.

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In 2004, I wrote Tools for Teaching Content Literacy in

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order to help teachers implement effective literacy instruction in the
schools where I was part of their professional development. It was

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designed so teachers could take research on effective strategies and see
models for what that research might look like in their classrooms. I
highlighted the original researchers and explained the strategies. I then
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showed examples of those strategies as they were used in a variety of con-
tent classrooms. I focused less on vocabulary than on other instructional
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strategies because Words, Words, Words was available and the vocabulary
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instruction I wrote about in that book was applicable to all content areas.
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Since the publication of Words, Words, Words, I have

become increasingly aware of how significant vocabulary instruction is in
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content classrooms. Students seldom bring background knowledge that

will help them successfully negotiate their content reading. In Building
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Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What

Works in Schools (2004), Marzano makes a case for increasing building
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background knowledge by increasing the emphasis on vocabulary instruc-

tion: “the research and theory strongly suggest that teaching vocabulary
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is synonymous with teaching background knowledge. The packets of

information that constitute our background knowledge all have labels
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associated with them” (35). As I studied this research, I was struck by the
exponential impact of teaching students academic vocabulary as a way
to increase word knowledge and background knowledge. Learners would
not only know more about the content, but they would also know the
language used inside the content.
Inside Words combines current research on effective vocab-
ulary instruction similar to the research highlighted in Words, Words,

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Introduction

Words with effective instructional strategies similar to those highlighted

in Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. It also joins the two formats: I
blended the quick overview format from Tools with several classrooms
examples, as I did in Words. Baumann and Kame’enui’s words are indeed
true: “We know too much to say we know too little.” Although we still

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may not know all we need to know about vocabulary instruction, we do

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know a great deal about what effective vocabulary instruction could look
like in content classrooms. It is my hope that this book will help sup-

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port your effective classroom instruction with vocabulary research and

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instructional strategies.

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Why Teach Vocabulary?
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M ost educators believe that vocabulary instruction is critical in any
classroom. The issue is not whether we should have vocabulary
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instruction, but how to make that vocabulary instruction have meaning

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beyond assigned word lists. Most of us have struggled and continue to

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puzzle over how to teach vocabulary in meaningful and memorable ways

so our students have access to the words in their reading, writing, and
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thinking. In Building Academic Vocabulary Teacher’s Manual, Marzano

and Pickering highlight the connection between vocabulary knowledge
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and comprehension of content:

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People’s knowledge of any topic is encapsulated in the terms

they know that are relevant to the topic. The more students
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understand these terms, the easier it is for them to understand

information they may read or hear about the topic. The more
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terms a person knows about a given subject, the easier it is to

understand—and learn—new information related to that sub-
ject. (2005, 2–3)

The why of vocabulary instruction is easily answered: in the absence of

a repertoire of effective instructional strategies for teaching those words
that are critical to students’ understanding of a variety of texts, they will

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Inside Words

continue to struggle in their content classes. It is a cycle all too familiar

to most of us.
At one time or another, we have all complained that our stu-
dents can’t or won’t read their text assignments. Regardless of how aes-
thetically appealing publishers make content textbooks, the fact remains

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that most students bring little background knowledge of or interest in

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the concepts and related vocabulary they will encounter in their assigned
reading. Relevant research findings are listed in the chart that follows.

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One important finding is research that understanding some content

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vocabulary is critical to comprehending a text. Moore, Readence, and
Rickelman build on Readence, Bean, and Baldwin’s (1985) position that

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students need to become insiders in their interaction with content reading:

Outsiders are restricted in their communication with a group

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because they cannot use the group’s special vocabulary and
the concepts inherent in that terminology. Insiders use special
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vocabulary freely to communicate with the collective members

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of a group. (Moore, Readance, and Rickelman 1989, 36)

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In an effort to help students gain this insider position in relation to

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content reading and writing, teachers often choose the most challenging
words for preteaching. In spite of that practice, many students are still
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unable (or unwilling) to read their texts and do not use the content ter-
minology in their writing and speaking.
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Students agree with teachers that content vocabulary is a

roadblock to learning content. When questioned about reading their text-
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book assignments, students reported that one of the greatest challenges in

reading these texts or completing writing assignments in content classes is
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that they don’t know the vocabulary words. In research studies I’ve con-
ducted, students always report that the difficulty of the vocabulary makes
reading their textbooks impossible. On a recent survey, I asked students
how these challenging words were taught in their classes; the most fre-
quent response was that they were given a list of words when they started
a new chapter in the textbook. They were asked to copy the words and
find a definition for each word from the dictionary or textbook glossary

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and then use the target words in a sentence. Not surprisingly, students
reported remembering or really knowing few of these words. So, how can
we overcome this ongoing dilemma?

How Do We Describe Effective

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Vocabulary Instruction?

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W hen I was in my own classroom, I used to say that I wasn’t sure how

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to define effective vocabulary instruction but I sure knew what it
looked like when it was happening. On those days when effective vocabu-

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lary instruction was occurring, the joy students experienced in seeing a
word they knew in a new context, or being able to use interesting and
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specialized vocabulary in their writing, was palpable in our classroom.
On other days, every aspect of vocabulary instruction was a challenge.
In Beck, McKeown and Kucan’s book, Bringing Words to
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Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, the authors highlight characteristics

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of robust vocabulary instruction. Instruction that meets their definition of

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robust provides the following:

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• Rich information about words and their uses;

• Frequent and varied opportunities for students to think about and
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use words; and,

• Enhanced student language comprehension and production. (2002,
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2)
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After reading the authors’ definition of robust instruction, I began gather-

ing tools for content teachers to use with their students in order to make
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the concepts and vocabulary meaningful, memorable, and useful. When

these tools are used appropriately by matching the instructional strat-
egy with the goal, teachers discover that not only does comprehension
increase, but also academic writing is more precise, logical, and interest-
ing.

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Introduction

How Inside Words Is Organized

A fter describing and illustrating the strategies in this book, I was left
with the decision of how to organize them to be helpful and easily
accessible to educators. My first thought was to use traditional categories

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of pre-, during, and post-reading; however, as I tried to categorize, I kept

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encountering the same dilemma: instructional strategies such as LEAD

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are effective pre-reading strategies, but they also support comprehension
and provide a structure for students to demonstrate understanding post-

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reading.
I then decided to organize the strategies based on compo-

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nents of a comprehensive vocabulary program as described in Vocabulary
Instruction: Research to Practice (Baumann and Kame’enui 2004). In this
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research-based approach to effective classroom practices, the authors cite
four components of comprehensive vocabulary instruction:
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• fostering word consciousness;

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• teaching individual words;

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• teaching strategies for learning words independently; and,

• presenting frequent/extensive/varied opportunities for independent
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reading.
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Once again, I was faced with a dilemma: the strategies all foster word
consciousness and highlight individual words or concepts, and all employ
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diverse texts as a way to demonstrate words used in a meaningful con-

text. I didn’t want the organizational categories to limit the ways teachers
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might apply these tools, yet using either of these two systems could lead
educators to see the strategies as single-purpose instructional tools.
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I finally chose to organize them alphabetically so they could

be easily found for teaching as well as for discussion in study groups or
professional development. These are tools for teachers, and the purpose
of a tool is to help get a job finished. So the strategies are in alphabetical
order, and following the Table of Contents, there is a list that catego-
rizes them into instructional strategies based on the ways I think they

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help students learn and use academic and specialized vocabulary. These
instructional strategies are the following:

Builds background knowledge

Teaches words that are critical to comprehension

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Provides support during reading and writing

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Develops conceptual framework for themes, topics, and units of

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study
Assesses students’ understanding of words and concepts

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As you examine and use these teaching and learning tools in your class-
room with your students, I hope you find that your robust instruction
leads students to insider terminology—terminology that will help them
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think, talk, and write about their content knowledge so they can live and
learn inside words.
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References
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Anderson, R. C., and P. Freebody. 1981. “Vocabulary Knowledge.”

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In Comprehension and Teaching: Research Reviews, ed. J.

Guthrie, 77–117. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
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Anderson, R. C., and W. E. Nagy. 1992. “The Vocabulary

Conundrum.” American Educator (Winter): 14–18, 44–47.
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Barrett, M. T., and M. F. Graves. 1981. “A Vocabulary Program for

Junior High School Remedial Readers.” Journal of Reading 25
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(November): 146–50.
Baumann, J. F., and E. J. Kame’enui. 1991. “Research on Vocabulary
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Instruction: Ode to Voltaire.” In Handbook on Teaching the

English Language Arts, eds. J. Flood, J. M. Jensen, D. Lapp, and
J. R. Squire, 604–32. New York: Macmillan.
———, eds. 2004. Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice. New
York: Guilford Press.
Baumann, J. F., E. J. Kame’enui, and G. E. Ash. 2003. “Research
on Vocabulary Instruction: Voltaire Redux.” In Handbook of

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