Vocabulary

Under the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts, about 12% of the new standards explicitly focus on vocabulary (Fisher & Frey, 2014). These authors also noted that several other reading and writing standards implicitly involve vocabulary comprehension and use. Vocabulary comprehension is vital to reading comprehension, so it it no surprise that these have become key standards. Vocabulary comprehension becomes especially important to nonfiction reading as these texts often contain content-specific words. If a student is reading a newspaper article about a new medical procedure, then he is much more likely to encounter new, domain-specific words than if he were reading a popular fiction novel. As Fisher and Frey (2014) said, “vocabulary is an essential gateway for achieving the ELA standards,” especially as it pertains to informational texts (p. 595).

Just as a basic understanding of nonfiction as a genre comes from exposure and wide reading, so too, does a basic understanding of vocabulary come from exposure and wide reading (Fisher & Frey, 2014). Students must encounter new words to make them their own. However, explicit instruction is needed to help students to make certain vocabulary words a part of their lexicon (Fisher & Frey, 2014).

Teachers must first decide what words need to be targeted. Flanigan and Greenwood (2007) described a system of categorizing words into three tiers. “Tier 1” words are basic words that require no instruction.“Tier 2” are more difficult, high-frequency, and high usage words that typically require instruction. “Tier 3” are more “domain specific words,” that are not necessarily high frequency, but that are important for understanding content area texts, which are largely nonfiction in nature. Fisher and Frey (2014) and Flanigan and Greenwood (2007) recognized that this breakdown is only superficially helpful, and proposed additional models for selecting vocabulary words. Fisher and Frey (2014) created a list of questions to consider (Fig 1, below).

They concluded that if a word was high utility, was representative of ideas or repeated concepts, or would be encountered in other contexts or times, then it would be worth teaching. Flanigan and Greenwood (2007) created a classification system for Tier 3 words, calling these subcategories “levels.” Level 1 words are “critical before” words that are essential to understanding a reading and that students should have an in-depth understanding of before the begin. Level 2 words are “foot-in-the-door” words which are important to understanding a reading, but students only need a basic understanding of to comprehend the text. Level 3 words are “critical after” words that are important for students to have some understanding of, but they can learn the meaning as they read or after they read. Finally, Level 4 words are “not to teach” words that, for whatever reason, are not necessary to specifically target.

Once the target words have been selected, it is important that a variety of instructional strategies are used. Traditional methods of teaching vocabulary as independent components separate from the text and other uses (i.e. study a list/write sentences as prep for a quiz at the end of the week) do not work (Fisher and Frey, 2014). Teachers can instead use modeling, graphic organizers, or concept mapping as interesting and active ways to introduce students to new words (Flanigan & Greenwood, 2007). Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002, as cited in Feezell, 2012, p. 234) believed that vocabulary instruction should be "rich and frequent" and that students should be "actively involved in using and thinking about word meanings." Feezell (2012) suggested using word walls, pictures, student-generated sentences, and games to teach and work with new vocabulary.

It is not sufficient to define or teach a word once. Students must also be given repeated, authentic opportunities to work with these words (Feezell, 2012). This can be done through interactive read alouds, group discussions, writing activities, or even games (Fisher & Frey, 2014).

It is also important for teachers to model some of the strategies used to independently understand the meaning of new words (Fisher & Frey, 2014). Teachers can show students how to use context clues, outside resources, and word parts (i.e. prefixes and suffixes) to work out the meaning of a word (Fisher and Frey, 2014). The goal is for students to make the word their own so that, in subsequent readings, they will fully understand the use of the word.

If students are to “read to learn” and truly understand informational texts, then content area vocabulary needs to be mindfully selected and taught. As students learn more vocabulary words, not only will their ability to read improve, but their content knowledge will grow, making their understanding of nonfiction richer and more fully developed.

References

Feezell, G. (2012). Robust vocabulary instruction in a readers' workshop. The Reading Teacher, 66(3), 233-237.

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Content area vocabulary learning. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 594-599.

Flanigan, K. and Greenwood, S. (2007). Effective content vocabulary instruction in the middle: Matching students, purposes, words, and strategies. Journal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy, 51(3), 226-238.