RPI, Day 6: Vocabulary (and decoding)

 Hi everyone, 

I have really loved the practical ideas of today's session about developing a vocabulary-rich programme. It really gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own programme and the role of vocabulary within my programme. 

On reflection, I think there are definitely gaps that I can fill in my practice and can also extend the range of learning opportunities for vocabulary within my programme. 

The fact that vocabulary is the biggest predictor for reading comprehension really brought to light for me the importance of this in my programme, making it even more important was the data around the lower decile schools in Auckland. When comparing students from lower decile schools with students from higher decile schools, there is a hugely significant gap in the exposure to words before school. Students at higher decile school were exposed to an average of 30 million more words in the first 5 years meaning many of our students are disadvantaged before they even start school. We need to be supporting our learners by exposing them to language. Extending on this though is the importance of morphology in reading comprehension as it means that they can make connections and understand the meaning of a greater number of words because they understand the meanings of root words.. It is important to wave vocabulary throughout teaching and learning.

Currently, I look at vocab and discuss the vocab during the text introduction and might stop during the guided reading session when words come up in the discussion. Each week we have a vocabulary activity but often they ask students to define the word or write it in a sentence. Some of my groups do morphology activities, however this is not consistent.  

I thought the 5 principles from The Fertility of Some Types of Vocabulary Instruction (Beck et al)  were good to keep at the forefront of my mind when planning vocabulary activities.

There are a few things I am going to try in my programme:

• Start a word wall - I want to have this with cards that students can also add to 
• Use of Google Docs - I want to explore the use of Google Docs as a simple way to add cloze reading activities in using the smart chips. 
• Making use of the audio dictionary to give learners more access
• Using puzzles to provoke thought and fun in vocab learning, I like the idea of the rebus puzzles or riddles, or having a wordle display for students to take part in, possibly a challenge displayed each week.
• Spotlight activity or the traffic light for pre-reading assessment on students' word knowledge. 
• Use the initiator, builder etc prompt cards for extended discussions
• Do some screening of morphology and add more targeted morphology instruction into my programme, this could be done through shared reading, guided reading and linked to independent activities learners are doing. 

Thanks for reading.