Reflection on Vocabulary Learning

     This semester, we were asked to keep track of vocabulary terms.  I'll be honest, when I first heard about this assignment I might have groaned inside.  I thought about all of the mundane vocabulary assignments I have had throughout my years of school and dreaded yet one more.  As it turns out, this assignment was different.  Not only did I learn many new words, but this assignment made a very significant difference in the way I thought about words.  Metacognitively speaking, I have memorized many definitions in the past, but I have never learned words in as purposeful and focused of a manner as this past semester.
     I learned a few things about myself and my reading strategies.  At first, I struggled to come up with words that were from my literacy-related readings.  I found that my natural inclination when I came across words that I did not know was to use context clues and just keep reading.  I was mostly unaware when I hit words that I did not fully understand.  I am sure that it compromised my reading in the past, however I was able to get the main idea, so I never really focused on individual words unless a teacher drew my attention to one.  As the semester went on, I began to find more and more words.  I realized that it wasn't that more 'difficult' words were embedded in readings, but rather that my attention was now drawn to vocabulary learning.  I was beginning to see words that could be used for the vocabulary blog.  About midway through the semester, I began to see the true benefit of this assignment.  No longer could I read something, anything, and skim over words I didn't fully know.  I even started to question words that I did know, to think about the extent to which I knew them! 
     Keeping the vocabulary journal helped me stay accountable to consistent word learning.  Even if I didn't have time while I was reading to seek out the definition of a word, I wrote it down for further investigation.  Having the assignment helped me form the habit of being a conscientious reader.  Now that the habit is formed, I hope to always be a word learner, not just a word reader.
     The vocabulary tests added to my learning in many ways.  First, I had to know more words than just my own.  I had to learn each word well enough to be able to spell it and use it correctly in a sentence.  Second, to find the definition of each word I had to get into my fellow students' vocabulary blogs.  While looking for each person's chosen word, I inevitably found other words that I was curious about.  This led me to learn new words that I had not come across before, or at least words that did not pop into my radar while I was reading.  Third, I began to reflect on my study habits.  I figured out the best ways that I learn, and realized that just memorizing a definition was not going to work for me with these tests.  Finally, these tests really made me think about how we teach vocabulary to students.  Too often, students are just assigned a list of words, and then tested on them.  Students have no input into this process.  As a class, we determined which words would be on the test.  Each of us had control over our own vocabulary 'lists', and then we were tested on words of our choosing.  From this process, I learned how I want to test my future students on vocabulary.
     Throughout this semester, I have noticed my inclinations while reading have changed.  I am not as inclined to skip over unknown words.  I am much more inclined to further investigate words that I thought I knew a meaning to, but my meaning does not make sense in context.  I use the words that I am learning in my speech as well as in my writing.  As a literacy specialist, I feel that this is an important habit.  I will continue along my path of word conscientiousness by being aware as I encounter new vocabulary (and sometimes even commonly used vocabulary, such as the word words).

13:5 Heterogeneity

When and Where I Found It:  As I have been reviewing the Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III for research to support projects I am working on in my two classes, I came across the journal article Vocabulary Processes by William E. Nagy and Judith A. Scott (2000).  This article discusses “the complexity of word knowledge” and one of the five aspects of this is “heterogeneity” (p. 270).

Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. A.  (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.). Handbook of reading research:  Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Meaning:   Nagy & Scott (2000) assert that heterogeneity is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow.  The authors state that heterogeneity is “what it means to know a word differs substantially depending on the kind of word” (p. 270). 

Level of Familiarity:  I had only heard this term in relation to science before.  While reading about this aspect of word acquisition, I was able to apply my knowledge of this word non-specific to literacy. 

Do I Want to Know This Word Well?  Why?  I would like to know the word heterogeneity well.  It is important for me to be able to teach words based on what type of language group they are in.  For example, my students’ knowledge of and ability to use the word ‘of’ will be very different than their knowledge of and ability to use the word ‘matter’.

Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well?  Who and Why?  All teachers should know this word and be able to apply it to their vocabulary instruction.  Being aware that words fall into different groups allows teachers to be able to teach words based on their usage and given meaning.  It is important that vocabulary not just be taught in a word-definition format!

13:4 Interrelatedness

When and Where I Found It:  As I have been reviewing the Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III for research to support projects I am working on in my two classes, I came across the journal article Vocabulary Processes by William E. Nagy and Judith A. Scott (2000).  This article discusses “the complexity of word knowledge” and one of the five aspects of this is “interrelatedness” (p. 270).

Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. A.  (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.). Handbook of reading research:  Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Meaning:   Nagy & Scott (2000) assert that interrelatedness is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow.  The authors state that interrelatedness means that “one’s knowledge of any given word is not independent of one’s knowledge of other words” (p. 270).  They argue “ Words are often taught and tested as if they were essentially isolated units of knowledge.  Clearly such practice is inconsistent with a constructivist understanding of knowledge that emphasizes the importance of linking what is learned to familiar words and concepts.  How well a person knows the meaning of whale depends in part on their understanding of mammal” (p. 272).  We learn nothing in isolation, we base what we learn on what we already know, our background knowledge.  It’s interesting that we so often try to teach vocabulary in isolation.

Level of Familiarity:  I had heard the term interrelatedness before, and know that it indicated the degree to which to items were related.  I had not heard this term specifically utilized when discussing the complexities of word acquisition. 

Do I Want to Know This Word Well?  Why?  I would like to know this word well.  It is important to remember to activate background knowledge when teaching vocabulary.  The interrelatedness of words is one level of the multidimensionality of words – This is important for me as a literacy educator to be aware of.

Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well?  Who and Why?  All literacy education teachers should know this word well.  Literacy specialists need to both be able to use this word as well as teach the implications of this word to other teachers.  Content area teachers need to be able to show students how each new vocabulary term relates to information that they already know as well as to other words and concepts in a given area.

13:3 Polysemy

When and Where I Found It:  As I have been reviewing the Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III for research to support projects I am working on in my two classes, I came across the journal article Vocabulary Processes by William E. Nagy and Judith A. Scott (2000).  This article discusses “the complexity of word knowledge” and one of the five aspects of this is “polysemy” (p. 270).

Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. A.  (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.). Handbook of reading research:  Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Meaning:   Nagy & Scott (2000) assert that polysemy is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow.  The authors state that polysemy means that “words often have multiple meanings” (p. 270).  They further explain “the more frequent a word is in the language, the more meanings it is likely to have” (p. 271).

Level of Familiarity:  I was not familiar with this word at all, I may have heard it before but did not recognize it at all in print.  While I had no familiarity with the actual word, I have a high level of understanding of this particular concept.  When reading about the complexity of word knowledge, this was the aspect with which I was most familiar despite having know recollection of the term “polysemy”. 

Do I Want to Know This Word Well?  Why?  I do want to know this word well.  As Nagy & Scott (2000) state, “if vocabulary instruction is to address this aspect of the complexity of word knowledge, students must not only be taught to choose effectively among the multiple meanings of a word offered in dictionaries, but to expect words to be used with novel shades of meanings” (p. 271).  I need to be able to teach my students the difference between ‘baby’ as an infant, and ‘baby’ as taking special care of your arm so that it does not get hurt.  Another example of polysemy that I will need to be able to teach in my classroom is when words are used as symbols, such as in the statement he painted a picture with his words.  Students need to be taught that an actual picture was not painted, but that the word painted here indicates how vivid the speaker’s language must have been.  Polysemy covers nuances of words as well, a concept I need to be able to teach well as a literacy educator.

Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well?  Who and Why?  All literacy education teachers should know this word well.  Literacy specialists need to both be able to use this word as well as teach the implications of this word to other teachers.  While it does not seem necessary for general educators to be able to use the word polysemy well, I do think they need to understand its implications.  Content area teachers would benefit from being able to teach multiple meanings, or at least be aware of the multiple meanings of words, when giving vocabulary instruction.

13:2 Multidimensionality

When and Where I Found It:  As I have been reviewing the Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III for research to support projects I am working on in my two classes, I came across the journal article Vocabulary Processes by William E. Nagy and Judith A. Scott (2000).  This article discusses “the complexity of word knowledge” and one of the five aspects of this is “multidimensionality” (p. 270).

Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. A.  (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.). Handbook of reading research:  Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Meaning:   Nagy & Scott (2000) assert that multidimensionality is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow.  As I was reading this, I predicted that the word multidimensionality has something to do with your knowledge of words varying depending on the type of word being used.  According to Nagy & Scott, this word has a much more complex meaning than I was predicting.  The authors state that multidimensionality means that “word knowledge consists of several qualitatively different types of knowledge” (p. 270).  Nagy & Scott point out that multidimensionality indicates a much more in-depth understanding of language acquisition than just looking at incrementality.  They quote Nation (1990) who, when discussing multidimensionality, offers “eight aspects of word knowledge: knowledge of the word’s spoken form, written form, grammatical behavior, collocational behavior (what other words does this word commonly occur with?), frequency, stylistic register, conceptual meaning, and associations with other words” (Nagy & Scott, 2000, p. 271).   

Level of Familiarity:  I was not familiar at all with this term multidimensionality in regard to vocabulary instruction.  I would like to further develop my knowledge base around this concept.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well?  Why?  I would like to know this word well.  As a literacy educator, I need to have a deep understanding of language acquisition.  The eight aspects of word knowledge listed above really break down all of the ways that students can know a word, each of which is important to keep in mind when teaching vocabulary.  The multidimensionality of words is vital to be aware of when we are teaching.  In what aspects do we want our students to know each word?

Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well?  Who and Why?  All literacy education teachers should know this word well.  Literacy specialists need to both be able to use this word as well as teach the implications of this word to other teachers.  While it does not seem necessary for general educators to be able to use the word multidimensionality well, I do think they need to understand its implications.  Being familiar with the various aspects of word acquisition will allow teachers to better frame their vocabulary instruction and expectations.

13:1 Incrementality

When and Where I Found It:  As I have been reviewing the Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III for research to support projects I am working on in my two classes, I came across the journal article Vocabulary Processes by William E. Nagy and Judith A. Scott (2000).  This article discusses “the complexity of word knowledge” and one of the five aspects of this is “incrementality” (p. 270).

Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. A.  (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.). Handbook of reading research:  Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Meaning:   Nagy & Scott (2000) assert that incrementality is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow.  The authors state that incrementality means that “knowing a word is a matter of degrees, not all-or-nothing” (p. 270).  Nagy & Scott further explain “word learning is incremental-it takes place in many steps” (p. 270).  Their review of the word incrementality reminds me of the next heading on this vocabulary blog – Level of Familiarity.  It makes sense that words are not learned in an all-or-nothing fashion.  We even have a space on this blog to indicate how well, or to what degree, we ‘know’ a word.

Level of Familiarity:  I was very familiar with the root of this word, increment.  I have used it both musically (notes go up in increments) and when discussing measurement with students.  I had never heard the word incrementality used when discussing vocabulary learning, however it fits right in with my understanding of the acquisition of words for students.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well?  Why?  I want to know this word and its implications well because vocabulary instruction is a vital part of literacy development.  To be able to understand the stages of vocabulary development for students will allow me to take students from one level to the next.  Nagy & Scott (2000) quote Dale (1965) on his proposed increments/stages of word learning: “(1) never saw it before; (2) heard it but don’t know what it means; (3) recognizes it in context as having something to do with …; and (4) knows it well” (p. 270).  Giving students this or a similar scale to rate their word knowledge for vocabulary terms will allow me to determine individual student needs and form my instruction around this.  The tools that we develop from the belief of incrementality, such as the above scale, would be very useful for student self-assessment strategies as well as guides for teacher-based instruction.

Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well?  Who and Why?  All teachers should know this word well.  Whether you teach general education or purely content area, there always will be vocabulary that students need to know.  Understanding that words are not learned in an all-or-nothing manner, that we all have various increments of knowledge of words, equips teachers to monitor and adjust their instruction based on student need.

12:2 Commutative Property of Addition

When and Where I Found It:  For my math unit, I am using the textbook Course 2 Mathematics (Charles, Branch-Boyd, Illingworth, Mills, & Reeves, 2004).  On page 11, the authors identify Commutative Property of Addition as a "new vocabulary" term. 

Charles, R. I., Branch-Boyd, J. C., Illingworth, M., Mills, D., Reeves, A., & Thompson, D. R.  (2004). Course 2 mathematics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Meaning:   According to Charles, Branch-Boyd, Illingworth, Mills, & Reeves (2004), the commutative property of addition means that "changing the order of the addends does not change the sum" (p. 12).  The examples of this property given in the textbook are:

Arithmetic:  1.2 + 3.4 = 3.4 + 1.2                                              Algebra:  a + b = b + a

(Charles, Branch-Boyd, Illingworth, Mills, & Reeves, 2004, p. 12)

Level of Familiarity: I was familiar with this term before, but was reminded of the meaning while working on this project.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well?  Why?  I want to know this word well.  Whether I end up as an elementary teacher or a literacy specialist, I will most likely come across the need to work on math with my students.  If I do not know the various properties of addition and multilpication (which are often difficult for students to learn), I will be unable to teach appropriately.  Commutative Property is a vocabulary term that I may be able to work on with students as a literacy specialist, even if I am not their general math educator.

Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well?  Who and Why?  All elementary teachers should know this term, as well as the other properties.  Any teacher may be called upon to help a student in a difficult area.  Knowing the properties of addition and subtraction well will allow general educators as well as literacy specialists to work together to teach students.