Science of Teaching Reading Resource Guide

Systematic, direct, and explicit vocabulary instruction is an important component of structured language and literacy instruction. The challenge, however, is that there are far too many words to teach directly to readers, and we learn most words in our lexicons incidentally. 

The goal is to teach readers 10-15 words per week directly and in depth (Hennessy & Moats, 2020, civ). Earlier, we learned that the most important words to teach directly are tier 2 academic vocabulary words, like compare, contrast, approach, concept and hypothesis. Most tier 1 words, like way, community, and thought, are learned through conversation. Tier 3 technical or discipline-specific vocabulary words are most effectively taught as necessary and in the context of reading. 

Hennessy and Moats detail a simple and replicable instructional routine for direct/intentional vocabulary instruction (Hennessy & Moats, 2020, cvii):

Reference: Hennessy, N. & Moats, L. (2020). The Reading Comprehension Blueprint: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing, Company.

Semantic mapping—also known as concept mapping—is another simple and effective way to directly teach new vocabulary by connecting new words to related words, including synonyms, antonyms, examples, and alternative meanings. To leverage semantic mapping in the classroom:

1. Identify the target vocabulary word and write it in the middle of a circle. Include the word’s basic meaning in student-friendly, everyday language. 
2. Present the word and its definition to students, then work together to add synonyms, antonyms, examples, etc. as branches off of the target word circle. You can also draw pictures to represent additional examples and ideas. For example:

 A related instructional technique leverages semantic gradients. “Semantic gradients are a way to broaden and deepen students' understanding of related words. Students consider a continuum of words by order of degree. Semantic gradients often begin with antonyms, or opposites, at each end of the continuum. This strategy helps students distinguish between shades of meaning. By enhancing their vocabulary, students can be more precise and imaginative in their writing” (Reading Rockets, 2011).

Here is one way to leverage semantic gradients in the classroom:

1. Select a pair of polar opposite words.
2. Generate at least five synonyms for each of the opposite words.
3. Arrange the words in a way that makes a bridge from one opposite word to the other. Continuums can be done horizontal or vertical, in a ladder-like fashion.
4. Have students discuss their rationale for placing certain words in certain locations. Encourage a conversation about the subtle differences among the words.

OR

1. Select a specific vocabulary word, e.g., large.
2. Using a book you've read, a unit of study, or different writing samples, create a list of semantically similar words. The teacher can develop the list, or work collaboratively with students to generate a list. It may work best to think of your target word as being in the center of your continuum.
3. Arrange the words in a way that illustrates an understanding of each word's meaning. Continuums can be done horizontal or vertical, in a ladder like fashion.
4. Have students discuss their rationale for placing certain words in certain locations. Encourage a conversation about the subtle differences among the words.

Reference: Reading Rockets. (2011, July 1). “Semantic Gradients.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTaYuYw8GNc&feature=emb_logo 

Go Deeper: Additional Knowledge Resources 

Interested in learning more about direct vocabulary instruction?

• Watch Reading Rockets’ “Semantic Gradients” for an example of semantic gradients. 
  • Reading Rockets. (2011, July 1). “Semantic Gradients.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTaYuYw8GNc&feature=emb_logo 
• Read Hennessy and Moats’ “The Blueprint for Vocabulary” for additional instructional examples. 
  • Hennessy, N. & Moats, L. (2020). The Reading Comprehension Blueprint: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text (pp. 1597u-1599j). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing, Company.

Direct vocabulary instruction is extremely beneficial for all students. The approach, however, is also limited. According to Marilyn Adams, author of “Advancing Our Students’ Language and Literacy,” “by its very nature, direct vocabulary instruction admits coverage of previous few words relative to the magnitude of the challenge. Even if, beginning in grade 1 and continuing through grade 12, teachers consistently taught—and students perfectly retained—20 vocabulary words each and every week, the gain in vocabulary would total only 8,640 words in all (20 words x 36 weeks of school x 12 years), many times fewer than what is required” (Adams, 2011, 7).

The good news? Readers also build the depth and breadth of their vocabulary knowledge incidentally, or indirectly. Hennessy and Moats describe three incidental vocabulary instructional techniques:

• Point of Contact Teaching: “Texts that are written in academic language,” Henessy and Moats write, “undoubtedly contain many challenging words” (Hennessy & Moats, 2020). While there are too many to teach directly, teachers can and should define tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary in context while reading. 
• Teacher-Student Talk: Students will learn new vocabulary words naturally through conversation with their teachers and peers. Because of this, teachers can intentionally choose to use tier 2 and tier 3 words in conversation in and outside of the classroom—and encourage their students to do the same.  
• Wide Reading: Structured Shared and Independent Reading: According to Hennessy and Moats, “studies indicate that students who read widely learn more word meanings and consequently grow their vocabularies” (Hennessy & Moats, 2020). In “Advancing Our Students’ Language and Literacy,” Adams argues that this is the most impactful and important incidental strategy for building our students’ vocabularies because background knowledge and vocabulary—world and word knowledge—are intimately linked. According to Adams:
  
  “Every concept—simple or complex, concrete or abstract—is learned in terms of its similarities, differences, and relationships with other concepts with which we are familiar. As a simplistic example, when we read about tigers, then, by dint of both similarities and contrasts, we learn more about all sorts of cats and, further, about every subtopic mentioned along the way. The more deeply we read about tigers, the more nuanced and complex these concepts and their interrelations become.
  
  Even when students are told the meaning of a new word, their prior vocabulary strength predicts the likelihood that they will retain it. As the reader’s linguistic and conceptual knowledge grows in richness and complexity, it will increasingly support the meanings of many new words and the representation of many new spheres of knowledge” (Adams, 2011, 8).
  
  Therefore, we can simultaneously build our students’ background knowledge and vocabulary by 1) encouraging students to read about a wide variety of topics independently and 2) topically and thematically organize the texts read in and across subject areas: 
  
  “If your students read several texts on a single topic, they would encounter a number of domain-specific, information-bearing words. In such texts, the words that rise to the top are those most useful for describing the concepts and relationships that are central to that topic. 
  
  The challenge, then, lies in organizing our reading regimens in every subject and every class such that each text bootstraps the language and knowledge that will be needed for the next” (Adams, 1990, 9-10).

Reference: Adams, M. (2010-2011, Winter). “Advancing Our Students' Language and Literacy: The Challenge of Complex Texts.” American Educator, 3-53. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/Adams.pdf

We should also teach students strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words independently:

• Using a Dictionary: Dictionaries are most useful when students understand when and how to use them. “Alphabetical order, use of guide words, symbols, abbreviations, and overall format are essential for the use of a hard copy dictionary” (Hennessy & Moats, 2020). These are skills that we must teach our readers directly. 
• Using Context Clues: Context clues are referential cues and hints provided by a word’s surroundings that help a reader define it in context. These can be other words, sentences, or phrases that surround an unknown word in context. While the use of context clues is an effective vocabulary acquisition strategy for readers, the strategy is ultimately limited or made easier by each individual text—some texts provide more clues than others. 
• Leveraging Morphology: According to Hennessy and Moats, “Analysis of word parts or morphemes can also be used to work with unknown vocabulary. An awareness of morphemes that carry meaning (prefixes, roots, suffixes) allows students to parse words and infer word meaning” (Hennessy & Moats, 2020). Hennessy and Moats detail the following strategy for “using morphemes to determine the meaning of a word:
  • Look for the root word—a single word that cannot be broken down into smaller words or word parts. See if you know what it means.
  • Look for a prefix—a word part added to the beginning of a word that changes its meaning. See if you know what the prefix means.
  • Look for a suffix—a word part added to the end of a word that changes its meaning. See if you know what the suffix means.
  • Put the meanings of the root word, prefix, and suffix together—see if you can build the meaning of the word” (Hennessy & Moats, 2020).
  This is also known as structural analysis because readers are prompted to unpack and analyze the morphological structure of words. 

Reference: Hennessy, N. & Moats, L. (2020). The Reading Comprehension Blueprint: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing, Company.