Beyond Memorization: Using Critical Thinking Strategies for Learning Vocabulary

After getting the chance to observe in an English classroom during a vocabulary review session, I began thinking about how often we look for vocabulary strategies to help struggling learners who have a variety of literacy or executive functioning issues.  Yet, as I watched the students engaging in an activity that had them using visual associations to guess the definitions of words, I began to see how often we forget about using strategies as instruction to get our higher end learners to think beyond the dictionary definition.  So often, based on the type of test we give or their ability to memorize information easily, it appears as if non-struggling learners grasp the nuances of vocabulary.  In reality, many of these students don't truly understand the associations or connotations that go with many vocabulary words.  I am reminded of a Word Girl episode where the Butcher creates all of his own words, but seems to think that he is using the correct word.  In turn, I see this happening when students try to use certain words outside of the classroom where they have "learned" them.

While brainstorming some "strategies" for struggling learners to use as they embarked on a new list of words for the play The Crucible, I decided I would share strategies that not only would help the struggling learners understand the words, but challenge the other students in the class to go beyond memorizing the words for a quiz, test, or final exam.  In an ideal world, the students would be so familiar with the words that when they received the list for the final exam they would leap for joy knowing that they had very few words to "study," as well as be able to use them correctly outside the classroom.


The first thing I thought of when I looked at the list of words from The Crucible was how many of them can be connected directly to a particular character or event from the story -- most noticeably to the character of Abigail Williams.  [NOTE: If it has been a while since you read the play, she is the niece of Reverend Parris.  Until recently in the story, she was a servant at the Proctor house until she was caught having an affair with the husband.]  

To help the students connect the words to a particular character I created an organization chart that connected the following words with Abigail [callous, calumny, perjury, malign, potent, taunting].  [NOTE:  The links to these words come from two different web-based dictionary sources Merriam-Webster and Heinle Newbury House Dictionary of American English.]  The goal of the chart is that students will be able to find examples within the story where the vocabulary word can be associated with Abigail Williams.  Due to her character in the story, it is likely that students will be able to find multiple examples of the various words.  [NOTE: I would recommend that the teacher model a few of the words prior to having the students work on it individually.]  

Here is an example of how one can connect the word callous to Abigail Williams.  The word callous means "not caring about others." (Heinle)  In The Crucible, there are many places where we can see different people not caring about the well-being of others and only looking out for themselves.  One example of Abigail having a callous regard for someone is in her treatment of Elizabeth Proctor.  Since Abigail is looking to get rid of her in order to be with her husband (or get revenge on her husband for choosing Elizabeth over her), we can say that she shows a callous regard for Elizabeth when she accuses her of being a witch.  If this example is the one you choose to provide to the class as a model then students can look for other examples of Abigail acting in a callous manner to others.  In some ways,  I think often we use synonyms of words to help students understand the meaning of a words; However, sometimes, this use of scaffolding often ends up with the student using the synonym instead of the vocabulary word in conversation or application because of their familiarity with it.

Another approach to use with students comes from the book Words, Word, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 by Janet Allen (1999).  The approach "Words in Context" allows the student to break apart the word into its parts (prefix, suffix, etc.) and other words they know.  Two examples to model from the list of words from The Crucible are defamation and demonic.  Due to technical difficulties, I can't attach the organizer I created, but the idea is that the vocabulary word is at the top of your organizer with branches that break off with the headings "Word Parts" and "I recognize..."  With defamation, you break it down into de- (from, down) and -tion (act of, state of) as the two word parts and list their meanings underneath the prefix or suffix.  On the other side of the organizer, you have the word fame and underneath it a definition.  I also like to include with the word parts what part of speech the word usually becomes when that particular word part is added.  For example, -tion usually is a noun.  Once the students have broken down the word, they need to put it all back together by guessing at a definition.  The good thing about this approach is you can use it across content areas.  However, I would be carefully about overusing this strategy.  I think that using for a couple of your vocabulary words is fine, but using it for all of your vocabulary words makes it more formulaic than thoughtful.   An extension of this activity might be to include other words that come from the word parts or recognized word to help increase vocabulary (i.e. famous, defame, familiarity, etc.)


The following ideas are from a workshop run by Nancy Wood (Vermont Reads Institute Literacy Consultant) titled "Vocabulary 12-40 Exposure: A Collection of Approaches You Can Sprinkle Throughout Your Day."  However, I have noted the resource that you can find these approaches in at the end of this post.

Connect Two (Blachowicz, 1986)

•  Words are listed in random order in two columns (5 or 10 apiece)
• Students are challenged to find similiarities between the two words

Example of directions:

Find a word in column one that has something in common with column two. (Students need to find similarities in meaning or construction of the two words.)

An example from the vocabulary from The Crucible could be the words predilection and abomination.  A student might notice that both end in -tion signaling that these two words are both nouns.  Using this strategy while introducing the words might allow students to become familiar with parts of speech or allow you to get a sense of whether students have a familiarity with the words.  However, you could also use this near the end with the expectation that students are thinking more closely about the ways in which words can be connected both in and out of the content area.  For example, perjury and defamation could be linked together because of the role they play in The Crucible, but they can also be connected in a legal sense.

Words Associations (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

"After having presented explanations for words, ask students to associate one of their new words with a presented word or phrase, such as the following examples:

• Which word goes with crook? (accomplice)
• Which word goes with "gift to a new hospital?" (philanthropist)
• Which word goes with piano? (virtuoso)
• Which word goes with kindergartner? (novice)

Ask why they decided on the connection they have made.  Associating a known word with a newly learned word reinforces even further the meaning of the word.  The associations are not synonyms: rather the student must develop a relationship.  Having students explain their reasoning is an essential component of the kind of instruction that requires learners to process information" (44-45).

Idea Completions (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

"Provide students with sentence stems that require them to integrate a word's meaning into a context in order to explain a situation.  

Examples:

The audience asked the virtuoso to play another piece of music because...

The skiing teacher said Maria was a novice on the ski slopes because...

Other variations include:

When might you...?
How might you...?
Why might you...?

The key to effective activities is that they require students to attend to a word's meaning in order to apply it meaningfully to an example situation" (45-46). 

These are just a couple different activities connected to vocabulary instruction and strategies.  Although these are great ideas in vocabulary, they may not be right for your students or the words you choose all of the time.  I think one of the most important things about vocabulary instruction is to remember that due to the different types of words (whether you call them tiered words, academic words, etc.) there are a plethora of ways to approach them so that students can get the most out of them.  I think about the idea of using the game show Jeopardy as a review before a big test and including a category about vocabulary -- if it is out of context to the big ideas or understandings you want the students to learn, they may be able to pick out the word on that day or the day of the test; however, the odds of them remembering it for life or connected to that big idea or unit may not be that great.  Jeopardy might be good some, but not every time you do a review just like these strategies might be good some of the time.  It is important to think about how vocabulary ideas like the ones above can be embedded in the instruction of your curriculum so that they don't become an add-on.

Do you have a favorite vocabulary activity, lesson, or idea that others might benefit from?  Please attach these ideas (and links if you have them) to the comment section.

 
Resources

Allen, J. (1999). Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12. Portland, ME: 
     Stenhouse.

Beck, I.L, McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002) Bringing words to life: Robust 
     vocabulary instruction. New York, NY: Guilford.

Blachowicz, C. (1986) "Making connections: Alternatives to the vocabulary notebook."
     Journal of Reading, 29, 642-649.
Blachowicz, C. & Fisher, P.J. (2006) Teaching vocabulary in all classrooms. Upper      
     Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.