Karen D. Wood

Research on Vocabulary Instruction in the Content Areas: Implications for Struggling Readers

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of current knowledge about vocabulary teaching and learning—understandings that influence learning across different disciplines. Research on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in particular subject matter areas, including mathematics, social studies, and science, is discussed. Based upon the instructional implications evident in this body of work, this article also offers suggestions for providing effective vocabulary instruction for students reading below grade level.

Rethinking Middle School Reading Instruction: A Basic Literacy Activity

Research on subject matter instruction across the 20th century (e.g., Stevens, 1912; Bellack, 1966; Hoetker & Ahlbrand; 1969; Gall, 1970; Langer, 1999; Mehan, 1979; Nystrand, 1997;) reveals a preponderance of teacher-directed lecture, recitation, and round-robin reading of text in place of instruction that focuses on reading-to-learn, thinking, and transforming information into meaning and understanding (Durkin, 1978–79; Langer, 1999; Blanton & Moorman, 1990; Wood & Muth, 1991). This kind of instruction persists despite the fact that observations of higher performing schools indicated the tendency to organize instruction around meaningful learning communities with extensive interactive discussion of material read (Langer, 1999; Myers, 1996; Wenglinsky, 2000; 2004). The purpose of this essay is twofold: (a) to argue that a great deal of reading instruction fails to meet the multiple and complex literacy needs of most middle school students, and (b) to propose a new orientation for thinking about middle school reading instruction. We begin with a discussion of research findings on classroom reading instruction, followed by an exploration of issues central to the problem. Then we propose what we have titled the basic literacy activity, a conceptual tool for thinking about and arranging middle school reading instruction. We end with an overview of selected instructional strategies that exemplify the characteristics of basic literacy activity.

Motivating Student Interest with the Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) Strategy.

In order to make predictions about a text, students must have prior knowledge or experiences about the topic and a means or a reason to retrieve this latent information and knowledge. The Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) strategy takes the predictive process back to its origins in the imagination and extends it throughout the prereading, reading, and postreading stages of a lesson. The strength of IEPC appears to be in the whole-class participation aspect, which enables the teacher to guide, focus, and direct classwide responses and discussions, thereby capitalizing on the collective experiences of the students. The IEPC strategy has been sampled in over 30 classrooms ranging from kindergarten to middle and high school levels. While its elements are not new to teachers, the concept of having a tangible, visual framework to guide the predictive process throughout the reading seems to be beneficial for both teachers and students. The IEPC strategy has potential as a means to improve understanding and to motivate students to want to read assigned texts, both expository and narrative.

The TAB Book Club Approach: Talking (T) About (A) Books (B) in Content Area Classrooms.

The TAB Book Club Approach allows the merging of literature with content area instruction to motivate students to develop different viewpoints as the curriculum comes alive.

An Investigation of Teachers' Concerns About Vocabulary and the Representation of These Concerns in Content Literacy Methodology Textbooks

The purpose of this study was twofold: to (a) find out what questions currently practicing middle grade teachers have about vocabulary instruction and (b) determine what current undergraduate content area textbooks include that provide answers to these vocabulary questions. As researchers and practitioners directly responsible for teaching preservice middle grades teachers, this was a beginning step in examining whether our own teacher preparation programs are meeting the needs of new teachers as they encounter the demands of teaching vocabulary in their content areas. Teacher concerns about vocabulary instruction were determined by a survey instrument administered to 390 middle school teachers to ascertain questions they have about teaching vocabulary. A content analysis of the three leading content area textbooks was then undertaken to determine to what degree the top five concerns of middle grades teachers were addressed in these texts. Though direct information on how to teach vocabulary was provided, the researchers found that twice as much information was presented indirectly, embedded under subheadings where it was mentioned. In other words, only half the time did the texts explain how to teach the principles advocated.

Reading for Details in Online and Printed Text: A Prerequisite for Deep Reading

We have all done it. The specifics are right there in the e-mail, but we reply asking the sender questions about the same information. When the sender responds, saying the specifics are contained in the first e-mail, we wonder how we could have missed them. Clearly, we had not read for the details. But why? Is it because we are not “digital natives” (Prensky, 2005) and, thus, have reading habits that do not translate well to an electronic environment? Do digital natives also make the same mistakes when they read online? Because we have been perplexed by being at both ends of these e-mails, we decided to investigate how well people read for detail when reading online and in print. We assessed the reading skills of a group of 100 eighth grade students and divided the students into four groups of 25. The first group read a science article online, the second group read the same science article in print, the third group read a social studies primary source document online, and the fourth group read the same primary social studies source document in print. When they finished reading, the students responded to questions to assess their level of comprehension and attention to detail. The students who read online and the students who read in print performed similarly well on questions related to main ideas and general themes. The content area did not seem to matter. There were no statistical differences among the groups, and it seemed that online reading was as effective as print reading in ensuring students understood the gist of the information. Where the differences really stood out was in the reading for details. The students who read online performed significantly poorer than the students who read from the printed version on questions related to specific information in the texts. Why was this? We had not asked questions about minutiae, but we did ask students about specific details that were important in such tasks as predicting, inferring, and visualizing. For example, in an article about bird deaths from wind turbines, students who read online and print formats answered the main idea question with the same rate of success. Both groups understood that the article focused on ways to reduce bird deaths so additional electricity-generating wind turbines could be installed. However, the students who read the print version answered the detail questions at statistically significantly better rates. Here are some of the detail questions: What was the difference between painting one blade • versus all of the blades?

“Pick a Word—Not Just Any Word”: Using Vocabulary Self-Selection with Expository Texts

Students, for the past few days we have been brainstorming and discussing what we know about the Holocaust. Today we will start our readings for this study. From this point on, you will be the educational directors for the learning that goes on in this unit. Your first task as directors is to pick words for the passages you will read. But not just any words—you must decide what words or phrases are critical to understanding the passages. You will then use these words and phrases as guides for the learning tasks that will follow. This description does not represent a typical introduction to an academic learning unit for middle school learners. We are so accustomed to being in control of our students’ learning, and we usually decide what words and phrases need to be addressed to support content area reading comprehension and learning. Having students make these decisions may create some uneasiness and doubts in our minds about the quality of the learning that can result from such endeavors. Nonetheless, we do know that the more control students have over their own learning, the more likely they are to learn (Kohn, 1993). Student-centered tasks, such as having students select vocabulary to be learned, offer one way of “Pick a Word—Not Just Any ord”: Using Vocabulary Self-Selection with Expository Texts

Aiding Comprehension with the Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) Strategy

Described in this column is a new strategy designed to improve comprehension and writing called Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm or IEPC (Wood, 2001; Wood & Endres, under review). IEPC is a whole class strategy designed to take the predictive process back to its origins in the imagination and extend it throughout the prereading, reading, and postreading stages of an instructional les son. The article will begin with an overview of the research underlying the IEPC strategy and proceed with an explanation of the procedures for classroom implementation along with sam ple lessons from various subject areas in the middle school.

GUIDING MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH EXPOSITORY TEXT

As the middle school concept with its emphasis on the unique needs of the adolescent learner continues to gain widespread acceptance, it is essential that middle grade teachers be aware of the instructional needs of adolescents. Whereas many middle grade students are fully grown and seemingly independent socially, they may still need much guidance for classroom assignments. In fact, although classroom observational research is sparse, what exists suggests that there is a vast need for improvement in the way we have been teaching our adolescents. In a review of the existing literature, five aspects of instruction were identified as needing attention and improvement: mode of presentation, instructional format, use of textbook and materials, nature of classroom activities and questioning, and critical thinking and problem solving (Wood & Muth, 1991). This article focuses on one aspect of instruction: helping students read and comprehend their textbooks and textbook assignments.

Guidelines for Integrating Comprehension-Based Word Study in Content Classrooms

Comprehending texts is critical to achievement in all content areas. Students must handle the demands of increasingly more difficult texts in a variety of formats as they progress through the upper grades—when concepts become even more complex and sophisticated with each successive year. New vocabulary and more complicated language structures become major obstacles for many students as they try to make sense of texts (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008), especially for those students who are ill equipped to comprehend such texts. Teachers often recognize and express concern about this overwhelming challenge (Taylor, Mraz, Nichols, Rickelman, & Wood, 2009; Wood, Vintinner, Hill-Miller, Harmon, & Hedrick, 2009) and, with good intentions, resort to vocabulary instruction to lessen the comprehension load. Yet, many teachers may be unaware that not all vocabulary instruction impacts comprehension (Nagy, 1988; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986), despite calls in the recent literature for more comprehensive approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning (Fisher, Blachowicz, & Watts-Taffe, in press). In this article we introduce a broader term, vocabulary literacy (Wood, 2009), to expand our thinking about word knowledge and word study beyond the surface, definitional level in order to increase comprehension. Vocabulary teaching and learning is not a task isolated from other dimensions of instruction. Rather, the act of promoting vocabulary literacy is multidimensional and involves making the connection between vocabulary and comprehension using all aspects of literacy: reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing (Standards for the English Language Arts, 1996). When vocabulary is taught using a surface, definitional approach, students leave the experience with an inadequate understanding and no long-term retention of key terms. This linear approach to vocabulary instruction is depicted in Figure 1. Here, instruction begins from the bottom up—beginning at the word level and a corresponding definition, then attending to sentences and paragraphs, and ultimately focusing on comprehension as the final element. A classroom scenario using the linear approach to vocabulary instruction might look like this: