Robust Vocabulary Instruction of Tier Two Words: The Facts

During my first year as an SLP, I didn't really know exactly how I wanted to teach vocabulary.  I tried doing a Word of the Day, having students write down words and definitions in a notebook, pre-teaching curriculum vocabulary, teaching prefixes, suffixes, and root words, and many others.  I kept switching around because I didn't feel like any of those approaches were really helping the students in the long run.  They were just a temporary bandage.  The kids rarely used the words outside of my lesson since it was just a quick memorization task basically and then they could forget about it.  I wanted something that was engaging and that would truly enhance their spoken communication outside of the therapy room.

I researched a bunch of different methods/books and finally landed on 'Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction' by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan.   I barely got past the first chapter and was already hooked!  *I bought the first edition but apparently now there's a second edition!  Get it HERE.

Here is the little book description blurb from Amazon.com:

Hundreds of thousands of teachers have used this highly practical guide to help K-12 students enlarge their vocabulary and get involved in noticing, understanding, and using new words. Grounded in research, the book explains how to select words for instruction, introduce their meanings, and create engaging learning activities that promote both word knowledge and reading comprehension. The authors are trusted experts who draw on extensive experience in diverse classrooms and schools. Sample lessons and vignettes, children's literature suggestions, end-of-chapter summaries, and "Your Turn" learning activities enhance the book's utility as a classroom resource, professional development tool, or course text.

I loved this book so much that I wanted more examples and information so I went and purchased their next book 'Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions & Extended Examples.'  Check it out HERE.  This one is even more helpful than the first as it provides a ton more details and examples!!  If you want my honest opinion, you can skip the first book and go right to the Extended Examples one.  It provides a nice little review so you can really get all the info you need out of that book alone :)

What are Tier Two vocabulary words you ask?  Well I will start by defining Tier One and Tier Three...

• Tier One words:  everyday, basic, familiar words

• Tier Three words:  words that are very rare and ones that are domain specific (i.e. science, social studies vocabulary)

So now you can slide Tier Two words right in between those two and you get, according to Beck, words that are more sophisticated than the basic set but of high utility for literate language users.  Students are less likely to run into Tier Two words in everyday oral language therefore learning these words comes primarily from interaction with books. Tier One words occur in everyday conversation and meanings are more easily implied based on intonation, gestures, body language, etc.  Tier Three words are more specific and aren't used often in daily language. So the main take-away message regarding tiers is that they do not necessarily correspond to words that are hard, harder, and hardest but instead the role they play in language.

Here is the basic outline they propose for a 5-day robust instruction cycle:

Day One:  Selection is read and discussed.  Pull out some words that are necessary to overall understanding and BRIEFLY clarify them during the reading or before reading.  Key word there is BRIEFLY because stopping frequently during the read-a-loud hinders comprehension.

Day Two:  Introduce each word (pick approx 4-7 words) by providing the following information:

• the context in which the word appeared in the story
• a student-friendly definition (www.COBUILD.com)
• an additional context the word might be found
• an opportunity for students to interact with the word

Day Three:  Ask the students to respond to related questions (1 question per word) using the target words (e.g. Would someone show fear or joy if they saw something ominous?).  Then have students create a list based on brainstorming about the words (e.g. Describe some ominous situations).

Day Four:  Ask students to match targeted words with related comments (e.g. "That sounded like the wind is getting wilder").  Ask students to complete sentence stems (e.g. An ominous sight in a forest might be seeing...).  Have students think about vocabulary words outside of the classroom with different activities (i.e. Have students find an ominous situation in a TV show they're watching or a book they're reading).

Day Five:  Review of vocabulary words and assessment.  They propose assessing student knowledge in either a True/False format or Completing Sentences to truly find out their understanding of the words.  So basically more sentence stems.

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I will give you a little time to digest all of this information and then I will do another post on how I have modified the approach to work for me!  This approach is geared toward regular classrooms that have 5 consecutive days to do this and obviously we don't have that kind of time!  So with some little adjustments I have been able to make it work for my 30 minute pull-out sessions.  I mean not all of those things crammed into one session, but spread out amongst a few sessions using different methods to speed some things up.

Does anyone else use this method? Have you heard of it before? 

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Narrative Baselines

Before beginning my book units, I administered some informal assessments to determine my students' current narrative and expository language abilities. I did the same exact assessment discussed in the Story Grammar Marker and the Data Collection and Progress Monitoring manuals from Mindwing Concepts Inc.  

I was kind of anxious to begin but once I got into it I really flew through them and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!  I used the book Big Al by Andrew Clements for my retelling portion of my assessment. 

This is the example they use in the SGM manual so it was nice to already have the Complete Episode mapped for me. Plus they give tons of examples of kids at different stages/levels using that book so it was very helpful for my first time doing this assessment!  

To obtain the retelling sample, I first recorded myself reading the story on my iPad so I didn't have to reread it with each student.  I just met with the student one-on-one and played the recording while showing the pictures as if I was reading it.  After reading the entire story (took about 3.5 minutes), I asked the student a series of factual and inferential comprehension questions (found in the SGM manual) and then had the student retell the story back to me.  I recorded their retelling on my iPad for later transcription and analysis.  This entire process took about 10-15 minutes per student.  After completing all of the retellings, I transcribed every sample.  This was the time consuming part but honestly it didn't take as long as I thought and it was so worth it because I learned so much about my students and their narrative language skills! Examples of transcriptions are also in the Data Collection manual.  When I was done transcribing, I labeled each sentence/utterance with the story grammar element it corresponded to (Character, Setting, Kick Off, Feelings, Plan, Actions/Attempts, Tie Up, Resolution).  I labeled it by adding a Comment box on Microsoft Word program.  

Here are 2 examples of my transcriptions with Comments:

Oral Retelling Sample 1 (Action Sequence Level)

Oral Retelling Sample 2 (Abbreviated Episode Stage)


In addition to the story retelling, I also wanted a story formulation sample.  This is not 100% necessary but I found it to be useful when a student was between developmental narrative stages.  I found a picture from the Test of Narrative Language on Google Images and just projected that onto the SmartBoard.  

I told the student to make up a story that goes along with this picture. I reminded them that stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  I said to tell me the best story they can that goes with that picture.  As I said, it isn't required to do both the retelling AND story formulation but when I was going back and forth between stages for a particular student, I just looked at their story formulation sample and it usually helped my decision. 

The last thing I did was an expository sample.  Examples of this type of assessment is also in the Data Collection and Progress Monitoring manual.  This one was super quick.  I picked out a short paragraph that corresponded to one of the 7 expository text structures (Descriptive, Compare/Contrast, List, Sequence, Cause/Effect, Problem/Solution, and Persuade) depending on their grade level.  My third graders listened to me read a Cause/Effect paragraph, while my 4th and 5th graders listened to me read a Problem/Solution paragraph.  Example paragraphs are in the Core of the Core manual by Mindwing Concepts.  After I read the short paragraph, I had them retell it back to me.  I recorded their retellings for this too.  I was basically checking to see if they were able to identify the author's purpose and tell it back in a format that reflected that purpose.  The Data Collection manual really explains the purpose of expository assessment and why it's so important.

After all 3 of these assessments were completed, I was able to record all of the data on the forms provided in the Data Collection manual and put them in each students' Assessment File.  I have a manila folder labeled "Student's Name Assessment File" in each students IEP hanging file in my file cabinet.  This is where I keep the informal assessments I administer through out the year.  

I make sure to have a little conference with each student to discuss their results so they know exactly where they are in terms of their narrative development.  These results are what goes up on my Data Wall.  Each student has an individual number which goes on a little post-it note then onto the Data Wall. 

All of the students' IEP goals are based off of the results of the narrative/expository assessments.  This is also what drives the objectives of my therapy sessions.  Tons of example IEP goals are listed in the Data Collection manual.  I will do a separate post about IEP goals and Present Levels related to the SGM program.

Hope this makes some sense!

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The S/L Curriculum Gets a Makeover!

As expected, I have already changed my curriculum!

Grab it here. 

The first page is the curriculum map itself and the second page is a list of possible activities to do within each book unit.  I put the activities in the order in which I would do them.

I decided I didn't want to teach narrative and expository separately.  I realized it would be much more beneficial to teach them together within a single thematic unit.  So I basically rearranged the curriculum to reflect book units that encompass a wide variety of things all based off of a fictional story.  Each book unit has both the narrative AND expository piece.  For example, if I read the book Jumanji as my fictional story, I might read non-fiction books about snakes or monkeys or jungles to keep with the theme.

I already completed my Narrative Baselines which told me where all of my students were with regard to their narrative development.  This will be explained in a future post.  Here are some pictures of my data wall to give you an idea of the results I obtained:

Each student has a number

I also did my SGM introduction and practice. We practiced our icon identification (character, setting, kick off etc.) with the books Amelia Bedelia and The Giving Tree.  The kids now know the symbols on the yarn tools and are ready for the book units! I wanted to make sure they had sufficient practice with the symbols so it didn't interfere with the story having to teach it all at that particular moment.  Future post on this topic as well.

Hope everyone had a great first day back! :)

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Conversation Unit Reflection

So I have mixed feelings about my Conversation Unit....

For those of you who haven't read previous posts, the focus of my first trimester was on conversation, based on MindWing Concepts program/materials.  I used their Facilitating Relationship manual to guide my assessments, lessons, and goals.  

My initial assessments went pretty well.  I followed the assessment guide in the manual as I looked at three specific things with regard to clarification skills- Repairing Receptive Conversational Breakdowns, Repairing Expressive Breakdowns, and Preventing Expressive Breakdowns.  I recorded the conversations on my iPad for later analysis.  To be honest, the beginning of the school year was so busy I didn't really get around to scoring all of my assessments that I took so much time completing :(.  It definitely requires a lot of time to listen to all of the recordings again and keep track of all the different areas.  

For the intervention aspect of it, we learned about Six-Second Stories (a sentence containing who, did what, where, and when) and the kids did really begin to latch on to the concept and loved using the Story Grammar Marker tool to help them.  We learned the 4 SGM icons used to tell a Six Second Story (character, action, setting-where, setting-when) and had a discussion about why we must include all of those things when we begin a conversation with other people.  

To teach the kids how to Repair Receptive Breakdowns, I would tell them a Six Second Story WITHOUT one of the 4 elements. So I might say, "Maria rode her bike to the store" (purposefully leaving out the WHEN).  The kids would fill out their Six Second Story Therapy Sheet (4 boxes labeled Who, Did What, Where, When) and figure out which element I missed.  They would then have to ask me the appropriate question to get that piece of information.  So in my example above they would be expected to ask "WHEN did Maria ride her bike to the store?"  We specifically talked about appropriate questions for each element prior to this activity.  Eventually, I faded out the use of the visual therapy sheet and they had to mentally determine which element I omitted and ask the appropriate question.  Many of the groups got really good at this skill.  It allowed them to Prevent Breakdowns (knowing they had to include all 4 elements) as well as Repairing Receptive Breakdowns.  Those two topics took longer than I had intended, therefore we did not get to Repairing Expressive Breakdowns.  The manual explained for instruction in that area, the SLP would teach the child to read body language of their communication partner to determine confusion and need for clarification.  

I guess what I realized after this unit was that even though many of my kids leave out important information in conversations and have trouble with requesting clarification, this unit would be more beneficial for students with autism, Aspergers, etc.  I would have loved to do this in a social skills group, but unfortunately I do not have one of those this year!

If anything, the kids learned how to write a good sentence, which is something the majority of them didn't previously know how to do!

Oh well, lesson learned.  On to the Narrative/Expository Units! :)

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Six Strands of Language Lessons and Reflection

After completing the Communication Contracts with my kids, I moved on to teaching them the Six Strands of Language.  This was recommended in the Story Grammar Marker manual to increase the kids' awareness of their speech and language difficulties.  I thought it would be a great way to start the year!  First, I went to Michaels and bought a bunch of brightly colored yarn and each strand was designated a color.  Here is how I color-coded them:

Pragmatics- Orange
Phonology- Lime Green
Semantics- Blue
Syntax/Morphology- Yellow
Discourse- Pink
Metalinguistics- Green

Then, I created my giant bulletin board behind my desk to give kids a constant visual reminder.  Each strand of yarn was spread across the bulletin board and matched up with its name.  

Grab the Six Strands Header Signs Here

Grab the Individual Six Strands Signs Here

To add another visual/tactile tool to my lessons, I also created a mini version of the strands for each kid to utilize during the lessons.  Dry-erase word/sentence strips and markers were also given to the kids just because they love writing on them so much!  I had them write down the name of the current strand we were learning about for additional feedback.  Here are the materials used for the Six Strands lessons:

My goal was to teach 2 strands per 30 minute session, however some ended up taking longer than that.  Just depended on the kids in the group and how well they were grasping the general concept.  

Instead of jumping right into the Pragmatics strand, I dedicated my first session to introducing all of the strands via PowerPoint.  I gave a very brief overview of each one so the kids knew what color each one was and an idea of what it stood for.  We then played a little matching game where they matched the name of the strand to the color and/or definition.  Next time, I won't waste my time with this overall introduction!  It was too quick for them to even understand what each strand stood for and just wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be.  In the future, I will just jump into teaching the Pragmatics strand right away.


Pragmatics Strand Lesson:
Materials:  mini strands, sentence strips, markers, whiteboard, book, iPad
Book used:  Manners by Aliki
Summary of lesson:  Began the lesson by having the kids show me their orange strand and set it out in front of them.  I then told them to write the word PRAGMATICS on their sentence strips.  Once this was done, I gave them a kid-friendly definition of Pragmatics and gave them some real-world examples.  Next, I read parts of the book Manners by Aliki.  I just skipped around to the pages that I liked best.  We discussed good vs. bad pragmatics as I read the book.  I made sure to use the word a lot so they could relate the word to its meaning.  I would ask them "was that good or bad pragmatics?" and they would have to answer "good pragmatics" or "bad pragmatics."  I found this video on YouTube that is PERFECT for teaching pragmatics so we watched it (skipped around to good parts) and discussed certain behaviors throughout. 

Flummox and Friends Video

We ended the 15 minute Pragmatics introduction by making a semantic web on my little whiteboard.  I put the word Pragmatics in the middle and then talked about all those different things we read in the book and saw in the video.

(Please excuse the sloppiness, I was writing upside down!)

Phonology Strand Lesson:

Materials:  mini strands, sentence strips, markers, whiteboard, book
Book Used:  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
Summary of Lesson:  Began the lesson by having the kids show me their Lime Green strand and set it out in front of them.  Then had them write the word PHONOLOGY on their sentence strips.  Provided them with a kid-friendly definition of Phonology and gave them some examples.  This time we actually completed the semantic web first.  Wrote Phonology in the middle and then wrote down the subcategories and gave examples- phonemic awareness (includes rhyming, segmenting, blending etc.), articulation, spelling, and sound-symbol relationship.  We discussed Dr. Seuss and how he always includes rhyming in his books.  I told them to listen for rhyming words as we read the book.  After reading parts of the book, we used the rest of the time to further discuss the different areas of Phonology.

Semantics Strand Lesson:
Materials:  mini strands, sentence strips, markers, whiteboard, book
Book Used:  Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Summary of Lesson:  Began the lesson by having the kids show me their Blue strand and set it out in front of them.  Then had them write the word SEMANTICS on their sentence strips.  Provided them with a kid-friendly definition of the word Semantics and gave them examples.  We talked about figurative language such as "it's raining cats and dogs."  The kids always get a kick out of that one!  We talk about how the words say one thing but it means something else.  I tell them that Amelia Bedelia doesn't have very good Semantics because she doesn't understand what the people are asking her to do.  As we go through the book and see what Amelia does, I ask them what the people REALLY wanted her to do.  The kids just love this book!  We also talk about how Semantics includes the definition of individual words and how we can find those definitions in a dictionary.  Finish the lesson by making the web.

Syntax/Morphology Strand Lesson:
Materials:  mini strands, sentence strips, markers, whiteboard, book
Book Used:  Unfortunately by Remy Charlip
Summary of Lesson:  Began the lesson by having the kids show me their Yellow strand and set it out in front of them.  Then had them write the word SYNTAX & MORPHOLOGY on their sentence strips.  Provided them with a kid-friendly definition of the words and gave them examples.  Made a semantic web prior to reading the book.  Discussed cohesive ties and how we are going to use them to combine sentences while reading the book.  Stopped every few pages and wrote down two simple sentences on my whiteboard (ex. His friend loaned him an airplane.  The motor exploded.).  I had the kids figure out which cohesive tie word would best combine these two sentences to make one big sentence (ex. His friend loaned him an airplane BUT the motor exploded.).  Sometimes I made up sentences that went with the pictures so we could use other cohesive tie words besides 'but' (ex. The boy had to have surgery. He fell on a pitchfork. --------> The boy had to have surgery BECAUSE he fell on a pitchfork.).  After the story we discussed the other subcategories (verb tense and morphology).

Discourse and Metalinguistics Strands:
For these two strands I did not read a book, but instead gave definitions/examples and said we will learn more about these things as the year goes on.  We did phonemic awareness tasks to demonstrate how metalinguistics means manipulating and thinking about our language.  So I would say "tell me SPEECH without the S" and things like that.  These two areas are definitely harder to grasp than the others so I didn't want to waste too much time on them.

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After introducing all the strands, I showed the kids a little key I made which shows which strands they are working on in speech class.  It is basically just a table in Microsoft Word with all the kids names in one column and colored circles corresponding to the strands in the next column.  So "Sally" may have a lime green, blue, and pink circle next to her name indicating she is working on phonology, semantics, and discourse.  I actually put a pink circle next to ALL of their names (except articulation only kids) since that is something everyone needs work on.  The kids were really excited to look up their name and see which strands they are working on now that they know what each one is!  I think this activity really gives kids that level of awareness that is necessary for progress in speech and language.  Now that they know what they are working on, they don't have to answer their teachers or parents with "I don't know" when asked why they are in speech!  The LD teacher at my school came up to me and said one of our 3rd graders told her that he was working on his PRAGMATICS in speech class! He even gave her the definition of Pragmatics!!! YAYY!!  Needless to say, she was VERY impressed :-)

So that is how I introduced the Six Strands of Language! Please let me know if you have any questions or want to share any ideas that would go along well with these lessons!
   

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The Six Strands of Language-Explained!

Next up on the Curriculum Map is The Six Strands of Language.  It is these six strands which form the base of the Story Grammar Marker: Pragmatics, Phonology, Semantics, Syntax & Morphology, Discourse, and Metalinguistics.   Here is how they are defined by SGM:

• Pragmatics - the social uses of language
• Phonology - the sound system tapped for oral language production, decoding, and spelling.
• Semantics - the meanings of words and their relationship to each other within and across sentence boundaries.
• Syntax & Morphology - the word order and complexity of clausal structures as well as the addition/omission of endings such as -ed and -ing.
• Discourse - the level of oral language or print that is beyond the level of the single sentence.
• Metalinguistics - the acquired process of manipulating language as an object rather than a means of communication.

These strands are then described further and given sub-categories.  I am using the six strands themselves as my annual goals and the sub-categories as guidelines for my short-term objectives.

• Pragmatics
• eye contact
• noise
• space
• body language
• tone of voice
• feedback
• turn taking
• topic maintenance
• comments
• clarification

• Phonology
• spelling
• articulation
• phonemic awareness
• sound symbol relationships

• Semantics
• words
• multiple meanings
• experiential scripts/schema or content
• word relationships within a sentence
• cohesive devices
• figurative language

• Syntax & Morphology
• word order
• cohesive ties
• verb tense
• morphology

• Discourse
• conversation
• narrative
• exposition

• Metalinguistics
• rhyme
• perspective
• self-monitoring
• figurative language
• segmentation
• manipulation

I introduce each of these strands by reading a book or watching a video that demonstrates each one or at least an aspect of it and then facilitate a discussion.  I created these simple little yarn tools to give kids a visual aid to help internalize these concepts.  All I did was assign a color to each of the 6 strands, bought yarn in those colors, cut it up into 6 inch pieces and tied the 6 colors together.  Super simple but really helped the kids associate a color to each of the areas.  I also decorated the big bulletin board behind my desk with these strands and definitions.

This has been just a brief overview of the Six Strands of Language as described in the Story Grammar Marker manual.  I will do a post very soon reflecting on my week introducing all the strands.  There were things that worked very well and things that I definitely would have done differently!  

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Communication Contract- EXPLAINED!

As shown on my curriculum map, one of the first things I do with my kids at the beginning of a new school year is complete a Communication Contract.  I did not create this document myself, however cannot think of where I got this for the life of me!  I believe it was somewhere on the Speaking of Speech website.  Prior to this session, I write in their goals (using student-friendly language) in the appropriate areas.

I begin the session by asking the kids if they know why they are in speech class.  More times than not, they have absolutely no clue.  The kids need to know why they are there if you want to see progress and motivation to do well!  I give a brief and student friendly explanation of speech AND language, since many of them only think of it as 'speech' class (along with most teachers).  I take them back to the time they were evaluated and explain how some of the weaknesses that were found on that test are what need to be worked on in speech class in order for them to be successful in the classroom and at home.  

Once this is established, we start talking about the actual contract.  I ask the students if they know what a 'contract' is or if they have ever heard that word before.  We discuss situations where a contract is needed and the reasoning for completing one.  We then continue filling out the contract together while clarifying any difficult vocabulary we come across (e.g. 'negotiate').   The kids take turns sharing some of their goals and then as a group we brainstorm ways to reach those goals.  We just think of general things such as pay attention, work hard, participate, etc. 

The kids really seem to enjoy filling out this contract as they feel some responsibility toward reaching their speech and language goals.  It is also a great way to refresh yourself on all your kids' goals!  It is important to revisit the contract a few times through out the year so they always remember what they are working on.

Click Here for Communication Contract

Hope some of you can use this! :-)

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Speech and Language Curriculum

As I mentioned in my first post, the speech and language curriculum I have created for myself is based on the three levels of Discourse; conversation, narration, and exposition.  If you haven't already read the post on MindWing Concept's blog that talks about these three levels and why they are an ideal way to provide intervention for children with language disorders, check it out here.

I purchased the Story Grammar Marker program from MindWing last year so I could work on narrative skills with my kids, but soon realized that narration is only ONE level of discourse and while extremely important, I needed to target the other two levels as well.  I immediately began pleading my case to the Director of Pupil Services in my district on how my program would really benefit from the two additional programs from MindWing,  ThemeMaker (exposition) and Six-Second Stories (conversation).  Without hesitation, she went ahead and ordered them for me!  They arrived at my school a week later, which was the week before school ended.  YAY SUMMER READING MATERIAL!  I actually was THAT excited!  I read the books over and over this summer and put together a tentative curriculum for myself.  I emphasize tentative because we all have reflected on lessons and realized there were things we would have done differently.  I do that everyday!  So, while I do have a week-by-week plan set in place, I know that it will go through many revisions.  This year is my trial run and will hopefully work out the kinks so it can run smoothly in the future!

Click Here for the Speech and Language Curriculum (Please let me know if this link doesn't work!)

Take a look at the curriculum and stay tuned for more posts explaining those units/topics!

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