The Word Conscious Classroom

Episode 31: Metalinguistic Awareness and Grammatical Awareness in Action

How does teaching parts of speech enhance word consciousness and ones ability to solve analogies? Well, the more one knows about words, the more word consciousness he or she will gain. This means that a close look at English grammar needs to happen within a word conscious classroom. The teaching of Grammar is beneficial on many levels. For example, by understanding the parts of speech, students learn the role or function of the word, which in turn helps to enhance their metalinguistic awareness. According to Zipke (2008), Metalinguistic awareness is “the ability to objectify language and dissect it as an arbitrary linguistic code independent of meaning” (p. 128). Hence, if we want students to be adept with diction, then they must understand how to pronounce words, what words mean, and what is its grammatical function. Teaching Grammar does not have to be boring. Rightfully, Michael Clay Thompson reminds us to remember that Grammar is cool and it is very learnable. Hence, I’ve been interweaving Grammar into my literacy instruction. In addition to Thompson’s claim, Tunmer, Herriman, and Nesdale found that “young children’s awareness of grammatical structure predicts their later reading performance” (p. 567). Moreover, “young children who are grammatically aware will be better able to monitor their comprehension of text as they read” (pp. 567 & 568). Based on these premises alone, explicit teaching of grammar is expected in a word conscious classroom. In this episode, you will hear me giving the students a grammar lesson with a focus on prepositional phrases. I have been working on this grammatical skill for about three days and on the third day, the students finally started understanding the concept of the prepositional phrase. Phillips submitted that students can learn grammar easily by way of prepositional phrases. I don’t have enough evidence to accept or reject her premise, nonetheless, I plan to continue using her approach through out this academic year. Stay tuned! More episodes with Grammar instruction are in the making. Reference: Bainbridge, J., Malicky, G., Lang, L., & Heydon, R. (2011). Constructing meaning: Balancing elementary language arts. Brantford, Ont: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library. Phillips, W. C. (1995). Easy grammar. Scottsdale, Az: ISHA Enterprises Tunmer, W. E., Herriman, M. L., & Nesdale, A. R. (1988). Metalinguistic abilities and beginning reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 23(2), 134-158. Zipke, M. (2008). Teaching metalinguistic awareness and reading comprehension with riddles. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 128-137. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.pgcc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.pgcc.edu/docview/203282772?accountid=13315

Episode 30: Specific Word Learning

For the majority of my teaching career, I have been teaching vocabulary using the specific word learning technique. According to the Vocabulary Handbook, this technique falls under intentional vocabulary teaching. Hence, many of the passages from our anthologies and basal readers utilize specific word learning as an intentional instructional approach to teaching vocabulary. [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Components-of-Effective-Vocabulary-Instruction-.jpg]https://theliteracybutler.com/2018/11/18/specific-word-learning/components-of-effective-vocabulary-instruction/ [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_6394.gif]https://theliteracybutler.com/build-word-consciousness-with-eponyms/img_6394/ Based on the figure above, vocabulary instruction is generally centered around specific word instruction and word-learning strategies. Still, according to Stahl and Nagy (2006), the majority of the words that students learn are incidental. Hence, in order to build word consciousness, there should be a balance between incidental vocabulary learning and intentional vocabulary teaching. “Vocabulary is closely associated not just with intelligence, but also with knowledge” (Stahl and Nagy, 2006). Hence, when vocabulary is taught, then students are given the gift of knowledge and power, what Foucault called, Power/Knowledge. Reference: Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2009). Vocabulary handbook. Baltimore, Md: Brookes. Stahl, S. A., & Nagy, W. E. (2006). Teaching word meanings.

Episode 29: Reading like Detectives – Using the Elements of Thought while Reading

Teaching students to pay attention to text is what I’ve been focusing a lot of my energy on lately. It has been my experience that students have been over-taught how to decode words, and under-taught how to figure out what the author is doing with those words and with the text. As I am teaching students how to close read text, I try to employ the Elements of Thought [http://www.criticalthinking.org/ctmodel/logic-model1.htm], an approach to reading text created by The Foundation for Critical Thinking [https://www.criticalthinking.org/]. In order to promote close reading and using the elements of thought, I started using the Reading Detective Series [https://www.criticalthinking.com/reading-detective.html] with students. This series “uses highly-effective, literature-based critical thinking activities to develop the analysis, synthesis, and vocabulary skills students need for exceptional reading comprehension. The activities are especially effective at helping students understand challenging critical reading concepts such as making inferences, drawing conclusions, determining cause and effect, using context clues to define vocabulary, and making predictions and generalizations“. [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/detective-788592_1280.jpg]https://theliteracybutler.com/ As students are learning to read closely, they are also learning how to set a purpose for reading, figuring out the question that the author is attempting to answer, gleaning important information from the text, making inferences, learning new concepts, thinking about the assumptions that the author is making, and deciphering the author’s point of view. In this episode, you will hear students doing a close reading of a passage in order to determine the important elements from the text. Listen at how students are learning to pay attention to “everything” that the author is doing.

Episode 28: R.O.P.E. Strategy for Analogy Instruction

A few years ago, I went to a professional development workshop on using Analogies for teaching gifted learners. The presenter provided a strategy entitled R.O.P.E. which stands for Relationships, Order of words, Part of speech, and Exactness. I was fascinated by this strategy and I started using it with my students. Analogies have not always been easy for me to teach. I first attempted to teach my students analogies back in 1998. I had a Grade Four classroom, and I wanted to challenge my students in ways that my teachers have not challenged me. For me, analogies were a form of chaos because I did not know how to think about them and I didn’t understand how the words represented relationships. I can remember taking the Miller’s Analogies Test and performing like an intellectually challenged person on the test. It was experiences like these in my life that reinforced my inferiority complex. Nonetheless, going to the professional development workshop on analogies helped me to turn my chaos with analogies into order. [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/chaos-485493_1280.jpg]https://theliteracybutler.com/ When I first attempted to teach analogies, I purchased a workbook of analogies, and proceeded to make a class set of analogy practice packets. After reading the instructional directions, I attempted one lesson from the packet with my students. The lesson BOMBED! Needless to say, as a result of that experience, it took me years to get comfortable again with solving analogies, much less teaching them. Thanks to the ROPE Strategy, the students that I am teaching now are more willing to engage with analogies while gaining confidence in solving them. To help my students understand how to use the ROPE Strategy, I created a supplementary handout that I used in conjunction with the ROPE handout in my analogy workshops. By using the ROPE strategy, my students are getting stronger with analogies, and in this week’s podcast episode you will hear my introductory lesson on the ROPE Strategy. As the school year proceeds, you will be able to continue experiencing this strategy with my students as we are closely exploring relationships, word order, and parts of speech. https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/giphy-1.mp4 [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/giphy-1.mp4]

Episode 26: Unlocking Text with Morphological Study

As I set up my classroom for word study, I consulted the Growing Words [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/APS_ELA_GrowingWords-K5_FINAL.pdf]: Word Part Instruction Guide.  Before I introduced the Word Part of the Week, I wanted to introduce Latin and Greek Roots to my students in a creative way.  I started looking online for materials that would set the stage for teaching Latin and Greek Roots and I came across a resource on Teachers Pay Teachers [https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/] entitled Common Core Story of Greek Roots  [https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Story-of-Greek-Roots-roots-prefix-suffix-299265].  I used this resource to help my students understand that many of our English words have parts that are based on Latin and Greek meanings. [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IMG_6003.png]https://theliteracybutler.com/Rasinski, et. al. (2011), stated, “90 percent of English words with more than one syllable are Latin based. Most of the remaining 10 percent are Greek based. A single Latin root generates 5-20 English words.” Given this fact, it is obligatory for all teachers to carve out some time within the instructional day to provide direct instruction on Latin roots. What is more, the students’ understanding of Latin and Greek roots is a better predictor of reading comprehension than their vocabulary level (Rasinski, et. al., 2011). Based on this fact alone, I don’t feel bad spending 50 percent of my instructional time during small group reading instruction, teaching word analysis. In this episode, you will hear me reading aloud The Story of Greek Roots in order to get my students acclimated to Latin/Greek Derivations of words. [https://theliteracybutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_1846.jpg]https://theliteracybutler.com/img_1846/ References: Rasinski, T. V. (2011). Greek & Latin roots: Keys to building vocabulary. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education. Rasinski, Timothy V.; Padak, Nancy; Newton, Joanna; Newton, Evangeline (2011). The Latin-Greek Connection: Building Vocabulary through Morphological Study Reading Teacher, v65 n2 p133-141 [https://www.timrasinski.com/presentations/article_latin-greek_connection_-_rt_tr_np_jn_en_2011.pdf]