The Science of Reading (SOR) is not a fad or a new initiative—it’s the result of decades of empirical study and research that have proven how the brain learns to read and the tried-and-true practices that support this process. To integrate insights from this body of research into our instruction, there are some habits we’ll need to change and practices we’ll need to alter—but the science is sound and the growth potential for our students is huge. One commonly held thought is that if a student struggles with reading in the third grade, that student is more likely to drop out of high school and experience a host of other poor outcomes. If this is true, why don’t we put more effort into robust reading practice to get all students up to par? Most secondary teachers don’t have the literacy training to fully support struggling readers in the classroom, and most people don’t know how our brains adapt to allow us to read (for more on that, check out this fascinating infographic from EAB!). So, if we know how important it is for students to have a strong reading foundation and how detrimental reading deficits can be for students, why are we not doing more to solve the problem?
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a TEDx Talk from Melissa Hostetter discussing the Science of Reading and its importance. There were so many things that stuck with me from her talk, but this quote was a mental gut-punch: “Today’s struggling reader is tomorrow’s partially illiterate adult.” Hostetter’s elegantly blunt statement is what we all need to hear. We need to act. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the current decline in literacy rates and the growing needs of our students make a focus on literacy an all-hands-on-deck necessity. So, let’s start by focusing on something that we do in every class throughout the secondary level: vocabulary.
Bring Science of Reading-Based Vocabulary Instruction to all Secondary Classes
Vocabulary instruction is something that cannot be ignored. Every class and every teacher at the secondary level works with vocabulary in some manner, whether it’s subject-specific terminology, shared academic language, or the targeted integration of words that could trip up learners in a lesson. Strong vocabulary skills not only improve reading and overall communication abilities, but they also improve decoding and analytical abilities. Like everything with the Science of Reading, vocabulary instruction needs to be purposefully and explicitly taught. Here are a few Science of Reading-backed instructional practices you can bring to any class that are based on former president of the International Dyslexia Association (reviewed here) Nancy Hennessey’s four-tier vocabulary instructional approach.
1. Intentional Instruction:
This is where secondary teachers feel the most comfortable when it comes to vocabulary instruction, but we often fall into the exposure trap: we share the words with students, talk about meanings, and maybe do an activity…and that’s it. I’ve done it, too–we’re so pressed for time that it feels impossible to spend hours on vocabulary instruction. So, how do we give the students the vocabulary skills they need and still get everything done? Getting all subjects on board and changing up our approach by delivering focused, deliberate vocabulary instruction for key terms are major steps.
In Science, when introducing your unit on the solar system, give students specific practice with the term by using semantic mapping (see fig. 1), which works really well for larger concepts. As a class, make a word web and have students share what they associate with the concept. Concept sorts are very similar—give students a list of concepts and have them sort them under the categories they belong to. These simple activities immediately help students connect the dots and associate new concepts with previous knowledge.
If you want to go a bit further with vocabulary, check out the Frayer Model—a vocabulary graphic organizer that helps students understand words from multiple angles. The example below (fig. 2) is a Frayer Model based on a lesson from Ursula Lovings on BetterLesson (reviewed here)—you can find more math-specific Frayers on ThoughtCo.com. The Frayer Model is very adaptable, so don’t be afraid to change it to meet your needs. For example, instead of having students give non-examples, I will often change that compartment to have students create three example sentences using a variety of word variations (see fig. 3), or I will have students illustrate the concept. Like the semantic mapping activity, this can be used in all subject areas to add to students’ depth of vocabulary knowledge.
2. “Incidental-on-Purpose” Instruction:
This is my favorite way to introduce vocabulary to secondary students because it’s organic and mimics how readers approach unknown words in the real world. This method works best with those secondary vocabulary words—words that you should know or that will hinder your understanding of the text. These words are juicy words in my classroom because they’re so good that we need to stop and give them the attention they need.
For example, when we read Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, and we get to “recidivism,” we pause on it. I acknowledge the juiciness of the word and ask if anyone knows what it means. No matter the reply, we break down the word to make sure we fully understand why the word means what it means. If someone knows the definition, I may ask how they learned the word to give them a moment to be the expert. Explicitly show students how to use the context to glean meaning, ask them if there are any other words that we can associate with the word, and then start the breakdown: re-: a prefix meaning “back” or “again”; -cid-: from Latin root cadere, meaning “to fall”; -iv-: an adjectival suffix forming the Latin word recidivus, meaning “falling back”; -ism: a noun-forming suffix meaning “the practice or state of.” So, now students can see that recidivism literally means “falling back into the practice of,” which has now been accepted as “falling back into the practice of criminal behavior.” Cool, right?! We aren’t done, though—use this time to explain that the suffix –ismis used to turn adjectives into nouns, and that if the word is a Latin-based word, –iv or –ivewill be an adjective.
This aligns with Hennessey’s third tier of vocabulary instruction: Intentional teaching of independent word learning strategies. The more work we get with morphemic analysis, context analysis, and basic vocabulary tools—dictionary, thesaurus, and etymological usage and understanding—the better students’ vocabulary skills will become in both depth and breadth. When we encounter these juicy words, my students keep a log of them along with notes from the mini-lesson we had. I keep a digital log for easy reference and frequently review or reference these concepts in warm-ups, exit-ticket questions, or by requiring students to use a certain number of these words in writing assignments. As students get used to this, have them bring up juicy words that they have found on their own. Students now have a personal resource to use at any point to help them understand the words that shape their understanding. Have fun with words and show students how great they can be!
3. Development of “Word Consciousness:”
Word consciousness goes beyond knowing words and what creates them; it’s a genuine interest in words. Donna Mastrovito makes a case for a word-conscious classroom in this Keys to Literacy blog post. Mastrovito encourages all teachers to become logophiles and share that love daily with students. Teachers can create a Word of the Day collection and take a few minutes to talk about the word (if you need help with finding words, check out Wordsmith.org and subscribe to their Word of the Day for a free daily email of wonderful words). Mastrovito also points out that “Most of the vocabulary that students attain after the third grade can be attributed to the incidental learning of words from context while reading,” and calls for high-quality student-selected readings. The more we can get them to read, the more words they will know.
Another routine that can easily be adopted for any classroom is scaling. Give students an array of words that have similar concepts and have students scale them in an order you determine (most intense to least intense, sequence, etc.). This is a great way to sneak in some connotation work to help students learn the shades of meaning.
You do not need to be a reading instructor or have a reading license to help all readers in your classroom. All you need is some tools and a willingness to help. If this is new to you, don’t be discouraged. Many secondary teachers, even the English teachers, don’t know this stuff. In Hostetter’s TEDx Talk, she says, “As a teacher, I should have known how to help [struggling readers], but I didn’t know because I have never been taught.” Take this as your wake-up call. Learn what you can to help your students. Patience is also important: it took us a while to get here, and it will take some time and hard work to get us back on track. You can do this, and your students can too!
If you’d like to learn more about the Science of Reading and other ways to support readers, check out this TeachersFirst’s Science of Reading special topic collection. If you’d like to learn how to integrate technology with vocabulary instruction, check out our OK2Ask workshop, “Tech-Powered Vocabulary: Engaging Strategies for Long-Term Retention.”