Dr. Tanya S. Wright shares research examining instructional practices that promote young children's oral language, vocabulary, and knowledge development. Listeners will be inspired to incorporate intentional vocabulary instruction for students throughout the school day. Tanya offers a wealth of information with examples based on her book, A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day: Grades K-3.
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Dr. Tanya S. Wright shares research examining instructional practices that promote young children's oral language, vocabulary, and knowledge development. Listeners will be inspired to incorporate intentional vocabulary instruction for students throughout the school day. Tanya offers a wealth of information with examples based on her book, A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day: Grades K-3.
Episode Mentions:
Other Resources Tanya Recommends:
Connect with Tanya:
Get solutions from Schoolutions!
#solutionsfromschoolutions #schoolutionsinspires #schoolutionspodcast
Schoolutions - S2 E26: How to Incorporate Vocabulary Development Across the Day with Dr. Tanya S. Wright
[00:00:00] Olivia: I am Olivia Wahl, and I have the privilege today of being in conversation with Michigan State University associate professor and author Dr. Tanya S. Wright. Dr. Wright is a former kindergarten teacher whose research and teaching focus on curriculum and instruction in language and literacy during the early childhood and elementary years.
[00:00:35] Olivia: Her research examines instructional practices that promote oral language, vocabulary, and knowledge development for young children. Tanya is the author of several books for teachers and parents that I will make sure to list in the show notes. I have been particularly inspired by Tanya's book, part of The Classroom Essentials Series - A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day (Grades K-3).
[00:01:01] Olivia: Since its publication in 2021, I am thrilled to share her brilliant perspective around vocabulary development for our youngest learners with Schoolutions listeners! Welcome, welcome, welcome, Professor Wright. I'm so happy to have you as a guest.
[00:01:16] Tanya: Thanks for having me.
[00:01:17] Olivia: I kick off every episode asking my guests who an inspiring educator is from their life. Would you please share?
[00:01:25] Tanya: I have a lot of inspiring educators in my life, but one who I'm the most closest to is my husband, uh, who has been a public school educator for most of his career. He's currently an elementary school principal. And every day, he goes to work, and in his school, he really tries to make sure that every child gets what they need so that they can learn and be successful and feel joyful in elementary school.
[00:01:51] Tanya: And for me, that is an inspiration.
[00:01:55] Olivia: It sure is. It sure is. And I have been inspired countless times by your research and your work around vocabulary development. Specifically, your lens of how to embed instruction throughout the day so it's making connections for all children. Two issues that I continue to bump up against in school districts.
[00:02:17] Olivia: There is not enough intentional delivery of vocabulary that's cognitively challenging for students as well as, I fear right now that there's such a focus on the decoding of words that we're losing sight of decoding goes hand in hand with meaning and vocabulary development. It's not the either or.
[00:02:37] Olivia: And the most brilliant solution is right from the pages of your book…page 27 to be specific, “If we want to support children's vocabulary development, we are going to need to do something very different. We cannot teach one word per day or five words per week or only explain word meetings, coincidentally, when they come up. If we want to make a difference, we have to be intentional and make plans to support children to learn word meanings across all parts of the school day.”
[00:03:09] Olivia: Yes, yes, yes. So…
[00:03:11] Tanya: I’m really glad I wrote that!
[00:03:12] Olivia: Me too! Me too. It's so perfect. Another aspect of the book that I am just so grateful for is how friendly it is. You can dive right in. There are videos and online resources. My favorite sections are the What We Know, that are steeped with research that can have our backs when we're trying to plan for really solid vocabulary delivery.
[00:03:38] Olivia: Um, there's Learn More as a section, Tips. And just the clear chapter headings of how to carry vocabulary instruction across the day are so beautiful. So, thank you for thinking through all of those aspects and making the book really accessible.
[00:03:54] Tanya: Thank you.
[00:03:55] Olivia: Yeah. So, let's jump right in. First of all, please, for listeners, define the term vocabulary.
[00:04:02] Tanya: So, when I think about vocabulary, or at least for the purposes of this book, we are talking about knowing the meaning of words. And when we think about knowing the meaning of words and what's really important about that, I like to think about how does knowing the meaning of words help people, but especially in this book, help children, as readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and learners.
[00:04:26] Tanya: So that's one of the reasons that I don't just think about, look it up in the dictionary or dictionary definition, uh, as being enough. Just because we look up a word in the dictionary doesn't mean we can really use it as a speaker or as a writer. Or that's gonna be enough information or the right information for helping us to comprehend text as a reader or to understand when someone's using that word as a speaker.
[00:04:50] Tanya: Uh, so all of this is really important, but the practical application of it is most important. Which is why that flashcard method, or look it up in the dictionary method, is not gonna be quite enough to think about vocabulary as actually useful for learners.
[00:05:07] Olivia: Yeah. And you speak to that idea of the “locked vocabulary gate,” and the graphics in your book are spectacular. But that idea of it doesn't matter how much decoding or reading strategies we have unless we really are truly understanding the vocabulary's meaning and applying it in a variety of contexts; that gate will remain locked for us.
[00:05:30] Olivia: Something that was so fascinating for me is the idea of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge being really intertwined. Um, a quote from your book, page 10, “When we really know the meaning of a word. When we can use that word to learn and communicate, we know far more information about it than is contained in a brief dictionary definition.”
[00:05:52] Tanya: Yeah, I really try to think about that the ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend the text, right?
[00:05:59] Olivia: Indeed, yeah!
[00:05:59] Tanya: Um, and if there are too many words in that text that we don't understand…even as adult readers, I often do an example with teachers where I get a college-level theoretical physics textbook or something like that, right?
[00:06:12] Tanya: If there's too many words and phrases that are connected with concepts that we don't understand, it's almost impossible to comprehend that text. Now, if we're reading along and mostly we understand, and there's just maybe one or two words that we don't know what they mean, then we can use a lot of strategies to try to figure that out.
[00:06:31] Tanya: Um, but it can be really overwhelming. Think about being a child in a classroom. Maybe that child is experiencing a read aloud, the teacher's reading, and they don't understand what important words in that text mean. That's gonna make the text not meaningful. It's not gonna be that joyful experience that we expect an interactive read aloud to be for our youngest learners.
[00:06:53] Olivia: Yeah, so what are the different types of vocabulary knowledge? I think this will be so important for listeners to hear and understand.
[00:07:03] Tanya: So most importantly, often we have an informal explanation or definition of a word. It's not that dictionary definition. If I said to you, you know, what's precipitation? You're not gonna rattle off a dictionary definition. You're gonna say things like rain and snow and sleet and hail, or you know, water falling from the sky.
[00:07:20] Tanya: Right?
[00:7:20] Olivia: Right.
[00:07:21] Tanya: But that's not what the dictionary's gonna say. So mostly, we're all functioning with these kind of much more informal definitions. But also, we know other things, right? We know synonyms and antonyms for words. We know categorical information. Right? We know that peaches and apples are both fruit. We have multiple meanings of words in different contexts.
[00:07:42] Tanya: An example I love is, you know, bark - a dog barks or bark on a tree, right? Totally different meanings of the same word. Uh, we know word parts and what those mean, and that can help us a lot. We know formal compared to informal usages of words, so: What is a cow? compared to Don't have a cow! Right?
[00:08:02] Olivia: Ah, yes!
[00:08:02] Tanya: Um, We know slight differences or nuances in meaning, like glad means something a little different to happy means something a little different to exuberant, right?
[00:08:13] Olivia: Yes!
[00:08:13] Tanya: We know how words are pronounced (phonological knowledge). We know how words are spelled (orthographic knowledge). We know discipline-specific meanings of words, so we know the word plot in math is telling us to put a dot on a graphic. But the word plot in history is probably to overthrow a government, and plot in literature is the story.
[00:08:33] Tanya: Right?
[00:08:34] Olivia: Yes!
[00:08:34] Tanya: Um, so, and then we also know how to use the word’s syntax or the grammar, the usage of the word. So, so we know a lot of information, uh, when we really know a word in a way that we can use it as a speaker or a writer.
[00:08:49] Olivia: That was incredible! I love all of your examples as well. So, when we're learning new words, I really would love for listeners to understand what active processing is because I think that that will help us as adults also in our acquisition of vocabulary.
[00:09:06] Tanya: So that's definitely not my term in any way. So other scholars, uh, invented that term or created that term. But it's really the idea that when we're learning a new word and we wanna retain it, it's helpful to actively think about how that word is used or compare and contrast that word to other words. To try using it as a speaker or a writer, right?
[00:09:31] Tanya: Everything we're doing actively with that word is gonna help us retain it and make some of those connections to the different types of knowledge we have about vocabulary words. And I just rattled off a lot of different types of knowledge we have about words. No one expects that kids gain all of that in the first encounter.
[00:09:49] Tanya: It's just that over time we're gonna build that for kids. And if it's a particularly important word because we need it to understand a text we're reading in school, or we need it to engage in content area learning, then we're gonna make an extra effort to make sure that kids get a bunch of that active processing and a bunch of the different types of vocabulary knowledge so that they're likely to be able to use it, um, more quickly as part of their work in the classroom and as a learner or as a reader and writer.
[00:10:21] Olivia: Something I, again, love about the structure of the book. You speak to vocabulary development through read aloud, vocabulary development across content areas, and vocabulary development within writing. And so, it goes across the day literally. Let's just focus on read aloud for a bit.
[00:10:39] Olivia: A quote directly from your book, “In order to create opportunities for young children to learn new words, we need to build their knowledge of the world and make sure that they're learning new things.”
[00:10:49] Olivia: I think of children, especially in kindergarten and first and second grade, even third grade, that may be striving readers, and so decoding may be a struggle for them, or they're just cracking the code at that point. Where read aloud is such a gorgeous opportunity to steep children in texts and the world because the adult is doing the reading, and they are sharing in the processing and the thinking of the content. Um, so can you say more about how read aloud can support language development for children that young?
[00:11:26] Tanya: Yeah, so one of the things is that the texts the kids are gonna be reading independently at such a young age, those actually, purposefully, typically, control the vocabulary to be words that kids are likely to know, so that when they decode a word, they can say, Yeah, I know what that one is. Uh, I'm doing this!
[00:11:45] Tanya: But that means that there's typically not a lot of new and interesting vocabulary that they don't know because then they couldn't have that aha experience. Right? Um, so read alouds, fill that in, read alouds, give us the opportunity to expose kids to wonderful new words and ideas, information, and stories that they aren't yet able to access through their independent reading.
[00:12:15] Tanya: Uh, so what we wanna see happening is teachers selecting books with wonderful new words that kids probably don't know yet. Making sure to explain those words during the read aloud using child-friendly explanations, so explanations in words kids already know or in actions or gestures, or images that can help kids to comprehend the text. But then also revisiting some of those words that are particularly important or useful broadly, or for the content area learning that's going on.
[00:12:46] Tanya: And revisiting those after the read aloud to do some more active processing so that we can help kids to learn more about those new words and retain some information about the words.
[00:12:56] Olivia: You give specific types of words that are important to explain if it's under the literature umbrella or within informational text. Could you share those types of words with listeners? I think it will be helpful.
[00:13:10] Tanya: Yeah, so across both types of texts, the words that are gonna be most important are the words, uh - this sounds funny - but the words that are most important for comprehending that text. So for literature, if they're words that are very important for the plot and we think kids maybe don't know, that's a great word to explain.
[00:13:26] Tanya: For informational text, if it's very important to key information that we want kids to take from that text, those are important words. So always, if it's important and you're gonna need it to understand, and we even remotely think that there might be a few kids who don't maybe know what it means, it's worth explaining to support comprehension. Beyond that, um, if we think about literature and informational text, they're structured differently, right?
[00:13:50] Tanya: So literature often have these very interesting words that kids may have not encountered before, but they only come up maybe once in a text. So, they're often pretty complex words for ideas kids already know. So, the text might say humorous instead of funny. Kids know what funny means, but they don't know what humorous means. So, we need to find those opportunities to support kids in learning some of these new or more complex or more nuanced words for ideas they already know.
[00:14:18] Olivia: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:19] Tanya: Those words typically only happen once in the text, so we have to look for them.
[00:14:22] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:14:23] Tanya: In informational text, we often see these very complex words that represent new ideas for kids, right? New concepts for kids. So, this is really challenging. They also come up again and again and again. So, on a book on plants, we might see photosynthesis again and again and again.
[00:14:39] Tanya: So, you can imagine that if we don't support kids in learning something about the word and the concept, that could be really challenging to understanding the text more broadly. So, in informational texts, we're often looking for these new word/new concept words that show up quite a lot, and we wanna make sure that kids are learning enough about them, including through experiences beyond the text, to really build these conceptual ideas and connect them to the vocabulary word.
[00:15:06] Olivia: Yeah, and I think too, when I first began teaching, I started in San Diego and I was in a school where almost every child in the class was bilingual and they spoke a variety of languages. I continue to think of how critical our read alouds were.
[00:15:23] Tanya: So, what you were just saying about our multilingual learners, which is children typically know a lot of words; they just don't know them in English yet. So, in that case, they often do have a word to say the idea they wanna say, right? They just don't yet have the English word. And again, you know, if you put yourself in the experience of having gone someplace where someone speaks a different language, it's not that you don't have the word for the thing you wanna say, it's that you don't have the word that everybody else who speaks that language uses. So, they can't understand you.
[00:15:55] Tanya: So, I think we wanna differentiate between like kids who have a word for something they know how to say it, just not in the language they're learning. And kids who don't have a way to express the ideas cuz they haven't learned those words and concepts yet, so we have to build those a little bit.
[00:16:10] Olivia: Yeah. Could you explain to listeners what the principles of word learning are and how that connects with orthographic mapping as well?
[00:16:19] Tanya: Yeah. So, a couple of important ideas about word learning. Uh, we learn words when they're relevant and useful. So, one of the things we wanna do in our classrooms is make sure that kids feel like the words that they're learning are actually useful, and they're gonna use them as writers and speakers.
[00:16:40] Tanya: But also, when I say we learn words that are relevant, we can't expect that every child has the same set of words when they enter a classroom, right? If in my house we call the thing a couch, I know the word couch. But in your house you call it a sofa, you know the word sofa. So, we might have a different set of words for the same things. So, we can't expect everyone knows the same words, but also we wanna help kids see the words that they are learning as really useful.
[00:17:07] Tanya: We need repeated exposure to words in meaningful contexts. So, we don't typically learn all of the information we need to learn about a word the very first time we encounter it. We also don't learn a lot of new information about a word if nobody gives us information about what it means.
[00:17:23] Olivia: Yes.
[00:17:23] Tanya: So, we can support kids in that way by giving child-friendly explanations, but also images, pictures, graphics, connecting it to experiences in content area learning all of that helps kids to learn words.
[00:17:37] Tanya: Also, active processing, which we've already talked about. Right? So really having the opportunity to think about how words are used to try using them in a meaningful way.
[00:17:48] Olivia: Yeah. And I know right now in education, there's a lot of conversation around decoding and orthographic mapping, and it's not new, but would you help listeners understand what orthographic mapping is and why meaning of the word is vital to that triangle or that visual?
[00:18:11] Tanya: Yeah. So, when we think about orthographic mapping, we're really thinking about those letter-sound, phoneme/grapheme (right?) connections and how practice with that really helps our brains to connect spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of words in a way that becomes automatic over time and over practice in doing that again and again.
[00:18:37] Tanya: So, of course, that's critical because that's what we need to do to become fluent readers. But one of the things I just said was connecting to the meaning of words. So, if we don't know the meaning of a word, um, and we're just saying the sounds. Then we can't fully make that connection. So, what's imperative here is that kids are getting lots of practice connecting letters and sounds and decoding words, but also that they're building lots of vocabulary so that when they do decode a word, they know what it means.
[00:19:12] Tanya: And again, I'm gonna make that connection to some of us who have learned to read in a foreign language, right? And sometimes you can say the words, and you can even pronounce the words, but you don't actually know what it means. That's not gonna be very helpful, and that actually is missing a part of orthographic mapping, which is the meaning connection.
[00:19:37] Tanya: So, for me, what that means for our youngest kids is as they're learning to decode and as they're becoming fluent readers, we also need to be building vocabulary in other ways so that when they are able to fluently decode words, they know what they mean and text is meaningful, and they can comprehend text.
[00:19:56] Olivia: One of the chapters that really resonates with me because there's not enough instruction time in the day dedicated to social sciences, to inquiry, and really unpacking content with children in a myriad of ways. Two quotes actually on page 55 really struck me. “We learn new words when we learn new things.”
[00:20:21] Olivia: And then read on a smidge. “…and when words are tied to concepts children are learning and experiences they are having, children are much more likely to remember them.”
[00:20:33] Olivia: So, let's jump into that chapter then. How and why should we teach vocabulary within new content for children?
[00:20:41] Tanya: Like you said, this is one of my favorite things to say is: We learn new words when we learn new things. And even as adults, we continue to learn new words when we learn new things, right? If I become a runner, I'm gonna have to think about what a split is for running, right?
[00:20:54] Olivia: Right.
[00:20:54] Tanya: Um, if I become a gardener, I'm gonna learn the word hydrangea and shears and that an annual is a type of plant, right?
[00:21:02] Olivia: Yes.
[00:21:02] Tanya: So, throughout our lives, when we learn new things, we learn the words associated with that body of knowledge, and that includes in school, right? So, when kids are, you know, engaging in a unit of science instruction focused on weather forecasting, they're gonna learn all sorts of new words like forecasting, right?
[00:21:21] Tanya: And maybe the types of clouds in the sky that might predict different types of weather. And what's really helpful is then they have a lot of conceptual understanding. They're figuring out new things about the word, and then we're giving them a label to name that and to hook a lot of that conceptual understanding to the label.
[00:21:38] Tanya: So, content area learning is a wonderful opportunity for kids to learn vocabulary. And in fact, when we eliminate content area learning in the name of supporting reading, we are really eliminating opportunities to support kids' literacy development.
[00:21:53] Olivia: It's devastating.
[00:21:54] Tanya: It's very problematic, right? Kids need to build knowledge about the world and associated vocabulary that's gonna actually help them as readers in the long term.
[00:22:03] Tanya: We should have content area learning, otherwise, we're missing opportunities to support vocabulary. Once we're having it. We should be thinking carefully about the vocabulary that kids are gonna need, the language kids are gonna need to be able to express their ideas and share their thinking about whatever it is we're learning.
[00:22:21] Tanya: And I really like to think about it that way. Um, let's help kids to share their thinking, to share their ideas, to have discussions by giving them the vocabulary that they're gonna need to share what they're figuring out.
[00:22:34] Olivia: And I think so often of my work with kindergarten through third grade teachers, but even K-5. The day feels like these silos, these chunks of time, and yet, what you speak to in the book and your research directly supports is it doesn't have to feel that way. If we really consider maybe beginning with our content area studies and then ask ourselves, what's the reading work children will be doing to discover and unpack that content?
[00:23:06] Olivia: If they're working in decodables and just cracking the code, what content am I going to have to build through read aloud, perhaps? And then what's the writing going to look like? How are they going to use this vocabulary? Maybe not spelling it perfectly, right? But how are they going to experiment and play with conveying what they are learning through the written form?
[00:23:28] Olivia: And I think it's bananas that when we're designing curricula, that reading and writing, and content are not completely intertwined for learners. So I think your book highlights why that needs to be.
[00:23:42] Tanya: Yeah. And in my work, which is mostly in science instruction, um, and developing curricula for science instruction, that's really what we try to do. We think, what are the sort of naturally occurring opportunities? If we're gonna make an observation and we're drawing and writing about an observation outdoors of something that's going on in the natural world, well, we are now writing, right?
[00:24:04] Tanya: Or if we're gonna have a discussion about what we just observed outside, we're using our vocabulary. We're speaking and listening. We're meeting speaking in listening standards right there. So, there are lots of opportunities when we're engaging kids in content area learning to be also engaging in literacy.
[00:24:20] Tanya: So we shouldn't think about it as this siloed either-or we should really think about it as double dipping, right?
[00:24:28] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:24:28] Tanya: We are actually getting more literacy opportunities when kids are engaging in science, social studies, the arts, physical activities, right? All are ways to promote more literacy.
[00:24:41] Olivia: And I wanted to pick your brain about something that I know has come up for many, many years in working with teachers. What are your thoughts around pre-teaching or previewing vocabulary before you jump into the content versus having it intentionally explained as the text or content is being, um, studied?
[00:25:02] Tanya: It's a super good question and there's not one answer for all situations. So, I'm gonna just dig into it. Bear with me a minute.
[00:25:11] Olivia: Okay!
[00: 25:11] Tanya: So, if kids are gonna be reading a text independently, we're maybe having a small group of kids who are all reading the text. We know what text they're gonna read, and they're gonna read it independently.
[00:25:25] Tanya: It is helpful to preview tricky words that will be in there when they go off to do that thing independently. Seeing the spelling of the words, knowing the pronunciation, and having some meaning information is really gonna support their comprehension. So, in that particular case, previewing words, there's a ton of evidence that it supports comprehension of a particular text.
[00:25:47] Tanya: I'm not previewing a whole unit. I'm not previewing a read aloud. I'm previewing texts that kids are gonna work through independently that may be particularly challenging.
[00:25:59] Olivia: Okay.
[00:25:59] Tanya: In almost every other case, it's not gonna be that helpful because we learn vocabulary and meaningful contexts. So if I, out of context, make you memorize all the words that are gonna come up for an entire unit where you have no conceptual understanding to hook those words to, it's very unlikely you're gonna retain anything at all that is useful.
[00:26:20] Tanya: As you start to develop the ideas and concepts for a unit, and you've noticed something that's there or something going on, or I'm gonna hand you a new tool you've never used before, that's a great time and it's very meaningful to supply the word, right? So, we're gonna get out a thermometer, and I'm gonna tell you it's a thermometer.
[00:26:39] Tanya: Um, and we're gonna talk about what that tool is and what it does. If I have told you about it three weeks ago and stuck it on a word wall, it wouldn't be helpful, and you wouldn't be very likely to retain it. The same is true with an interactive read aloud.
[00:26:51] Tanya: Teacher's right there so you can explain the meaning of the word in the meaningful context, right when it comes up in the story or in the informational text. So, there's not so much reason to preview a word unless it feels like it's such a complex idea that it's gonna be confusing or derail the read to do it in an interactive read aloud.
[00:27:14] Tanya: It's a little bit complicated, but overall, I would vote not to ever preview all the words for a unit, uh, if you're gonna be doing a sustained unit of study. But rather to add words as they are encountered in the meaningful context.
[00:27:30] Olivia: Experiencing this as an adult. I know we're speaking to children right now, but over the past couple of years, I'm working with a school district in particular that has other consultants also working with the district. And every time I would sit with different teachers that are experiencing the professional learning, we would try to sift and sort what particular terms meant to us every single time.
[00:27:56] Olivia: And we each were leaving with different slight definitions. And the most wonderful experience we had was when one of the facilitators ended up having us do a concept map. So, we received the vocabulary words on little pieces of paper. We got together in groups and we had to physically connect and move the words around.
[00:28:19] Olivia: We could even move off of the tabletop if we wanted. But how did we represent the flow and the connections between the terms? And then we walked around. And again, it was so interesting. But I've found over the year or so that we've been collaborating and studying together. We are all getting stronger in our understanding of the vocabulary.
[00:28:42] Olivia: If that would've been pre-taught, I would've cried. It's living it and being steeped in conversation with other adults around it that it now is making more and more and more sense.
[00:28:53] Tanya: I had a similar experience where I tried to learn to sail. I did not end up learning to sail, but they gave us like a list of words of the parts of the boat and all of these do hickeys and ropes and what they were all for, and what the special sailing terms were for them ahead. And we were supposed to kind of enter the class knowing that vocabulary. And it was incredibly challenging because I had never been on a sailboat before.
[00:29:19] Olivia: No!
[00:29:20] Tanya: So, I mean, other than to sit while someone, you know, gave you a ride. So, it was almost impossible. I couldn't help myself to really learn and retain those words, um, until I was, you know, in there. And someone actually showed me while trying to do it, uh, what it was.
[00:29:37] Tanya: And as I was going through it, I was just, you know, oh, I'm like in here feeling like one of the kids in the books I write, you know, and in the classrooms I visit. Um, this is happening to me right now and we don't want children in our classrooms to feel like that. We don't want them to feel like they can't do science because they didn't memorize a bunch of words about science ahead of time.
[00:29:59] Tanya: That should never be, right? We should get to learn and we should build language as we learn new things. That's much more naturalistic and realistic to how we learn in real life.
[00:30:11] Olivia: It is. And if we want to feel like we have autonomy as adults to take risks and to be trusted, then we also have to trust children. If we give them the time and space to study through inquiry and play that the language will become naturally used just through their conversation with other children, which is I think the bee’s knees.
[00:30:35] Olivia: It's the best way for children to learn.
[00:30:38] Tanya: Yeah, and I think that that's how it should feel to kids, but how it should feel to teachers is we're very intentional about knowing when those moments are going to be planned. Where is the right time to bring in new vocabulary? So, it's not at the beginning of the unit, but when am I teaching about this?
[00:30:57] Tanya: When are kids likely to need this word? Now I'm gonna be very explicit about making sure that they get to learn it so that everybody gets to learn it. Because what we don't want is kids who already know particular vocabulary to feel like they can be the ones who can share ideas in a classroom or express themselves, and other children are silenced because we didn't take the time to explicitly teach the vocabulary that they're gonna need to be able to share their thinking.
[00:31:27] Tanya: So we want kids to feel like they're playing and they're exploring and they're investigating. And what we wanna do as teachers with vocabulary is think very carefully and plan about where the moments are, where we can support their language development as part of that.
[00:31:44] Olivia: This sounds also like really good work to do with teams as thought partners because it's not something that you want to think through by yourself necessarily, especially if it's across content areas across the day. So it seems like this could be brilliant curricula planning work with team members.
[00:32:03] Tanya: I think that that's always what I recommend is that pick one unit, in one content area, um, and go through a process, right? What are kids supposed to be learning, right? That might come from content area standards or curriculum materials. What are the texts that may need to be supplemented here to make sure that they're also getting interactive read alouds that build on learning and explorations they do in their classrooms?
[00:32:34] Tanya: What are the vocabulary that are in those texts or that support the learning that need to happen? Let's figure out what are the words we're gonna help kids learn. And then where? Where in the lessons do we add interactive read alouds? Where in the lessons are the right time to support vocabulary? Where are we gonna make sure that every child gets the opportunity to learn the words that they're gonna need associated with the new content that is being learned?
[00:33:02] Olivia: And I heard you just say that we're thinking of a variety of texts. And I think it's important to note that text sets can only enrich the vocabulary understanding under umbrella topics. Could you define what a text set is?
[00:33:20] Tanya: Yeah, and sometimes it's easier to define what a text set is by what a text set is not.
[00:33:25] Olivia: Go for it.
[00:33:25] Tanya: So what a text set is not is we're studying informational texts this month and on Monday we're gonna read about the sun. And on Tuesday we're gonna read about trees. And on Wednesday we're gonna read about birds. And on Thursday, we're gonna read about farm animals, but not a text set.
[00:33:39] Tanya: There's nothing that connects those texts to each other other than that, they are the same genre maybe of text. That's not really how we use informational text. In real life, typically, we have something we wanna figure out or understand, and we read a variety of sources to help us understand whatever it is that we're hoping to learn.
[00:33:57] Tanya: So, a text set is that, um, we have something we want kids to figure out, and we select a variety of texts that will support kids in their understanding of whatever the topic or idea is that we want them to learn. What's wonderful when you bring in a bunch of texts or sources on a topic is that as we continue to read the same or similar ideas, or more nuanced versions of the same ideas will come up again and again.
[00:34:29] Tanya: And the same thing with the same vocabulary, right? Usually, if we're reading on a particular topic in a content area or sub-specialty in a content area, a similar set of words will come up across the text. So, it's sort of this natural reinforcing and building of ideas. And over time, we understand more and more.
[00:34:48] Tanya: So many of us have had that experience. Maybe you took a college class on something new, and the first text the professor handed you to read made absolutely no sense and seemed so hard, and then you kept reading throughout the semester, and by the end of the semester, the ideas felt like they came together.
[00:35:04] Tanya: And if you went back to that first text, it would make complete sense to you. That's what text sets do for us. They let us deepen our knowledge and reinforce vocabulary, you know, over time.
[00:35:14] Olivia: Do you have any favorite publishing companies that develop text sets, especially when it comes to science or nonfiction for teachers?
[00:35:22] Tanya: My biggest recommendation is that teachers work as a team to identify a set of texts that are relevant to the unit that they are going to teach. And I will say that sometimes can be challenging cause we typically want texts to build on the explorations that kids are doing in a classroom, not to replace them.
[00:35:46] Tanya: So, um, sometimes, if we are growing one type of plant in our classroom, we might want to read a book about other types of plants that grow in other habitats, right? To enhance what we can learn in our classroom, but not replace it for kids. We still want them to have those opportunities to explore what they can in their classroom, in their home, and in their community.
[00:36:06] Olivia: Um, I can picture, uh, K.C. Boyd's face right now, shaking her head at me like this. My head is bowed, my eyes are closed. She's the School Library Journal winner - a certified librarian -last year, and she would say to me: Livi, come on, man! Our librarians are a beautiful resource for this work too. So we don't need a publishing company.
[00:36:29] Olivia: We have amazing humans in our schools that are vast resources. So forgive me, K.C., wherever you are in Washington, D.C., right now. Um, I should have thought of that first, right? So,
[00:36:41] Tanya: Also, there are wonderful lists, right? So like the National Science Teachers Association does a list each year of wonderful texts that they think would be useful. The various librarian’s organizations, right? There are experts who are helping us with this, um, when it comes to existing trade books.
[00:37:00] Olivia: Yeah. And I know we want to make sure that we are intentional with our planning. I also think it's important to have an assessment of some sort around children's vocabulary. What are children getting? What do they need next? So what do you recommend for assessment when it comes to children's vocabulary development and learning?
[00:37:20] Tanya: So, vocabulary assessment is actually a really tricky space because, again, those things that we typically do, we just match a definition to a word, are not really giving us a lot of information about If kids can use those words as readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and learners, which is what we really wanna figure out.
[00:37:40] Tanya: So, the best way that I know how to do this in the day-to-day of school is really observational checklists. So, we have the words that we think kids need to know for a unit down one side of the list. We have the names of the kids in the class and the other side of the list.
[00:37:59] Tanya: And we're looking for kids to use those words as speakers or as writers in the discussions of the classrooms when they're sharing their ideas, and we're looking for patterns, right? If we have a child and we never have any observations of that child using a word, that's a child that we need to check in with. Maybe they just are not choosing to participate overtly in some of the big group conversations, and a small group chat will help us to know that, in fact, that child has been learning the words.
[00:38:24] Tanya: Or maybe we need to do some more support. Similarly, we're looking at patterns with the words, right? If we have a word that we never hear anyone using, we never see anyone trying; we never see a kid trying to tuck it into their writing, even though they're writing just about exactly that topic or piece of information.
[00:38:42] Tanya: Maybe that's a word we need to bring back and do a little more active processing with the kids in the class.
[00:38:47] Olivia: Yeah. I love the idea of the observation checklist because it opens it up to really pausing and taking the time to see what's going on in the classroom and being present. And I don't think we give ourselves that grace enough to just pause and see how kids are taking on the vocabulary. I want to shift and think about why word choice is critical when it comes to writing for our children.
[00:39:15] Olivia: And then I'd also love for you to speak to how we can encourage spelling and meaning approximations when children are learning new vocabulary.
[00:39:24] Tanya: So anyone who's ever tried to write anything really knows that the words we choose are the most important to convey our ideas to somebody else, right?
[00:39:33] Olivia: Yes.
[00:39:33] Tanya: We really want 'em to understand what we're thinking or what we're trying to say. Um, word choice matters a lot, and the nuances of word choice really can help to convey an idea.
[00:39:43] Tanya: Or not, right? Convey some different idea. So that's critical as writers, and I think anyone who's doing writing instruction with kids is gonna hit on word choice as part of that. What we want to encourage for our youngest writers is that they're willing to try to write down some of the big words that they know in their oral vocabulary.
[00:40:03] Tanya: Right? So, uh, we don't want them to write simpler words because we've insisted on perfect spelling. We want them to try to get their ideas down. We want them to try to, you know, sound out and represent any word that they wanna say. It turns out this is good for writing and conveying ideas. This is actually really also very good for reinforcing those letter-sound connections as kids have to, you know, segment a word and represent each sound.
[00:40:32] Tanya: So, this is a good thing for vocabulary. This is a good thing to support kids’ decoding and spelling as well. We want our kids to take risks, to use all the words that they know orally as writers. The way to do that is to tell them, spell it the best you can for now. And we can always go back at a later stage with an editing checklist and make sure that for letters and sounds, we have learned, kids are in fact representing those, uh, correctly and spelling.
[00:41:01] Tanya: But that's for later. Get the ideas down first. Use all the words.
[00:41:05] Olivia: Use all the words. All the words.
[00:41:07] Olivia: And with that said, I'd love to know what are some of your favorite, most effective vocabulary strategies. First, you obviously have to know you don't know, right? So pause there. And once you know, when you don't understand, where do we go from there?
[00:41:28] Tanya: Yeah. So, we've talked a lot about the ways that teachers can be supportive in opening that vocabulary gate for kids so that they can comprehend tests and so that they can write anything they wanna write. Teachers are helping with these child-friendly explanations and with supporting active processing.
[00:41:43] Tanya: Okay, but teachers are not always there. Uh, our hope is that our kids are independent readers and are reading texts when we're not around. And when they're doing that, they're gonna encounter some words that they don't know the meaning of. And we want them to have some strategies to try.
[00:41:58] Tanya: In the same way as when they get to a word that they don't know automatically how to pronounce, we want them to have decoding strategies, right? The same way that if they get stuck in their comprehension, we want them to have comprehension strategies. We also want them to have vocabulary strategies, so ways to help themselves when they get to this tricky word that they don't know what it means.
[00:42:18] Tanya: So I think yes, one is monitoring and knowing that not knowing what a word means is, in fact, causing some confusion. We want to teach kids to use the context around the word to try to figure out some meaning of the word. Like all strategies, that's gonna work in some situations where there is a lot of supportive information, but sometimes it will not work at all.
[00:42:39] Tanya: Sometimes the context gives us no information that's helpful about a word, but that's one thing to try, right? Like all strategies, we wanna be strategic, not use a particular strategy. Another thing we want kids to try and we can support kids with is looking for meaningful parts within a word that they might already know or connects with a word that they already know.
[00:42:59] Tanya: So if they know what a tricycle is, they might be able to figure out something about a tripod. So that can help kids a lot. It's also completely okay to call a lifeline, right? Ask a friend. If you're reading digitally, click on the word because a little bit of dictionary information or a gloss. [glossary] will show up, and that might be enough information to help you comprehend right there.
[00:43:24] Tanya: It is totally okay in that situation to go look it up in the dictionary and see if there's enough information that can help you to comprehend. That's not, look it up in the dictionary as the prime way of vocabulary learning. That's to help yourself comprehend in a tricky situation. So all of those are things we want to help kids learn to do and to be able to use flexibly as needed in different situations where they don't know the meaning of a word.
[00:43:48] Olivia: Yeah, I continue to think of the importance of this work, and your book came out in 2021, and it is needed now, I think, more than ever. In 2021, we were living in a digital world. We were all home, and now we're back in classrooms. Thank goodness, I will say. But it's still so hard. I feel like it's a different world of teaching, even though we're back in person, and time feels shorter than ever.
[00:44:18] Olivia: I don't know why. It just does. So what do you see as our call to action moving forward when it comes to ensuring that vocabulary development is really a beautiful strand or a thread throughout the day for our children?
[00:44:36] Tanya: So I'll repeat what you just said. The first one is, throughout the day, we just can't support kids in learning enough vocabulary if we do, you know, three words a day or something like that. We really need to think about this as something that happens across everything kids are doing. And that's gonna be how we get a lot of words.
[00:44:59] Tanya: So every time we read a text, what are some words that we can learn? Every time we learn something new, what are the words associated with that? If we're doing that all the time across the things that are already happening in the classroom, kids are gonna learn a lot of vocabulary, and that's wonderful.
[00:45:15] Tanya: So we don't need to think about this as like, I need an extra half an hour to dedicate just a vocabulary. What we need is to embed this across the day on a regular basis so that over time kids are getting everything that they need. So I think that's one thing. The other thing is, I really view supporting vocabulary as a way to support equitable learning opportunities in the classroom.
[00:45:40] Tanya: That is really critical and that is our charge. We do not want kids to feel excluded from the learning of the classroom or from participating in the classroom because they don't know the meaning of a word that someone says or is in a text, or they don't quite know what to say or they feel like they can't participate.
[00:46:00] Tanya: Any of that, to me, is just not okay. So I really view this as a critical step to supporting participation in reading and writing, speaking, listening, and learning for all children in the classroom.
[00:46:14] Olivia: Yeah. I cannot Thank you enough for your brilliant research. And I think it's needed everywhere. I was sharing before we jumped into recording that I've used your book so many times with coaches, with teachers, and what we appreciate the most is you are such a grounding force in helping us clearly state what we believe to be true about vocabulary instruction and development with children.
[00:46:45] Olivia: What practices we want to see in classrooms and live, and you've got our back with all of the research that you continue to do. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm grateful for your time today.
[00:46:59] Tanya: Thank you so much. And also, it's not all my research. A lot of it is me summarizing wonderful work by other colleagues and scholars in our field over many years. But I do hope that we can take ideas we've learned from research and really turn them into practical things we can do on Monday morning in our classrooms to support all of our wonderful kiddos.
[00:47:21] Tanya: That's my intent with the book, so thank you for having me.
[00:47:24] Olivia: Absolutely. Take care.