Teaching+Vocabulary

//This page contains tips (with examples) for teaching vocabulary. user:chericem1//

=**Key Concepts & Principles**=

Move from TEACHER-CENTERED to STUDENT-CENTERED

Move from Content --> Context --> Cultural Authenticity --> Communication

The goal is to help students develop their own associative, semantic webs of meaning and internalize them through personal embodied, experiences with the words.

=What might this look like in practice?=

related to one another in any way
 * **WHAT? (Strategies)** || **HOW?** || **Movement from Focus on Form & Content to Focus on Meaning & Communication** || **(Classroom Applications: As you consider the examples, note the progression from Content to Context to Cultural Authenticity to Communication)** || **WHY? (Why it works?**) ||
 * **Objects** || Play Food || Content || Categorize: Fruits Meats Vegetables ||  ||
 * || Children's Book || Context || Dinosaur Book: Carnivores Herbivores Omnivores ||  ||
 * || Slides || Cultural Authenticity || Use foods from the target culture that are appropriate to the context ||  ||
 * || Mixer || Communication || How might the students USE the objects to help them communicate in meaningful ways in the target language? ||  ||
 * **Pictures** || Drawings or Photos || Content || **//El alfabeto://** Pictures correspond to lists of words that are not


 * //El abecedario sabroso://** Pictures correspond to lists of words that are all about the same topic


 * //Rain Forest Calendar://** All pictures depict animals and foliage from rain forests around the world (but the pictures are not from the target culture and there is no context other than the topic that gives them meaning) || Makes unfamiliar or abstract ideas and concepts more familiar and concrete. ||
 * || Comics

Children's Literature || Context || //**[|Comics & Conversation:]**// Pictures are connected by the context of a sequence of events


 * //[|Salta, ranita, salta!:]//** Pictures are embedded in the context of a story ||  ||
 * || Children's Literature || Cultural Authenticity || //**[|Pablo Recuerda:]**// Culturally authentic pictures in a culturally authentic context ||  ||
 * || Children's Literature

Clone Stories || Communication || **//El pez rojo y el pez amarillo://** Someone reads the story aloud. Each time the narrator comes to a picture, the students in the class supply the vocabulary word.

//**[|If You Give a Mouse a Cookie]****:**//

1) Teacher presents vocabulary with pictures

2) Students put pictures in the order that each event happens as teacher reads story.

3) Teacher re-reads story, showing students the pictures this time, and students check their work

4) Students practice retelling the story to a partner in the target language using a simple formula that the teacher has written on the board: If you give a mouse a ---, he will want a ---.

5) Teacher walks around and assesses students as they retell segments of the story

6) Students write a clone story (If You Give a Teen a Cell Phone. . .) || Moves students through a silent period to receptive language and, eventually, into productive use of the language. ||
 * **Drawing** || Drawing Grids

Stick Figure Stories || Content || **Drawing Grid:** Students are given a grid with a vocabulary word in each box. Students must look up the word and then draw it in the box.


 * Can/Can't Cards:** Teacher shows students stick figures involved in various activities. Students tell what is happening in the pictures using a simple formula that the teacher has written on the board: El pez //puede// (nadar). El pez //no puede// (nadar). || Activates the right hemisphere of the brain, integrating emotional and intellectual functions. Visuals can reduce the cognitive load on the brain, freeing up mental resources for deeper and faster processing (Ainsworth). ||
 * || Children's Literature || Context || **//[|El canto de las palomas]://** Students are given the text from a page of the book and are asked to draw or paint a picture that represents the text. ||  ||
 * || Proverbs || Cultural Authenticity || **//[|Mi primer libro de proverbios:]//** Students are given the text from a page of the book and are asked to draw or paint a picture that represents the text ||  ||
 * || Paired Activity || Communication || **Describe & Draw:** Students form pairs. One student looks at a picture projected on the screen and tries to describe it to their partner in the target language. The other student, whose back is to the screen, must attempt to draw what their partner describes. ||  ||
 * **Acting Out** || Choral Repetition

TPR || Content || Gives students practice with body parts and prepositional phrases


 * Weather TPR:** Gives students practice with weather expressions || Kinesthetic activities activate muscle memory, allowing the learner to physically integrate the experience into themselves ||
 * || Children's Literature

Theater || Context || **//[|Oye al desierto:]//** Students "become" the words in the story. ||  ||
 * ||  || Cultural Authenticity ||   ||   ||
 * || ASL || Communication || Teachers can use ASL signs as the basis for gestures. TPR Storytelling ||  ||
 * **Describing or Explaining** || Info-gap Activity || Content || Select a list of concepts that don't exist in the target culture. ||  ||
 * || Paired Activity, Drawing || Context || **Describe & Draw:** Students form pairs. One student looks at a picture projected on the screen and tries to describe it to their partner in the target language. The other student, whose back is to the screen, must attempt to draw what their partner describes. || We learn best what we explain or teach to others. The focus in this activity is on making meaning. ||
 * || Info-gap Activity || Cultural Authenticity || Select a list of concepts that exist in the target culture, but not in the culture of the U.S. ||  ||
 * ||  || Communication || Students use their circumlocution skills to communicate the concepts to a partner. ||   ||
 * **Contexts** || Concept Maps || Content || **Concept Maps:** Chocolate, Migrant Workers ||  ||
 * || Audacity || Context || //**Corduroy:**// Story Snapshots ||  ||
 * || Real World Photos || Cultural Authenticity || **Baobabs:** Pair text in Ch. 5 of The Little Prince with photos of real baobabs at different stages ||  ||
 * || Children's Literature || Communication || **Froggy Paper Dolls (Idea by Ellen Paquette)**


 * Create Big Books:** || Vygotsky on play, scaffolding, etc. ||
 * **Synonyms/Antonyms** ||  || Content ||   || Aristotle argues that categories can be important tools for helping us to think about the world. Antonyms set boundaries that help students more clearly define the parameters for the meaning of a word. Synonyms build a network of associative connections to the word that later become the connotative associations in the schema. In other words, synonyms and antonyms help students think about words in relation to other words, which builds schema. ||
 * ||  || Context ||   ||   ||
 * ||  || Cultural Authenticity ||   ||   ||
 * ||  || Communication ||   ||   ||
 * **Cognates** ||  || Content || Students look for cognates in a passage. || Puts the focus on meaning. By bringing the words into relation with things that students already know, students can integrate the words into their vocabularies more quickly. ||
 * || Children's Literature, Newspapers || Context || **//[|Le géant de Zeralda] (Idea by Richard Ladd)//**: Students look for cognates in a fake newspaper article written in conjunction with the story. ||  ||
 * ||  || Cultural Authenticity || Students consider dishes that are common in French-speaking countries and select + or - adjectives from a Venn diagram to express their opinions about the dishes. ||   ||
 * ||  || Communication ||   ||   ||
 * **Compound Words** ||  ||   || [|Teaching Compound Words Worksheet] ||   ||
 * **Comparisons** || Worksheet || Conten || **Greater Than/Less Than Numbers Worksheet:** Forces students to focus on the meaning of the words in relation to one another || Understanding is the result of seeing patterns and relations between concepts, ideas, and words. (Dewey, Eisner) ||
 * || Venn Diagram || Context || **Mi vida escolar** (Idea by Bill Heller):** Students work together in pairs to read a list of events in the target language, determine whether they occur in American schools, target language schools, or both, and then place them in the appropriate place on a Venn diagram. ||  ||
 * ||  || Cultural Authenticity ||   ||   ||
 * ||  || Communication || Paired Work ||   ||

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