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ROBUST Vocabulary
Instruction
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., Kucan, L.
Chapter 1: Rationale
• 30 million word gap between children from different socio-economic groups.
• Offers a three tier framework:
-Tier 1: Everyday words most commonly heard in speech, e.g. ‘but’, ‘door’, ‘open’, etc.
-Tier 2: More complex/sophisticated words found in books, but not ordinary speech, e.g. ‘retrospect’,
‘ostensibly’, etc.
-Tier 3: Subject specific vocabulary with precise usage, e.g. ‘photosynthesis’, ‘oxymoron’.
• We can learn new vocabulary from contexts. Offers four different contexts: misdirective, non-
directive, general, directive. (see next slide for diagram)
• Learning new vocabulary happens in stages: no knowledge, having a general sense of the word’s
meaning, having narrow, context-bound knowledge of the word’s usage, and rich,
decontextualised knowledge of the word’s meaning and it’s relationship to other words, and its
extension to metaphorical uses.
• Want to encourage curiosity with vocabulary- want pupils to have an appetite for new words, and
to feel as if they ‘own’ them when they do learn them, i.e. they feel confident using them in other
contexts.
• Word Wizard strategy: When a child learns a new word they are given it on a card. Carry it around
in a wizards hat. If a teacher sees the child, chooses a word from the hat and asks kid to explain
meaning. Can we use vocabulary books to do this in a more secondary friendly way? Lunchtime
discussion? See notes on chapter 3 for ways to allow pupils to practice using vocabulary.
• The greater the amount of semantic connections in a person’s network, the more rich and flexible
their understanding. Similar to idea of knowledge schema.
Chapter 1 appendix: Learning new
vocabulary in context
Context Meaning Example
Misdirective Incorrect understanding of word formed through a bad ‘The concert was dire’. Might
guess. guess that dire= good. Therefore,
the concert was good.
Non-directive Cannot infer exact meaning as context could suppose a ‘He heard the lumbering
number of different meanings. Usually leads to footsteps’ Could mean any
omission of word. number of things: light footsteps,
heavy, loud, etc.
General Get a sense of the general category to which a word “He enjoyed parties and was
belongs, but may not be able to reapply it accurately. gregarious” – word to describe a
person who enjoys parties. Still
unsure of precise meaning.
Directive Learn meaning thanks to clues in the description and “As the noise and confusion
a definitional phrase that uses language already known mounted, Mother shouted
to the reader. ‘What’s the commotion?’”- ‘noise
and confusion’ is a definitional
phrase to describe ‘commotion’
leading to accurate understanding
of word.
Chapter 2: Choosing words to teach
1. How generally useful is the word? Is it likely to be reused
often? Is it useful for describing pupils’ own experiences?
2. How does it relate to other words? Does it offer a more
nuanced or precise way of expressing oneself? E.g.
instead of ‘silly’ say ‘absurd’.
3. Will the word help to enrich a pupils’ understanding of
literature? What role does the word play in
communicating the meaning of the context in which it is
used?