Part 2: My Messy Vocabulary System

By: Summer Garris

If you did not read yesterday’s post, please click here to read Part 1 of Summer’s blog. 

What It Looks Like: It’s Messy

A typical week goes something like this:

Friday: After a quiz on vocabulary words (from the previous week), students individually write at least one new word on a piece of chart paper hung on one wall in the classroom. It cannot be a word that is already written on the chart, so students must cross reference their own word lists with the list on the paper.

New words for the week are collected on chart paper.

Monday: Students decide on master list of words. A student “leader” goes to the chart paper, and students discuss, hone and justify the list of words. In doing this, students have conversations about the words. Which words are most useful? Which words sound cool? Which words have we seen other places? Which words come from a portion of the passage that sound profound or important or especially beautiful? In these conversations, students are using the internet to clarify meanings of the words. They talk about roots, prefixes and suffixes. They remember other places and contexts where they’ve heard the words. 

Ultimately, through process of elimination, students settle on a list of ten words. I randomly distribute ten notecards throughout the class. Small groups are assigned one word and given the task of using internet and other resources to find the following information: 1) the pronunciation of the word 2) the part of speech 3) example of the word from original text 4) a sentence with the word used in context 4) any other “fun facts” about the word. 

On one side of the notecard, a member of the small group writes write the word in large, bold print. On the other side of the notecard, they write the definition and other information. Groups present their words to the whole group, and students individually make a collection of notes. Often, if the word is tricky to say aloud, the class will say the word together a few times to “feel it in the mouth” and hear it aloud. Conversations are lively and engaging. Students find associations to help them remember the words. For example, when defining “turgid” (which means swollen), a student associates old celery. “Did you know,” she explains, “you can put celery in iced water, and it will become turgid again?” When defining “peritoneum,” a student quips, “the membrane lining the cavity of the abdomen and covering the abdominal organs.” “Ewww,” another one chimes in, “you mean like a gut sack?” Students scratch “gut sack” into their notes.

The words are pinned on a bulletin board to hang for the rest of the week that has the heading, “Word to Ya.” Some students make their own set of flashcards to study.

Words to on the “Word To Ya” board to hang for the week.

Wednesday: Among other class activities, random students are given the front face of the cards and have to say the word, define the word, and use the word in context. Students don’t know who will receive a card for the impromptu quiz, so all students have to be ready to present said information on all the words. Students correct each other and agree on contextual sentence accuracy. 

Thursday: Students participate in seminar about the passage, often citing passages that contain their new words.

Friday: The words are moved from the “Word to Ya” wall and onto the “Word Wheel.” This is round wheel that can be spun. We spin the wheel and choose three random words from the week’s list of ten. With these three words, students must construct a sentence and define the word. 

Words are chosen randomly for the week’s quiz
on the “Word Wheel.”

Assessment of the “quiz” ensures mastery. The definition must be accurate, though it can be in a student’s own words (“gut sack” counts as a definition). The sentence must be completely accurate, demonstrating the proper part of speech and enough detail to “prove” the definition is understood. Students receive 10 points per word, 5 for the definition and 5 for the sentence. 

When they finish their “quick quiz,” they put new words on the board from the new reading selection.

At the end of each nine week grading period, all of the notecards are stacked. I perform random card “tricks” to select 10 random words from the stack of all the words. 

What I Love about this System:

• It is fun. From the conversations, games, and immersion in the words, students are engaged and often amused. (Who wouldn’t giggle at the concept of a “gut sack” or when a scorned girlfriend describes her ex-boyfriend as an example of an “inimical dastard”?)
• It enhances the other literary experiences happening in the classroom. No longer is vocabulary time a time to move away from other literacy experiences in the classroom. 
• Students hear and speak the words. They consult dictionary pronunciation guides and use the internet to listen to the correct pronunciation of the words.
• It is student driven: students select the words, discuss, argue and define the words. Student learn the words however they see fit (flashcards, word webs, lists, whatever works for them). 
• It’s easy to assess. Flipping through the three word definitions and sentences per week is a breeze. I am no longer taking home multi-paged packets of worksheets and spending my time mentally hearing, “1-A, 2-E, 3-G. . . “ 
• I’m getting to know my students even more. As I read student sentences, I am getting an inside look into their personalities. Their sentences are creative and often witty or figurative. I comment with little notes and share with the class when I see word usage that seems especially profound. This week, I delighted at one music loving student who wrote how the “DJ could ‘posit’ that beat.”
• Students make the words their own. Because they choose the words and create their own sentences, students often have favorites. The words are showing up in their writing and in our class conversations like never before. 
• I’m learning new words, too. So often, I stop during my reading to look up the definition of a word I don’t know. This system with such immersion with the words really makes the words usable. 

My system isn’t neat and tidy, and it’s not quiet. There are moments of intense laughter and cheers and boos. Since students are leading the discussions, it’s never certain where these discussions might go. For my classroom, though, it’s OK to be messy. Messy is fun!

Summer is a High School English teacher in LaRue county and is a NGID Participant. Currently, The Fund is featuring blogs from teachers in the Next Generation Instructional Design network. They will share their journey, their ideas, and their collaborative work related to being in the network and with building units of study with LDC modules embedded.

My Messy Vocabulary System

By: Summer Garris

In the film Most Likely to Succeed, teachers utilize Socratic seminar for deeper learning and comprehension of text. In today's blog post, read about how NGID teacher, Summer Garris, also uses Socratic seminar in her English classroom. Summer shares her vocabulary approach, which she says is "messy," and we appreciate messy because we know authentic learning experiences such as the one Summer describes are the way students experience deeper learning.

I spent years trying to acclimate to a vocabulary system for my students. I tried vocabulary packets with worksheets for students to learn sets of random words by matching them to definitions, working out clues to cross word puzzles, and completing sentences. I tried a variety of graphic organizers, charts, webs and matrices; students connected words to prior knowledge, finding synonyms, antonyms, examples and non-examples. I tried individual word journals; students made independent lists of words replete with contextual information and paraphrased definitions. All of the systems failed me.

My students inevitably became bogged down with packet completion deadlines, bored through “check your work” sessions, and covered in too many copies to organize. I struggled with student accountability and engagement. I found myself spending precious class time, and too much home time, sifting through stacks of papers and worksheets. Students were frustrated, and I was frustrated. What is an antonym of the word “vortices” anyway? None of the systems felt like an embedded part of my literacy instruction. All the systems felt inefficient, and all the systems lacked what I really wanted for my students – not just mastery of a list of random words on a weekly quiz, but ownership of words they could use in their writing and speaking experiences.

It occurred to me one day at home as I cleaned up the remnants of a fun Saturday afternoon with my young children: often good times are pretty messy. In fact, it’s hard to have fun and not make a mess. From this epiphany, I began to hone what I call my messy, but effective embedded vocabulary instruction.

Satisfying Student and Teacher Needs

First, I had to really decide what a good vocabulary system would look like. My vocabulary system had to:

• Give students authentic experiences with the words. Learning the words needed to make sense. The words couldn’t be from a random list. The words had to be necessary from the student perspective.
• Allow students to attach their schema to the new words. Students need opportunities to relate to the words and connect them to concepts they already know. 
• Give students opportunities to speak about and with the words. They need to pronounce the words and recognize them when spoken. 
• Engage students in the learning process and hold them accountable for learning. This means it has to be fun. That’s a tall order when thinking about learning vocabulary words with teenagers. 
• Ensure mastery and ownership of the words. A system must provide assessment data (both formative and summative) to ensure students have learned. It isn’t enough to match words to definitions on a Friday quiz. Students need to use these words on their own and recognize these words when they encountered them in pieces both in and out of class.
• Enhance the other course work, so that any class time spent learning the words is not at the expense of some other important aspect of the course. The vocabulary has to be part of an overall literacy experience, enhanced by and enhancing other literary experiences happening in my classroom. 

Making it Work: The Logistics

Each week, students are assigned a rather dense, rigorous reading piece. Usually, these are 6-7 page essays or excerpts from books. I use and English and Composition textbook and various essays and texts, but any reading assignment will work, as long as it is rigorous and contains elevated vocabulary. Students have the following assignments:

1. Close read the essay and annotate. They are given a set of discussion questions that often include questions on rhetoric and style. As students are collecting notes, they are collecting talking points related to the discussion questions, creating their own questions, and collecting new vocabulary words from the essay. 
2. Prepare for Socratic Seminar. Usually on Thursday, the class will hold a Socratic Seminar about the particular reading selection. To participate in seminar, students must show their annotations and list of words they encountered and defined during their reading. During the text based discussion, students are required to speak and reference text as they engage in conversations about the text. 
3. Write an annotated bibliography entry that rhetorically analyzes the text. They create MLA citations and answer questions about author’s purpose, claim, focus, intended audience, literary devices, diction, and syntax using textual evidence to support their contentions. 

Check back tomorrow for “What It Looks Like” and “What I Love About This System”


Summer is a High School English teacher in LaRue county and is a NGID Participant. Currently, The Fund is featuring blogs from teachers in the Next Generation Instructional Design network. They will share their journey, their ideas, and their collaborative work related to being in the network and with building units of study with LDC modules embedded.