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This month, quite a few of your questions focused on vocabulary for the very young as well as older students! In response to building vocabulary for our little learners, I made an instant connection to my granddaughter, MaKayla, who was 4 when she told her parents she had an epiphany (They should go to McDonald's for dinner!). When she was 5, she told them the flowers were bizarre. In a first grade writing share, students suggested more elaboration and no digressions! This is proof to me that exposing our little ones to big words is both wonderful and necessary if we want to build vocabulary and get them excited about words. Actually to a young child, a word like epiphany is no different than the word idea. I have yet to meet a child who is afraid of big or new words. Usually, they will ask me what that word means which leads to more exposure to the word and an opportunity to make a connection to it. What I think is unfair is for a child to suddenly realize that the world is full of big words and they have been deprived. What do you think?
So, how is vocabulary acquired or how do we build vocabulary no matter the age? Andrew Biemiller cites Susan Carey's "fast-mapping" concept. "Word meaning acquisition is unlikely to occur in the absence of a fairly specific concrete referent clearly associated with a word. The word must be learned in the context of a physical task or in the verbal context of a task described in a verbal narrative . . . Thus both a task (real or verbally described) and the provision of a new word to access the referent in the task appear to be necessary conditions for acquiring (or "mapping") a word meaning. (D. Dickinson & S. Neuman, Handbook of Early Literacy Research, 2006 p 44)
Robert Marzano writes in his book, Building Background Knowledge, "When we hear or read a word, we reference the meaning of the word stored in permanent memory. A word is the label associated with a packet of knowledge stored in permanent memory. For example, when we read or hear the word cat, we reference our stored packet of knowledge regarding cats. Interestingly, no inherent reason explains why a given word relates to a given packet of knowledge. The actual words we know, then, are tags, or labels for our packets of knowledge. Thus it makes intuitive sense that the more words we have, the more packets of knowledge, and hence, the more background knowledge we have. The understanding that a word is the representation for a packet of knowledge enhances our understanding of vocabulary and greatly expands its usefulness. In fact, from this perspective it becomes evident that the traditional conception for vocabulary has been artificially limited in its scope." (Marzano, 2004 p 32-33) I love it when research overlaps! Don't you?
Research in practice: Let's say on a notepage we circle the word effect. Remember, both Biemiller and Marzano tell us to approach vocabulary by using examples or descriptions ( a physical or verbal referent) to define words. That means we no longer define the word for students nor do we ask, "What does the word effect mean?" Instead, we give students a chance to connect to their personal vocabularies. We say, "Your smile has an effect on my attitude. How much effect does your interactive notebook have on your learning? Do good grades have any effect on your life? What does the word effect mean?" (verbal referent)
Now, rather than one definition, each student must come up with their own definition (referent) for the word effect. Responses might be, "Something that happens; a change, influence; result, outcome, impact. Or let's say we circle the word observe. We could ask, "Show me what it looks like when you observe the person sitting next to you." (physical referent) Then ask, "What could we draw to define the word observe? Responses: "Eyes! Binoculars! A magnifying glass!" The research suggests that when a students makes a personal connection to a word, ownership increases; hence, vocabulary increases.
Spending time building students' vocabularies seems (is!) so time-consuming that many times we eliminate the circling of words, or to speed up the process, we circle words and give students our definition of the word. The research cited hopefully has given more clarity and purpose to this very important step in the process.
Will students always have to circle words on every piece of text they read? No, they will move from circling the words on paper to circling the words in their heads. Building our students' vocabulary is a tough job, but it doesn't take long given time and practice. Andrew Biemiller sums if up by writing, ". . . children with small vocabularies do acquire new words during instruction about as well as children with larger vocabularies, suggesting that much of the difference is a matter of opportunity rather than ability." (2006 p 44)
Find out more! Attend one of our institutes! Plan to join in the fun as Rebecca shows you how the strategies can look like playtime in the PK-1st grade classroom! Or join Ginny as she demystifies math with a focus on vocabulary in the math classroom grades 3-12! Or join Amanda for Interactive Reading & Notetaking: The Process and learn the WHYs and HOWs behind the strategies in all content areas or in the reading classroom. Check out our flyer for dates and locations! In the meantime, keep the questions and comments coming . . . and thank you for your support!
Happy New Year to you!
We wish you the most terrific year ever for teaching AND learning!
What's new in 2012 . . .
Science 2011 for grades 4,6,7 have been released! Grade 2 will be ready to go before January 30. Grade 1 before February 28. Our new notepages & teacher guides are based on Virginia's new curriculum framework. Therefore, grades 3,5,8 will not be released until after this year's SOL test. We have been working really hard on making teaching AND learning easier . . . Links have been included to build students' background knowledge and to elicit curiosity and interest. More opportunities for higher level questioning have been added. And based on teacher input, we have included suggestions for scientific investigations that align with what our students have to know!
We really are hoping for a trade-off! We figure if teachers have to spend less time preparing the lesson, more time can be spent prepping for it! That equates to students learning how to learn! WOO HOO! We would love to hear your feedback! Please send comments and any suggestions you may have to IRNcorp1@verizon.net!
Thank you for your emails and phone calls inquiring as to when we plan to host another series of training sessions. With your busy schedule and ours in mind, we plan to resume institute training in June. Rationale: Teachers will still have time to try the process out on their students this year (after SOL testing = less stress!), and during the summer, they can collaborate and plan -- get ready to turn their next group of students into independent learners and readers and thinkers!
We'll be offering training in Blacksburg, Charlottesville, and Richmond. Our original workshop will be offered along with Interactive Reading & Notetaking in math, reading, and the primary classroom (PK to 1st grade). Our flyer will be posting soon on the website and newsletter! With the economy the way it is, budget perks will be offered again along with a discount for early registration!
For those of you who have attended training this year, look for an email inviting you to a follow-up online Q&A session in February. For your convenience, there will be a choice of days and times. This is a chance to ask questions, share insights and revelations, discuss what's working and what's challenging. We offer the follow-up session as another way to support you as you share the strategies with your students. Also know that we can support you via email and phone, too!
Thanks to your comments and suggestions, we are working on a lot of ideas to make teaching AND learning even more effective, efficient, and easier! Thank you, thank you for your support of Interactive Reading & Notetaking! Pass it on!!! :)
Happy Holidays!
We are busy elves here at Interactive Reading & Notetaking! In reflection, it has been a wonderful year of sharing with teachers and students. We look forward to taking even bigger steps forward next year.
Speaking of big steps, a teacher at a recent training session asked why aren't all schools using the Interactive Reading & Notetaking process. After all, based on the evidence we share and based on what teachers and schools share with us about student success (mostly measured by SOL scores), this was a no brainer, in his opinion. Good question . . . and conclusion! Here's the answer I offered.
First, we don't want to mandate a process. It will turn into a program. Second, as superintendents and principals and teachers come and go, so do agendas. The commitment to the process comes as a result of actually sharing the strategies with students and witnessing what students are able to do as a result. Think of all the money that has gone into education to try to buy this kind of teacher AND student success. Interactive Reading & Notetaking is effective . . . and budget-friendly!
So it's time to get busier! If all teachers using Interactive Reading & Notetaking with their students would share the process with other teachers on just their grade level for starters, can you imagine how many students AND teachers we will effect? That's how we will revolutionize teaching AND learning!
Let's make 2012 the year that more and more students are learning how to learn!
Please continue to share comments, suggestions, and revelations with us! Thank you all for your support of Interactive Reading & Notetaking! Happy Holidays!
Happy November! We're in the process of harvesting some great ideas!
First, our science notepages and teacher guides for grades 4,6,7 are still running on schedule. We plan to release them by the end of November. Grade 2 will be ready to go in December. Grades 3,5,8 will be out by May 2012. They'll be right in time for next year! The links we've added to activate or build prior knowledge are amazing as well as the links or suggestions for scientific investigations! We really are making teaching AND learning more efficient, effective, and easier.
We are also in the planning stage of offering Interactive Reading & Notetaking training via an online video that can be purchased at our website due to the number of requests and inquiries from teachers and principals outside of Virginia! We would be very interested to know your thoughts regarding training from a video production versus a face-to-face session. Please email us at IRNcorp1@verizon.net with your comments.
In the meantime, two powerful face-to-face Interactive Reading & Notetaking training sessions will take place at the Sheraton Park South in Richmond, VA on November 16 & 17, 2011. We have offered a budget price of $165.00 per participant this time around; and, if at least one teacher attends, so can your administrator . . . for free! Also, we offer a 10% discount on any of our support materials purchased after training.
Wednesday, November 16--Original Interactive Reading & Notetaking training! In this session, Amanda Donnelly will show you how to combine the learning strategies, reading strategies, instructional strategies, brain research, standards, content, and a lot of metacognition into a step-by-step process that shows students how to learn -- the missing piece of the education puzzle. Join her as she demonstrates the WHYs and HOWs of the strategies on each page of the interactive "textbook" you create together in this workshop!
Thursday, November 17--Interactive Reading & Notetaking in MATH! In this session, Tara "Ginny" Culpepper will show you how to use the Interactive Reading & Notetaking process specifically in a math classroom. Vocabulary, reading in math, and practice as well as ideas for integrating technology in the math classroom will be her focus. Ginny brings 14 years of experience in all core subject areas to this training along with a variety of ideas, experiences, and educational tools just for the math classroom! Ginny knows how to get students to want to learn . . . and their SOL scores year after year reflect that effort and enthusiasm!
BTW, you can see Ginny at http://www.nbetfiles.org/.programs.html where she was recently featured on the Fall 2011 episode of WHRO's Netfiles television/web program for her use of technology in a reading classroom.
WOO HOO! Two powerful days of sharing and learning! Join us!
Please continue to send your comments, insights, questions, and revelations! We really enjoy hearing from you! Again, thank you for your support as we revolutionize teaching AND learning!
A huge WELCOME BACK! to teachers AND students! It's going to be a terrific year of teaching AND learning!
Thank you so much for your comments and insights about Interactive Reading & Notetaking. We are thrilled to hear that test scores have improved so drastically for so many of your students! We always say in our workshops that if we show our students how to learn, the test scores will come. We love it when a plan works!
Quite a few of you sent in questions to us so here are some answers!
When will our science notepages & teacher guides be aligned with Virginia's new standards?
Our SCIENCE SUPPORT MATERIALS are a work in progress! We are currently aligning our notepages & teacher guides with the new standards of Virginia and are we ever excited about what we're producing! At your request, we are linking scientific investigations to each unit as a way to practice, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the essential knowledge! We think you will be awed by our efforts! Release dates will be staggered. We hope to release most non-test years (grades 2,4,6,7) in November 2011 and test years (grades 3,5,8) in April/May 2012. As we know, testing on the new standards goes into effect during the 2012-2013 school year.
Why is teaching the STRATEGIES so important? After all, isn't it the content that is important?
We intended our notepages & teacher guides to be a support for teachers as they share the strategies and the content with their students. Our materials are unique as the primary focus is on the explicit and consistent teaching of strategies. The notepage, which is the content or the target information (Marzano, 2001), becomes the vehicle for showing our students how to become strategic learners, readers, and thinkers. We aren't saying content isn't important. It is! But how far does the content go if students aren't given or don't have the strategies to learn what they have to know? Strategies have to play into every aspect of each lesson so students learn how to learn the content on their own.
Do I have to use a notebook? The interactive notebook or textbook we create with our students in every content area is key in making the strategies a mindset. Each page in the notebook provides an explicit and consistent model of the strategies that shows our students how to learn. The pages in the notebook are not just the keeper of the knowledge; each page supports the strategies so they become a habit for both teachers and students. Will our students always need a notebook? Students should always have the opportunity to make sense of what they are learning. Once students have the strategies and can apply them to whatever they are learning, they still need time to improve, refine, and extend their use of the strategies. The strategies require our students to be metacognitive; they know when they have it and they know when they don't . . . and when they don't, they will always have strategies to figure it out themselves. The interactive notebook sets both teachers and students up for success.
When do we plan to host more training institutes? This fall we will be hosting Interactive Reading & Notetaking in MATH in Blacksburg, VA on October 14, 2011 and in Richmond, VA on November 17, 2011. The ORIGINAL Interactive Reading & Notetaking training will be in Richmond, VA on November 16, 2011. Download a registration flyer today and take advantage of the great budget perks!
Thank you for your support of Interactive Reading & Notetaking! Keep your questions, suggestions, comments, and experiences coming! Please share your experiences with everyone . . . at lunch, in faculty meetings, parent conferences, and even via Twitter and Facebook! Let's make sure our fellow teachers and students everywhere are aware of the power behind the process! Together, we will revolutionize teaching AND learning! The time is definitely now!
We are so excited about the changes to our website! From the Home Page to the Contact Page, we have tried to design a site that will provide information about Interactive Reading & Notetaking to fellow educators along with lots of opportunities for dialogue and discussion about the process!
We invite all educators AND their students who have been using Interactive Reading & Notetaking to share experiences, comments, insights, and revelations with us and with others! Just send your posting to us at IRNcorp1@verizon.net, give us permission to post, and our conversations will begin! Not only can we share written responses but we can get more visual with pictures and videos. For instance, check out Rebecca's pictures below of PreKindergarten students retelling the objective in science! So it's time to get out your cameras and cell phones and show us what's going on with Interactive Reading & Notetaking in your classroom! But first, here's just one example of an email we received that proves once again how student engagement goes hand in hand with Interactive Reading & Notetaking!
Good Morning, As we are snowed in here in Richmond, I thought I would take a few minutes to update you about my progress with Interactive Notetaking. I participated in the IRN workshop in the fall, and have been using the strategies ever since. We are having some terrific learning happening in our classes. I have found several unexpected side effects of the strategy. First, the students really enjoy working with setting the objective. It really helps us stay on track as a class. It also allows us as a class of gifted learners to identify where we are going beyond the basics of the Standards of Learning. All in fun, we call them the Standards of Boring, and our job is to make them sound more exciting. Second, it is also very easy to refer back to our objective at any time during our units of study to do some internal review. Lastly, the strategy has made the students better at reading the directions on independent activities. We have used the circle/highlight and finding a synonym strategies. The students have now gotten to the point of doing this independently, and it has drastically reduced the number of times they come to ask me to clarify directions.
Please let me know when the new math materials are ready as I would like to have them to support my current math materials without having to reinvent the wheel. The printed note pages you provide are so handy because it means I don't need to glean materials from several books-they are already ready for me to copy, distribute, and apply the strategies to.
My next step is to adjust activities in the units I teach to more effective methods of learning, in particular the increased use of graphic organizers. The process is a long one as we work through our units of study, but I look forward to it with refreshed perspective. Thanks again for your strategies and support.
Happy Holidays, and enjoy the snow if you can!
Fourth Grade Teacher
Henrico County, VA
Join Us! For those of you who have not yet experienced the power behind Interactive Reading & Notetaking, stay tuned for more postings! Plus go to the Training Tab above! Here are some comments from teachers regarding our sessions:
I wanted to thank you for the wonderful workshop last week. Everyone has told me they enjoyed it tremendously and that it was one of the best workshops they have attended. Carroll County, VA
My staff and I thoroughly enjoyed the training in Charlottesville a few weeks ago. They came back very excited and eager to use the process within their content area. Thanks again for such wonderful information. Essex County, VA
This class is one of the most transforming classes that I have ever taken. It is not often that educators can utilize every aspect of a class to inform and better their practice. I feel so much more informed as a teacher and know that my students are reaping the beneifts of what I have learned. Gloucester County, VA
I was looking at your upcoming workshops and was wondering if you would be offering any of the Teacher Leader Model workshops again. I currently use Interactive Notebooks in my classroom and believe they are incredibly effective. I would like to be able to lead others in my school in their use. Loudoun County, VA
Early Learners & Interactive Reading & Notetaking As former middle school teachers, we saw way too many middle schoolers lacking the strategies needed for independent learning, reading, and thinking. Three years ago, we decided to move into PK, K, and 1st grade classrooms to see how the strategies would impact our early learners. Rebecca became our teacher as researcher, and for the last 8 months has been working with PK students, sharing the strategies behind Interactive Reading & Notetaking! With just a few minor tweaks, Rebecca modeled the same strategies that we share with elementary, middle, high school, and college students and shared them with her early learners, mere 4 year olds, and WOW! What success! If we begin teaching students how to learn at the PK level, poor learning habits and attitude won't get in the way of student potential. In the picture below, student engagement and ownership begins at the PK level!
PK Student Retelling the Objective!
