Georgia Performance Standards - Shared Resource

 Our new school district superintendent wants both students and classroom visitors to know the goals of each lesson in terms of the Georgia Performance Standards. As is often the case, fitting the important job that I do each day (yes, I believe that!) into a conventional academic framework is sometimes awkward. But I do agree that students need to know what it is that they are trying to learn. The work that I do certainly supports ALL instruction -- language is bedrock for learning. But I digress...

I hope that some fellow Georgia SLPs will find a use for the PowerPoint I created and embedded below. I had planned to display appropriate slides from it on the extra monitor hooked to my laptop as an introduction to therapy sessions , but my principal did not like that idea. Instead, I printed the slides and posted them neatly on the bulletin board. Easy enough. Not the most inspired production I've ever developed, but it seems to have met my need to communicate our learning goals in kid-friendly language. For whatever it's worth, it's here for the taking - no need to ask (follow the slideshare link to download and print). Also feel free to edit/remix. If you improve it, please share back!

Georgia Performance Standards for Speech Pathologists For Speech Language

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Practice-Relevant Vocabulary Research

Yea for instantly accessible, authoritative, free research! Google books published an extensive preview of Vocabulary Instruction; Research to Practice, edited by James F. Baumann and Edward J. Kame'enui (2003). Though I haven't read any of the chapters yet, the table of contents is very promising. I recognize many big names from my own literature review: McKeown, Beck, Biemiller, Coyne, Simmons, Kame'enui, and Marzano. Very practical. At least one book reviewer (Sylvia Read) concurs. Add it to my ambitious summer to-do list.

Cool Vocabulary Instruction Tool...and Free

Scholastic has a nice, free vocabulary resource available on the Web: Word Wizard Dictionary. The interactive dictionary is powered by Wordsmyth and had every word that I entered. Some, but unfortunately not the majority, of the words that I viewed had pictures or videos linked to them. I thought that the definitions were kid-friendly as well. In addition to the dictionary, Scholastic also provides mini-dictionary and quizz creation tools. Very handy for teachers. The site has good advice and background information about vocabulary instruction, teacher guides, and essential vocabulary lists. Good stuff. I'd love to see more illustrations, photographs, and videos, and especially would like ASL video to accompany each word. I think that they might also include age-appropriate book titles which include the word. Come to think of it, I have several more ideas for them...maybe Scholastic needs to hire me. :) Or maybe my students, who have an illustrated dictionary blog of their own.

Update: Scholastic has discontinued the Word Wizard Dictionary. Boo. Hoo.

Vocabulary: Research Linking Explicit Instruction to Student Achievement

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (2008, March). The effects of focused academic vocabulary instruction on underperforming math students. Alexandria, VA: Gifford, M. & Gore, S.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (2006, March). The preliminary report of the 2004–05 evaluation study of the ASCD program for building academic vocabulary. Alexandria, VA: Marzano, R.

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G. & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

Hart, B., & Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brooks.

Hirsch, E. (2003). Reading comprehension requires knowledge of words and the world: Scientific insights into the fourth-grade slump and nation's stagnant comprehension scores. American Educator, Spring, 10-29.

Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement. Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Vocabulary Expansion, Meet Web 2.0

My fascination with words definitely influenced my career choice, and the Web has made investigating words instant, accurate, and convenient for me. NinjaWords, a really fast dictionary, is a particularly favorite site. I also like The Free Dictionary for its illustrations (sometimes), pronunciations (always), and thesaurus.

I've created vocabulary content on the Web for my own use with students, but had never thought of interacting with others online in a joint effort to create content. Recently I've found a couple of sites that encourage user contributions for vocabulary development. Word Ahead is a video vocabulary instruction site for SAT vocabulary words. Similarly set up, Wordia invites users to upload video of themselves defining a word that has special meaning to them. However, I have not found sites targeted for child-created vocabulary instruction. I really like that constructivist idea...especially the visual component...especially for my deaf students. Hmmmm...