Teacher-Tested Vocabulary Strategies

Episode 220

In this podcast episode, you'll hear from:

• Kirsten Taylor, a first-grade teacher turned literacy coach in Washington, D.C., and
• Kory Jensen, a fourth-grade teacher in Aurora, Colorado.

Kirsten shares a powerful explicit vocabulary routine she uses with her students. She explains how to engage students in learning new words, assess their understanding, and extend vocabulary lessons beyond the initial teaching. 

Kory discusses the importance of morphology instruction. He shares practical strategies for teaching morphology, including breaking down words into their morphemes, engaging students in hands-on activities, and integrating morphology instruction across content areas. 

Resources

• Kirsten Taylor- Explicit Vocabulary Routine (video) 
• Vocabulary Instruction: Strategies for the Classroom (article) 
• Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids―Building Vocabulary Through Etymology, Definitions & Stories (book) 
• The Literacy 50 (book)

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Episode Transcript

Lori (00:01):
If you've ever felt like your students quickly forget
vocabulary words you teach oryou're unsure how to make
vocabulary instruction trulystick, you're not alone.

Melissa (00:10):
That's why today's episode is all about making
vocabulary instruction moreengaging and effective.
We're talking to Kirsten Taylor, a first-grade teacher turned
literacy coach in Washington DC,and Kory Jensen, a fourth-grade
teacher in Washington DC.
And Kory Jensen, a fourth gradeteacher in Aurora, colorado.

Lori (00:27):
Kirsten will share a powerful explicit vocabulary
routine and Kory will dive intomorphology and word parts.

Melissa (00:34):
So, whether you're teaching little learners or
upper elementary students, thisepisode is packed with practical
strategies you can use rightaway.

Lori (00:44):
Hi teacher friends.
I'm Lori and I'm Melissa.
We are two educators who wantthe best for all kids, and we
know you do too.

Melissa (00:53):
We worked together in Baltimore when the district
adopted a new literacycurriculum.

Lori (00:58):
We realized there was so much more to learn about how to
teach reading and writing.

Melissa (01:04):
Lori, and I can't wait to keep learning with you.
Today, let's hear from firstgrade teacher Kirsten Taylor.
Hi, kirsten, welcome to thepodcast.
We are so excited to hear aboutyour vocabulary routine that
you do with your students.

Lori (01:23):
Yeah, welcome.

Kirsten Taylor (01:24):
Thank you so much for having me.

Lori (01:25):
We are so excited because we know how important
instructional routines are inthe classroom, and when a
teacher has an incredibleroutine, we just want them to
share immediately.
So we know you have avocabulary routine and we'd love
for you to walk us through itstep by step.
What does it look like inaction and how do students
engage with the whole process?

Kirsten Taylor (01:47):
Absolutely so.
I use this strategy during mywhole group lesson.
Specifically, I was a firstgrade teacher for six years.
Now I'm a reading specialist,but I still use this in my small
groups.
We would focus on in our unitabout five texts in our close
reading unit.
We would dive really deep intothem and then students would

(02:09):
show their understanding andmastery of the content through
written exit tickets,discussions and projects.
So what I would do then isbackwards map from the unit and
then find that vocabularystrategy and what words to teach
unit and then find thatvocabulary strategy and what
words to teach.
I would take a look at thewriting prompts or discussion or
project that I wanted studentsto do.

(02:30):
At the end of the read Then Iwould decide what vocabulary
words are important for them toknow in order to be successful
with the content.
That backwards mapping strategyis really helpful with picking
the words and it helped mereally ground my lessons.
So first what I would do isthen sort my vocabulary words

(02:50):
into tiers.
First I would think of tier onewords.
So essentially those areeveryday words.
Most students know they usethem often.
I don't really need to teachthem, but I do identify them
because they're important them.
Often I don't really need toteach them, but I do identify
them because they're important,and the only time I would teach
a tier one word is if I have amultilingual learner that

(03:11):
doesn't really know the languageyet.
Then I would make some time toteach that word to students.
Then I would think of tierthree words, and those are
really really content, specific.
They need to be taught, butjust briefly, with some visuals.
Students don't really need toown these words, but they are
important to go over before thelesson and I quickly review them

(03:32):
, teach them within a fewminutes and then when they come
up in the text, then I'll pointthem out and I'll talk to them
with students.
Then the bulk of the words sofor this strategy are those tier
two words.
These really guided myinstruction for these lessons.
I would pick just one word,just one, and that word is the

(03:52):
word I want them to own.
What word do they need to besuccessful with in order to do
the activity, to do the exitticket, to complete the
discussion?
This word can be applied toother texts in the unit.
It can be even applied to othercontent areas throughout the
day, and then I use an explicitvocabulary routine to teach them

(04:14):
this word on the day one of thelesson, because we read the
book usually for about three tofour days and the goal really I
keep in mind when finding thisword is what word would help my
students get a higher orderunderstanding of the text or
concept and then be able to thenuse that word in other
activities?
So once I pick the word, I usean explicit vocabulary routine

(04:40):
and a Freyer model.
So I'll kind of walk you guysthrough.
Like what those look like AFreyer model is what students
actually see.
So when I'm teaching on mysmart board it's essentially a
four square and the vocabularyword is right in the middle and
then the top left square gives astudent friendly definition of
the word.
The top right gives the word ina sentence and I try to keep

(05:03):
the sentence related to thecontent that they're learning.
The bottom left of the squareare visuals of examples, so
within the content, but alsolike other areas and other
meanings, and then the rightsquare are non-examples which
are pretty cool.
So what are some things that donot mean this word?
Some are kind of obvious, butsome also are a little tricky

(05:25):
for kids.
So now I'll things that do notmean this word.
Some are kind of obvious, butsome also are a little tricky
for kids.
So now I'll kind of walk youguys through what each step of
the routine is.
It's pretty cool because theroutine takes about five minutes
.
I love it because when I showmy teachers this I say it
doesn't take long.
It's actually a five-minuteroutine and it's pretty engaging
for kids to follow along.
So first I say the word.

(05:45):
I have students repeat me okay.
Then I say let's pronounce thesounds, let's think of the
phonemes and let's say all thesounds in the word.
Kids say it with me.
Then I show them.
I say this is what the wordlooks like.
We discuss the spelling, wediscuss the syllables, the
morphemes or meaningful word,parts within the word and even

(06:06):
parts of speech.
And this is all on that foursquare, on that Freyer model.
So they're seeing it.
Then I read to them okay, thisis a definition of the word.
I read it to them, the studentsrepeat me and I'm really
intentional about the definitionto make sure I know my students
and what they can grasp and Imake that definition cater to

(06:26):
them.
Then I read it in a sentenceand they repeat me it's related
to that content.
Then I just talk more about theword.
I give lots of examples.
This is what this word meanshere.
Here's another example of thisword.
Then we play a fun game and Isay I want you to think of this
word.
I'm going to say something.

(06:46):
If you think that's an exampleof blank, give a thumb up.
If you think it's not anexample, give a thumb down.
And what I love about this gameis kids get really into it
because they start to reallythink, okay, I want to, I want
to win this game, I want to bethe teacher.
And sometimes I get reallyenthusiastic and they're like,
yes, that's the word.
And sometimes they're like no,that's crazy, that's not the

(07:07):
word.
And after we play that for afew examples, then I end with a
turn and talk because it's soimportant for kids then to take
that vocabulary word and thenapply it.
So I do turn and talk partnersin advance to make sure like
language levels are appropriateso that I don't pair a student

(07:29):
that doesn't talk much withanother student that doesn't
talk much.
I try to just be reallyintentional and students will
either use that word in asentence or give another example
of the word or sometimes evengive non-examples, which is
pretty fun.
Then I have them share out.
And then I sometimes do anextension where we have a
vocabulary journal and theywrite the word in their journal

(07:51):
with the example and a visual.
One key point that I alwaysground this in is I say the
vocabulary word probably 15 to20 times.
I'm constantly saying it in theroutine.
Kids are repeating it and bythe end they really should know
at least how to say the word,because they hear me say it so

(08:11):
many times.
And then after the lesson,essentially then we read our
text and I say while we'rereading, I want you to listen
for this word.
If you hear it, I want you togive your I agree.
And then I pause and then wediscuss it and then in future
texts we make sure I review itagain, we talk about it again
and then the goal is then, bythat writing prompt or by that

(08:32):
final discussion, they're usingthat word and they're owning
that word.

Lori (08:38):
Such a great routine, kirsten, I'm thinking about that
thumbs up, thumbs down that youmentioned in the routine.
Is that a helpful formativeassessment for you in the moment
, first to see which studentsgrasp it and then do you just
like make note of that, likewhat happens in your brain, in
your teacher brain?

Kirsten Taylor (08:55):
from there, yeah , that's a great question.
So as I'm watching, if I see astudent that maybe thought
something was an example andit's not, then in a moment I
actually correct it and I say oh, I see what you were thinking
there, but let me tell you whyand then I'll explain it.
So I think about it, as this isa really good teaching moment
and that little informalassessment then allows me to

(09:17):
stop, re-explain it and thenmake sure I clear that up for
them.

Lori (09:21):
Yeah, I love that in the moment, because then they don't
march forward into the text withthat incorrect idea that you're
just and it's also, it feelslike, very normalized for
students to feel okay, you know,feel safe, you know, putting
the wrong thumb up and thenbeing like, oh, that was silly,
you know I, I should be this,okay, thanks, you know.
Um, I also have one morequestion that goes back to

(09:44):
something that you said in thevery beginning and I'm thinking
about, you know, my teacher selfhaving to only select one tier
two word.
How do you select just one?

Kirsten Taylor (10:01):
That's a great question.
It's hard.
Sometimes you have a text whereit's pretty easy, but some I've
worked with my team and we'relike what word are we picking?
This is hard.
These are all so important.
What I try to think about whenI do this is what word is going
to come up in the other textfollowing it.

(10:22):
So, for example, we did ananimal adaptations unit and the
word that we did was protect,and we decided to choose that in
one of our texts because werealized, oh, looking at all
these other texts, all the otheranimals protect themselves.
We're going to see this come upagain, and that was our

(10:42):
rationale for thinking it.
See this come up again, andthat was our rationale for
thinking it.
If it doesn't come up inanother text, then I think
what's a word that really islike almost like the main idea
of the text and that kind ofhelps me pick it.
And even if it's not used inthe next text, it could be used
in another unit or even likeanother subject throughout the
day.

Melissa (11:03):
And I'm curious to follow up on that.
Like, how often do you do thisroutine?
And when you said it was fiveminutes, I was like, well, I
mean you could do that every day.
But I'm wondering if you dolike, is this one where you pick
a different word each day, orby the week?
Like, how often do you do thisroutine?

Kirsten Taylor (11:19):
I try to pick one word per text.
So we use a model where we reada text in our whole group for
about three to four days.
So essentially it's kind oflike one word a week, I would
say, because I don't want tooverload them with too many tier
two, because then I'll findthey're not really owning them.
But if I do one word per weekor two at most, then I do see

(11:43):
more at bats with that word andmore exposure to it, more
practice, and then they'reowning it more easily.

Melissa (11:50):
Yeah, and so you're reading that text for that three
or four days, so you're seeingit each day.
It's not like you do theroutine, and then they don't see
that word for three or fourdays.
Right, they see it.

Kirsten Taylor (12:00):
Exactly.
Yeah, they see it, they talkabout it, absolutely.

Melissa (12:05):
So I want to go back.
I know our listeners probablylike they're like I heard that
routine, I want to rewind it andhear it again.
But we're actually going to letthem hear it again With an
example.
Can you tell us like what wouldbe a tier two word?
You might have already did, youalready say it.
So you've already said the tiertwo word, so let's go ahead
with that tier two word protect.
How would you walk through that, that same routine, with that

(12:27):
word?

Kirsten Taylor (12:28):
Absolutely.
So first I would tell mystudents we're going to learn a
new word today.
We're going to own a word forour new text and our text is all
about frogs, right?
And I'll say this is my wordprotect Everyone repeat me and
everyone repeats protect.
This is my word.
Protect Everyone repeat me andeveryone repeats protect.

(12:49):
Let's say the sounds in protect,ready, p-r-o-t-e-c-t.
What's my word?
They're like protect, great,let me show you what it looks
like.
And then I show them the wordprotect on the board.
Then I say okay, what do younotice about this word?
What are some spelling patterns?
You see, kids might say, oh, Isee two consonants at the
beginning, that P-R with the P-R.

(13:10):
I see, oh, there's twosyllables in that word.
Or they might say there's atricky sound at the end.
And then we'll practice.
Yeah, we saw that in our smallgroup.
Right, Absolutely.
Then I say let me tell you whatthis means.
Right, protect means to keepsomething safe from harm.
What does it mean?
To keep something safe fromharm?

(13:32):
And then they repeat me Great,let me tell you this word in a
sentence, because we're going touse this today.
Then I come up with a sentencefrom the text that I think would
really help them understand.
And this one actually was aboutturtles instead of frogs, and I
said the turtle uses a shell toprotect itself.
And then they repeat me.
I say, great, there's lots ofother examples of protect that

(13:55):
doesn't have to just do withturtles.
So I'll say I use a helmet toprotect myself when I ride my
bike.
I sometimes like to go rollerskating and it's super dangerous
, so I wear knee pads to protectmyself.
What does it do?
Protect Great.
My co-teacher has glasses andshe has a case to protect it so

(14:17):
that when it goes in her bag itdoesn't fall and crack.
It protects the glasses.
I also know it's been prettyrainy lately and I have an
umbrella and that umbrellaprotects me from the rain
hitting my head.
What does it do?
Protect Excellent.
Then I might say does anyoneknow any other examples?
And then I hear from some ofthe kids and then they might
share some others that I didn'tthink of, which is great.

(14:39):
Then I say, okay, now we'regoing to play a game.
I want to see if you know whatit means to protect.
Then I say, okay, now we'regoing to play a game.
I want to see if you know whatit means to protect.
I'm going to say something, andif you think it's protecting
something or it's an example ofprotect, give a thumb up.
If you think it is notprotecting, it's not providing
protection, you're going to givea thumb down, okay.

(15:02):
So then I show the visuals onthe model.
So the first picture might be aseatbelt right, and they're
seeing it, but I'm not likepointing it out, I'm just kind
of talking about it.
I'll say I went in the caryesterday and I put on my
seatbelt.
Am I protecting myself?
Yes, protect, protect, good.
And then I might ask why, likewhy is that protecting, right?
Then I'll say something like Iwas rushing to work and I left

(15:27):
my phone case on my dresser.
Is my iPhone protected?
No, okay, someone share why?
Oh, because if you drop it theglass is going to break, right?
Oh, I saw the weirdest thing.
I saw a turtle that didn't havea shell.
Is that turtle protected from apredator?
No, right.

(15:48):
So then I go over like a bunchof those.
I kind of alternate yes and no.
I sometimes do maybe like fiveto six examples.
Then I say okay, everybody.
So we're going to use the wordprotect with our turn and talk
partners.
Turn to your partner and share asentence with the word protect,
give an example and if youfinish early, maybe give some

(16:08):
non-examples.
So then I have them turn.
I listen in on theirconversations.
I'm going around, I'mcorrecting any misconceptions.
If I'm noticing like maybesomeone didn't understand it,
then after a few minutes we turnback and I say, ok, can someone
share what their partner said?
And they share what theirpartner said.
Oh, my partner had a reallygood sentence about protection.

(16:31):
And then at the end I say,great, now we're going to read a
story or a text about turtlesand while we're reading, we're
learning about how a turtleprotects itself.
And there's more ways than justthe shell.
There's a lot of different wayswe'll learn While we read.
Today, if you hear the wordprotect or if you hear something
that shows that protection,you're going to give an I agree

(16:55):
and then we'll discuss it afterthe read and that's kind of it.
That's kind of how I go throughit on that day one.

Melissa (17:00):
I love that they're looking for not even just the
actual word but the meaning ofthe word, even if the word's not
said.
They're looking for that.
You know the idea of protection, even if that you know, cause
it's easy to pick out the worditself, but you know thinking of
the idea of protection alongthe way.
I love that.

Lori (17:16):
Yeah, I also like that you're cuing from both the text
that they're going to encounterand future texts, but also life
like, making those connectionsfor them.
I also like that you gave thatexample of the umbrella, because
to me that's kind of like atricky one, right.
Like is an umbrella?
Like?
What do you mean?
An umbrella is protecting, ohokay, it's not like a shell,

(17:38):
it's not like protecting from apredator, it's protecting from
the rain.
So it's kind of bridging theiror maybe not bridging, extending
their idea of protection in away that they might not have
thought, and also giving themthat concrete real life example
to connect it, to which we knowthey need all those spider webs
of connections in order toreally own this word, right?
So I'm kind of thinking aboutthat idea, right, of students

(18:02):
owning the word.
How do students demonstrate orshow you that they've grasped
the meaning of the word?

Kirsten Taylor (18:09):
Yeah, great question.
So some ways they show me thatthey grasp it is through their
writing.
So we do maybe an informativewriting exit ticket or maybe a
shared writing activity.
If I notice them using thatword in their writing, that's
like a huge win.
I'm like great, they got it.

(18:30):
That's one way.
If we do a discourse activitywhere I'm having students do a
discussion, maybe it's a gallerywalk, maybe it's like a hot
seat strategy, where there'ssomeone in the hot seat and
they're asking questions, ifthey're using the word protect
verbally, that's also a win,which is great.
But last, if I have a studentthat's maybe not able to use

(18:52):
protect maybe their languageisn't there yet if they're using
words that are similar, likesafe or giving a detail, that
does mean protect, we're almostthere.
And then I'll ask them.
I'll say great, what does thatmean?
Like if they're staying safe?
And if they might not know it,I'll show them again.
But there's definitelydifferent levels of

(19:14):
understanding for that.
We have a lot of anchor chartsin our classroom, so we'll have
vocabulary words up there andeven if I have a student that
doesn't remember how to spell itor forgets if they're looking
for that word and they couldtell me they're looking for
protect.
That's also a win, becausethey're using their resources to
find the word.

Melissa (19:33):
Speaking of like those anchor charts, I'm wondering.
You mentioned a few thingsalready, but I just let's repeat
them, even if that's okay.
If you repeat them, whathappens after you're done
reading all these books aboutprotection and you know you're
not really talking about theword protect anymore, but we
don't want to lose that word,right?
So what kinds of things do youdo to kind of keep that word

(19:55):
alive in your classroom afterthis unit is over?

Kirsten Taylor (19:59):
Some things I'll do in my small group lessons.
I'll find some texts that wouldreintroduce that word.
So maybe it's a decodable textand maybe students are working
on phonemes, like in frog, andit's just a story about a frog
but maybe the frog is protectingitself and the word protect

(20:20):
isn't in there.
I'll find a way to kind ofbring that back, like remember,
we learned a couple units agoabout protection, like how does
the frog protect itself here?
So I'll try to be reallyintentional about connecting the
whole group content buildingcurriculum and the small group.
Sometimes it's a little hard todo that, but sometimes you can
find a text where you canconnect it.
So that's one way.

(20:42):
We do have a writing centerwhere students do informative
writing, narrative writing,opinion writing.
I sometimes will make a promptthat relates back to that word.
So maybe it's another animaland I say, hey, we learned a lot
about animal adaptations lastunit.
I want you to write a story oran informative writing piece

(21:03):
that shows how another animalprotects itself.
So I try to do that as well insmall group and in their
center's time.

Lori (21:12):
I love those activities because they're just extending
what they've already learnedabout this word.
And you're actually making methink, kirsten, about in our
book we shared this vocabularystrategy called shades of
meaning and it's one of myfavorites.
And so I just kind of like didit real fast for this word,
thinking like because you mademe think of it.

(21:34):
I was like I'm just going to doit real fast.
So if we think about the wordprotect, if you think about a
paint swatch, students kind oflike organizing their
understanding of the wordprotect right, like other words,
because you said students mayencounter other words but not
the actual word protect.
So we could think about theword safe, shield, shelter,

(21:56):
guard, defend and protect andjust have students kind of like
organize those or think aboutthem as alternative synonyms to
protect and just extending theirknowledge there.
I thought when you said theymight not get the word protect
but they might have other words,it's just so helpful to keep
those other words in mind andwhat shades of meaning they

(22:18):
convey and have students thinkabout those other ones too.
So thanks for making me thinkof that.

Kirsten Taylor (22:24):
Yeah, that's a great strategy.
And I even thought of somethingelse too.
As you were talking, I eventried to incorporate it into my.
My language is talking to them,so if they were putting their
stuff away in their cubbies andI noticed like some students
like drop their books, I'll sayplease protect your materials.
I tried to really connect it tojust like my informal language

(22:45):
and use some of that academiclanguage in there as well.

Melissa (22:48):
Yeah, I was thinking, lori, as you were talking too,
like those words probably aregoing to come up in texts you
know along throughout the wholeyear and you could keep bringing
it back to protect.
You know, if they see the wordguarded or guarding right, then
oh, that's, that's like protect.
You know we've done that word.
You can keep bringing it back,which is really lovely.

Lori (23:06):
All right.
So we've talked a whole lotabout tier two words today.
Kirsten, I'm wondering if youhave anything that you'd like to
share about tier one or tierthree words.
How do you address those wordsin class?

Kirsten Taylor (23:17):
Absolutely so.
Tier one I just address it.
If I have maybe a newcomer, astudent that's learning the
language, I just talk aboutthose words as if they would
already know them.
I don't give a lot of frontloading, but the tier three are
fun.
What I do is I pick those out.
Like, for example, the wordcamouflage is a word that would

(23:41):
be tier three because they needto know it for the text, but
it's not something they need toown.
They're not going to see itcome up a lot in the other texts
.
What I would do for that is weuse Canva, which is really cool.
It's a little more likestudent-friendly than PowerPoint
and what I would do is put thetier three words so camouflage
up on our Canva slide.
Then I would find a few visualsof camouflage, our Canva slide,

(24:07):
then I would find a few visualsof camouflage and then, before
I would teach the tier two wordbecause I really want that last
piece of information to be thattier two before they dive into
the text, I would say I'm goingto teach you some tier three
words.
I don't even say tier three,just I'm going to teach you some
words in the text that I don'tneed you to own, and then I
would read the word for themcamouflage.
Repeat after me camouflage.
Let me show you what camouflagelooks like.

(24:28):
Sometimes I even ask thestudents.
I say look at some of thesepictures.
What do you think the wordcamouflage means?
And they might raise their handoh, I see they're blending in
Absolutely.
So we're going to notice theturtle is going to camouflage or
blend in with its surroundings.
When we come to this word, itmight be a little tricky.
I'll remind you what that means, and that word would also then

(24:51):
be on the anchor chart.
And if they use that in theirwriting, great, they don't need
to, but that is a word that theycould go back into the text and
find if they wanted to taketheir writing a step further.

Lori (25:02):
Yeah, thank you, that's really helpful.
Wanted to take their writing astep further.
Yeah, thank you, that's reallyhelpful, kirsten.
Is there anything else that youthink is top of mind for
teachers when they think aboutthis explicit?

Kirsten Taylor (25:14):
routine.
Tier two words teaching them.
Yeah, I think one thing thatcomes to mind is that I know
this was an ELA lesson and Iknow this is a literacy podcast,
but the strategy really can beapplied to any subject.
I had a math teacher at myschool that learned about this
strategy with me and she wantedto use it in her math class.
It's really cool.
It's just vocabularieseverywhere.

(25:35):
It absolutely lives in everysubject, all parts of the school
day, and that's something I dowant to share that it can be
used with all content and allcurriculums and subjects.

Melissa (25:47):
Such a good point.
Thank you, very importantreminder.
Thank you for bringing that up.
It should be used in everycontent area for sure.
Well, kirsten, thank you somuch for sharing all of this
with us today.
I know our listeners are goingto be really excited to try it
in their classrooms.
So thank you for your time andfor everything you do.

Kirsten Taylor (26:06):
You're welcome.
Thanks so much for having me.

Lori (26:10):
Now let's hear from fourth grade teacher, Kory Jensen.
Hi, Kory, welcome to thepodcast.

Kory Jensen (26:19):
Thanks for having me on.

Lori (26:20):
We're excited to dig into vocabulary with you today.

Melissa (26:24):
Yes, and specifically, we want to talk about morphology
with you, because we knowmorphology, which is the study
of word parts like prefixes,suffixes and what all of those
mean, the meanings behind them,is really important for upper
elementary, which is where youteach.
So can you tell us a little bitabout you?
Know what does morphologyinstruction look like in your

(26:44):
classroom and can you even giveus, like some examples of what
it looks like?

Kory Jensen (26:49):
Yes, absolutely so.
When I think about morphology Idefinitely think about the
upper part of the reading rope,like those like semantics,
syntax and those type of partsof the language comprehension.
So when we do morphology weactually give students eight
weekly words that go with thepassage we're reading.
So this week we're readingabout which one is more

(27:11):
efficient to use droids forentertainment or fireworks.
So then we have differentweekly words that go with it and
then with those weekly words webreak it into all of its
morphemes, like what is theprefix, what is the root word,
what is the suffix and what doesthis all mean, together with
going into a definition rightthere.

(27:33):
So many students I put up theword and then we go what's the
prefix?
And then they go the prefix isthis part, right there.
So the prefix might be con, theprefix might be pre, the prefix
might be ab and things likethat.
And we do it so many times thatthey're starting to internalize
what these words mean.
Like, for example, I go whatdoes the prefix X mean?

(27:55):
And they go, oh, it means out,Like exit and things like that.
Then we go to the root wordright there, and then they find
what the definition of the rootword is and then sometimes it
has a suffix, Sometimes itdoesn't, Sometimes it has two
suffixes right there.
So we go with the suffix, andwhat does that mean?
And we write down every singleword.

(28:16):
Part definition.

Lori (28:18):
Got it, Kory.
Do you ever have them kind ofplay around with it, like taking
like the root or the base andputting different prefixes and
suffixes on?

Kory Jensen (28:28):
Yes.
So we have different cards inthe classroom that are laminated
so they can always erase themright there.
Green is for prefixes, yellowis for root words and red is for
suffixes.
So for those who are watching,they look somewhat like this.
So green cards, littlerectangular cards, laminated

(28:50):
that they can write on dry erasemarkers and erase really easily
.
So then I usually give them aroot word that goes with it.
So let's just say the root wordis specked, so they all write
specked on the yellow card.
Then I give them some prefixesthat might go with it Con in
those type of prefixes.
Then I might give them somesuffixes, shun and those type of

(29:14):
suffixes right there.
Then they each have a morphologymap which is actually very
similar to sound boxes andL-Conan boxes.
So they just are rectangularsthat fit right into a piece of
paper and then they just bringdown each word and try to build
it as we go.
And the number one question Iget asked the most is is this a

(29:34):
real word?
Did I make a real word?
And I'm like well, I will goover all the answers at the end
of all the real words, butthey're like very much playing
with it being like I thinkthat's a real word.
Let me try this.
Is this a real word?

Melissa (29:46):
Do you give them like for SPECT for an example?
Do you give them like for SPECTfor an example, do you give
them the definition of SPECT?
Or I'm just curious in upperelementary, like do you let them
try to figure it out, like, howdo they get to the meaning of
SPECT?

Kory Jensen (29:58):
They each have a morphology key for those who are
watching, which is just a halfsheet of paper, which has all
their morphemes in it Prefixes,Latin roots, suffixes, Greek
forms, and then other ones.
Others could include, likenocturne, which means night,
dinern, which means day, vincen,which means near or neighboring

(30:19):
things like that, Venom, whichmeans poison.

Lori (30:23):
So what Kory's describing is a little half sheet book.
It has a little magnifyingglass on it and it says my
morphology key and then insideare all of these definitions
that students can refer to,which I think would be super
helpful for an activity likethis, because then they can
reference rather than guessright.

Melissa (30:42):
So they're referencing while they work Right, so they
would find the SPECT, themeaning of SPECT in there, right
, is it to see?
Is that something about?

Kory Jensen (30:51):
seeing.
Yeah, so yeah, let's find outright in here what SPECT means
to look at, see, observe orwatch.
So yeah, and it's allalphabetical right there.

Melissa (31:04):
Yeah, so that's fun and they get to play around with it
.
That's really fun.

Kory Jensen (31:08):
And for those teachers they're like.
Well, I don't know all themorphemes.
I do suggest the my MorphemeDictionary that Lori has talked
about before, with the KidsDictionary, which has all the
morphemes in there, that you canjust pick and choose.
Make them in alphabetical orderfor prefixes, root words,
suffixes, greek combining forms,those type of words right there
.
Other type, right there.

Lori (31:29):
Are you talking about the Once Upon a Word book?

Kory Jensen (31:31):
Kory.
Yes, once Upon a Word, okay.

Lori (31:33):
And we'll link that in the show notes too.

Kory Jensen (31:35):
So you can make those.
Luckily I have a curriculumthat does it for me, so that is
very fortunate for myself, but Iknow very many educators do not
.
So you can just create your ownmorphology key with a packet.
And we had a great discussionactually the other day.
It was miss.
They were looking for M-I-S-Sand they were like miss is also

(31:55):
actually a prefix as well, justM-I-S, but it's also a root word
as well.
So we had to have aconversation.
Well, is it a prefix or isthere a root word, the word miss
.

Lori (32:06):
Like as in.
Like, so dismiss is like, forwould be an example of when it
would be a base or a root.

Kory Jensen (32:12):
It would be a root word Yep.
And then like mispronunciation.

Lori (32:16):
like obviously with the one less S would be the prefix,
or is there M-I-S-S in a prefix?

Kory Jensen (32:24):
Oh no, it's just.

Lori (32:24):
M-I-S-S.
Okay, that's what I thought.

Kory Jensen (32:26):
So then M-I-S-S would be the root word, which
means to send Okay.

Lori (32:29):
So then M-I-S-S would be the root word, which means to
send.
See, I mean, I feel like wordsare so much fun and very like
I'm just curious about them.

Melissa (32:35):
Yeah, I was just thinking about.
Missile Is missile.
Is that the root Same?
It's like M-I-S-T-E-L right.

Kory Jensen (32:42):
Right, it's like a weird spelling, but miss like
missile, because miss does meanto send.
So we actually had a goodconversation, like I found Miss,
but it only has one S, and onekid at the table said then
that's not it, we have to findone with two S's.
And they kept looking One kid'slike, because you're looking at
the prefixes, it's a root word.

(33:02):
So then they had to switch tothe root words, that's really
fun.
In there as well, and it isorganized on the side being like
here are all the prefixes,here's all the Latin roots,
here's all the suffixes, here'sall the Greek combining forms.
We haven't dug too deep intoGreek combining forms.
We're actually doing that afterspring break.
So end of March to the end ofthe year we'll be doing more of
Greek combining forms and thegood news is they do this again

(33:27):
in fifth grade.
So they get it with me infourth grade and they do all
again just new words into fifthgrade.
And it's just like I think whenI started doing this, it was
just so impressive how thesestudents were able to hold on to
the meaning of the words.
We do it a lot with phonics andphoneme awareness.
We teach like if we can teachthem the sound, then we can

(33:48):
unlock more words.
Or the syllable type Well, weshould have that same
understanding with morphemes.
If can teach them the sound,then we can unlock more words.
Or the syllable type Well, weshould have that same
understanding with morphemes.
If we teach them the morpheme,we unlock a lot more words for
them to understand instead ofjust like here's the word, know
the word.

Lori (34:01):
So, Kory, I feel like you've touched on this, but I'd
like to hear from you just alittle more explicitly.
Why is focusing on morphologyand the different word parts so
powerful for students?
What have you seen in yourstudents speaking or reading or
writing that's helped you kindof see the value in spending
time on this?

Kory Jensen (34:23):
Definitely with speaking.
It's definitely unlocked morevocabulary words for them to
speak and look at othervocabulary words in other
content areas.
I'm fortunate enough to teachall content areas to my students
, so I teach reading, writing,math, science, social studies
all of the contents.
I know some teachers just teachone content but I can take this
morphology knowledge and bringit to other contents that we do

(34:45):
in science, that we do in math.
Right now we're going through ageometry unit and there's a lot
of great combining forms inmath.
Right now we're going through ageometry unit and there's a lot
of Greek combining forms ingeometry.
So then we could take thatknowledge we built in that and
go over to other content areas.
The other thing that has beenvery surprising is helping them
with their writing, because whenyou know the morphemes you can

(35:05):
actually know the part of speech.
Most of the time when a wordends with shun, it's going to be
a noun.
That's what it is, and most ofthe time if it doesn't have a
suffix, it's going to be a verb,and if it has a suffix li it's
probably most likely going to bean adverb.
So then they can look at theword and be like, oh, that is a
noun or that is a subject.
I need to treat it like a nounor subject.

(35:28):
I can't treat it like a verb.

Melissa (35:31):
I want to ask you more about writing in just a minute.
But you made me think of.
We had Lynn Stone on thepodcast a little while ago and
she talked a lot about this oflike.
If you teach these wordfamilies, or like the you know
suffixes, like you're talkingabout the parts of the words,
you unlock so much more for astudent.
Like, what, like we don't wantto just focus on.
Here's a list of 10 words,memorize them.

(35:52):
You may or may not rememberthem after the test, but like.
This way is so much morepowerful, because we don't have
time to teach every word that'sout there, but this way they
learn so much more that they canapply to so many more words.

Kory Jensen (36:06):
Right and I think the research shows like when you
go more in upper grades theyneed to know what like around
500 to like 1,000 words everysingle year.
It's like we don't have time toteach 500 or 1,000 words a year
, but we have time to teach amorpheme that can unlock more
words as we go.
And then when I do assessmentsor when I do informal

(36:28):
assessments, I might pickmorphemes that are related to
what I've taught.
It might not be the same word,but it'll be a morpheme that's
related to it.
And actually our data andvocabulary has gone up and up
every single year since westarted morphemes.
I had students in the past whoare now in fifth and sixth grade
now getting in the hundredthpercentile on their state tests

(36:51):
under vocabulary.

Lori (36:52):
That's amazing, it's so cool.
And you know, what I love aboutthat is that you didn't teach
them a thousand words a year,right, you taught them actually
like thousands more, because byteaching them the prefix un and
by teaching them the you know,the base word spect, they can
now unlock every word that or orat least have a general

(37:14):
understanding, right, that thenactually prompts them to do more
word learning around that um,to be able to like go and be,
like oh, okay, I, I get thatthis.
This must mean you know, to see, or whatever, and then I'm
going to look at the partsaround it.
Like you're actually teachingthem how to dissect and
understand words in a biggercontext, which is, I mean,
clearly showing off with ahundred percent.

(37:35):
That's so cool.

Kory Jensen (37:37):
So yeah, so after they actually built the word and
write a word, then they writethe definition and then they I
always ask them what part ofspeech the word is and then they
write it into a sentence.
We do that pretty much liketwice a week where they build
words and it only takes about 10minutes.
Here are your word parts Builda word, build your words, pick
one word, use your morphologykey, find the definition what

(38:00):
part of speech is this word?
And then put it in and thenwrite your vocabulary word into
a sentence right there.
So like if we were to doinspect.
Inspect means to watch and meansto look into, like in or into,
so to look into something.
If I inspect something, I'mlooking into something.
Inspect does not have a suffix,most likely going to be a verb

(38:22):
because of the way thedefinition is to look into.
Has the word to in it, mostlikely going to be a verb.
So then we write it into asentence.
Start with the subject I amgoing to inspect blank right
there.
So then they can, or I will,inspect those type of words
right there.
Then we can talk about otherparts of speech when I add add

(38:44):
the past tense to it If I adding to the word, make it present
, progressive and those type ofsuffixes.
Right there as we go.

Melissa (38:53):
So you definitely have them writing, because I said I
was going to bring it back towriting, so you definitely have
them writing sentences.
Do they have to include thesewords in any other types of
writing?

Kory Jensen (39:04):
I definitely at the end of the five day cycle.
So we spend five days on morethemes, five days on a topic
five-day cycle.
So we spend five days on warthemes, five days on a topic.
So, like I said, right nowwe're going into which one is
better a drone show or fireworksand we talk about, like, the
pros and cons of each one.
So it's going to be opinionwriting and that's pretty much
what the question is which oneis a better form of

(39:24):
entertainment a drone show orfireworks and they have to write
a paragraph on that.
And, to the point, right now,when it comes to writing, I
pretty much just say I want youto add two of these weekly words
that we worked on and brokeinto morphemes into your writing
.
You need to have a topicsentence.
You need to have two to threedetailed sentences.
You need a conclusion statement.

(39:45):
I might add other things, likeyou need different types of
sentences.
Don't make them all declarative.
Try that for a challenge.
Try to add a compound subjectsubordinate conjunction, add a
conjunction, and I just writethose as expectations on the
board and then I go and then Iwrite two and then I want to
have two weekly words in yourwriting, for writing your

(40:06):
paragraph to answer thisquestion.
So it's also helping buildtheir knowledge because, as we
know, writing can be one of thebest indicators to show your
knowledge on a topic.

Melissa (40:18):
Yeah, and it's a good way for you as the teacher to
kind of see their knowledge ofthe topic.
But then also are they usingthese words like correctly?
So you get to kind of get asense of their vocabulary
knowledge as well.

Kory Jensen (40:29):
And it's just like a quick paragraph writing.
Then they just turn it into meand I take quick notes on it and
send it back to them, and we'vedone this for like almost every
single week.

Lori (40:37):
So powerful, oh my gosh.
I feel like you're using wordsto promote, or you're using word
learning to promote both, likespeaking and reading, comprehend
or not both.
Let me start again.
Actually, we'll edit this partout.
So powerful I feel like you areusing word learning to teach

(40:59):
reading comprehension, to teachwriting comprehension, to teach
oral language comprehension.
Is there anything, Kory, thatyou do to model this as a
teacher, like?
I know that you talked aboutthe student exploration and
their use of their resources,but from a teaching perspective,
do you do any explicitinstruction around these words

(41:20):
at any point during that, likeexploration before or after or
any other points in the day?

Kory Jensen (41:27):
That's a great question.
So they usually don't do theexploration until I say, if it's
a five-day cycle, on day fourso usually day two and three is
more explicit instruction wherethe word might already be broken
for them and they just writethe definition under each part.
So if we did inspection Iprobably just broke it into N,

(41:47):
spec, shun, and then they justfind the word parts right there.
And actually breaking intomorphemes makes me think of one
other thing that we always getinto as a conversation in our
classroom that breakingmorphemes is not the same as
breaking into syllables Likethose are way too different
things A lot of the teachers Canyou explain that for everybody?
listening.
Okay, contra, contra has twosyllables, but that's one

(42:10):
morpheme, which means against oropposite, right there.
So breaking into morphemes isnot the same as breaking it into
syllables.
Those are two differentunderstandings for students and
that's kind of pretty much whatI tell them, like by the time
you get up to upper grades, andnot saying that you can, like
you could, teach morphemes inlower grades, like that is

(42:31):
possible to teach more themes inlower grades, but by the time
they get up to upper grades.
I try to make the distinction,like we, I already know you know
how to read this word.
That's now I want you to knowwhat the word actually means.
Like I have data that you canall read this word, but can you?
But do you know what this wordmeans and can you use it in a

(42:52):
sentence?
Can you use it in spokenlanguage?
I know some teachers in myschool actually put a weekly
word on their shirt and a badgewith a definition and kids have
to use that weekly word two tothree times a day.

Melissa (43:06):
I was just going to say Lynn Lynn Stone, bringing her
back again, she actually postedjust, I think, today, kind of
because she's in Australia, so Idon't know yesterday, today,
but she just posted about thisvery topic, about syllables
versus word parts and how youknow.
Yes, when they're learning howto decode, learn, you know,
breaking into syllables is veryhelpful, but also there's less.

(43:29):
You know, we I see thesequestions all the time of like
where do you break this word?
And some people say this thisway, some people say that way,
and it's like, well, okay, youknow, if we're, if we're arguing
about this, do we really needto like get kids to have this
exactly correct?
And she just said what you said, which is, you know, the better
question is to get to.
Once they know how to decode italready, like you said, most of

(43:50):
your students do already thenlet's talk about what the parts
mean, because that is so muchmore powerful to get them to
know the meaning of the words.
So you and Lynn Stone on thesame page.

Kory Jensen (44:01):
We're right there.
Wow, I'm glad I'm on the samepage with Lynn Stone.
That makes me feel a lot better.

Lori (44:06):
That's a good page to be on.

Kory Jensen (44:07):
Yeah, I'm like, apparently what I'm doing in my
classroom is appropriate, sothat's great.

Lori (44:14):
Kory, is there anything that, as you're working with
your students, that reallysurprised you?
Either I'm thinking within thislike five day cycle of word
teaching, word learning, or justgenerally over the course of
the school year.
It's almost.
You know our listeners will behearing this in March, so
anything over the course of theschool year that you've noticed
your students have grown.

Kory Jensen (44:34):
They definitely grown in their knowledge around
the morphemes, Like when youexplicitly teach them and you
just keep going back to wordsthat have morphemes and they
have an explicit morphology keywith them that they can
reference all the time.
My pre-assessment at thebeginning of the year I think I
only had one student pass theirmorphology question and we just

(44:56):
did assessment yesterday and Ihave about 95% pass.

Lori (45:02):
Wow, oh my gosh, congratulations.

Kory Jensen (45:04):
That's amazing and, like I said, and the state test
data just keeps going up and upwith their vocabulary
instruction right there.
And I know that when they havea strong vocabulary their
comprehension gets more in depth, they're able to answer the
questions in a more depth waywith their writing and they're
just able to unlock a lot moreof their understanding, and not
just in reading, writing andspeaking, like in math and

(45:27):
science.
So like, for example, we'reworking on shapes and geometry,
so we're working on hexagons andquadrilaterals.
So then we go well, hex meanssix, gon means shape, so a
six-sided shape.
Right there.
And actually in Greekmorphology keys it actually does
work from left to rightsix-sided shape, whereas Latin

(45:50):
roots it works the other wayaround.
And I kind of got into a bignerd session there for a while
and I started digging into theEnglish language and all the
word parts.
I was like, oh, this is why wehave Latin Roots and this is why
we have Greek and this is whywe have French in here and this
is why we have Anglo-Saxon.
So then you could take it toother contexts and build their
knowledge Once they understandGreek, combining forms, latin

(46:10):
roots, those type of things.
It doesn't does have to stickin literacy.
I would love to take it intothe art class, into physical
education, into music, all thosedifferent types of parts right
there where it's like you unlockso much for the student to just
understand the world aroundthem.

Melissa (46:27):
Yeah, and, Kory, I just love how you're.
I mean, you're building, likeyou said, your own curiosity
around words is, I mean, I'msure that is rubbing off on your
students and that is so hugefor students to have that
mindset of just wanting to beable to.
Well, let me figure out thisword.
I want to know, like, not justbecause, like, oh, it's cool to
see kids excited, but that'sgoing to help them learn words

(46:47):
for the rest of their life, soit's huge.

Kory Jensen (46:51):
And all those work parts and I actually try to say
with them they're like you don'tknow the definition of this
word.
I was like no, I was not taughtthis way, I was not taught to
break it into morphemes.
So when I'm breaking intomorphemes with you, I'm actually
learning right alongside withyou.
Could I look up the answer in abook?
I could, but I'd rather learnit with you, like well knowing
this word, I think this is whatit means.
But I saw the morphemes rightthere, and going into those

(47:14):
morphemes right there, whatcould be challenging is that a
lot of morphemes have differentmeanings.
With them, like shun does meanthe quality, the action.
So then you have to really digdeep.
Well, which one is it?
Is it the quality or is it theaction?

Lori (47:33):
Right, and then you're thinking about the comprehension
of the sentence, of the part ofthe book that you're reading or
of the article that you'rewriting.
The paragraph that you'retrying to unpack and I think
that that's the powerful part isand I totally get it Like you
learning alongside them.
When they're authenticallyasking a question.
You're like, well, I think itmeans this, like what's more
powerful than that.
You know you've already, youhave your time for your explicit
instruction, you have your time.

(47:53):
Well, I think it means this,like what's more powerful than
that.
You know you've already, youhave your time for your explicit
instruction.
You have your time.
Um, you know your plannedopportunities right Within your
instruction.
But when they authentically areasking you questions like that,
modeling for them, like I thinkit's this because I'm I'm
breaking it down this way andlike talking that out for them,
just like you did for us sopowerful for kids to hear you

(48:15):
model that and be like oh yeah,I was kind of a little off there
, but I had the idea here withthe prefix, but I didn't really
quite.
I wasn't able to reallyarticulate that root word or
that base word as clearly as Icould have.
I mean so powerful for themboth to hear you unpacking it
and also to hear you like bothbe wrong and also correct,

(48:37):
sometimes right.
Oh, cool, I got that.
That's awesome.
So I love that you're thatmodel for your students and
really helping them get to thatplace too.

Kory Jensen (48:48):
No, they like to write their own definition when
they're just like oh, I don'tknow, let me try.
And then they talk about it attheir table Like this is what I
wrote, what did you write, whatdid you write.
And then they just talk aboutthat kind of stuff Like this is
what I think it means.
Oh, I kind of wrote the samething right there.
And then when I actually, andthen I tell them yeah, you were
pretty close to that one.

Melissa (49:12):
Well, Kory, we cannot thank you enough.
We love hearing about whatyou're doing in your classroom,
so thank you so much for yourtime and for sharing with our
audience.
We really appreciate it.

Kory Jensen (49:22):
Yes, just one more quick thing.
If you would like to see thisin a visual, check out Melissa
and Lori's book the Literacy 50,on page 124,.
Has that model of my classroomright there ready for you?
It's on page 124 in theLiteracy 50, how students write
on the cards green, yellow, red,how they put it in the morphing

(49:45):
mat, how they write it into aword, write into a sentence,
write the definition.
All that is on page 124.
So if you have the book, checkthat out for a visual reference.

Melissa (49:54):
Thank you again so much , Kory.
We really appreciate it.
To stay connected with us.
Sign up for our email list atliteracypodcastcom, Join our
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Lori (50:11):
If this episode resonated with you, take a moment to share
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Melissa (50:20):
Just a quick reminder that the views and opinions
expressed by the hosts andguests of the Melissa and Lori
Love Literacy Podcast are notnecessarily the opinions of
Great Minds PBC or its employees.

Lori (50:32):
We appreciate you so much and we're so glad you're here to
learn with us.