March 7, 2025 • 47 mins
In Episode 219, Blythe Anderson discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction, specifically through the use of vocabulary talk moves.
These "talk moves" are designed to promote word learning and help teachers effectively teach new vocabulary. Blythe covers various types of vocabulary moves, their research backing, and practical examples of how teachers can implement them in the classroom - emphasizing the complexity of vocabulary learning as well as the need for repeated exposure and active engagement to foster curiosity and understanding.
Blythe explains effective teaching moves for vocabulary instruction, including the importance of context, repetition, and meaningful engagement with words. She outlines ten key strategies that educators can implement to enhance students' understanding and retention of vocabulary. The discussion also touches on the significance of selecting appropriate words for instruction and the role of affective and metacognitive factors in vocabulary learning. Blythe encourages educators to reflect on their current practices and gradually incorporate new strategies into their teaching.
Resources
- "Vocabulary Talk Moves: Using Language to Promote Word Learning" by Blythe Anderson
- No More “Look Up The List” Vocabulary Instruction (book)
- "Flood, Fast, Focus" Integrated Vocabulary Instruction in the Classroom (IRA Brief)
- A Teacher’s Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day (eBook)
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lori (00:01):
Hi teacher friends.
We all know that vocabulary issuper important for students
reading comprehension andwriting skills, but knowing
which words to teach and how toteach them effectively can feel
complicated.
Melissa (00:13):
That's why today we're talking to Blythe Anderson,
assistant professor of literacyeducation at the University at
Buffalo.
You'll hear all aboutvocabulary talk moves, which are
simple, research-basedstrategies that help students
learn, use and engage with newwords in authentic ways.
Lori (00:30):
Best part, we'll break down 10 powerful talk moves that
elementary teachers are alreadyusing successfully and show you
how to apply them across theschool day, from science
instruction to read-alouds.
Melissa (00:41):
So if you've been wondering which words to teach
and how to make vocabularyinstruction more effective.
This episode is for you.
Lori (00:50):
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 (00:59):
We worked together in Baltimore when the district
adopted a new literacycurriculum.
Lori (01:04):
We realized there was so much more to learn about how to
teach reading and writing.
Melissa (01:10):
Lori, and I can't wait to keep learning with you today.
Lori (01:16):
Hi, blythe, welcome to the podcast.
Hi, thanks so much for havingme on.
Yeah, we cannot wait to havethis awesome conversation about
vocabulary today.
Blythe Anderson (01:25):
I'm always happy to talk about vocabulary.
Melissa (01:27):
Yay, and we found your article called Vocabulary Talk
Moves Using Language to PromoteWord Learning, and Lori and I
both were like we have to talkto her about this.
It's so good and in it youmentioned that a few things that
teachers find challenging.
One is, of course, making timefor vocabulary instruction,
(01:48):
which we know.
Time is always something thatis an issue for teachers, and
one of the main questions thatthey ask is what strategies can
we teach or use to teach newwords effectively?
So you talk about this in thearticle, so can you explain for
our listeners what arevocabulary talk moves and how
can they help teachers withthese challenges?
Blythe Anderson (02:08):
Yeah, so I refer to vocabulary talk moves.
I consider those to be waysthat teachers use language to
promote vocabulary development,and so the particular moves are
based on the research of youknow how children learn words,
and so you know a move can besomething as simple as like
explaining a word to a child, sojust something that a teacher
(02:30):
is doing just verbally, throughtheir own talk, to support
children's vocabularydevelopment.
Lori (02:35):
Awesome, and I know you said there were 10, and they're
backed by research.
Do you want to share a littlebit more about the research
aligned moves that you observedmost frequently?
Blythe Anderson (02:47):
Yes, yes, so the moves that are in this
article are.
There's really, I call themthree different types of moves,
and so there are knowledge andunderstanding moves that are
really focused on, you know,learning the meanings of new
words.
Right at the heart ofvocabulary development is that
you are learning the meanings ofeither new words or learning
(03:08):
additional meanings for wordsthat you might already know.
Right, so some words, the mostfrequently used words, have
often have more than one meaning.
So any moves, like I said, like, for example, explaining the
meaning of a word to a child,those are the kind of knowledge
and understanding modes.
And then a second type of moveis what I call affective factors
(03:31):
, and so the task of wordlearning is really really
complex.
So, right, I talked alreadyabout like there's multiple
meanings for words.
We learn the meanings over time.
You know, our understanding ofsome words actually helps us
understand other words better.
So there's like kind of thisinterrelatedness that happens.
(03:51):
There's just a lot that goesinto vocabulary learning that
makes it really complex, and sovocabulary researchers have
theorized that in order for kidsto you know, when they come
across a word that they don'tknow, like they're reading on
their own or somebody's talkingto them and, like you know, a
lot of kids are just going toskip that and go on right, like
skip over it and see if we canmake meaning and keep going.
(04:11):
But we want kids to be able torecognize oh wait, I don't
really know what that means andwe want them to be curious
enough about what it means andfeel like learning words is
worthwhile and to put thateffort in to figure out those
new words.
So the affective factors arekind of the moves that get kids
to be curious and interested andkind of have that feeling about
(04:35):
vocabulary that this is animportant thing that we want to
do.
So an example of a move likethat is, you know, if a child
asks you what something means,like taking that opportunity
maybe it wasn't the word youwere planning on focusing on,
but like taking that opportunityto like capitalize on that
curiosity.
So that's just one example.
And then the third type of moveare what I call metacognitive
(04:57):
and metalinguistic moves, andthese are really important
because we can't possibly teachall the words that there are for
kids to learn.
And so if we think about, youknow, constrained skills versus
unconstrained skills I knowyou've had people on who have
talked about that, paris'sconstrained skills theory.
Right, if you're learning theletters of the alphabet, you're
(05:19):
learning the sounds, all those.
Those are what we callconstrained skills.
You can learn them to mastery,you know, with effective
instruction, in a relativelyshort amount of time.
You know, not across yourentire lifetime, but but
unconstrained skills, likevocabulary, like we're learning
them forever, right.
And so we really want kids tobecome independent word learners
(05:40):
, to like, take on this task oflearning all these words that we
need to teach out there.
You know we can't, because wecan't teach them all, and so
having kids have an awareness ofhow language works, you know
this metalinguistic awareness isreally useful, and so part of
you know these types of movesare about, you know, having kids
(06:01):
recognize oh, I've heard thatword before.
Or, like you know, consideringhave I heard that word, where
have I heard that word, thosekinds of things.
So, yes, so there are.
Within this article, there are10 moves.
This is from a broader study.
I found 32 different vocabularytalk moves that teachers used,
and this study took place withinscience instruction.
(06:23):
It was actually part of abroader study, an NSF-funded
study that I worked on with myadvisor, dr Tanya Wright, and
also with Dr Amelia Gottwald.
It was the SOLIDSTART project,which stands for Science, oral
Language and LiteracyDevelopment from the Start of
School, and so my research waswithin that broader study.
(06:44):
I was looking to see, withinthese science lessons that early
elementary teachers wereteaching, I wanted to see what
kinds of vocabulary talk moveswere they using.
You know, science is thisreally rich context, and we know
how important meaningfulcontext is to vocabulary
learning, and so, theoreticallyright, there should be many
(07:05):
opportunities to supportvocabulary learning within that
context.
And so, looking at eightdifferent teachers, three
different lessons per teacheracross a semester, they were
able to use whatever curricularmaterials they wanted, and so we
had, you know they wanted, andso we had, you know, collected
(07:28):
their 24 video recordings totaland took those 895 minutes of
instruction, and I was able togo through all of them right and
code for these particularvocabulary talk moves.
So there's 32 altogether, but Ifound that 10 of the moves made
up almost 90% of what theteachers were doing with their
talk, and so those are the movesthat are focused on in the
article.
Melissa (07:47):
Blythe, can I just ask a quick question?
So your study was kind ofseeing what the teachers were
doing most often, but thesemoves are based in other
research.
Is that?
Blythe Anderson (07:59):
correct, exactly, yes, so this was an
observational study and all ofthe codes for you know that I
discovered that they were usingthese types of moves are all
based in the research.
So from other research we knowthat these kinds of things
support vocabulary development,and I wanted to see our teachers
doing this in practice.
Right, this was anobservational study.
(08:20):
The teachers didn't know I wasinterested in vocabulary talk
moves.
They were just teaching sciencelessons, just kind of.
We wanted to see, like, just,you know, what's from typical
instruction?
Uh, if you're not purposelytrying to support vocabulary any
more than you would any otherday, right, like what, what's
just kind of typical?
Um, yeah, exactly, and so, um,a next step that I'm really
interested in is, um, again,this was part of a larger study
(08:43):
and so there were someconstraints in terms of, like,
the data that was collected, andso I would love to do a
replication study where we havesome student out, you know,
learner outcomes aroundvocabulary, and be able to try
to correlate like which movesmaybe supported vocabulary
learning the most.
So that's a next step.
But at this point, these areall what we would consider
(09:04):
research-based moves.
They're based in research thatsays that these practices
support vocabulary development.
Lori (09:10):
Okay, and what I heard you just explain were like these
big overarching categories wherethe moves kind of fit into, and
I heard you give an example ofeach move that fits into that
category.
Would you mind breaking downthose top 10 that make up 90%,
Like maybe just I mean and I'mhappy to do it too right Like
run through the 10 of them andthen kind of hand it over to you
(09:32):
to explain a little bit more?
And you know, I know that we'regoing to talk about them in
these broad categories, but Ithink just hearing all 10 would
be really helpful for ourlisteners.
What do you think, Blythe, youwant to go through, you want me
to go through would be reallyhelpful for our listeners.
Blythe Anderson (09:46):
What do you think, blythe, you want me to go
through?
It's your study?
Yeah, I'm happy to.
Yeah, okay, so the first twomoves they kind of cluster
together because they're oftenused together.
That's what we found.
Some moves can be used on theirown, but often we found the
moves were used in conjunctionwith each other.
So the first move is just usingtarget words.
So a word became a target wordwhen the teacher drew attention
(10:07):
to it and its meaning.
So I wasn't like looking to seewhat did the curriculum say?
The words they should have beenteaching, right?
I was just looking to seewithin the actual lesson what
words were they bringingattention to and supporting kids
and understanding the meaningsof those words.
And so we know that repetitionis really important, for you
know you don't just hear a wordonce and it's meaning and you've
(10:27):
got it right.
So repetition we learn thesewords incrementally over time
and so I wanted to track youknow how often kids were getting
to hear these kinds of wordsonce they've been introduced.
And so the most frequently usedvocabulary talk move was just
using the word, and that wasoften used with.
The second move is using it withemphasis.
(10:49):
So, like I said, you knowdrawing kids' attention.
We know teachers do a lot oftalking in classrooms and so to
help them kind of like tune intowhat's really important here,
the teachers often said thesewords with emphasis.
So, for example, one of theteachers said yes, the wind in
our classroom is calm.
And so in that example, bothwind and calm were examples of
(11:13):
target words that the teacherhad previously targeted by
telling the meaning of them.
Example for emphasizing it.
The teacher said so, is it amammal?
And she particularly emphasizedmammal as she said it right.
So there she's, using it andemphasizing it.
Melissa (11:33):
So it's literally just the tone of the voice of the
teacher.
Like that, it's so, it's soeasy.
Lori (11:38):
It would be in italics in a text right, like if I were
reading a book and it were beingemphasized.
It would be like, so is it amammal Right?
So just using and emphasizing.
Oh my gosh, how easy are thosefirst two talk moves Like check.
I feel like I do that every dayin real life and teacher life.
Blythe Anderson (11:57):
Absolutely.
And that's the thing aboutthese moves is they're not like
oh, I need to like scrapeverything I know and like
implement these 10 brand newthings.
Right, a lot of these things.
I think teachers are going tosay, like I already do this.
I maybe didn't realize I wasdoing it, or maybe, now that I'm
aware that it's reallyimportant, I could like be
mindful and do it a little more.
Melissa (12:14):
Make sure I'm doing it.
Blythe Anderson (12:16):
Exactly.
But you know, on their own,like understanding that
repetition is important andthose multiple exposures in
different contexts is important.
I think, like, consider whatare the words that we're really
working on right now and how canI make sure to bring those up
and how can I bring theirattention to them?
Obviously, if you'reemphasizing the word every
single time you say it, it'sprobably not going to have that
(12:37):
same effect of really bringingtheir attention to it.
But just you know, as you'reintroducing it and really
drawing their attention to it inthat way, that can be helpful.
Lori (12:46):
That's awesome.
All right, so we've got thefirst two.
They're really simple.
I feel like a rock star already.
Melissa (12:53):
I'm feeling like I can handle those.
I can do that.
Lori (13:04):
And I can emphasize words.
Blythe Anderson (13:06):
So love this for us.
You want to go through movesthree again.
This is like not rocket science.
So so much of explaining orhaving kids learn new words is
right, explaining the meaningsto them.
So this move is explaining ordefining the word.
I really prefer the term anexplanation over a definition.
Right, a definition is like aset.
(13:26):
It has its own genre.
It's how you, you know how yousay it.
It's supposed to have very fewwords because it needs to fit in
the dictionary, right, and sowe often don't say things the
most clear.
And a true definition but Ithink you know, any kind of
explanation that maybe uses alot more words but makes it very
clear for students is what'simportant.
Right, and using child-friendlylanguage.
(13:47):
So, in order for something tobe child-friendly, like the
words that we use to explaincan't be more challenging than
the word that we're explainingin the first place, right?
I work with a lot of studentswho are getting their initial
certification, so they're goingto become teachers and so, right
, when they're practicingwriting definitions for my class
, sometimes the words that theyuse to explain are actually well
(14:09):
, that would be a whole newtarget word too, like you'd have
to teach both Um, so that'sjust something to really be
mindful Like.
What is it that childrenprobably already understand and
can use that then to understandthis new word, um, and also like
the concepts that right, likeyou need to use familiar words
and familiar, familiar conceptsif the word itself is right
brand new, um, yes, okay, sothat was the first one.
(14:31):
So examples from the classesthat the classrooms that I saw,
right.
One of the teachers said so,bipeds are animals that use two
legs for walking.
So right, she's very clearly.
Bipeds was the target word, Ibelieve.
She said it with emphasis.
So we're stacking.
She used it, she said it withemphasis and she also gave that
really clear explanation.
(14:52):
Right, children understandanimals, two legs, walking.
Like that's all very accessiblefor them.
Another teacher said so theneeds are things that we have to
have in order to survive, right, so that was a whole lesson on
wants and needs, and so it madeit clear needs are things that
we have to have.
Really accessible languagethere.
(15:14):
The next move, I think I think alot of educators do this just
naturally, maybe don't evenrealize that they're doing this,
but helping students makepersonal connections.
I think we're always trying tohelp situate in a way that you
know, in your context of yourlife, how is this going to make
sense?
And so the context of thisparticular example is this study
(15:36):
took place in a largeMidwestern state during the
winter and they had just had,like this polar vortex, like
they missed like a solid week ofschool.
The kids had all been home, ithad been very cold, almost too
cold to play outside during thattime, and so this is like their
first day back after thatextended break.
And so the lesson happened tobe on severe weather conditions.
(16:00):
And so the teacher said in thepast three or four days we've
had some severe weatherconditions.
So she's, this is akindergarten classroom.
The kids all know they werestuck inside, right.
So she's helping them make thatconnection to their own life.
And another example that teacher, that same teacher who was
(16:20):
talking about needs, said so,for example, in our house, do we
need to have a way to get water?
Right.
So she's not just like needsare things that you need, but
giving them a specific exampleof you know, in your home do you
have access to water?
You know that's something thatwe need to survive.
And then the fifth, roundingout this set of moves.
The fifth move again is thingsthat I think educators naturally
(16:44):
do already, providing anexample or a non-example, and
sometimes that can be even moreclear, I think, at times than an
explanation or a non-example,and sometimes that can be even
more clear, I think, at timesthan an explanation or a
definition, depending on theword right.
Sometimes I think the examplecan be more illuminating.
So there was a lesson onhabitats and the target word was
shelter, and so the teacherexplained that grass can also be
(17:06):
shelter for animals.
So she's giving that example ofgrass right as being that
shelter.
And then back to the lesson onneeds.
Here's an example of anon-example where the teacher
said but if we have a house,which is our shelter, do we have
to?
So there's an example like thehouse is the shelter she had
that part in there and then shesays do we have to have a bed?
(17:29):
And they say no.
So a bed is a want.
So that's an example.
They're specifically focusingon need.
And then the non-example is bed, which the children actually in
this example thought that theyreally did need the bed.
And so that was a whole otherconversation about how people
sleep in many different ways.
But you could survive without abed if needed, so that yeah,
(17:52):
that rounds out that second setof moves.
Lori (17:56):
Yeah, I'm curious, did you see?
I know these are talk moves andso we're talking about like the
language here, but did any ofthe teachers use visuals to help
bring these to life, or isthere any like research that
supports that visuals, in termsof like showing, is helpful?
Blythe Anderson (18:18):
Yes, yes, so um one of them, just double
checking here um some visuals indifferent ways.
Lori (18:25):
So if we move on to some of the last moves, I know I was
like I kind of I realized afterI said it that I might be
pushing ahead.
I apologize.
Blythe Anderson (18:34):
That's okay, but, yes, there were visuals in
different ways, so we'll get tothe acting out and demonstrating
in that way.
But also, just one of the movesthat didn't make the top 10,
but was also one of the movesthat I found was showing like a
picture or pointing, pointing tothe object itself, those kinds
of moves where you're actually,you know, saying the word.
(18:55):
It was a talk move, becausethey were saying it was done in
conjunction with talking aboutthat, the word, right, but they
were pointing to it.
Um, the other, one of the othermoves that's coming up, um, in
the final set, is visuallydisplaying the word itself, so
the printed word, um, you know,showing the letters, and so that
is another way of drawing theirattention to it.
(19:16):
So, showing the actual objectbut also the word.
Lori (19:20):
Okay, thank you.
I didn't want to get us too offcourse, so we made it through
the first five, nice and clean.
Melissa (19:27):
I have a quick follow up on those on this set, if you
don't mind Not to get toonitpicky, but I'm wondering like
is there sometimes overlapbetween them?
Because I was thinking about,like that water example you said
it was a personal connectionbut also feels like could be an
example.
Is that I'm assuming that somesome of these things could be
both at the same time?
(19:47):
Is that correct?
Blythe Anderson (19:48):
Absolutely yes.
So if you see my codedtranscripts, it's often, you
know, sometimes it's just onemove, but often it's like three
or four moves happening together.
So if they said it, and theysaid it with emphasis, and they
provided an example, and it wasan example that was relevant to
their life, right there there'sfour.
If they had pointed to it too,you know, if they had shown the
word, so often these things areall happening together.
Melissa (20:11):
Okay, I didn't want to get teachers like to get too in
their heads of thinking like amI doing a personal connection or
am I doing an example?
Which one is it?
Blythe Anderson (20:19):
It's both You're good to go and the
important thing is that you'redoing them.
So you know, as a researcher, Ihave to get very specific about
like what makes this thisversus that, but as a
practitioner, very specificabout like what makes this this
versus that.
Um, but as a practitioner, it'sjust do do all of it, right, um
?
Lori (20:35):
so, yeah, okay, should we?
Should we push on to sixthrough 10?
I feel like I'll just do aquick recap, if that's okay, of
one through five, so all right.
So, uh, first is using the, thetarget word.
The second is emphasizing thetarget word.
The third is explaining orperhaps defining the target word
(20:55):
.
The fourth is making aconnection to the word.
And five, providing an exampleor a non-example.
Melissa (21:02):
All right, so I'm going to pass you the baton.
Lori (21:05):
I think six and seven are grouped together over here.
Blythe Anderson (21:08):
The move six is prompting students to use a
target word or to use itsmeaning, so either way.
And so remember that thatrepeated exposure is really
important and building this overtime in different contexts, and
so that review part is reallyimportant for these words.
We need many encounters withwords to really kind of own it
(21:29):
and have that understanding.
Encounters with words to reallykind of own it and have that
understanding.
And so, for one of the examples, there was a discussion about
prehistoric creatures and theteacher prompted students to use
the word herbivore, and so shesaid so if it ate plants, what
was it called?
So she's trying to remind themyou learned a real big fancy
word, I think was her word forit right about this?
What was that?
(21:49):
And another teacher promptedstudents to use the term wind
flag.
So they had been working on theweather unit and different
tools that they had, and so shesaid do you remember what the
new tool was that we made fromthe previous lesson?
So this was at the start of alesson and she's reviewing and
prompting kids to supply that.
Both of these examples, she wasasking them to say the word
(22:12):
itself, but she also could havesaid the word and said you know,
do you remember what that means?
Move seven, then, is elicitingstudents' ideas for a review
word.
So anytime we can get studentsinvolved, that active engagement
, we want to have them reallysharing their ideas around this.
And so if we're just sayinghere's a word and here's its
(22:34):
meaning and we're just trying toget that to stick right, that's
not as effective as if we'regetting kids actively involved,
having that deeper processing,thinking about it and using it,
using their own words andlanguage to talk about it.
So this is an example ofgetting kids involved.
And so one of the teachersasked again weather conditions.
The teacher said what do weknow about stratus clouds?
(22:58):
And so then that wholediscussion ensued about the
different cloud types that theyknew and stratus clouds in
particular.
And then back to that wind flagconversation.
The teacher asked the studentswhat the wind flag was used for.
So the students, I think, whenthey, when she asked what tool,
the student specifically saidflag.
And so she's like that's agreat starting place, but like,
okay, what is a wind flag usedfor?
So, trying to get back at theimportance of the wind, part of
(23:19):
that for the tool.
And then the move eight is usingtarget words with a hint.
And so for this move, theteacher uses a word in context
but provides some kind of hintor clue about it.
So a teacher was they weretalking about a crossing.
And so the teacher said so youwill have to design some sort of
(23:42):
crossing for your animal to getacross the road or under the
road.
So here there's it's.
Again, as a researcher, I haveto be specific about what makes
that different from anexplanation.
Right, as a practitioner you'rejust going to give that.
Whether it's a hint or anexplanation doesn't matter as
much.
But the specific differencehere is that it's implicit.
(24:06):
So the teacher isn't saying acrossing is something that you
use to get from one place toanother.
Right, but you can tell fromhow she's explaining it that
you're supposed to get from oneplace to another.
And so in another example theteacher was hinting at the
meaning of the word angle.
So she's like they were notstraight up and down, they were
(24:27):
at an angle right, and so she'sgot that straight up and down as
an example.
I think often this move can beused when you want to make sure
students are understanding whatyou're talking about but also
want to introduce this moretechnical word or this word that
might be new for them, right,and so you can explain it.
You know it's not straight upand down, and then you can give
(24:47):
them language for what it isit's at an angle, or it's
diagonal, or whatever the casemay be.
So I think if you think aboutthis move as it's really just
that scaffold, so that they canget this new word and understand
its meaning together, it's kindof like context clues when
you're reading.
Melissa (25:02):
Absolutely.
Blythe Anderson (25:03):
Yeah, it's like you're providing context clues.
That's a really great way tothink about it, Like
intentionally providing contextclues.
Yes, you were on the righttrack.
So for move nine, this isvisually displaying target words
.
So this is where you have theword either already printed or
you write it in front of them,or, if you're reading a book,
you're like a big book or aprojected book right, when you
(25:24):
can point to the word and theycan see it, and this is really
important for providing thatorthographic information, right.
So when we think about learningwords and reading words, we're
putting together thatorthography, the spelling, the
way the word looks printed withhow it sounds.
So one of the moves that didn'tmake the top 10, but was an
important move is just askingchildren to like repeat the word
(25:45):
and say it out loud.
So here's a bonus move for youout.
So here's a bonus move for you.
So in that case they're hearingit and hearing themselves say
it, and then, of course, themeaning.
So we're always thinking aboutputting those three things
together the sounds, thephonemes, the orthography and
the meaning semantic part, andso by visually displaying or
(26:06):
showing kids the words, thathelps with showing them that
orthography and helping thembuild that representation in
their mind for the word.
And so examples of that theteacher wrote the word severe on
a whiteboard as she wasdescribing it for them, and so
she was saying it and writing itand showing them and then later
pulled that whiteboard back outand part of the conversation
(26:27):
says, well, what do we call thiskind of weather?
And she had it right there onthe board, Right, so she was
able to draw their attention tothat.
And another example I think itwas the same teacher, same
lesson, just wrote like extremeweather as she was saying it.
And so again, coming back tothat, having that visual that
kids can picture that word andthink of that word actually does
then support them in learningthat word and connecting it with
(26:49):
that meaning.
And then the final move was theother way of showing kids right
, and so this move is acting outor demonstrating the meanings
of the words.
And so I think early elementaryteachers in particular, I think,
do this really naturally oftenof showing and trying to explain
things, embodying them asthey're explaining them.
(27:10):
And so some examples theteacher was, they were talking
again lots of talk about severeweather, they were talking about
tornadoes, and so the teacherwas trying to explain the same
conversation about wind and allthose kinds of things.
So she's like using her fingersand like making circles with
her fingers showing like themovement of the wind.
Like making circles with herfingers showing like the
(27:33):
movement of the wind, and asshe's doing that, she's saying,
instead of the wind moving,every which way it spins in a
circle.
So she's demonstrating for themthe meaning of that.
And back to the teacher who wasgiving the context clue for
angle.
She first held her handstraight up and down and said
right, it's not straight up anddown, it's at an angle.
And she showed with her, youknow, moved her arm to make it
(27:54):
to be at an angle.
So there again she'sdemonstrating what that word
means.
So yeah, those were the top 10most frequently used moves.
The article does share all 32with examples, so if people are
curious about other ones, like Isaid, having kids repeat and
say the word out loud there aresome others that way, but these
(28:14):
are the ones I saw mostfrequently across those 24
lessons.
Melissa (28:18):
That's great and we will include this article in our
show notes so for people whoare out there looking for all 32
, they can go to our show notesto find that.
I wanted to ask some of thosethat you just mentioned were you
know about this, like reviewingand not letting the words just?
I always said when I learned, Ilike took a test on the words
and then I never heard thosewords again, which was terrible.
(28:40):
But is there like?
Is there research behind thatidea of like continuing the
review of words over time?
Blythe Anderson (28:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
There is an official number.
I think it's somewhere betweenseven and 12.
I can't remember the exactnumber of how many encounters
with the word it takes to reallylike own that word.
But also you have to consider,okay, that might be like one
sense of that word, but it mayhave other meanings, right?
And so I just think you knowthe distributed review is always
(29:10):
going to be an important part,but also just that that allows
for more repetition, that allowsfor more encounters in
different contexts, and soanytime that we can draw back to
words that we've already workedon as they make sense in
context, like you know, as ateacher, you know which words
you've already been focused onthroughout the year.
(29:31):
So, like, look for anyopportunity to bring those words
back up.
Maybe it's been a few monthssince you were talking about
herbivores or whatever but ifyou know that comes up naturally
like make.
That's a really greatopportunity to use that word and
remind kids that they haveheard it and make sure that
they're still remembering whatthat means.
Melissa (29:52):
I'm wondering.
So this is not what your studyis about at all, but I'm going
to pick your brain while you'rehere, which is the question
always comes up and I think youmentioned it in your article too
which is well, which wordsshould I teach, and you listed a
bunch of great examples ofwords that teachers were
teaching, but do you have anyrecommendations for how teachers
should choose which words to dothese moves with and which ones
(30:15):
are not necessarily worth theirtime to do all this with?
Blythe Anderson (30:19):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, a couple of things.
I'll start with how I kind ofthink about this, but I can also
share a few resources thatmight be helpful, that maybe I
can send you to link and shownotes as well, that I think are
helpful ways to think about this.
So I think it's reallyimportant to remember we want to
always be sharing words.
Ways to think about this.
So I think it's reallyimportant to remember we want to
always be sharing words inmeaningful context, right?
(30:40):
So I think you mentioned,melissa, having the experience
of, like there's a list of wordsI learned, I heard it once.
I like never came back to it,right?
So we know that that's noteffective.
There's a great book no Morelook up the list of vocabulary
instruction.
It's part of the series thatNell Duke and Alan Keane, I
think, did, and so, like, if you, if you want to hear more about
(31:02):
why that doesn't work, that's athat's a good resource, but we
always so keeping in mind thatthat meaningful context is so
important, and so that may be atext that you're reading,
whether it's a read aloud orit's the text that the students
are reading themselves, right,thinking about what are the
words that are important tounderstand this particular text.
(31:22):
So we know that when we take thetime to teach the challenging
words within a particular text,that helps kids learn those
particular words and it helpsthem understand that text.
So that is something that wewould want to do understand that
text.
So that is something that wewould want to do.
Consider, you know, which wordsare really important for making
sense in the text and alsowhich words might be words that
(31:42):
they will encounter again inother contexts.
That can be a helpful way tokind of narrow down which words
with limited time.
Also, you know, think aboutwhat are the words that students
aren't already likely to know.
I think I know that sounds kindof obvious, but you kind of
have to know your students, andso there's where you might be
working with some curricularmaterials that have suggested
(32:03):
some words and you're prettyconfident they already know
those words.
Like, don't take the time onthose.
Like look and find some othersthat you think might be more
words that your students wouldhave challenges with and focus
your time there instead.
I think.
So that's, you know, if themeaningful context that you're
talking about is a text, andtext could be right, like I said
(32:26):
, a read aloud.
It could be books that kids arereading.
It could be a video orsomething that you're sharing
that has some vocabulary in itthat you want to draw attention
to.
The other really meaningfulcontext which I alluded to, you
know, by looking at science,instruction with this study is
anytime you're working oncontent knowledge, you're
building knowledge of the worldright, and so, for example,
(32:46):
science or social study lessonsare really great places to be
thinking about what are thewords that are going to be
really important for thiscontent area and thinking about
introducing those words in.
You know semantically related.
You know networks of words orclusters of words.
They've been talked about indifferent ways, but I talked
(33:07):
earlier about part of thecomplexity of word learning.
Is that interrelatedness, butthat also is a benefit is that
we can introduce kids to wordsthat are related and help them
see those connections, and sothat may be a way to think about
when you're selecting words.
You know informational text.
Often the words that are goingto be challenging for them are
(33:28):
maybe those domain specificwords and they often appear in
these clusters that areconnected Right If you're
learning about I don't knowphotosynthesis, all the other
kinds of challenging words, areall going to be connected to
that meaning, and so byintroducing them together, that
can help build the meanings ofall of those words and help
(33:49):
students right as you'rebuilding their knowledge is
really what we're getting at.
And then also, ultimately youknow, any word that a student
doesn't know is a good word toteach.
So I think back to my days as Iwas a literacy coordinator and
part of my role was to doprofessional learning
experiences across the district,and so in one I was working
(34:10):
with a school and we were doinga book club and one of the
teachers shared this reallygreat example.
She was working with amultilingual learner and she had
previewed the text that theywere going to read and she was
pretty sure that the word nipwas going to be challenging.
There was a dog in the storythat nipped a boy's ankle, and
so she was all prepared to teachthe word nip.
(34:31):
And it turns out that there wasenough context clues.
The child understood dogs andhow they work, and, like that
wasn't the word that the childwasn't sure of, it was actually
the word ankle, and it's notthat this child doesn't know
what an ankle is, but theydidn't know the word in English
and so take advantage of thosemoments of that's the word that
that child needed to understandthat text instead.
(34:52):
And so just knowing yourstudents and being aware and I
think if you're building thatculture of like words are
interesting and worthwhilelearning and we want to be
curious about words like thatwill help you also then
determine like what's worthwhileto spend my time on.
Lori (35:07):
I love that story.
That's so fun.
Thank you for illuminating thatpoint.
Like sometimes we go in andwe're like definitely, you know,
these are the words I need toteach, and then, oh, the script
just flips on us once the kidscome into play.
Right, absolutely yes, yeah,all right.
So I'm just thinking right nowI have my teacher hat on I'm
(35:27):
thinking with 10 talk movesright, I know you said there's
32.
Melissa (35:31):
32, yeah.
Lori (35:32):
But we just focused on these top 10 today.
So if we're thinking aboutthese 10 moves, it might feel
overwhelming for our listenersto incorporate them all into
their daily routines.
Now, I know a lot of them aremoves they're already doing.
But if they're not doing them,or if a teacher like here's a
couple moves that they're like,oh, I'm interested in that, how
(35:53):
do you recommend teachers getstarted using these moves?
Blythe Anderson (35:58):
Yeah, I think, taking a look at either the list
of 10 or 32 and just kind oftaking a moment to reflect on,
like, which of these do Ialready really do and I think a
lot of educators are going tosay I'm really doing quite a few
of these already and so I think, just kind of a quick
self-assessment of where you arein terms of which ones are
(36:20):
already checked off we don'tneed to worry about, just
continue them.
Then there may be a set ofmoves that you know you do from
time to time but you could domore of those, right.
So just kind of thinking aboutI'm going to be more intentional
about doing these, but I knowit's something I do and then
think about which of the movesmight be more challenging to
(36:40):
implement.
Most of them, you know, can bedone on the fly across the day.
You know we still want to havevery planful instruction where
you've got those child-friendlyexplanations ready to go for a
lot of instruction.
But as you're walking down thehall, if a child's asking what
something means, right, you maybe just giving that explanation
on the go.
And so, for a lot of these moves, thinking about which ones
(37:02):
might be more challenging foryou to either implement or to
remember to implement.
You know, maybe having a stickynote up in your teaching area
and just reminding you for likeseveral weeks until it maybe
becomes more of a habit, like,oh yeah, I wanted to try to ask
kids to repeat the word moreoften, or something like that
Right, um.
And then you know, once you'vekind of got that, okay, these
(37:24):
are the ones I already do, theseare the ones that I just need
to boost a little bit more, andthen these are the ones that
really might be more challengingwith that, the more challenging
words, I would just pick one ortwo and say for the next, you
know, depending on the, how muchof a lift do you think it's
going to be like for the nextweek, or two or three weeks?
Like I'm just going to try tolike really be mindful about
using that.
I might like write it in mylesson plan, a couple.
(37:45):
You know, whatever it's going totake to remind you to like try
that out.
I think that's a start, like Iwouldn't start with all 32 at
once, but also thinking abouthow you can add a few at a time,
but also remembering that oftenthese are stackable, and so
maybe you already you know, usethe word and emphasize it and
(38:06):
give a child-friendlyexplanation.
But you could add asking kidsto repeat it and maybe you could
write it for them or you couldremember.
You know, I'm going to useGoogle Images or something I
don't know right to pull up thatword as we're talking about it,
if it's a word that can belearned easily like that.
So I think that's a goodstarting place.
Lori (38:25):
Thank you, those are super practical.
Yeah, and I feel like too.
Even as a parent, I'm alwaysemphasizing words, so maybe now
I'll just be more strategic.
I'm trying to vary my wordchoice.
Blythe Anderson (38:37):
Build in some of those context.
I think as a parent, that's onethat I really love to do is
like I just use all the words asif they're going to understand
them, but then I have thatscaffold in there for them too.
Lori (38:46):
Yeah, that's a great one.
What a fun way too to thinkabout, like you know, getting
the parents involved who arealways asking, like what can I
do at home?
Blythe Anderson (39:00):
This, asking like what can I do at home?
This is like super simple butseems like a big bang for your
buck.
You know, absolutely, yeah, andI actually I want to circle
back, because I mentioned aresource for and thinking about,
right, which words to teach andhow to teach them, another one
that I think is really helpful.
I think it's an ILA brief, butI actually think it's from
before the name change, so itmight be under IRA brief, but
it's called flood, fast andfocused, and so that's just in
terms of thinking about likewhich maybe it's fast but
(39:20):
focused.
It's those three in somecombination, right, but some
words you can just give thatquick explanation and keep going
.
A lot of it's just aboutlanguage.
You know, language exposure,that oral language input, and so
having the rich languageenvironment, having both through
talk and through the text thatyou're reading, right, they're
encountering all kinds of words.
But then the focused part thenis like which other words we
(39:43):
really want to spend time on,and so I think that can be as
you're thinking about, like Isaid, either the meaningful
context of the book or themeaningful context of the
science experiment, for example,like how, how do we want to
focus our attention there.
So I think it's sort of kind ofwe can sort words to like.
Which ones and to what degreedo they need instruction?
Melissa (40:07):
Plath, I'm kind of curious.
I wanted to bring this back tothe three big categories that
you mentioned at the beginning.
I think it was really easy forme to see how all these talk
moves were about knowledge andunderstanding new words.
Do you say that some of thesetalk moves also are part of
those affective factors and themetacognitive factors as well?
Blythe Anderson (40:28):
Yes, most of these moves that made the top 10
, I'm just doing a quick skimyes, most of the moves in the
top 10 are about building thatknowledge and understanding.
So, and that's like, like yousaid, that's what teachers were
doing primarily, for sure, thatare more about getting kids
(40:55):
interested in words.
And you know, just like helpingkids, helping kids make
personal connections that'sactually one of the affective
ones, right, like, if you'reappreciating word choice, so,
like you're, you're reading abook and you come across an
interesting word, you know justsaying, ooh, that's an
interesting word.
I don't hear that very often.
I, you know, you know thosekinds of those kinds of moves
that just um, shows that like wecan love words, like some words
(41:19):
are really fun and and I, oh Ireally like the way they said
that you know those kinds ofthings um, that build that like
feeling of, like words are cooland words are fun and, um, you
know we can play with words andyou know all those kinds of
things.
And then for the metalinguisticand metacognitive, I think it's
helpful to you know.
An example of one of those moveswas, I think, I think, actually
(41:42):
, with the severe weather theywere talking about, has anybody
heard anybody?
The teacher said you know, hasanybody heard your parents,
maybe, or on the news, talkabout severe weather, right?
So that was like think abouthave you heard this word before
and give them the opportunity toconsider like, do I know it?
How much do I know it?
(42:03):
It's not really the case withkids that we like know it or we
don't know it, right.
So there's a great analogy, andI don't remember who to
attribute this to.
But with vocabulary we don'twant to think about it as like a
light switch that's like on oroff, I know it or I don't know
it.
Right, but like that kind ofmore of like a dimmer switch,
where you know, the moreencounters and the more
understandings, right, and sohelping kids kind of evaluate
(42:25):
for themselves, like I thinkI've heard that before, you know
I've never heard it, or I thinkI've heard it but I can't
really explain it.
Or actually, like I play soccerand I know that a goalie does
this, this, this right, likethat's different levels of
understanding, um, and havingkids just be aware of that as
part of that, building thatmetalinguistic, metacognitive
awareness as well.
Melissa (42:47):
I actually just heard something similar at a
conference about that um, likewhat have you heard instead of
what do you know?
Which is like they're talkingabout the kwl chart and they're
like change that k from fromwhat do you know?
Which is like they're talkingabout the KWL chart and they're
like change that K from fromwhat do you know about this to
what have you heard about this,and they're like one takes a
little pressure off.
But, like you said, it's notlike a yes or no, it's like you
know there's.
There's many things.
I may have heard it over here,I might know a little bit, I
(43:08):
might know something about it oran example, but I don't know it
fully.
So I like that example of likechanging that wording to what
have you heard about this wordinstead of what do you know.
Like do you know this word?
Blythe Anderson (43:20):
Yeah, yeah, and I think you know.
Often, if we ask kids like doyou know this word?
Like most kids are, a lot ofkids are going to say yeah, like
well, or you know, like, ifyou're trying to help them think
about, like, what words shouldwe focus on?
Yeah, like they know them allright, like I've sat next to
fourth graders who are like Iknow all these words.
So if you phrase it, though,can you explain this word right,
that changes that too.
(43:41):
So it's just a similar exampleof changing the phrasing a
little bit.
But like, you may know it inthe sense of you've heard it in
these ways or you've heard it incertain contexts, but like do
you know it well enough toexplain it?
And that you know slightdifference, but often you get a
different response from kids.
Lori (43:56):
Then that's what I was thinking about when you were
talking is how, even how manytimes as an adult, have, like,
I've gone to explain a word tomy child and I have trouble
finding the words to explainthis meaning and sometimes I end
up giving an example or anon-example or right like a
synonym and I'm like, well, it'skind of like this, and then I'm
(44:18):
like I just there's so muchcomplexity in vocabulary that
even to like, say some word, saysome definitions, in a way that
a kid would understand isreally tricky because you have
to kind of like, think about itand then scaffold it down.
So sometimes, giving thatexample or not, so I love that
idea of like, can you explain it, because it really does open
(44:39):
the door more broadly tounderstanding, which is the
ultimate goal, right?
Absolutely yes.
Blythe Anderson (44:46):
Yeah, I think that's a little tweak.
We're so used to talking aboutdefinitions and so I think, like
that explanation really gets uscloser to what we want is that
kids can connect to the meaning.
Melissa (44:59):
Well, yeah, these talk moves are priceless and so
helpful for teachers, and Iwould walk away from today
feeling like I can do this, so Ithink that that is the best
part of everything you've sharedtoday.
Is there anything else that youjust want to share with our
listeners, anything that theyshould know?
Blythe Anderson (45:15):
Yeah, well, I know that many of your listeners
are very interested in theresearch and that's why they're,
you know, seeking out yourpodcast, and so for anybody
who's kind of been thinking likeI am considering a PhD, I think
, I think doing this kind ofresearch might be interesting, I
just want to shout out I'm atthe University at Buffalo, and
so we have a literacy andEnglish education PhD, and so if
(45:41):
this sounds like fun and youwould like to read a lot of
research and do research as well, like you know, check out our
program, connect with me and Iwould love to talk to anybody
who's thinking along those lines.
Melissa (45:55):
We'll have you on the podcast one day.
Lori (45:57):
Yeah, we love hearing good places to go for great learning
and for our teachers.
So thank you, yeah, thank you,yeah, and thank you for being
here and talking about thesetalk moves.
We heard you on another podcastand then totally scooped you up
for ours and we're just sograteful that you gave us some
(46:18):
time and shared with ourlisteners all of these awesome
talk moves and just took so muchtime to explain them.
So we appreciate you.
Blythe Anderson (46:27):
All right, well , thank you so much.
It was so fun.
Like I said, I'm always happyto talk about vocabulary
learning.
Melissa (46:35):
To stay connected with us, sign up for our email list
at literacypodcastcom, join ourFacebook group and follow us on
Instagram and.
Lori (46:43):
Twitter.
If this episode resonated withyou, take a moment to share with
a teacher friend or leave us afive-star rating and review on
Apple Podcasts.
Melissa (46:55):
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 (47:06):
We appreciate you so much and we're so glad you're here to
learn with us.
Thank you.
Hi teacher friends.
We all know that vocabulary issuper important for students
reading comprehension andwriting skills, but knowing
which words to teach and how toteach them effectively can feel
complicated.
Melissa (00:13):
That's why today we're talking to Blythe Anderson,
assistant professor of literacyeducation at the University at
Buffalo.
You'll hear all aboutvocabulary talk moves, which are
simple, research-basedstrategies that help students
learn, use and engage with newwords in authentic ways.
Lori (00:30):
Best part, we'll break down 10 powerful talk moves that
elementary teachers are alreadyusing successfully and show you
how to apply them across theschool day, from science
instruction to read-alouds.
Melissa (00:41):
So if you've been wondering which words to teach
and how to make vocabularyinstruction more effective.
This episode is for you.
Lori (00:50):
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 (00:59):
We worked together in Baltimore when the district
adopted a new literacycurriculum.
Lori (01:04):
We realized there was so much more to learn about how to
teach reading and writing.
Melissa (01:10):
Lori, and I can't wait to keep learning with you today.
Lori (01:16):
Hi, blythe, welcome to the podcast.
Hi, thanks so much for havingme on.
Yeah, we cannot wait to havethis awesome conversation about
vocabulary today.
Blythe Anderson (01:25):
I'm always happy to talk about vocabulary.
Melissa (01:27):
Yay, and we found your article called Vocabulary Talk
Moves Using Language to PromoteWord Learning, and Lori and I
both were like we have to talkto her about this.
It's so good and in it youmentioned that a few things that
teachers find challenging.
One is, of course, making timefor vocabulary instruction,
(01:48):
which we know.
Time is always something thatis an issue for teachers, and
one of the main questions thatthey ask is what strategies can
we teach or use to teach newwords effectively?
So you talk about this in thearticle, so can you explain for
our listeners what arevocabulary talk moves and how
can they help teachers withthese challenges?
Blythe Anderson (02:08):
Yeah, so I refer to vocabulary talk moves.
I consider those to be waysthat teachers use language to
promote vocabulary development,and so the particular moves are
based on the research of youknow how children learn words,
and so you know a move can besomething as simple as like
explaining a word to a child, sojust something that a teacher
(02:30):
is doing just verbally, throughtheir own talk, to support
children's vocabularydevelopment.
Lori (02:35):
Awesome, and I know you said there were 10, and they're
backed by research.
Do you want to share a littlebit more about the research
aligned moves that you observedmost frequently?
Blythe Anderson (02:47):
Yes, yes, so the moves that are in this
article are.
There's really, I call themthree different types of moves,
and so there are knowledge andunderstanding moves that are
really focused on, you know,learning the meanings of new
words.
Right at the heart ofvocabulary development is that
you are learning the meanings ofeither new words or learning
(03:08):
additional meanings for wordsthat you might already know.
Right, so some words, the mostfrequently used words, have
often have more than one meaning.
So any moves, like I said, like, for example, explaining the
meaning of a word to a child,those are the kind of knowledge
and understanding modes.
And then a second type of moveis what I call affective factors
(03:31):
, and so the task of wordlearning is really really
complex.
So, right, I talked alreadyabout like there's multiple
meanings for words.
We learn the meanings over time.
You know, our understanding ofsome words actually helps us
understand other words better.
So there's like kind of thisinterrelatedness that happens.
(03:51):
There's just a lot that goesinto vocabulary learning that
makes it really complex, and sovocabulary researchers have
theorized that in order for kidsto you know, when they come
across a word that they don'tknow, like they're reading on
their own or somebody's talkingto them and, like you know, a
lot of kids are just going toskip that and go on right, like
skip over it and see if we canmake meaning and keep going.
(04:11):
But we want kids to be able torecognize oh wait, I don't
really know what that means andwe want them to be curious
enough about what it means andfeel like learning words is
worthwhile and to put thateffort in to figure out those
new words.
So the affective factors arekind of the moves that get kids
to be curious and interested andkind of have that feeling about
(04:35):
vocabulary that this is animportant thing that we want to
do.
So an example of a move likethat is, you know, if a child
asks you what something means,like taking that opportunity
maybe it wasn't the word youwere planning on focusing on,
but like taking that opportunityto like capitalize on that
curiosity.
So that's just one example.
And then the third type of moveare what I call metacognitive
(04:57):
and metalinguistic moves, andthese are really important
because we can't possibly teachall the words that there are for
kids to learn.
And so if we think about, youknow, constrained skills versus
unconstrained skills I knowyou've had people on who have
talked about that, paris'sconstrained skills theory.
Right, if you're learning theletters of the alphabet, you're
(05:19):
learning the sounds, all those.
Those are what we callconstrained skills.
You can learn them to mastery,you know, with effective
instruction, in a relativelyshort amount of time.
You know, not across yourentire lifetime, but but
unconstrained skills, likevocabulary, like we're learning
them forever, right.
And so we really want kids tobecome independent word learners
(05:40):
, to like, take on this task oflearning all these words that we
need to teach out there.
You know we can't, because wecan't teach them all, and so
having kids have an awareness ofhow language works, you know
this metalinguistic awareness isreally useful, and so part of
you know these types of movesare about, you know, having kids
(06:01):
recognize oh, I've heard thatword before.
Or, like you know, consideringhave I heard that word, where
have I heard that word, thosekinds of things.
So, yes, so there are.
Within this article, there are10 moves.
This is from a broader study.
I found 32 different vocabularytalk moves that teachers used,
and this study took place withinscience instruction.
(06:23):
It was actually part of abroader study, an NSF-funded
study that I worked on with myadvisor, dr Tanya Wright, and
also with Dr Amelia Gottwald.
It was the SOLIDSTART project,which stands for Science, oral
Language and LiteracyDevelopment from the Start of
School, and so my research waswithin that broader study.
(06:44):
I was looking to see, withinthese science lessons that early
elementary teachers wereteaching, I wanted to see what
kinds of vocabulary talk moveswere they using.
You know, science is thisreally rich context, and we know
how important meaningfulcontext is to vocabulary
learning, and so, theoreticallyright, there should be many
(07:05):
opportunities to supportvocabulary learning within that
context.
And so, looking at eightdifferent teachers, three
different lessons per teacheracross a semester, they were
able to use whatever curricularmaterials they wanted, and so we
had, you know they wanted, andso we had, you know, collected
(07:28):
their 24 video recordings totaland took those 895 minutes of
instruction, and I was able togo through all of them right and
code for these particularvocabulary talk moves.
So there's 32 altogether, but Ifound that 10 of the moves made
up almost 90% of what theteachers were doing with their
talk, and so those are the movesthat are focused on in the
article.
Melissa (07:47):
Blythe, can I just ask a quick question?
So your study was kind ofseeing what the teachers were
doing most often, but thesemoves are based in other
research.
Is that?
Blythe Anderson (07:59):
correct, exactly, yes, so this was an
observational study and all ofthe codes for you know that I
discovered that they were usingthese types of moves are all
based in the research.
So from other research we knowthat these kinds of things
support vocabulary development,and I wanted to see our teachers
doing this in practice.
Right, this was anobservational study.
(08:20):
The teachers didn't know I wasinterested in vocabulary talk
moves.
They were just teaching sciencelessons, just kind of.
We wanted to see, like, just,you know, what's from typical
instruction?
Uh, if you're not purposelytrying to support vocabulary any
more than you would any otherday, right, like what, what's
just kind of typical?
Um, yeah, exactly, and so, um,a next step that I'm really
interested in is, um, again,this was part of a larger study
(08:43):
and so there were someconstraints in terms of, like,
the data that was collected, andso I would love to do a
replication study where we havesome student out, you know,
learner outcomes aroundvocabulary, and be able to try
to correlate like which movesmaybe supported vocabulary
learning the most.
So that's a next step.
But at this point, these areall what we would consider
(09:04):
research-based moves.
They're based in research thatsays that these practices
support vocabulary development.
Lori (09:10):
Okay, and what I heard you just explain were like these
big overarching categories wherethe moves kind of fit into, and
I heard you give an example ofeach move that fits into that
category.
Would you mind breaking downthose top 10 that make up 90%,
Like maybe just I mean and I'mhappy to do it too right Like
run through the 10 of them andthen kind of hand it over to you
(09:32):
to explain a little bit more?
And you know, I know that we'regoing to talk about them in
these broad categories, but Ithink just hearing all 10 would
be really helpful for ourlisteners.
What do you think, Blythe, youwant to go through, you want me
to go through would be reallyhelpful for our listeners.
Blythe Anderson (09:46):
What do you think, blythe, you want me to go
through?
It's your study?
Yeah, I'm happy to.
Yeah, okay, so the first twomoves they kind of cluster
together because they're oftenused together.
That's what we found.
Some moves can be used on theirown, but often we found the
moves were used in conjunctionwith each other.
So the first move is just usingtarget words.
So a word became a target wordwhen the teacher drew attention
(10:07):
to it and its meaning.
So I wasn't like looking to seewhat did the curriculum say?
The words they should have beenteaching, right?
I was just looking to seewithin the actual lesson what
words were they bringingattention to and supporting kids
and understanding the meaningsof those words.
And so we know that repetitionis really important, for you
know you don't just hear a wordonce and it's meaning and you've
(10:27):
got it right.
So repetition we learn thesewords incrementally over time
and so I wanted to track youknow how often kids were getting
to hear these kinds of wordsonce they've been introduced.
And so the most frequently usedvocabulary talk move was just
using the word, and that wasoften used with.
The second move is using it withemphasis.
(10:49):
So, like I said, you knowdrawing kids' attention.
We know teachers do a lot oftalking in classrooms and so to
help them kind of like tune intowhat's really important here,
the teachers often said thesewords with emphasis.
So, for example, one of theteachers said yes, the wind in
our classroom is calm.
And so in that example, bothwind and calm were examples of
(11:13):
target words that the teacherhad previously targeted by
telling the meaning of them.
Example for emphasizing it.
The teacher said so, is it amammal?
And she particularly emphasizedmammal as she said it right.
So there she's, using it andemphasizing it.
Melissa (11:33):
So it's literally just the tone of the voice of the
teacher.
Like that, it's so, it's soeasy.
Lori (11:38):
It would be in italics in a text right, like if I were
reading a book and it were beingemphasized.
It would be like, so is it amammal Right?
So just using and emphasizing.
Oh my gosh, how easy are thosefirst two talk moves Like check.
I feel like I do that every dayin real life and teacher life.
Blythe Anderson (11:57):
Absolutely.
And that's the thing aboutthese moves is they're not like
oh, I need to like scrapeverything I know and like
implement these 10 brand newthings.
Right, a lot of these things.
I think teachers are going tosay, like I already do this.
I maybe didn't realize I wasdoing it, or maybe, now that I'm
aware that it's reallyimportant, I could like be
mindful and do it a little more.
Melissa (12:14):
Make sure I'm doing it.
Blythe Anderson (12:16):
Exactly.
But you know, on their own,like understanding that
repetition is important andthose multiple exposures in
different contexts is important.
I think, like, consider whatare the words that we're really
working on right now and how canI make sure to bring those up
and how can I bring theirattention to them?
Obviously, if you'reemphasizing the word every
single time you say it, it'sprobably not going to have that
(12:37):
same effect of really bringingtheir attention to it.
But just you know, as you'reintroducing it and really
drawing their attention to it inthat way, that can be helpful.
Lori (12:46):
That's awesome.
All right, so we've got thefirst two.
They're really simple.
I feel like a rock star already.
Melissa (12:53):
I'm feeling like I can handle those.
I can do that.
Lori (13:04):
And I can emphasize words.
Blythe Anderson (13:06):
So love this for us.
You want to go through movesthree again.
This is like not rocket science.
So so much of explaining orhaving kids learn new words is
right, explaining the meaningsto them.
So this move is explaining ordefining the word.
I really prefer the term anexplanation over a definition.
Right, a definition is like aset.
(13:26):
It has its own genre.
It's how you, you know how yousay it.
It's supposed to have very fewwords because it needs to fit in
the dictionary, right, and sowe often don't say things the
most clear.
And a true definition but Ithink you know, any kind of
explanation that maybe uses alot more words but makes it very
clear for students is what'simportant.
Right, and using child-friendlylanguage.
(13:47):
So, in order for something tobe child-friendly, like the
words that we use to explaincan't be more challenging than
the word that we're explainingin the first place, right?
I work with a lot of studentswho are getting their initial
certification, so they're goingto become teachers and so, right
, when they're practicingwriting definitions for my class
, sometimes the words that theyuse to explain are actually well
(14:09):
, that would be a whole newtarget word too, like you'd have
to teach both Um, so that'sjust something to really be
mindful Like.
What is it that childrenprobably already understand and
can use that then to understandthis new word, um, and also like
the concepts that right, likeyou need to use familiar words
and familiar, familiar conceptsif the word itself is right
brand new, um, yes, okay, sothat was the first one.
(14:31):
So examples from the classesthat the classrooms that I saw,
right.
One of the teachers said so,bipeds are animals that use two
legs for walking.
So right, she's very clearly.
Bipeds was the target word, Ibelieve.
She said it with emphasis.
So we're stacking.
She used it, she said it withemphasis and she also gave that
really clear explanation.
(14:52):
Right, children understandanimals, two legs, walking.
Like that's all very accessiblefor them.
Another teacher said so theneeds are things that we have to
have in order to survive, right, so that was a whole lesson on
wants and needs, and so it madeit clear needs are things that
we have to have.
Really accessible languagethere.
(15:14):
The next move, I think I think alot of educators do this just
naturally, maybe don't evenrealize that they're doing this,
but helping students makepersonal connections.
I think we're always trying tohelp situate in a way that you
know, in your context of yourlife, how is this going to make
sense?
And so the context of thisparticular example is this study
(15:36):
took place in a largeMidwestern state during the
winter and they had just had,like this polar vortex, like
they missed like a solid week ofschool.
The kids had all been home, ithad been very cold, almost too
cold to play outside during thattime, and so this is like their
first day back after thatextended break.
And so the lesson happened tobe on severe weather conditions.
(16:00):
And so the teacher said in thepast three or four days we've
had some severe weatherconditions.
So she's, this is akindergarten classroom.
The kids all know they werestuck inside, right.
So she's helping them make thatconnection to their own life.
And another example that teacher, that same teacher who was
(16:20):
talking about needs, said so,for example, in our house, do we
need to have a way to get water?
Right.
So she's not just like needsare things that you need, but
giving them a specific exampleof you know, in your home do you
have access to water?
You know that's something thatwe need to survive.
And then the fifth, roundingout this set of moves.
The fifth move again is thingsthat I think educators naturally
(16:44):
do already, providing anexample or a non-example, and
sometimes that can be even moreclear, I think, at times than an
explanation or a non-example,and sometimes that can be even
more clear, I think, at timesthan an explanation or a
definition, depending on theword right.
Sometimes I think the examplecan be more illuminating.
So there was a lesson onhabitats and the target word was
shelter, and so the teacherexplained that grass can also be
(17:06):
shelter for animals.
So she's giving that example ofgrass right as being that
shelter.
And then back to the lesson onneeds.
Here's an example of anon-example where the teacher
said but if we have a house,which is our shelter, do we have
to?
So there's an example like thehouse is the shelter she had
that part in there and then shesays do we have to have a bed?
(17:29):
And they say no.
So a bed is a want.
So that's an example.
They're specifically focusingon need.
And then the non-example is bed, which the children actually in
this example thought that theyreally did need the bed.
And so that was a whole otherconversation about how people
sleep in many different ways.
But you could survive without abed if needed, so that yeah,
(17:52):
that rounds out that second setof moves.
Lori (17:56):
Yeah, I'm curious, did you see?
I know these are talk moves andso we're talking about like the
language here, but did any ofthe teachers use visuals to help
bring these to life, or isthere any like research that
supports that visuals, in termsof like showing, is helpful?
Blythe Anderson (18:18):
Yes, yes, so um one of them, just double
checking here um some visuals indifferent ways.
Lori (18:25):
So if we move on to some of the last moves, I know I was
like I kind of I realized afterI said it that I might be
pushing ahead.
I apologize.
Blythe Anderson (18:34):
That's okay, but, yes, there were visuals in
different ways, so we'll get tothe acting out and demonstrating
in that way.
But also, just one of the movesthat didn't make the top 10,
but was also one of the movesthat I found was showing like a
picture or pointing, pointing tothe object itself, those kinds
of moves where you're actually,you know, saying the word.
(18:55):
It was a talk move, becausethey were saying it was done in
conjunction with talking aboutthat, the word, right, but they
were pointing to it.
Um, the other, one of the othermoves that's coming up, um, in
the final set, is visuallydisplaying the word itself, so
the printed word, um, you know,showing the letters, and so that
is another way of drawing theirattention to it.
(19:16):
So, showing the actual objectbut also the word.
Lori (19:20):
Okay, thank you.
I didn't want to get us too offcourse, so we made it through
the first five, nice and clean.
Melissa (19:27):
I have a quick follow up on those on this set, if you
don't mind Not to get toonitpicky, but I'm wondering like
is there sometimes overlapbetween them?
Because I was thinking about,like that water example you said
it was a personal connectionbut also feels like could be an
example.
Is that I'm assuming that somesome of these things could be
both at the same time?
(19:47):
Is that correct?
Blythe Anderson (19:48):
Absolutely yes.
So if you see my codedtranscripts, it's often, you
know, sometimes it's just onemove, but often it's like three
or four moves happening together.
So if they said it, and theysaid it with emphasis, and they
provided an example, and it wasan example that was relevant to
their life, right there there'sfour.
If they had pointed to it too,you know, if they had shown the
word, so often these things areall happening together.
Melissa (20:11):
Okay, I didn't want to get teachers like to get too in
their heads of thinking like amI doing a personal connection or
am I doing an example?
Which one is it?
Blythe Anderson (20:19):
It's both You're good to go and the
important thing is that you'redoing them.
So you know, as a researcher, Ihave to get very specific about
like what makes this thisversus that, but as a
practitioner, very specificabout like what makes this this
versus that.
Um, but as a practitioner, it'sjust do do all of it, right, um
?
Lori (20:35):
so, yeah, okay, should we?
Should we push on to sixthrough 10?
I feel like I'll just do aquick recap, if that's okay, of
one through five, so all right.
So, uh, first is using the, thetarget word.
The second is emphasizing thetarget word.
The third is explaining orperhaps defining the target word
(20:55):
.
The fourth is making aconnection to the word.
And five, providing an exampleor a non-example.
Melissa (21:02):
All right, so I'm going to pass you the baton.
Lori (21:05):
I think six and seven are grouped together over here.
Blythe Anderson (21:08):
The move six is prompting students to use a
target word or to use itsmeaning, so either way.
And so remember that thatrepeated exposure is really
important and building this overtime in different contexts, and
so that review part is reallyimportant for these words.
We need many encounters withwords to really kind of own it
(21:29):
and have that understanding.
Encounters with words to reallykind of own it and have that
understanding.
And so, for one of the examples, there was a discussion about
prehistoric creatures and theteacher prompted students to use
the word herbivore, and so shesaid so if it ate plants, what
was it called?
So she's trying to remind themyou learned a real big fancy
word, I think was her word forit right about this?
What was that?
(21:49):
And another teacher promptedstudents to use the term wind
flag.
So they had been working on theweather unit and different
tools that they had, and so shesaid do you remember what the
new tool was that we made fromthe previous lesson?
So this was at the start of alesson and she's reviewing and
prompting kids to supply that.
Both of these examples, she wasasking them to say the word
(22:12):
itself, but she also could havesaid the word and said you know,
do you remember what that means?
Move seven, then, is elicitingstudents' ideas for a review
word.
So anytime we can get studentsinvolved, that active engagement
, we want to have them reallysharing their ideas around this.
And so if we're just sayinghere's a word and here's its
(22:34):
meaning and we're just trying toget that to stick right, that's
not as effective as if we'regetting kids actively involved,
having that deeper processing,thinking about it and using it,
using their own words andlanguage to talk about it.
So this is an example ofgetting kids involved.
And so one of the teachersasked again weather conditions.
The teacher said what do weknow about stratus clouds?
(22:58):
And so then that wholediscussion ensued about the
different cloud types that theyknew and stratus clouds in
particular.
And then back to that wind flagconversation.
The teacher asked the studentswhat the wind flag was used for.
So the students, I think, whenthey, when she asked what tool,
the student specifically saidflag.
And so she's like that's agreat starting place, but like,
okay, what is a wind flag usedfor?
So, trying to get back at theimportance of the wind, part of
(23:19):
that for the tool.
And then the move eight is usingtarget words with a hint.
And so for this move, theteacher uses a word in context
but provides some kind of hintor clue about it.
So a teacher was they weretalking about a crossing.
And so the teacher said so youwill have to design some sort of
(23:42):
crossing for your animal to getacross the road or under the
road.
So here there's it's.
Again, as a researcher, I haveto be specific about what makes
that different from anexplanation.
Right, as a practitioner you'rejust going to give that.
Whether it's a hint or anexplanation doesn't matter as
much.
But the specific differencehere is that it's implicit.
(24:06):
So the teacher isn't saying acrossing is something that you
use to get from one place toanother.
Right, but you can tell fromhow she's explaining it that
you're supposed to get from oneplace to another.
And so in another example theteacher was hinting at the
meaning of the word angle.
So she's like they were notstraight up and down, they were
(24:27):
at an angle right, and so she'sgot that straight up and down as
an example.
I think often this move can beused when you want to make sure
students are understanding whatyou're talking about but also
want to introduce this moretechnical word or this word that
might be new for them, right,and so you can explain it.
You know it's not straight upand down, and then you can give
(24:47):
them language for what it isit's at an angle, or it's
diagonal, or whatever the casemay be.
So I think if you think aboutthis move as it's really just
that scaffold, so that they canget this new word and understand
its meaning together, it's kindof like context clues when
you're reading.
Melissa (25:02):
Absolutely.
Blythe Anderson (25:03):
Yeah, it's like you're providing context clues.
That's a really great way tothink about it, Like
intentionally providing contextclues.
Yes, you were on the righttrack.
So for move nine, this isvisually displaying target words
.
So this is where you have theword either already printed or
you write it in front of them,or, if you're reading a book,
you're like a big book or aprojected book right, when you
(25:24):
can point to the word and theycan see it, and this is really
important for providing thatorthographic information, right.
So when we think about learningwords and reading words, we're
putting together thatorthography, the spelling, the
way the word looks printed withhow it sounds.
So one of the moves that didn'tmake the top 10, but was an
important move is just askingchildren to like repeat the word
(25:45):
and say it out loud.
So here's a bonus move for youout.
So here's a bonus move for you.
So in that case they're hearingit and hearing themselves say
it, and then, of course, themeaning.
So we're always thinking aboutputting those three things
together the sounds, thephonemes, the orthography and
the meaning semantic part, andso by visually displaying or
(26:06):
showing kids the words, thathelps with showing them that
orthography and helping thembuild that representation in
their mind for the word.
And so examples of that theteacher wrote the word severe on
a whiteboard as she wasdescribing it for them, and so
she was saying it and writing itand showing them and then later
pulled that whiteboard back outand part of the conversation
(26:27):
says, well, what do we call thiskind of weather?
And she had it right there onthe board, Right, so she was
able to draw their attention tothat.
And another example I think itwas the same teacher, same
lesson, just wrote like extremeweather as she was saying it.
And so again, coming back tothat, having that visual that
kids can picture that word andthink of that word actually does
then support them in learningthat word and connecting it with
(26:49):
that meaning.
And then the final move was theother way of showing kids right
, and so this move is acting outor demonstrating the meanings
of the words.
And so I think early elementaryteachers in particular, I think,
do this really naturally oftenof showing and trying to explain
things, embodying them asthey're explaining them.
(27:10):
And so some examples theteacher was, they were talking
again lots of talk about severeweather, they were talking about
tornadoes, and so the teacherwas trying to explain the same
conversation about wind and allthose kinds of things.
So she's like using her fingersand like making circles with
her fingers showing like themovement of the wind.
Like making circles with herfingers showing like the
(27:33):
movement of the wind, and asshe's doing that, she's saying,
instead of the wind moving,every which way it spins in a
circle.
So she's demonstrating for themthe meaning of that.
And back to the teacher who wasgiving the context clue for
angle.
She first held her handstraight up and down and said
right, it's not straight up anddown, it's at an angle.
And she showed with her, youknow, moved her arm to make it
(27:54):
to be at an angle.
So there again she'sdemonstrating what that word
means.
So yeah, those were the top 10most frequently used moves.
The article does share all 32with examples, so if people are
curious about other ones, like Isaid, having kids repeat and
say the word out loud there aresome others that way, but these
(28:14):
are the ones I saw mostfrequently across those 24
lessons.
Melissa (28:18):
That's great and we will include this article in our
show notes so for people whoare out there looking for all 32
, they can go to our show notesto find that.
I wanted to ask some of thosethat you just mentioned were you
know about this, like reviewingand not letting the words just?
I always said when I learned, Ilike took a test on the words
and then I never heard thosewords again, which was terrible.
(28:40):
But is there like?
Is there research behind thatidea of like continuing the
review of words over time?
Blythe Anderson (28:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
There is an official number.
I think it's somewhere betweenseven and 12.
I can't remember the exactnumber of how many encounters
with the word it takes to reallylike own that word.
But also you have to consider,okay, that might be like one
sense of that word, but it mayhave other meanings, right?
And so I just think you knowthe distributed review is always
(29:10):
going to be an important part,but also just that that allows
for more repetition, that allowsfor more encounters in
different contexts, and soanytime that we can draw back to
words that we've already workedon as they make sense in
context, like you know, as ateacher, you know which words
you've already been focused onthroughout the year.
(29:31):
So, like, look for anyopportunity to bring those words
back up.
Maybe it's been a few monthssince you were talking about
herbivores or whatever but ifyou know that comes up naturally
like make.
That's a really greatopportunity to use that word and
remind kids that they haveheard it and make sure that
they're still remembering whatthat means.
Melissa (29:52):
I'm wondering.
So this is not what your studyis about at all, but I'm going
to pick your brain while you'rehere, which is the question
always comes up and I think youmentioned it in your article too
which is well, which wordsshould I teach, and you listed a
bunch of great examples ofwords that teachers were
teaching, but do you have anyrecommendations for how teachers
should choose which words to dothese moves with and which ones
(30:15):
are not necessarily worth theirtime to do all this with?
Blythe Anderson (30:19):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, a couple of things.
I'll start with how I kind ofthink about this, but I can also
share a few resources thatmight be helpful, that maybe I
can send you to link and shownotes as well, that I think are
helpful ways to think about this.
So I think it's reallyimportant to remember we want to
always be sharing words.
Ways to think about this.
So I think it's reallyimportant to remember we want to
always be sharing words inmeaningful context, right?
(30:40):
So I think you mentioned,melissa, having the experience
of, like there's a list of wordsI learned, I heard it once.
I like never came back to it,right?
So we know that that's noteffective.
There's a great book no Morelook up the list of vocabulary
instruction.
It's part of the series thatNell Duke and Alan Keane, I
think, did, and so, like, if you, if you want to hear more about
(31:02):
why that doesn't work, that's athat's a good resource, but we
always so keeping in mind thatthat meaningful context is so
important, and so that may be atext that you're reading,
whether it's a read aloud orit's the text that the students
are reading themselves, right,thinking about what are the
words that are important tounderstand this particular text.
(31:22):
So we know that when we take thetime to teach the challenging
words within a particular text,that helps kids learn those
particular words and it helpsthem understand that text.
So that is something that wewould want to do understand that
text.
So that is something that wewould want to do.
Consider, you know, which wordsare really important for making
sense in the text and alsowhich words might be words that
(31:42):
they will encounter again inother contexts.
That can be a helpful way tokind of narrow down which words
with limited time.
Also, you know, think aboutwhat are the words that students
aren't already likely to know.
I think I know that sounds kindof obvious, but you kind of
have to know your students, andso there's where you might be
working with some curricularmaterials that have suggested
(32:03):
some words and you're prettyconfident they already know
those words.
Like, don't take the time onthose.
Like look and find some othersthat you think might be more
words that your students wouldhave challenges with and focus
your time there instead.
I think.
So that's, you know, if themeaningful context that you're
talking about is a text, andtext could be right, like I said
(32:26):
, a read aloud.
It could be books that kids arereading.
It could be a video orsomething that you're sharing
that has some vocabulary in itthat you want to draw attention
to.
The other really meaningfulcontext which I alluded to, you
know, by looking at science,instruction with this study is
anytime you're working oncontent knowledge, you're
building knowledge of the worldright, and so, for example,
(32:46):
science or social study lessonsare really great places to be
thinking about what are thewords that are going to be
really important for thiscontent area and thinking about
introducing those words in.
You know semantically related.
You know networks of words orclusters of words.
They've been talked about indifferent ways, but I talked
(33:07):
earlier about part of thecomplexity of word learning.
Is that interrelatedness, butthat also is a benefit is that
we can introduce kids to wordsthat are related and help them
see those connections, and sothat may be a way to think about
when you're selecting words.
You know informational text.
Often the words that are goingto be challenging for them are
(33:28):
maybe those domain specificwords and they often appear in
these clusters that areconnected Right If you're
learning about I don't knowphotosynthesis, all the other
kinds of challenging words, areall going to be connected to
that meaning, and so byintroducing them together, that
can help build the meanings ofall of those words and help
(33:49):
students right as you'rebuilding their knowledge is
really what we're getting at.
And then also, ultimately youknow, any word that a student
doesn't know is a good word toteach.
So I think back to my days as Iwas a literacy coordinator and
part of my role was to doprofessional learning
experiences across the district,and so in one I was working
(34:10):
with a school and we were doinga book club and one of the
teachers shared this reallygreat example.
She was working with amultilingual learner and she had
previewed the text that theywere going to read and she was
pretty sure that the word nipwas going to be challenging.
There was a dog in the storythat nipped a boy's ankle, and
so she was all prepared to teachthe word nip.
(34:31):
And it turns out that there wasenough context clues.
The child understood dogs andhow they work, and, like that
wasn't the word that the childwasn't sure of, it was actually
the word ankle, and it's notthat this child doesn't know
what an ankle is, but theydidn't know the word in English
and so take advantage of thosemoments of that's the word that
that child needed to understandthat text instead.
(34:52):
And so just knowing yourstudents and being aware and I
think if you're building thatculture of like words are
interesting and worthwhilelearning and we want to be
curious about words like thatwill help you also then
determine like what's worthwhileto spend my time on.
Lori (35:07):
I love that story.
That's so fun.
Thank you for illuminating thatpoint.
Like sometimes we go in andwe're like definitely, you know,
these are the words I need toteach, and then, oh, the script
just flips on us once the kidscome into play.
Right, absolutely yes, yeah,all right.
So I'm just thinking right nowI have my teacher hat on I'm
(35:27):
thinking with 10 talk movesright, I know you said there's
32.
Melissa (35:31):
32, yeah.
Lori (35:32):
But we just focused on these top 10 today.
So if we're thinking aboutthese 10 moves, it might feel
overwhelming for our listenersto incorporate them all into
their daily routines.
Now, I know a lot of them aremoves they're already doing.
But if they're not doing them,or if a teacher like here's a
couple moves that they're like,oh, I'm interested in that, how
(35:53):
do you recommend teachers getstarted using these moves?
Blythe Anderson (35:58):
Yeah, I think, taking a look at either the list
of 10 or 32 and just kind oftaking a moment to reflect on,
like, which of these do Ialready really do and I think a
lot of educators are going tosay I'm really doing quite a few
of these already and so I think, just kind of a quick
self-assessment of where you arein terms of which ones are
(36:20):
already checked off we don'tneed to worry about, just
continue them.
Then there may be a set ofmoves that you know you do from
time to time but you could domore of those, right.
So just kind of thinking aboutI'm going to be more intentional
about doing these, but I knowit's something I do and then
think about which of the movesmight be more challenging to
(36:40):
implement.
Most of them, you know, can bedone on the fly across the day.
You know we still want to havevery planful instruction where
you've got those child-friendlyexplanations ready to go for a
lot of instruction.
But as you're walking down thehall, if a child's asking what
something means, right, you maybe just giving that explanation
on the go.
And so, for a lot of these moves, thinking about which ones
(37:02):
might be more challenging foryou to either implement or to
remember to implement.
You know, maybe having a stickynote up in your teaching area
and just reminding you for likeseveral weeks until it maybe
becomes more of a habit, like,oh yeah, I wanted to try to ask
kids to repeat the word moreoften, or something like that
Right, um.
And then you know, once you'vekind of got that, okay, these
(37:24):
are the ones I already do, theseare the ones that I just need
to boost a little bit more, andthen these are the ones that
really might be more challengingwith that, the more challenging
words, I would just pick one ortwo and say for the next, you
know, depending on the, how muchof a lift do you think it's
going to be like for the nextweek, or two or three weeks?
Like I'm just going to try tolike really be mindful about
using that.
I might like write it in mylesson plan, a couple.
(37:45):
You know, whatever it's going totake to remind you to like try
that out.
I think that's a start, like Iwouldn't start with all 32 at
once, but also thinking abouthow you can add a few at a time,
but also remembering that oftenthese are stackable, and so
maybe you already you know, usethe word and emphasize it and
(38:06):
give a child-friendlyexplanation.
But you could add asking kidsto repeat it and maybe you could
write it for them or you couldremember.
You know, I'm going to useGoogle Images or something I
don't know right to pull up thatword as we're talking about it,
if it's a word that can belearned easily like that.
So I think that's a goodstarting place.
Lori (38:25):
Thank you, those are super practical.
Yeah, and I feel like too.
Even as a parent, I'm alwaysemphasizing words, so maybe now
I'll just be more strategic.
I'm trying to vary my wordchoice.
Blythe Anderson (38:37):
Build in some of those context.
I think as a parent, that's onethat I really love to do is
like I just use all the words asif they're going to understand
them, but then I have thatscaffold in there for them too.
Lori (38:46):
Yeah, that's a great one.
What a fun way too to thinkabout, like you know, getting
the parents involved who arealways asking, like what can I
do at home?
Blythe Anderson (39:00):
This, asking like what can I do at home?
This is like super simple butseems like a big bang for your
buck.
You know, absolutely, yeah, andI actually I want to circle
back, because I mentioned aresource for and thinking about,
right, which words to teach andhow to teach them, another one
that I think is really helpful.
I think it's an ILA brief, butI actually think it's from
before the name change, so itmight be under IRA brief, but
it's called flood, fast andfocused, and so that's just in
terms of thinking about likewhich maybe it's fast but
(39:20):
focused.
It's those three in somecombination, right, but some
words you can just give thatquick explanation and keep going
.
A lot of it's just aboutlanguage.
You know, language exposure,that oral language input, and so
having the rich languageenvironment, having both through
talk and through the text thatyou're reading, right, they're
encountering all kinds of words.
But then the focused part thenis like which other words we
(39:43):
really want to spend time on,and so I think that can be as
you're thinking about, like Isaid, either the meaningful
context of the book or themeaningful context of the
science experiment, for example,like how, how do we want to
focus our attention there.
So I think it's sort of kind ofwe can sort words to like.
Which ones and to what degreedo they need instruction?
Melissa (40:07):
Plath, I'm kind of curious.
I wanted to bring this back tothe three big categories that
you mentioned at the beginning.
I think it was really easy forme to see how all these talk
moves were about knowledge andunderstanding new words.
Do you say that some of thesetalk moves also are part of
those affective factors and themetacognitive factors as well?
Blythe Anderson (40:28):
Yes, most of these moves that made the top 10
, I'm just doing a quick skimyes, most of the moves in the
top 10 are about building thatknowledge and understanding.
So, and that's like, like yousaid, that's what teachers were
doing primarily, for sure, thatare more about getting kids
(40:55):
interested in words.
And you know, just like helpingkids, helping kids make
personal connections that'sactually one of the affective
ones, right, like, if you'reappreciating word choice, so,
like you're, you're reading abook and you come across an
interesting word, you know justsaying, ooh, that's an
interesting word.
I don't hear that very often.
I, you know, you know thosekinds of those kinds of moves
that just um, shows that like wecan love words, like some words
(41:19):
are really fun and and I, oh Ireally like the way they said
that you know those kinds ofthings um, that build that like
feeling of, like words are cooland words are fun and, um, you
know we can play with words andyou know all those kinds of
things.
And then for the metalinguisticand metacognitive, I think it's
helpful to you know.
An example of one of those moveswas, I think, I think, actually
(41:42):
, with the severe weather theywere talking about, has anybody
heard anybody?
The teacher said you know, hasanybody heard your parents,
maybe, or on the news, talkabout severe weather, right?
So that was like think abouthave you heard this word before
and give them the opportunity toconsider like, do I know it?
How much do I know it?
(42:03):
It's not really the case withkids that we like know it or we
don't know it, right.
So there's a great analogy, andI don't remember who to
attribute this to.
But with vocabulary we don'twant to think about it as like a
light switch that's like on oroff, I know it or I don't know
it.
Right, but like that kind ofmore of like a dimmer switch,
where you know, the moreencounters and the more
understandings, right, and sohelping kids kind of evaluate
(42:25):
for themselves, like I thinkI've heard that before, you know
I've never heard it, or I thinkI've heard it but I can't
really explain it.
Or actually, like I play soccerand I know that a goalie does
this, this, this right, likethat's different levels of
understanding, um, and havingkids just be aware of that as
part of that, building thatmetalinguistic, metacognitive
awareness as well.
Melissa (42:47):
I actually just heard something similar at a
conference about that um, likewhat have you heard instead of
what do you know?
Which is like they're talkingabout the kwl chart and they're
like change that k from fromwhat do you know?
Which is like they're talkingabout the KWL chart and they're
like change that K from fromwhat do you know about this to
what have you heard about this,and they're like one takes a
little pressure off.
But, like you said, it's notlike a yes or no, it's like you
know there's.
There's many things.
I may have heard it over here,I might know a little bit, I
(43:08):
might know something about it oran example, but I don't know it
fully.
So I like that example of likechanging that wording to what
have you heard about this wordinstead of what do you know.
Like do you know this word?
Blythe Anderson (43:20):
Yeah, yeah, and I think you know.
Often, if we ask kids like doyou know this word?
Like most kids are, a lot ofkids are going to say yeah, like
well, or you know, like, ifyou're trying to help them think
about, like, what words shouldwe focus on?
Yeah, like they know them allright, like I've sat next to
fourth graders who are like Iknow all these words.
So if you phrase it, though,can you explain this word right,
that changes that too.
(43:41):
So it's just a similar exampleof changing the phrasing a
little bit.
But like, you may know it inthe sense of you've heard it in
these ways or you've heard it incertain contexts, but like do
you know it well enough toexplain it?
And that you know slightdifference, but often you get a
different response from kids.
Lori (43:56):
Then that's what I was thinking about when you were
talking is how, even how manytimes as an adult, have, like,
I've gone to explain a word tomy child and I have trouble
finding the words to explainthis meaning and sometimes I end
up giving an example or anon-example or right like a
synonym and I'm like, well, it'skind of like this, and then I'm
(44:18):
like I just there's so muchcomplexity in vocabulary that
even to like, say some word, saysome definitions, in a way that
a kid would understand isreally tricky because you have
to kind of like, think about itand then scaffold it down.
So sometimes, giving thatexample or not, so I love that
idea of like, can you explain it, because it really does open
(44:39):
the door more broadly tounderstanding, which is the
ultimate goal, right?
Absolutely yes.
Blythe Anderson (44:46):
Yeah, I think that's a little tweak.
We're so used to talking aboutdefinitions and so I think, like
that explanation really gets uscloser to what we want is that
kids can connect to the meaning.
Melissa (44:59):
Well, yeah, these talk moves are priceless and so
helpful for teachers, and Iwould walk away from today
feeling like I can do this, so Ithink that that is the best
part of everything you've sharedtoday.
Is there anything else that youjust want to share with our
listeners, anything that theyshould know?
Blythe Anderson (45:15):
Yeah, well, I know that many of your listeners
are very interested in theresearch and that's why they're,
you know, seeking out yourpodcast, and so for anybody
who's kind of been thinking likeI am considering a PhD, I think
, I think doing this kind ofresearch might be interesting, I
just want to shout out I'm atthe University at Buffalo, and
so we have a literacy andEnglish education PhD, and so if
(45:41):
this sounds like fun and youwould like to read a lot of
research and do research as well, like you know, check out our
program, connect with me and Iwould love to talk to anybody
who's thinking along those lines.
Melissa (45:55):
We'll have you on the podcast one day.
Lori (45:57):
Yeah, we love hearing good places to go for great learning
and for our teachers.
So thank you, yeah, thank you,yeah, and thank you for being
here and talking about thesetalk moves.
We heard you on another podcastand then totally scooped you up
for ours and we're just sograteful that you gave us some
(46:18):
time and shared with ourlisteners all of these awesome
talk moves and just took so muchtime to explain them.
So we appreciate you.
Blythe Anderson (46:27):
All right, well , thank you so much.
It was so fun.
Like I said, I'm always happyto talk about vocabulary
learning.
Melissa (46:35):
To stay connected with us, sign up for our email list
at literacypodcastcom, join ourFacebook group and follow us on
Instagram and.
Lori (46:43):
Twitter.
If this episode resonated withyou, take a moment to share with
a teacher friend or leave us afive-star rating and review on
Apple Podcasts.
Melissa (46:55):
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 (47:06):
We appreciate you so much and we're so glad you're here to
learn with us.
Thank you.
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