Cassie Mayer

Rica Reflection 10 & 11

Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Knowledge
I remember being in fifth grade and every week part of my spelling
homework was to look up the definitions of each word. I would write the word on
one side of a note card and the definition on the other. Every Friday, at the end of
the spelling test, my teacher would choose one word from the list for us to define in
order to keep us accountable. In chapter 10 of the RICA handbook, they define
vocabulary as a set of words. There are five types of vocabulary outlined in
chapter ten, but meaning vocabulary in particular has to do with the words
understood while reading, which supports comprehension. There are many
strategies to foster this understanding in students, through direct teaching of the
specific words, independent word learning strategies, and developing word
consciousness in students.
Throughout content area in both my master teachers classrooms, as well as
in tutoring I have explicitly taught vocabulary for meaning. In my third grade
classroom, I taught the main vocabulary necessary for our social studies lesson. We
went over the words and definitions together, and I had the students write the
words on their note cards to reference as they read. In my first grade classroom I
taught vocabulary in the beginning of their math lesson. In both of these scenarios I
frontloaded vocabulary in order to promote understanding, comprehension, and
fluency as they worked individually in the future. While working with my tutees I
both frontloaded my students, as well as checked for understanding of words as we
read through our books. Because one of my tutees is an English Language Learner,
it is important that I differentiated my instruction in order to set her up for success.

Independent word strategies include, morphemic analysis, contextual

analysis, and use of the dictionary. The primary strategy I saw being used in my first
grade Master Teachers classroom was the use of contextual clues. By reading other
parts of the passage, students were able to grasp meaning for a word they would
not have otherwise understood. My master teacher initially modeled her thinking,
hm, I wonder what the word hypothesis means? I wonder if I read what comes
after will help give me a clue. As she read on, she was able to decipher the
meaning of the word, the author says in the next sentence that a hypothesis is an
educated guess. Students then reflected that thinking as they read their own
books, and were able to formulate meaning without have to ask the teacher or
grabbing a dictionary.
Promoting word consciousness in students is important because it teaches
them to think creatively about words, and understand words on a deeper level. In
my third grade master teachers classroom we taught the students about
homophones and homographs. The students had fun discovering different words
that fell into this category, and it helped support the English Language Learners in
the classroom with those confusing words that sound and look the same, but have
different meanings. Another way to support word consciousness was with my tutees
when we read the book Beware of the Storybook Wolves, and we investigated
idioms, clichs, and puns that we found in the text and what they mean, despite the
words used.
Understanding vocabulary can help making a more enjoyable experience for
students and create a positive literate atmosphere for all my students. In my future
classroom I plan to promote the learning of vocabulary, academic language, and
background knowledge through a word of the day, where the challenged to learn a

new word each day, use it in a sentence, and write it in their vocabulary journals.
Having a word of the day can be beneficial to my classroom as it gives students
exposure to new words they would not have been exposed to otherwise, and it gives
students the opportunity to develop their vocabulary. In my future classroom I will
also bring drama to my vocabulary. I can create a dramatization for a certain word
to illustrate and clarify the meaning of the word. This will support multiple learners
in a diverse classroom, and create a hands one experience that all students can
participate in and remember. As a teaching candidate I will be able to explain content

clearly and reinforce content in multiple ways, such as the use of written and oral presentation,
manipulatives, physical models, visual and performing arts, diagrams, non-verbal
communication, and use of media and other technology (California teaching performance
expectations, 2013).

Works Cited
California teaching performance expectations. (2013). Retrieved from Commission
on Teacher Credentialing: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/TPA-files/TPEsFull-Version.pdf
Zarrillo, J. J. (2011). Ready for Revised RICA A Test PReparation Guide for California's
Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.