3) the term is associated with (for example, Transform, Themes and Central Ideas, or Shapes)
• The student’s current level of understanding of the term (for example, 4, 3, 2, 1)
• The student’s linguistic description of the term
• The student’s nonlinguistic representation of the term
• Words related to the term, such as synonyms or antonyms
Figure 2.3 shows one example of a vocabulary notebook page. Visit MarzanoResources.com/common core for a reproducible version of this figure.
Figure 2.3: Sample vocabulary notebook page.
The level of understanding indicator for each term is based on Marzano and Pickering’s (2005) four-point scale for self-evaluation of knowledge of vocabulary terms:
| 4 | I understand even more about the term than I was taught. |
| 3 | I understand the term, and I’m not confused about any part of what it means. |
| 2 | I’m a little uncertain about what the term means, but I have a general idea. |
| 1 | I’m very uncertain about the term. I really don’t understand what it means. (p. 32) |
We discuss other methods for tracking students’ vocabulary knowledge in chapter 4. As described here, vocabulary notebooks are designed to capture students’ thinking about each term so they can revise and refine their understandings during steps 4, 5, and 6 of the six-step process.
Step 3: Ask Students to Construct a Picture, Symbol, or Graphic Representing the Term or Phrase
As explained previously, nonlinguistic processing deepens students’ understanding of terms and creates image-based information packets (imagens) in their brains. For example, consider a student who remembers seeing a live performance of Peter and the Wolf, an orchestral composition of a children’s tale that is typically narrated. The student has a mental picture of the concert hall with the orchestra fanned out on stage and the narrator of the piece standing next to the conductor, facing the audience, telling the story of Peter and his animal friends defeating the wolf. The student connects that image of a narrator with other narrators he has encountered. He remembers the voice of Nick in a movie version of The Great Gatsby that he saw. If his grandfather told him stories when he was little, he includes the sound of his grandfather’s voice, the smell of his pipe, and an image of the room or chair he sat in when telling stories. These are all examples of imagens, which should be recorded in some form in the student’s vocabulary notebook.
Teachers and students should recognize that different words may require different types of representations. Table 2.3 depicts five different ways terms can be represented nonlinguistically.
Table 2.3: Methods for Nonlinguistic Representation
Even with these five methods, some students may still have trouble creating nonlinguistic representations for terms, saying that they don’t know how to sketch or aren’t good at drawing. Others may try to overdraw terms, creating such detailed pictures that they lose sight of the term itself. Still others may feel like a description is enough and they don’t need a picture. Teachers can use several techniques to help these students. First, teachers can model appropriate sketches for vocabulary terms. This will help students see the appropriate level of detail to include in their pictures and also provide an opportunity for the teacher to explain the differences between drawing and sketching. Second, the teacher can provide examples of past students’ nonlinguistic representations for terms. Third, the teacher can allow students to discuss their ideas for nonlinguistic representations in groups before they work individually on their pictures. Finally, the teacher can help students look for images on the Internet that represent the terms. For instance, a student depicting the term time zone might print out a picture of the United States and color the states to represent the different time zones.
In summary, steps 2 and 3 are designed to deepen students’ knowledge of a term through multiple exposures. Students record their linguistic and nonlinguistic descriptions of the term in their vocabulary notebooks, where they can revisit them to clarify or add to their initial understandings as they become more familiar with the term.
Step 4: Engage Students Periodically in Activities That Help Them Add to Their Knowledge of the Terms in Their Vocabulary Notebooks
Steps 1, 2, and 3 are designed to be implemented in order, with the teacher describing, explaining, and exemplifying a term and students subsequently describing, explaining, and exemplifying the term on their own, both linguistically and nonlinguistically. Steps 4, 5, and 6 are less sequential. Each is an important element of the process described here, but it is not necessary to perform them in order. For example, step 4 involves activities that help students add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms, and step 6 involves games that allow students to play with terms. In some cases, students might play games with a word (step 6) before completing comparison activities with the word (step 4). This is completely acceptable. In fact, a teacher might use steps 4, 5, or 6 only once per week or once every two weeks. No matter how frequently or infrequently steps 4, 5, and 6 are employed, it is important for students to continue revising and adding to their vocabulary notebook entries as their knowledge of a word deepens and grows.
There are many activities that help students add to their knowledge of terms as directed in step 4. Some are very simple. For example, a teacher might ask students to say or write any words they think of when they hear a target word. When used orally, this is an excellent activity for small intervals of time, such as when students are waiting in line to go to lunch or recess or during the last minutes before it is time for students to change classes. Students can complete this activity as a class, in small groups, in pairs, or individually. The teacher should allow students to brainstorm related words for a specific period of time and then ask students to stop. If students have been saying words aloud, the last person to say a word then briefly explains how that word is related to the target word. If students have been writing individual lists of words, students could trade lists and ask their partners to explain any words that are unfamiliar or don’t make sense.
Other activities for augmenting students’ vocabulary knowledge could involve identifying similarities and differences or examining affixes and root words. Here we provide a number of activities for each.
Identifying Similarities and Differences
Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) identified four strategies that students can use to identify similarities and differences: (1) comparing and contrasting, (2) classifying, (3) creating metaphors, and (4) creating analogies. Comparing and contrasting involves identifying attributes that are the same or different between two or more items or concepts. Classifying involves grouping like items or concepts into categories based on their attributes or characteristics. Creating metaphors involves finding connections between ideas or concepts that do not seem connected at a surface level. Finally, creating analogies involves describing the relationship between a pair of items or concepts by comparing the pair to another pair.
Comparing and Contrasting
When comparing and
