Marzano, Teaching Specific Types of Knowledge

I really enjoyed this chapter on building vocabulary and my 5th grade class wanted to be involved with my homework so I chose to work with Sleepy Hollow in class. I passed out the first 3 pages and told them not to read the text but rather to skim the words and use a highlighter to find words they didn't know or were curious about. They had zero background knowledge about the piece and it might as well have been written in another language because the use was so foreign to them. Fun stuff!

I offered them the opportunity to learn 10 new words from this time period that they could add to their vocabulary. They were familiar with the Revolutionary time period so this sparked their interest. I also discussed the Marzano chapter and we talked about how many times a person must encounter a new word to really learn it. We next listed many words from the piece on the board, some were concerned that they may learn more than 10 words. We finally settled on 10 words that we were truly interested in. My class was divided into 5 pods so each group took two words to investigate and report back on. I did not use the phrase, "look it up in your dictionary"! I did give them until the next day to report back. They mostly gave brief verbal explanations after talking to parents and among themselves. We listed these words on a chart now with brief definitions.

Next I simply instructed them to find their favorite word from the list and draw a picture of what that meant to them. Since it was still early in our learning process and it is difficult to find the words in any other text for them to read, I had to remind them to risk. They could therefore choose any image that the word and definition could help them picture. We surrounded the word list with pictures many of which made us laugh. Word use was very limited but I did hear them try to add these words to their conversations or in a response to me and even that was rather funny.

The next day I brought in an old video tape of Sleepy Hollow. None of them had ever seen it so that was great, we were still in discovery mode! We popped some popcorn and popped in the tape an settled in. They were riveted, really total silence and then huge belly laughs. The video is Bing Crosby reading right from the text so as you go you see images and vocabulary link together. Repose, stripling, reverberated, lank, these lovely words began to come alive. They were quite enraptured throughout!

The next day I played an old cassette taped recording of the reading and allowed them to draw as they listened. My goal at this point was to allow them to hear the words as many times as possible since it was difficult to expect them to use the words with ease. I followed with a direct instruction lesson on how to find and define new words that they encounter in their reading and add them to their knowledge base. We did talk about how meanings for words had to make sense for them and they did need to use the words to build their own vocabulary. They actually drew the parallel that as a college student they may understand a piece like Sleepy Hollow because they had a larger vocabulary base. Yeah!

I read Sleepy Hollow aloud at their insistence in several different sittings, this kept sparking lively debate as to what horrors I might see at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. We did attempt to keep using the words till the end of the year but it was difficult because word usage is so different today. On the whole it was great fun and a valuable learning experience for my students with a great piece of literature that helped them connect with history!